A variety of new discharge light sources for automotive application has been introduced within the last years. These products demonstrate the great flexibility of this type of light sources. Unlike incandescent lamps, they cover a much wider range of application specific requirements. Discharge lamps can be designed as a point like source with dimensions of a few mm and luminance of up to several kcd/sq.cm as well as flat shape light sources with dimensions in the dm-range. Lamp shape, run-up time and light color are adjustable to the benefit of the application. Further fundamental advantages are high efficiency and long life time. The properties of discharge lamps very much depend on the way they are electrically driven. Every discharge lamp type has its own special driving requirements making circuit design for lamp ballast more and more a task tightly connected with lamp development. Two new light sources are introduced and the driving characteristics of those lamps are outlined in this paper. For the covering abstract see ITRD E123380.
Samenvatting