Advances in starting high-intensity discharge lamps

High-intensity discharge (HID) lamp starting includes three phases: electrical breakdown, cold-cathode glow discharge and thermionic are (hot-cathode glow discharge). Recent enhancements in the understanding of these phases have stimulated the engineering of lamp-ballast systems to improve lamp maintenance and overall lamp starting properties. A lamp-ballast system approach allows for mutual compensation of lamp and ballast design for optimum starting and steady state operating characteristics. The electronic ballst better utilizes present knowledge of starting requirements than does the magnetic ballast. In this review, recent advances in HID lamp starting will be discussed using results both from experimental and from theoretical studies.