Electronic Ballast Control Technique Simulation Platform

After 1990's, with the rapid development of green lighting industry, many different kinds of electronic ballast control IC are developed by many big electronic companies in the world. This IC is known as its good performance, high quality, cost-effective and flexibility. Using this IC to develop electronic ballast will greatly simplify the circuit design of electronic ballast and greatly reduce the components in PCB (Printed Circuit Board), so it brings great conveniences to electronic ballast designers. So the quality of electronic ballast almost depends on the quality and performance of the control IC. In China, as the research on electronic ballast is latter than other countries, and with its little technical basis, there are some gaps exists. However, it's necessary and urgent to develop control IC with our own property. In this paper, there is nothing about how to design a electronic ballast control IC, but it tries to provide a simulation platform to realize the hardware-in-loop simulation for electric ballast's control technique. In this paper, design and develop the simulation platform and analyze the main circuit of the typical electronic ballast, then develop the control algorithm according to the character of the typical electronic ballast, finally realize the control algorithm's hardware-in-loop simulation in the platform. For the part of design and development of the simulation platform, it mainly focuses on the calculation of the main power circuit and the selection of electronic components, including the introduction of the digital controller, DSP and its interface circuit. For the part of analysis of the main circuit of typical electronic ballast, it gives out the principal of AC/DC boost converter and DC/AC half-bridge inverter. After the above two parts, a PI controller is used to control the electronic ballast. The control system is simulated off-line in the MATLAB/Simulink, and gets the satisfied result. Use the rapid control prototyping technique of MATLAB, the target code is generated automatically and can be downloaded directly to DSP controller. When the code is running, the hardware-in-loop simulation can be measured. So when designing a control IC, the control algorithm can be simulated on the simulation platform to see if it's good or not. If it's not good, we can change some parameters to simulate again and again until the simulation is satisfying. In this way, we can shorten the development period and reduce the cost of development.