Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.

Matsushita Electric Works Research and Development Laboratories Inc

John C Chamberlain

Jakob Maya

Shinichi Anami

Nanu Brates

Martin Muzeroll

Hongyan Gu

A lamp ballast for operating a high intensity discharge lamp includes an electronic ballast circuit to supply an operating voltage to the discharge lamp, and an igniter circuit to supply starting pulses to the discharge lamp in a cold state and to supply hot restrike pulses to the discharge lamp when the discharge lamp is in a hot state following turn-off. The hot restrike pulses are sufficient to maintain ionization in the discharge lamp but do not cause the discharge lamp to generate substantial light output.

Methods and circuits for instant hot restart of high intensity discharge lamps

A dimmable electrical discharge lamp providing radiation and having a CRI of over 90 and a color temperature of between about 3000-4000&deg; K even when dimmed by up to 40% of its rated power. The lamp contains a fill of a mixture of cesium, mercury and a rare gas. The fill is enclosed in a hermetically sealed polycrystalline alumina arc tube having an electrode at each end and the arc tube is enclosed in an outer jacket. The lamp is provided with a circuit for providing current to the arc tube. A low frequency wave simmer current is provided and one or more current pulses are superimposed on the simmer current. The gradient of the leading edge of the pulse is short whereby to generate a high electrical field and cause a high degree of ionization of the cesium.

High efficacy pulsed, dimmable high pressure cesium lamp

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Somerville, MA, United States of America

John C Chamberlain