Driving cold cathode fluorescent lamps approximation.

The lamp voltage and current can be assumed to be in the

in parallel same phase, which is reasonable because the CCFL shows pure resistive
characteristics at the switching frequency [4].
C.G. Kim, K.-C. Lee and B.H. Cho

Cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) show complex characteris-

tics, which make it difficult to drive them in parallel. Analysis of the
lamp current distribution in parallel operation is presented in detail.
The current balancing condition, under which the lamp currents are
well balanced in the presence of the lamp voltage variation, is derived.
The analysis results are verified from experiments with two
720 mm=4 mm CCFLs for 32-inch LCD TVs. Experimental results
with eight CCFLs in parallel are also presented.

Introduction: Flat and thin are the current trends in the display industry.
An LCD with cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) satisfies the
demands regarding display performance, size and efficiency [1]. In
recent years, there has been increasing interest in large size LCD displays, Fig. 2 Equivalent circuit of parallel configuration
as required in LCD TV sets and computer monitors, which require higher
brightness for proper backlighting. Therefore, a backlight inverter is
required to drive multiple CCFLs in parallel. The terminal voltage (VT1) of Fig. 2 can be obtained as
There are several possible ways of configuring CCFLs in parallel

C  
[2, 3]. One method is the direct parallel connection of the CCFLs. This VT 1 ¼ VLp1 1 þ u1 1
o2s Llk1 Ctotal1
Cb1
configuration has the well-known problem that the CCFL currents may

not be balanced owing to the lamp voltage variation and the constant Cp1
þ j  ILp1  os Llk1 1 þ
voltage load characteristic of the CCFL [3]. The imbalance of the lamp Cb1
( )
currents causes a reduced lifetime and non-uniformity of brightness. 1
One feasible method of parallel configuration is to make the parallel  1
2 ð1Þ
os Llk1 ðCb1 þ Cp1 Þ
connection at the transformer primary side, as shown in Fig. 1, which
can minimise the effect of the lamp voltage variation on the common
where os is the switching angular frequency. VLp1 and ILp1 are the
node voltage. In this Letter, detailed analysis is performed to derive
amplitudes of the lamp voltage and current, respectively. The total
design equations, which provide balanced current to each lamp with
capacitance (Ctotal1) is
respect to the variations in the lamp voltage and the resonant compo-
nents. The analysis results are verified from experiments with two Cb1 Cu1
720 mm=4 mm CCFLs for 32-inch LCD TVs. Experimental results Ctotal1 ¼ Cp1 þ ð2Þ
Cb1 þ Cu1
with eight CCFLs in parallel are also presented.
From (1), the coefficient of VLp can be reduced to zero, which
eliminates the effect of lamp voltage variation. The condition is
1
os ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð3Þ
Llk1  Ctotal1

If the condition of (3) is satisfied, the coefficient of the lamp voltage

(VLp) becomes zero and the terminal voltage (VT) becomes independent
of the lamp voltage. That is, the difference between the two lamp
voltages does not affect the current distribution in parallel operation.
The condition of (3) is defined as the current balancing condition in this
Letter.
The effect of the current balancing condition can be explained from
the terminal voltage illustration as shown in Fig. 3. The two lamp
voltages (VLp1, VLp2) have a deviation of  7% from the typical lamp
voltage. The current balancing condition makes the difference of the
Fig. 1 Parallel configuration at transformer primary side two terminal voltages (VT1, VT2) very small in the presence of the large
lamp voltage difference. Therefore, the two lamp currents can be well
balanced.
Current balancing condition: The backlight inverter is composed of a
phase-shifted full-bridge switching network, a resonant power stage, a
sensing network and a controller as shown in Fig. 1. The lamp current
sensing voltage (Vsense) is a half-wave of the lamp current, multiplied
by the sensing resistor, Ri. The resonant circuit is composed of L1, the
transformer, Cp and Cb.
Each lamp is driven by its own transformer, parallel resonant
capacitor (Cp), and ballast capacitor (Cb). The two modules have a
common controller and a common sensing resistor, Ri. The controller
can regulate only the sum of the two lamp currents.
Fig. 2 shows the equivalent circuit of the power stage. All of
the components are transferred to the transformer secondary side.
The transformer is simplified as a leakage inductance (Llk), because
the magnetising inductance is much larger than the leakage inductance. Fig. 3 Terminal voltages when balancing condition is satisfied
The blocking capacitor (C1) is omitted because it has much lower Llk ¼ 0.4 H, Cp ¼ 10 pF, Cb ¼ 100 pF, Cu ¼ 20 pF, fs ¼ 50 kHz
impedance than the leakage inductance at the switching frequency. The
capacitor (Cu) placed in parallel with the CCFL in the equivalent circuit
represents the parasitic capacitance between the CCFL and ground. Experimental results: The specifications of the CCFLs used in the
For the purpose of analysis, the lamp voltage and current are assumed to experiments are presented in Table 1. It is noticeable that the lamp
be sine waves at the switching frequency by the fundamental frequency voltage variation is  7%, which should be considered in the parallel

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 17th February 2005 Vol. 41 No. 4

operation. In order to test the worst-case lamp voltage deviation
between the CCFLs, two 150 V (14% deviation from the typical
lamp voltage) zener diodes are connected in series with one of the two
CCFLs. It is verified from the experimental waveforms, as shown in
Fig. 4a, that the two currents are well balanced in the presence of a
14% error of the lamp voltage, when the current balancing condition
is satisfied. Fig. 4b shows that the lamp voltage difference causes a
severe current unbalance when the current balancing condition is not
satisfied.
ILp1 ILp2
Vsense, 1 V/div.
Conclusion: Cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL) have complex
characteristics, which make them difficult to drive in parallel. In this
Letter, the analysis of current distribution for the parallel configura-
tion at the transformer primary side is presented. The current
balancing condition, which can minimise the effect of the lamp
voltage variation, is derived. The analysis results are verified from
experiments with two 720 mm=4 mm (for 32-inch LCD TV) CCFLs,
and also eight CCFLs in parallel. The experiments clearly verify
balanced lamp currents in the presence of a  7% lamp voltage
variation.

# IEE 2005 29 October 2004

0V Electronics Letters online no: 20057641
doi: 10.1049/el:20057641
C.G. Kim and K.-C. Lee (Interpower Co. Ltd., 6F, Gyeongwook
a Building, 1578-51, Silim1-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-869, Korea)
ILp2 E-mail: cg7kim@hanmail.net
Vsense, 1 V/div.

B.H. Cho (School of Electrical Engineering, Seoul National Univer-

ILp1 sity, Eng420-043, San 56-1, Silim-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-744,
Korea)
0V
References
time, 10 ms/div. 1 Lin, Y.L., and Witulski, A.F.: ‘Analysis and design of current-fed push-
b pull resonant inverters—cold cathode fluorescent lamp drivers’. IEEE
Fig. 4 Experimental waveforms of Vsense Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting, 1996, pp. 2149–2152
2 Dalla Costa, M., Landerdahl Jr, M., and do Prado, R.N.: ‘Independent
150 V zener diodes are connected in series with CCFL1 multi-lamp electronic ballast’. IEEE Industry Applications Society
a Current balancing condition is satisfied (Llk ¼ 0.22 H, Cp ¼ 27 pF, Cb ¼ short)
b Current balancing condition is not satisfied (Llk ¼ 0.14 H, Cp ¼ 27 pF, Annual Meeting, 2002, pp. 1065–1070
Cb ¼ short) 3 Chang, C., and Bruning, G.: ‘Voltage fed half-bridge resonant converter
for multiple lamp independent operation’. IEEE Industry Applications
Society Annual Meeting, 2001, pp. 218–222
Table 1: Specifications of the CCFLs used for 32-inch LCD TVs 4 Deng, E., and Cuk, S.: ‘Negative incremental impedance and stability of
fluorescent lamps’. IEEE Applied Power Electronic Conf., 1997,
Typ.
Length Outer current Typ. Luminance Frequency pp. 1050–1056
diameter (rms) voltage (rms)

1065  7% [V] 15 700  13%

720 mm 4 mm 6.2 mA at 6 mA cd=m2 40–60 kHz

The current balancing condition was derived from the terminal

voltage (1). It is noticeable that the terminal voltage (VT1) was derived
from only each specific branch (composed of Llk1, Cp1, Cb1 and
CCFL1). That is, the current balancing condition can be extended to
a parallel connection of more than three CCFLs without modification.
Fig. 5 shows the sensing voltage waveforms when eight CCFLs are
connected in parallel. The currents are well balanced, although eight
CCFLs are placed in parallel and 150 V zener diodes are connected in
series with one of the CCFLs (CCFL1) to test the effect of the lamp
voltage variation. The experimental waveforms verify that the lamp
voltage difference does not affect the current balance when the condi-
tion is satisfied, and that the analysis result can be extended to parallel
connections of more than three CCFLs.

ILp7 ILp8
0V
ILp5 ILp6
0V
1 V/div.

ILp3 ILp4

0V
ILp1 ILp 2

0V

time, 5 ms/div.

Fig. 5 Sensing voltage waveforms when eight CCFLs are in parallel

150 V zener diodes are connected in series with CCFL1
Llk ¼ 0.36 H, Cp ¼ 10 pF, Cb ¼ short, Ri ¼ 375 O, fs ¼ 49 kHz

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 17th February 2005 Vol. 41 No. 4