Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.

Hiromitsu Mizukawa

Jun Kumagai

Katsunobu Hamamoto

Akio Okude

Kazuhiro Nishimoto

Kouji Noro

A ballast circuit for a discharge lamp capable of protecting the circuit when the lamp reaches its end of life with a cost effective circuit arrangement. The circuit includes a DC voltage sensing network for sensing a DC voltage which appears as a consequence of the lamp reaching its end of life. Upon the sensed DC voltage exceeding a threshold, a control is made to limit or stop supplying an output power to the lamp for protecting the ballast circuit from an otherwise generating excessive current. The sensing network is composed of a DC sensing capacitor and a resistor which are connected in circuit outside of a resonant circuit responsible for generating a high frequency voltage to operate the lamp. Thus, the DC sensing capacitor can be kept free from the high voltage generated by the resonant circuit and be of less cost for reducing a manufacturing cost.

Ballast circuit for operating a discharge lamp

A discharge lamp lighting device include an inverter circuit section supplying a square wave AC power from a DC power source to a discharge lamp, and a high voltage pulse generating unit applying, upon starting, a high voltage pulse to the discharge lamp to have it started, with an arrangement for lighting the discharge lamp by the square wave AC power made to be lower in the square wave frequency upon non-loading than that upon lighting, and controlling the square wave frequency to remain as that upon the non-loading for a fixed period immediately after detection of the start of discharge of the lamp.

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Katono, Japan

Hiromitsu Mizukawa