Circuit-design criteria for improvement of xenon flash-lamp performance (lamp

life, light-pulse, narrowness, uniformity of light intensity in a series of flashes)

J.C. Campo, M. A. Pkrez, J.M. Mezquita, J. Sebastian
Dpto. de Ingenieria ElCctrica y Electr6nica ETSIIeII Universidad de Oviedo
Ctra. Castiello s/n Campus de Viesques 33204-Gij6n (Asturias) Spain
Ph: 348 5 182072 Fax: 348 5182068 e-mail: electro@circe.etsiig.uniovi.es
Abstract- Xenon Flash Lamps are one of the brightest light
sources available. They are used from simple applications like
camera flashes to extremely demanding ones such as
photometry, chemical analysis, spectroscopy, etc.
A power supply to drive a xenon lamp must provide a
substantially high voltage and current, and must provide a
controlled high voltage pulse to strike the arc. The influence of
the parameters of the power supply and parasitics on light
output, stability and lamp life is analyzed in this paper. The
experimental results have been evaluated with several types of
lamps and with power supplies developed to make them.

0.1
200

Xenon Flash Lamps are light sources used in applications

where high intensity, high UV light emission, small size,
and short pulse duration is needed, such as camera flash
lamps, phosphorescence and fluorescence analysis,
spectroscopy, measurement of water and air pollution, etc.
Some of the new applications developed recently are quite
demanding as regards several flash light output
characteristics; for instance, pulse width of less than 5ps or
even a few nanoseconds is commonly required.
The power supply must provide high voltages and some
elements, including parasitics, are critical in most
applications. The correct design of the power supply
depends on the application and raises certain questions:
topology, discharge voltage, trigger voltage, frequency, etc.
This paper presents several power supply topologies and
discusses the influence of the most significant parameters
and parasitics on the arc characteristics, stability and life of
these lamps.

The xenon flash lamp produces a nearly continuous

spectrum in the visible, with xenon lines in infrared (Fig.
1); this spectrum closely matches the suns. Color
temperature reaches 15000K. They emit highly in the UV
region although the lowest wavelength depends on the glass
envelope (Fig. 2).
Most lamps have three electrodes -anode, cathode and
trigger- although some lamps have the trigger electrode
directly connected to the anode (as in the bulb lamps of

0-7803-3704-2/97
$1 0.00 01997 IEEE

I. INTRODUCTION

11. XENON FLASH LAMPS

600

400

800

loo0

Wavelength (nm)

Fig. 1. Spectral response of a xenon arc lamp

100

c-

IO

-1

&

Sintetic 1
silica glass

~ ~

100

140

180

220

260
300
Wavelength (nm)

340

380

420

Fig. 2. Transmittance of window materials

Fig.3). Pulse energy is usually supplied to the lamp by

discharging a charged capacitor connected between the
anode and the cathode of the lamp. Prior to this, it is
necessary to ionize the gas with a trigger signal of several
kV (5-7 kV Typ.). The distance between anode and cathode
depends on the type of the lamp.
Principally, there are two types of xenon lamps: capillary
and bulb lamps. A capillary lamp has a large distance
between electrodes (1 to tens cm) and has a small spatialpulse variation because the arc is confined to a small
diameter; in consequence they have very good stability.

1057

Authorized licensed use limited to: Jaime Barragan Velasco. Downloaded on February 26,2010 at 10:55:34 EST from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

e-

Trigger
1.

I.

-250 .OO ms

Anode -+

0.000

50.0 ms/div

Capillary lamps

250.00 mE
repetitive

Fig. 4. Typical waveform of the power supply output voltage

Anode,
trigger

low-leakage capacitor and low-leakage semiconductors

should be used, or the lost charge should be replenished
(e.g., by re-starting the oscillator) before the next time that
the lamp will be flashed. The current during discharge is
given by equation 1.
(1)
If the distance between electrodes is small -a
millimeters-, peak current may be calculated as:

Bulb lamps (no trigger electrode)

Fig. 3. Types of xenon flash lamps

few

(2)

Nevertheless, sometimes they miss the trigger pulse and the

arc dimension makes concentrating the light difficult, which
limits their application. A bulb lamp has greater volume
than a capillary lamp and the distance between electrodes is
usually 1.5 to 8 mm, which makes them appropriate for
those applications whcre light must be concentrated on a
small point, as for instance, when fiber optic is used.
Although the spatial arc variation is greater than in capillary
lamps, some manufacturers have solved the problem by
adding several electrodes to guide the arc.
111. POWERSUPPLY

where L is the sum of the capacitor internal equivalent

series inductance (ESL) and the circuit wiring inductance:
the inductance of the circuit loop comprising the lamp, the
capacitor, possible trigger components, and the wiring
connecting those components. The peak current is usually
hundreds of amperes.
Trigger voltage is between 5000 to 7000 V (Fig. 5 ) , and
it is obtained by the discharge of a capacitor in a high-turnsratio transformer. The trigger energy needed is usually fifty
times lower than the main discharge energy. The use of
shielded cable is quite important in order to avoid
electromagnetic noise.

The xenon lamp supply always has the same requirements;

flash energy is given by the discharge of a capacitor which is charged at high voltage (300 - lo00 V)- between
anode and cathode; therefore, the pulse energy is 1/2CU2.
All the circuits are based on the same principle; they charge
the capacitor to the desired voltage (see, for example, [4]).
The supply is then opened or its operation is halted, e.g.,
the oscillator in Fig. 6 is gated-off. The next flashing of the
lamp occurs after a time determined by the flash repetition
frequency (see Fig. 4); the capacitor voltage decays during
the time that elapses between the completion of capacitorcharging and the next flash, from capacitor and circuit
leakage currents. If that voltage decay can be significant, a

-75.000 us

25.000 US
20.0 U S / d i V

125.000 us
repetitive

Fig. 5. Trigger waveform

1058
Authorized licensed use limited to: Jaime Barragan Velasco. Downloaded on February 26,2010 at 10:55:34 EST from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

Fig. 6 shows a power supply suitable for portable

equipment, and fig. 7 shows a very simple scheme suitable
for pulse frequenciks 2f/k, where f is the mains-power
frequency and k is an integer, which is more than enough
for most applications. The recharging of the energy-storage
capacitor C is synchronized with the mains-voltage zerocrossings by turning-on Q1 and 4 2 at the mains-voltage
zero-crossings; if the recharging is not synchronized, a
resistor between the energy-storage capacitor and the
bridge-rectifier output is needed, to limit the surge current
drawn form the power mains. That resistor should be a
source of i2R power dissipation in charging the capacitor.
Sometimes the trigger electrode is directly connected to the
anode, as a result of which, a diode must be connected
between the main capacitor and the output of the trigger
transformer, as shown in Fig. 8. This diode is also
convenient to decrease the oscillations in the discharge
current, which contributes to stabilising the lamp and to
decreasing the flash falling time.
Although the flash pulse duration is usually expressed in
FWHM terms (Full Width at Half Maximum), which ranges
from 1 to tens of ps , the deionization time is much longer
(hundreds of ps) and the lamp must not be triggered again
until the deionization time has elapsed; otherwise the lamp
will light in continuous mode and it will be destroyed
quickly.
DI

ANODE

OSCILLATOR

* ...............
Fig. 6. Power supply circuit for portable equipment, with series-triggering
circuit

Fig. 8. Trigger circuit for lamps without trigger electrode (paralleltriggering circuit)

Iv. EXPERIMENTAL
RESULTS
In some applications, it is very important to achieve a
high energy pulse and minimum FWHM; for example, in
chemical analysis (phosphorescence and fluorescence) a
sample is excited with the light provided by the xenon lamp
and the sample emits light some microseconds later; the
excitation light is much greater than the emitted light, so it
is quite important to achieve a minimum FWHM in order to
avoid overlapping.
Flash energy is (CV2)/2; after the required energy is
chosen, it is possible to decrease the pulse width by
increasing the voltage and decreasing the capacitance,
although if an excessively high voltage is applied the
electrodes suffer from sputtering and lamp life greatly
decreases. The pulse width also depends on the arc length,
parasitic inductances and the light wavelength. Flash
duration is increased with arc length, because of the increase
in the resistance and inductance; Fig. 9 shows the effect of
the arc length on the FWHM. Parasitic elements are the
result of the wiring between the capacitor and the lamp, and
capacitor series resistance and inductance (Fig. 10);
moreover, the skin-effect increases the resistance of the
wiring above the value that would be measured at dc. The
effects of these parasitic elements are decreased by using
low-inductance construction techniques and a capacitor with
low ESR and ESL.
6

T T

5.75
5.5

LINE

5.25

3
a

E
GND

: :

..
..*
*

;IT1

.
..*................
I

..........,

5
4.75
4.5
4.25
4

trigger

20

25

30

35

40

Arc length ( m m )

:..................

Fig. 9. FWHM at different arc lengths (capillary lamps, 800 V,

C=3.15 pF, 1J)

Fig. 7. Mains-operated power supply for flashing frequencies of

2flk

1059
Authorized licensed use limited to: Jaime Barragan Velasco. Downloaded on February 26,2010 at 10:55:34 EST from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

Wiring inductance

Wiring resistance

440 V, 0.8 J

Capacitor
series
inductance
Capacitor
series
resistance

935 V.3.6J

Discharge
capacitor
GND

Fig. 10. Parasitic elements in discharge circuit

The wiring inductance drastically reduces the flash

intensity. Fig. 11 shows the effects of wire length on the
light emitted; as a result of this, if a minimum pulse width is
required, the capacitor must be placed close to the lamp
electrodes and the lamp should be connected by closelyspaced wide-ribbon conductors. Different wavelengths of the
flash also have different pulse widths; the ultraviolet has the
shortest duration, and red and infrared the longest, as shown
inFig. 12.
. . : _ _ .:...,:

. _ . . I .

.E800 us

20cm : i : . . . .

:.

13.8800 us

2.00 us/dlv

*AVR

. . I .

..:....:....

23.8800 us

reDetitlve

Fig. 11. Light emitted at different wire lengths (arc length 3 mm, 440
V, C=8.2 pF, 0.8 J, cable diameter 2.5 mm)

................

2.4000

*FIvg

us

12.4000 us

2,OO us/div

22.4000

us

repetitive

theoretic=4 5

500

600

700

Fig. 13. (a) Spectral response at 440 V (b) Spectral response at 935 V (c)
Ratio of responses at 935 V and 440 V

Sometimes a high intensity flash in the violet and

ultraviolet range is quite important, for instance, in
fluorescence and phosphorescence analysis. It is possible to
increase the emission in those ranges by increasing the
discharge current. Fig. 13 shows the relationship between
the spectrum at 935 V and the spectrum at 440 V. Red and
infrared emission is also increased.
The stability of the lamp is also an important parameter in
most applications; guided arc lamps have the best light
output stability with a Variation of less than 3 % . Stability is
expressed by the following expression:
Max. light emitted - Min. light emitted
Stability =
-100 (3)
Mean light emitted
where max., min., and mean light emitted are measured at
two minutes interval beginning fifteen minutes after turning
on the power. This delay of fifteen minutes is necessary to
allow the temperature and pressure in the lamp to become
constant.
It is possible to slightly increase the stability (0.1-0.4%)
by adding a diode between the discharge capacitor and the
lamp. The reason is that current oscillations are reduced, so
the oscillations in the emitted light are also reduced, as
shown in Fig. 14.
Stability also depends on the voltage and the wavelength
of the light. The ultraviolet range has the lowest stability
and it is much lower when the applied voltage is small (Fig.
15). Stability improves clearly in all the spectral response
using voltages above 600 V.

Fig. 12.Light emitted at different wavelengths (arc length 3 mm, 440 V,

C=8.2 pF, 0.8 J)

1060
Authorized licensed use limited to: Jaime Barragan Velasco. Downloaded on February 26,2010 at 10:55:34 EST from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

uv

CY?!.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :. . .

15.0000 us
2.00 us/div

5.0000 US

25.0000 us

repetitive
400

Fig. 14. Current tail waveform and light tail waveform with diode and
without diode between main capacitor and lamp electrodes

I
550

600

UV and violet has the shortest life and visible and red have
the longest life, as shown in Fig. 17.

10

g
n

V. CONCLUSIONS

15

10

I
500

Life is not equal for all the spectral components of light,

as

450

Wavelength ( n m )
Fig. 17. Ratio of light intensity after 5 million flashes and from a new
lamp (capillary lamp, arc length 40 mm, 800 V, C=3.15 pF, 1 J)

30

-3

Visible

aoo

150

400

350

300

450

500

Wavelength (nm)

Fig. 15. Stability versus wavelength and voltage (bulb lamp, arc length 3
mm, C=8.2pF)

As we have seen, it is possible to change the principal

flash parameters by changing the power supply
characteristics. However, lamp life is different when those
parameters are modified. Life is the number of pulses that
the lamp emits until the overall light intensity reaches 50%
of the initial amount and it decreases quickly when the
applied voltage is large, because the cathode is heavily
damaged (Fig. 16). It is not possible to interchange the
functions of anode and cathode (by reversing the voltage
polarity) because the cathode is specially designed.
100

I
8

10

12

14

16

Millions of pulses

Fig. 16. Lamp life versus number of pulses (Capillary lamp, arc length 40
)

Xenon flash lamps are widely used in some applications

because of their ability to emit high intensity pulses from
ultraviolet to infrared. Some of these applications are very
demanding on flash lamp characteristics; for instance, in
phosphorescence lifetime analysis very high violet and UV
emission, very short pulses and high stability are important.
As has been shown, it is possible to modify the lamp
characteristics to maximize them for a particular application
with an adequate power supply design and bearing the kind
of lamp in mind.
Results have been verified with several kinds of flash
lamps of different arc length, energy and shape and with
specific power supplies developed to make them.

REFERENCES
Hamamatsu Photonics.Xenon Flash Lamps (Technical Information),
May 1993.
IES (Illuminating Engineering Society), E S Lighting Handbook
(Application Volume). 1987.
IES (Illuminating Engineering Society), IES Lighting Handbook
(Reference Volume). 1984.
Nathan 0. Sokal, U. S Patent 5,485,361, Flyback Charging with
Current Mode Controlled Flyback Converter Jan. 16, 1996.
Chr. Meyer, H. Nienhuis. Discharge Lamps. Philips Technical
Library. 1988.
Gunter Wyszecky, W. S. Stiles. Color science. Concepts and
Methods, Quantitative Data and Formulae. 2nd Edition. WileyInterscience. 1982.
Oriel Corporation Datasheet. (Light Sources). 1994.
Ealing Electro-optics Datasheet (Light Sources). 1994.
P.M. Gewehr, D.T. Delpy. Optical Oxygen sensor based on
phosphorescence lifetime quenching and employing a polymer
immobilized metalloporphyrin probe. Part 1 Theory and
Instrumentation. Med. & Biol. Em.
- & Comuut. 1993.
[10]R. Pereiro et al. Solid surface room temperature phosphorescence
optosensing in continuos flow meter. Anal. Chem. 63, 1991.

1061
Authorized licensed use limited to: Jaime Barragan Velasco. Downloaded on February 26,2010 at 10:55:34 EST from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.