General Electric Company

Gerald W Ludwig

Robert Louis Steigerwald

Louis Robert Nerone

Sayed-Amr A El-Hamamsy

David O Wharmby

Gerhard A Franz

A converter for an ac power distribution system provides a square-wave voltage of low output impedance to an ac power distribution bus for driving a plurality of loads, each load including a rectifier and an input filter capacitor. Slew-rate limiting capacitors are employed to limit the rate of change of voltage on the ac distribution bus, thereby substantially reducing or eliminating conducted and radiated interference from the power distribution system due to high-frequency components of current which would otherwise flow in parasitic capacitances. In addition, zero-voltage switching is employed to achieve highly efficient converter operation. As other advantages, this converter scheme allows for simplification of converters at the load end of the power distribution system (e.g., to simple rectifiers with post regulators), while producing lower ac line currents, lower current harmonics and higher power factors than those of a sine-wave generation system.

Square-wave converters with soft voltage transitions for ac power

An impedance matching circuit for a self-oscillating electrodeless fluorescent lamp ballast of the type having an inductor connected in series with the parallel combination of a capacitor and the lamp's drive coil includes an additional capacitor connected in series with the drive coil. The capacitance value chosen for the additional capacitor is dependent on: stresses on the parallel capacitor; matching the impedance of the ballast; and the impact of the capacitor on the loaded coil phase angle. The additional capacitor reduces the phase angle presented to the ballast, thereby lowering the sensitivity of the ballast to component and lamp variations. In addition, the overall impedance of the network is reduced, such that the required inductance of the series inductor is reduced; hence, the inductor can have fewer turns and lower conduction losses. The current in inductor for the required power level is lower, resulting in a further reduction in conduction losses as well as a reduction in core losses due to lower flux in the core. Still further, a reduction of stresses on the inductor results in a reduced operating temperature, and hence increased efficiency, reliability and ballast life.

Impedance matching circuit for an electrodeless fluorescent lamp ballast

A synchronous rectifier circuit employs therein a pair of synchronously-operated switches, each switch being coupled between a separate respective input terminal and an output terminal of the circuit. One of the synchronously-operated switches is gated ON when a voltage applied across the synchronous rectifier circuit input terminals is of one polarity, and is gated OFF when current therein becomes substantially zero. The second switch is gated ON when a voltage applied across the input terminals is of the opposite polarity, and is gated OFF when current therein becomes substantially zero.

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Scotia, NY, United States of America

Gerald W Ludwig