LAMP IGNITOR FOR STARTING CONVENTIONAL HID LAMPS AND FOR STARTING AND RESTARTING HID LAMPS WITH HOT RESTRIKE CAPABILITY

摘要

An ignitor (100, 180, 200) is provided to predictably and reliably start a conventional HID lamp, or to start or restart an HID lamp (110) having a hot strike capability such as a high pressure xenon HPS lamp or similar. The ignitor is configured to prevent the premature triggering of a semiconductor switch (118) in a hot restrike circuit due to unwanted high voltage pulses generated bya conventional HID lamp starter circuit in the ignitor. An ignit or (100, 180, 200) is provided that can be used with lag-type ballasts. Another ignitor (220) is provided that can be used with a lead-type ballast which generates a DC bias across the ballast capacitor (240).