Investigation of HID-lamp light emission differences for different power supply methods

This paper presents investigation of methods for reducing light pulsation and plasma temperature inside a high intensity discharge (HID) lamp arc tube. Differences found in light emission of an arc tube plasma channel under different power supply methods are presented and discussed in this work. The novelty of the paper lies in systematical investigation of different power converter supply methods and demonstrating that it has a significant influence on plasma temperature in an arc tube. The tested lamp was powered by electronic ballasts controlled by different algorithms, which forced their current waveform. To compare the results, the authors performed measurements on a discharge lamp powered by a standard electromagnetic ballast. The investigation of plasma parameters is based on the optical spectroscopy method. It was shown that by using the appropriate current shape of a high switching frequency supply converter, the plasma temperature of an HID lamp can be reduced almost by half.