Control of Electronic Ballast Circuit using Fuzzy Logic Controller

Lighting is an essential part of every household. Since its invention, incandescent lamps have been illuminating the whole world. In recent years, the use of energy-saving lamps such as compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and light-emitting diode (LED) lamps is being strongly imposed by the governments to reduce energy usage. Even these lamps require a system for providing the start-up voltage. Nowadays the electronic ballast is replacing the electromagnetic ballast almost for all types of lamps. Due to its numerous benefits over electromagnetic ballast, day after day high frequency electronic ballasts are replacing conventional electromagnetic ballasts. These benefits are mainly, higher lighting efficiency, smaller size, absence of audible noise, dimming capability, eliminating stroboscopic effect. Usually high PF electronic ballast is implemented using two power processing stages. Here single power stage circuits by integrating a DC-DC converter and an inverter is discussed. A comparative study of the performance of a bridgeless electronic ballast circuit and a bridge rectified electronic ballast circuit both supplied from a 230 V supply was done and simulated in Matlab/Simulink. The control methods using the Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) and a PID controller was implemented for both the circuits. A hardware model of the basic bridge rectified circuit was designed. Arduino board was programmed for providing pulses to the hardware circuit using FLC technique was designed for a lower voltage of 12V.