North American Philips Corporation

Allan E Brown

Robert A Erhardt

An improved power supply for one or more electric discharge lamps includes a high frequency oscillator-inverter circuit coupled to the output of a full-wave rectifier circuit via a transformer primary winding (25). The rectifier circuit is energized from a low frequency source of AC voltage. The oscillator-inverter circuit supplies high frequency oscillations to the lamp via a frequency-dependent ballast coupling circuit. A regenerative power supply is coupled to the transformer primary winding by means of a secondary winding (62) of the transformer thereby to charge a capacitor (49) operative as a switchable auxiliary supply voltage for the oscillator-inverter circuit. Improved start-up operation is achieved by winding the transformer (25, 62) so as to provide a polarity inversion for the supply of electric energy to the regenerative power supply.

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Lake Zurich, IL, United States of America

Allan E Brown