International Rectifier has introduced Version 4.0 of its popular ballast design assistant software. The software, IRPLBDA4, reduces electronic ballast design time, producing a schematic and complete bill of materials.
New features in this version include support for dc input voltage applications and a new time-domain graph feature, based on a simplified numerical analysis technique. It shows ballast output waveforms, including the half-bridge voltage, lamp voltage and current and resonant inductor, and resonant capacitor current.
The software generates designs for IR’s recently introduced IR2520D compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) ballast control IC and the IR2161 intelligent control IC for low-voltage halogen lamp transformers, in addition to other IR electronic ballast ICs such as the IR2156, IR21571, IR21592, IR2166 and IR2167.
The software supports 38 lamp types and seven different ballast configurations. Users can add new lamp types. More than 20 parameters are selectable by the user, including frequency, voltage, current and component values. Universal ac mains voltages are supported, including 80 V to 140 V and 185 V to 265 V, with or without power factor correction, 24 Vdc, and more.
Also included is an inductor calculator that creates winding specifications for the resonant output inductor as well as the power factor correction inductor if used. The software is compatible with Windows XP operating systems. The IRPLBDA4 ballast design software is available free from the International Rectifier Lighting Web page after registering for the program.