A High Efficiency DC/DC Converter as the Front-end stalgeof
High Intensity Discharge Lamp Ballasts for Automobiles*
Qun Zhao, Yongxuan Hu and Fred C. Lee
Center for Power Electronics Systems
The Bradley Department of Electrical Engineering
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, VA 24061-01 11
Abstract - High step-up DC/DC converters have many
applications, such as the front-end stages of High Intensity
Discharge (HID) lamp ballasts. Conventionally, DC/DC
converters with coupled inductors or transformers are
employed to achieve high voltage gains. However, the
efficiency is poor because of the high loss associated with the
leakage inductor. Active clamp circuit can increase the
efficiency at the price of increasing the cost and the control
complexity. This paper presents a high efficiency, high step-
up DC/DC converter, which operates similarly to the
counterpart with an active clamp circuit, while the proposed
converter employs only a diode instead of an active switch.
The efficiency of the proposed circuit can be significantly
improved because the leakage energy is recovered and the
switch voltage stress is much lower. A 35W prototype as the
HID ballast front-end stage experimentally verifies the
proposed converter.
Key words: DC/DC converters, high efficiency, high voltage
gain, HID ballast.
I. Introduction
High Intensity Discharge (HID) lamps have significant
advantages over the conventional lamps, such as longer life,
better color rending properties, and higher efficiency to
convert the electrical power to visible light. Applying HID
lamps as automotive headlamps has attracted considerable
attention in recent years. To utilize HID lamps, HID ballasts
with either DC or AC drive scheme are necessary.
The DC operation of a HID lamp requires the electrode
be vertical or horizontal. It limits the application range of a
DC ballast. The so-called cataphoretic effect may result when
a HID lamp is operated with DC current. The cataphoretic
effect is demixing of the gas-filling as the sodium is
transported toward the cathode side of the tube, making the
lamp inadequate for lighting pq,oses. Obviously, the
situation is different for special HID lamps designed for DC
This work was sponsored by Philips Research, and was supported in part by the ERC Program of the National Science Foundation under Award
Number EEC-973 1677
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Juan A. Sabate and Faye Li
Philips Research
345 Scarborough Road
Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510-2099
operation. Cathode needs to be larger than anode because of
the migration electrode material from cathode to anode.
Therefore, the ballast should periodically change the polarity
of the lamp current for not specially designed HID lamps [l].
An approximately zero DC component is recommended,
which is the AC drive scheme.
Unfortunately, acoustic resonance can occur in the
discharge tube when the AC operation frequency is higher
than 1kHz. This phenomenon may lead to visible arc
distortions, resulting in decreased lamp lifetime. Acoustic
resonance at high frequency can be considered as a limitation
factor for a wide and reliable application of high frequency
electronic ballast supplying HID lamps. To avoid the acoustic
resonance, the operation frequency can be either higher than
700kHz or lower than 1kHz.
Extremely high frequency (:>700kHz) ballast eliminates
acoustic resonance and has relative simple circuit structure.
The topologies in this operation frequency range are the
resonant converters to utilize parasitic parameters [3], [4].
Unfortunately, the resonant converters presented in [3], [4]
have high voltage stress, and are difficult to achieve high
efficiency. Low efficiency converter will dramatically
increase the thermal managelment cost in automotive
applications. Another problem alf this approach is the high
Electromagnetic Interference (EIMI). To commercialize this
kind of converters, high cost EM1 filters are unavoidable.
Another way to prevent HID lamps from acoustic
resonance is low frequency (<lkllz) AC operation. However,
low frequency converter has large volume magnetic
component. In order to reduce the cost and weight of a
ballast, the structure with a high frequency DCDC converter
followed by a low frequency I W A C converter shown in
Fig. 1 is a good candidate although the circuit is slightly more
complicated than the resonant version.
The output of the high frequency DC/DC converter is
tightly regulated for constant 351N output power with 60V to
lOOV output voltage determined by the lamp characteristics.
The frequency of the DC/DC converter is designed between
lOOkHz to 200kHz to minimize the size and reduce EM1
problems. There is an unregulated low frequency DC/AC full-
bridge converter containing no magnetic component after the
DC/DC converter. This DC/AC converter is used to chop the
DC voltage with 50% duty cycle at 400Hz low frequency. In
this case, the voltage applied to the lamp is low frequency
symmetrical AC waveform, which can avoid both acoustic
resonance and cataphoretic effects.
.
[-bl mY&fn DC/DCI
Converter Full Bridge
HID Lamp
Fig. 1. Block diagram of a HID ballast for automobiles
The performance of the front-end DC/DC converter
dominates the performance of the whole ballast system
because the second DC/AC stage is an unregulated low
frequency full-bridge converter without magnetic
components. A high performance DC/DC stage is the major
concern to develop HID ballasts for automotive;applications.
11. A High Efficiency Clamp Mode Coupled
Inductor Buck-boost Converter
The front-end DC/DC converters for high performance
HID ballasts in automobiles need to meet the following
requirements:
High step-up voltage gain: because the 12V nominal
voltage of an automobile battery is much lower than the
60-1OOV operation voltage of a 35W HID ballast, it is
necessary to use a power converter with high step-up
voltage gain to boost up the battery voltage.
0 High efficiency: since the thermal management of a
ballast in an automobile is very expensive, a high
efficiency DC/DC converter can significantly reduce the
cost of the ballast.
No isolation is required.
Conventionally, the DC/DC converter employs a Flyback,
or an isolation SEPIC converter [ 6 ] . Both topologies utilize
the coupled inductors to achieve high voltage gain, which is
given by (1):
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d
Vo=-.n*Vi
1-d
Where, V,: the average value of the input voltage.
d: the duty ratio of the converter.
n: the turns ratio of the coupled inductor.
Vi: the average value of the input voltage.
The output and the input in [6] have the same ground as
shown in Fig. 2. It is obvious that the coupled-inductor is
used not to provide isolation but to get the high voltage gain.
Although it is easy to get high voltage gain employing
coupled inductor, the leakage of the coupled inductor not only
induces high voltage spike but also dramatically degrades the
efficiency. The best efficiency of a Flyback converter for HID
ballast including control is about 85% under the nominal
operation condition. Employing active clamp circuit can
recycle the leakage energy, minimize the switch voltage
stress, and increase the efficiency. However, the additional
active switch will increase the cost and the control
complexity.
Fig. 2. The coupled inductor is used not to provide
isolation but to get high voltage gain
This paper proposes a new high efficiency DC/DC
converter with high voltage gain. Compared to the active
clamp Flyback converter described in [2], the proposed
converter can achieve similar clamp function with a diode
instead of an active switch.
Because there is no isolation requirement in the
applications, the Flyback converter could be modified as the
center-tapped inductor buck-boost converter as shown in
Fig. 3. Both Flyback converter and this center-tapped
converter are derived from the buck-boost converter.
DO+ .ID0
I n 1 I
I 1
I Sd4f
Fig. 3. Coupled inductor buck-boost converter
 Compared to the Flyback converter, the center-tapped To analyze the circuit, the coupled inductor is modeled
inductor buck-boost converter has higher voltage gain given as an ideal transformer. with the turns ratio of n:l, a
by (2): magnetizing inductor L,, and a leakage inductor Lk. as shown
in Fig. 5. .I

Although the coupled inductor buck-boost converter has

higher voltage gain, the loss and the switch voltage stress
associated with the leakage inductor degrades the efficiency.
The proposed clamp mode coupled inductor buck-boost
converter shown in Fig. 4, which only needs one additional
small capacitor C, and one diode D, as in the shaded block,
Fig. 5. Analysis model of the proposed clamp-mode
can recover the leakage energy, and reduce the switch voltage Coupled inductor buck-boost converter
stress. Therefore, the performance of the converter is
significantly improved.

111. Analysis of Operation Modes

Fig. 6 illustrates the six topological states in one
switching cycle for the proplosed clamp mode coupled
inductor buck-boost converter Fig. 7 shows the key
waveforms of the operation modes corresponding to the
different topology states in Fig. 6. The six operation modes
Fig. 4. The proposed clamp-mode
coupled inductor buck-boost converter
are briefly described as the following.

De D o t 100 .

De DO+ ID’ -

[T4, T 5 ]

Fig. 6. Operation modes of the clamp-mode coupled inductor buck-boost converter

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To - TI: Switch S is on, and the output rectifier Do is reversed Based on the volt-second balance of the coupled
biased. The magnetizing inductor and the leakage inductor, the average voltage of the clamp capacitor is given
inductor are being linear charged by the input by (3):
voltage source.
yo=-. dv! (3)
TI - T2: Switch S turns off at TI. The parasitic capacitor of 1-d
the switch Cs is charged by the magnetizing current
in an approximate linear way. The operation of the proposed converter is similar to
that of the active clamp Flyback converter stated in [2]. The
Tz - T3: At T2, the parasitic capacitor Cs is charged to the difference .between these two circuits occurs at [T4 T5].
voltage of V,+V,. Clamp diode Dc conducts. Almost During [T4 T5], the clamp capacitor C, in the proposed
all magnetizing current begins to charge the clamp converter is linearly discharged by the secondary reflected
capacitor Cc. magnetizing current, while the clamp capacitor resonates with
T3 - T4: At T3, VcCis charged to the point that output diode the leakage inductor in the active clamp Flyback converter.
Do is forward biased. The reflected voltage from the Due to the secondary reflected magnetizing current is much
secondary side of the coupled inductor clamps the smaller than the primary magnetizing current, the [T4 T,]
primary side. Leakage inductor Lk and the clamp period in the proposed converter is longer than that in the
capacitor C, begin to resonate. active clamp Flyback converter. A longer [T4 TS] period
makes the [T3 T4] shorter in the proposed converter compared
T4 - T5: At T4, the resonant current reaches zero. All the to the active clamp Flyback converter. The proposed
magnetizing current is reflected to the output side. converter has less circulating energy in the clamp circuit.
The clamp capacitor is then discharged by ID,.
T5 - To: Switch S turns on at T5. The leakage inductor is A brief design guideline is described in Fig. 8. The key
quickly charged until the leakage inductor current is design equation to calculate the turns ratio is given by (4)
equal to the magnetizing current. The output rectifier after selecting a device with a voltage rating Vos:
Do 1s reversed biased. Then the next switching cycle Vo - max
begins. n= -1 (4)
VDS- Vi - min
.. ... ... ... ... ...
.. .. .. Once the switch is selected, a trade-off design including
s 1: . .
.... ... ...
. . .
.. . .. ... ..
. . . .. ..
II. .
... ...
to define the switching frequency with the converter size and
efficiency consideration could be given by performing the
.. .. .. .... .. ..
Im 1 .. . . . . process shown in Fig. 8.

F
Select a switch with specific voltage

. ... .. .
Determine the tums ratio by Equation (4)
... ... ... ... .. ..
VC
..
. ...
.. .. .. ... ..... I
A.
Select Lm that keeps continuous current
VS

ID0 Calculate the input and output current,

TO ' Ti i T3;
T2T4 T5
Fig. 7. Key waveforms of the clamp-mode
coupled inductor buck-boost converter .
It is should be pointed out that the time periods ET,,T,],
[Tz, T3], and [Ts, To] are much shorter than those shown in
Repeat above process, and get
a good trade-off design I
Fig. 8. Brief design procedure
Fig. 7 to clearly show the waveform variations.

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 IV. Experimental Verification
The nominal input voltage of a 35W HID lamp ballast for
automobiles is 12V or 13.8V, while the output voltage is 60
to lOOV determined by the lamp condition. A converter
targeted at the automotive applications with the following
circuit parameters is built:
Ni=14T, Nz=82T, C,=l .36uF,
D,: 3A, 1OOV (Schottky Diode)
S: IRFH75N10, Do: MUR860.
Because the converter needs to generate 400V open
circuit voltage to ignite the HID lamp, the voltage rating of
the active switch is selected as 1OOV. The maximum voltage
stress is measured to be 70V when the 400V open circuit
voltage is generated.
Fig. 9 shows the experimental waveforms of the
proposed circuit. It can be found that the waveforms agree
with the analysis very well and the voltage of the switch is
effectively clamped.
VC
1OVlDiv
Vin=12V, Vo=IOOV. Po=35W, Fs=IOSkHz
Fig. 9. Experimental waveforms
Fig. 10 is the measured efficiency under nominal
operation conditions. The overall efficiency is over 90%,
which is very promising.
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V. Concliusions
This paper presents the theoretical analysis, practical
design, and experimental results for a novel high efficiency,
high step-up clamp-mode coupled inductor buck-boost
converter. The operation of the proposed converter is similar
to that of the active clamp Flyback converter, while the new
converter needs a diode instead of an active switch. By
adding a simple clamp circuit cconsisting of a diode and a
small capacitor, the leakage einergy is recovered and the
switch voltage stress is significantly reduced. The measure
efficiency is about 91% under the nominal operation
conditions.
References
Janos Melis, Bnllnsr Design Overview.
[I]
.cond.
httn:~~’w~~\,.ballastdesim
R. Watson, F.C. Lee, and G . C. Hua, “Utilization of an Active-clamp
[2]
Circuit to Achieve So/r Switching in Flyback Converters”, Power
Electronics Specialist Conference, pp.909-916, 1994.
[3] Michael Dulko and Sam Ben-Yaakov, “A MHz Electronic Ballast for
Automotive-Type HID Lamps ”, Power Electronics Specialist
Conference, pp.39-45, vol.1, 1997.
[4] Alonso, J.M.; Blanco, C.; Lopez, E.; ,Calleja, A.J.; Rico, M.,
“Analysis and design of a LCC resonant inverter for high intensily
discharge lamps ”. Power 13lectronics Congress Technical
Proceedings, pp.102-IO, 1995.
[5] Ron Fiorello, “Powering a 3 5 W DC mefnl hnIide high intensiry
discharge (HID) lamp using the UCC3305 HID lamp controller”,
Unitrode application handbook U- 161.
Ron Fiorello, “Driving a 35W AC metal halide high intensity
[6]
discharge lamp with the UCC3305 HID lamp controller”, Unitrode
application handbook U-162.