High-frequency electronic ballasts for high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps have significant advantages in compare with magnetic ballasts. However, the conventional electronic ballasts are not used extensively due to their low reliability and high price. This dissertation develops an electronic ballast and a dimmable electronic ballast which provides intrinsic power regulation during the entire lamp life without using a closed-loop control system. The ballast design is based on improving six quality indices: reliability, lamp lifetime, luminous flux regulation, energy consumption, input current quality, and cost. A mathematical model for the ballast is developed and used for the ballasts design and analysis. A design procedure is presented to design the ballasts. To improve technical specifications, practical and standard constrains are considered in the ballasts design. An electronic ballast and a dimmable electronic ballast for 250-W HPS lamp are designed. The theoretical analyses are validated by the experimental tests of laboratory-scale electronic ballasts. The experimental results demonstrate that the design ballasts provide intrinsically a regulated power during the entire lamp life. Keywords : Electronic ballast, Dimmable electronic ballast, High-pressure sodium lamp, Power regulation design, Optimization
