A new starting profile, instead of ANSI C82.11, is defined to illustrate the starting transient of rapid-start fluorescent lamps driven by high-frequency electronic ballasts. By scrutinizing the lamp voltage and current waveforms, the starting transient can be classified into preheating, glow, and glow-to-arc stages. By the new definition, the starting characteristics of all ballast-lamp circuits can be well interpreted. To investigate the starting performance, a test system is set up. Experimental results show that the time required for glow and glow-to-arc stage is significantly affected by the starting voltage, the filament preheating and the environment temperature. On the basis of the in-depth analysis on the investigated results, the starting characteristics of rapid-start fluorescent lamps are well understood, providing useful information for designing the starting scenario for the ballast.

This dissertation proposes a new starting profile with some modifications to the definition of American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to interpret the starting process of fluorescent lamps driven by high- frequency electronic ballasts. To identify the times of preheating, ignition, and steady-state, the staring transient waveforms of lamp voltages as well as the lamp currents are scrutinized from the experiments on a diversity of ballasting techniques. A glow-to-arc transition is considered to account for the stage between glow discharging and a stable lamp arc. In addition, the filament preheating is not limited to the constant voltage but can be current preheating which is more commonly used in commercial products. By the new definition, the glow current and the glow-to-arc current can be calculated to evaluate the lamp starting performance. The applicability of the starting profile is confirmed experimentally by the instant-start, preheat-start, rapid-start, modified rapid-start, and programmable rapid-start schemes.