Infineon Launches Intelligent Lamp Ballast Controller for Fluorescent Lamps

Today at the electronica Trade Show, Infineon Technologies AG (FSE/NYSE: IFX) launched its next-generation lamp ballast controller that features intelligent digital/mixed signal power control. The new ICB2FL01G lamp ballast controller integrates Power Factor Correction (PFC), lamp controller and high-voltage half-bridge driver functions into a single, compact, surface-mounted package. Employing digital/mixed signal power control technologies, the product integrates all of the lamp start, run and protection features required by current and future fluorescent lamp ballasts. Reliable and robust high-voltage isolation is achieved using Infineon’s proprietary Coreless Transformer Technology (CLT). CLT is by nature an intrinsically robust high-voltage isolation media and offers excellent immunity from positive as well as negative transients.

Typical applications for the ICB2FL01G product are electronic ballasts for compact fluorescent lamps, linear fluorescent T5 and T8 lamps, dimmable fluorescent lamps and emergency lighting.

Digital / mixed signal power control enables stable, dependable ballast designs to be implemented with the minimum of external components and at minimum system cost. Depending on the application, more than 20 components, including capacitors, diodes and resistors can be saved. Furthermore, the use of this technology allows parameters to be set utilizing only resistors, which avoids the issues with trimming and aging associated with the use of capacitors in existing solutions. With few additional external components the ICB2FL01G supports multi-lamp designs controlling up to four lamps as well as multi-power ballast designs handling different power lamps. A key new feature of the second generation ballast controller is the provision of special built-in test modes that allow ballast manufacturers to dramatically shorten production test times, halving the time for key tests such as End-of-Life detection and preheat operation modes.

Further key features of Infineon’s ICB2FL01G lamp ballast controller include a wide programmable preheat time spanning from 0 ms to 2500 ms, which allows lamp ballast designers to support a wide range of lamps, as well as highly accurate timing and frequency control over a wide temperature range of -25 °C to +125 °C.

More and more emphasis is being placed not only on the efficient production of light, but also on its effective use. With this in mind, the ICB2FL01G has been designed to be highly compatible with dimmable lamp ballasts, offering outstanding efficiency (up to 90 percent) and THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) performance over a wide load range. Intelligent lamp fault detection and restart control enable compliance with Emergency Lighting requirements according to the European DIN VDE 0108 standard.

“Today, around one third of all energy consumption is electrical energy and around 15 percent of this is consumed by lighting, creating a growing demand for efficient lighting systems,” said Sandro Cerato, Vice President and General Manager, ASIC & Power IC at the Industrial & Multimarket division of Infineon Technologies. “Infineon plays a leading role in this area with a wide range of established products for fluorescent, high-intensity discharge (HID) and solid-state lighting applications, and this leading role is now further expanded with the launch of our ICB2FL01G next generation smart ballast controller that offers reliable and stable ballast designs at reduced system cost and with significantly reduced test times.”

Availability and pricing

The ICB2FL01G lamp ballast controller is sampling now. It comes in a standard lead-free DSO package with 19 pins. Volume production is scheduled for January 2009. A fully featured demo board is available and the product is supported by comprehensive application documentation.

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