Discharge lamp typically a sodium high-pressure discharge lamp, from an

Abstract

To provide for effective control of a discharge lamp, typically, a sodium gh pressure discharge lamp, which operates in two phases, namely, a power pulse phase, followed by a holding phase, without extensive and complex electronic circuitry, two individual oscillator systems are provided, one for each phase; the oscillator systems include a first power burst oscillator formed as a first half bridge by two transistors (T1, T2), and an individual connecting current limiting inductance (L1) to the lamp (E), and a second oscillator including a two-transistor second half bridge (T3, T4) and an individual current limiting inductance (L2) coupled to the lamp. The respective oscillators are controlled, in a closed control loop, by a burst generator (BG) and a holding pulse generator (SG), each of which provide their signals to a logic circuit (LK) which provides for exclusive control of the respective first or second half bridge. A lamp voltage sensing circuit (C4, R2) taps lamp operating voltage, which is compared with a command signal to control through a repetition frequency control generator (WG), the recurrence rate of the bursts from the power bursts generator (BG). The lamp starting circuit (4) can also be controlled from the sensed signal by comparison with a reference in a second comparator (K) and suitably applied to an ignition circuit by an ignition monitoring logic. A pair of electrolytic capacitors of essentially the same value is connected across the d-c supply and their midjunction to the lamp.