Ballast with output ground-fault protection

Details Ballast with output ground-fault protection Ballast with output ground-fault protection

2007-03-06

2007-03-06

Tran, Thuy Vinh (Department: 2821)

Electric lamp and discharge devices: systems

Periodic switch in the supply circuit

Impedance or current regulator in the supply circuit

C315S307000, C361S042000

Reexamination Certificate

active

11172087

ABSTRACT:
A ballast (10) for powering at least one gas discharge lamp (40) includes an EMI filter (100), a full-wave rectifier (200), a DC-to-DC converter (300), an inverter (400), an output circuit (500), and a microcontroller (600). In response to an output ground-fault condition wherein at least one output terminal (502,504,506,508) of the ballast (20) is shorted to earth ground, the microcontroller (600) directs the DC-to-DC converter (300) to remain in a non-operating mode wherein the output voltage of the DC-to-DC converter (600) is substantially zero, thereby protecting the inverter (400) from damage. Preferably, the microcontroller (600) monitors a voltage across a DC blocking capacitor (530) within the output circuit (500) prior to startup of the DC-to-DC converter (300) in order to determine if an output ground-fault condition is present.

REFERENCES:
patent: 4663571 (1987-05-01), Nilssen
patent: 5770925 (1998-06-01), Konopka et al.
patent: 5939836 (1999-08-01), Mita et al.
patent: 5969483 (1999-10-01), Li et al.
patent: 6291944 (2001-09-01), Hesterman et al.
patent: 6552498 (2003-04-01), Prasad et al.
patent: 6657400 (2003-12-01), Konopka et al.
patent: 6768274 (2004-07-01), Konopka et al.
patent: 6963178 (2005-11-01), Lev et al.

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