Date: 23/04/2010

New HID ballast control IC from IR for industrial applications

International Rectifier has introduced IRS2573DS High-Intensity Discharge (HID) electronic ballast control IC for low-, medium- and high-power general purpose industrial HID applications including retail store spotlights, general outdoor lighting applications and outdoor street lighting.

The IRS2573DS 600V IC packs high-side, dual-mode buck controller together with a full-bridge driver. The device's novel buck circuitry enables continuous-conduction mode control during lamp warm-up and critical-conduction mode during steady state running. The full-bridge driver includes all high- and low-side gate driver outputs as well as integrated bootstrap MOSFETs for the high-side supply voltages.

"Controlling HID lamp power within an accurate window has traditionally presented a complex design challenge. By offering complete HID electronic ballast system know-how in a chip, the highly integrated, feature-rich IRS2573DS allows companies that already have a market presence in lighting to enter the HID market very rapidly with minimal know-how," said Tom Ribarich, IR's director, Lighting Systems and Applications, Energy Saving Products Business Unit. "Furthermore, by integrating a large portion of the HID ballast system circuitry into a single device, overall system cost can be greatly reduced," he added.

The IRS2573DS incorporates a state machine for controlling the lamp during various operating modes including ignition, warm-up, running and fault mode, and features a multiplier circuit to accurately measure and control lamp power. RoHS-compliant IRS2573DS also features fault detection and fault timer circuitry to detect open circuit, short circuit, failure to ignite, failure to warm-up, and lamp end-of-life fault conditions, as well as lamp ignition enabler and timer.

Package: 28-pin SO28-WB
Availability: Now in volumes
Price: Each device costs $2.50 in quantities of 10,000-units
Reference Design price: $248.75 per kit.