INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CIRCUIT THEORY AND APPLICATIONS

Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2012; 40:1127–1141

Published online 1 April 2011 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/cta.775

Pulse current generator for driving tubular field emission lamp

based on DCM flyback converter

Chang-Hua Lin1, ∗, † , Chien-Ming Wang2 , Min-Hsuan Hung1 and Ying Lu3

1 Department of Electrical Engineering, Tatung University, Taipei, Taiwan
2 Departmentof Electrical Engineering, National Ilan University, Ilan, Taiwan
3 Department of Computer and Communication Engineering, St. John’s University, Taipei, Taiwan

SUMMARY
This paper proposes a pulse current generator operated in discontinuous conduction mode for driving a
tubular field emission lamp (TFEL). The proposed system based on flyback topology can provide pulse
power driving to eliminate the temperature rise and arcing phenomenon caused by the traditional constant
voltage driving. Therefore, both the lighting efficiency and lamp lifespan are improved. In this paper, an
equivalent model of the TFEL is constructed to exhibit its capacitive characteristics. Moreover, the circuit
configuration and each operation mode in a switching cycle are also described. And then a complete design
considerations and mathematical model are discussed in detail. All the experimental results agree with the
computer simulations to verify the theoretical predictions. Copyright 䉷 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Received 5 September 2010; Revised 14 February 2011; Accepted 15 February 2011

KEY WORDS: flyback converter; discontinuous conduction mode (DCM); pulse power; field emission
lamp; temperature rise; arcing phenomenon

1. INTRODUCTION

Owing to the policies of energy saving, carbon reduction, and environmental protection, all of the
electric equipments are requested accordingly to improve the system efficiency especially in electric
light sources. Nowadays, lower power consumption, higher lumen efficiency, longer lifespan, and
lower pollution are the most important features for new electric light sources. Compared with
the traditional light sources, the light-emitting diode (LED) offers many advantages such as more
efficient, compact profile, longer lifespan, dimmable, and no mercury [1], nevertheless, temperature
rise will cause color variation and lower efficiency especially in large-area applications. Besides,
the cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL) have great lumen efficiency, low cost, and mature
developments, however, the mercury inside CCFL will result in environmental pollution [2].
The field emission technology has been developed and applied in display industries in the
early days. However, it is difficult to control the electron emission uniformity, to enlarge the
panel size and to improve the pixel resolution [3, 4]. Despite these limitations, field emission has
been rapidly expanding its application field from flat display to lighting, and then field emission
lamps (FELs) have become a new research target as promising mercury-free fluorescent lamps
[5]. Recently, the FEL is highlighted in light source market and has many advantages such as
low power consumption, low temperature rise, high luminance, fast response, and no mercury [6].
Therefore, the FEL possesses the merits of the LED and the CCFL simultaneously; thus, it has

∗ Correspondence to: Chang-Hua Lin, Department of Electrical Engineering, Tatung University, Taipei, Taiwan.
† E-mail: chlin@ttu.edu.tw

Copyright 䉷 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

1128 C.-H. LIN ET AL.

attracted great interest from industry and academic community due to their excellent properties.
Generally, the FEL is composed of two glass substrates, where one plate coated with phosphor
is anode, the other plate fabricated with field emission array serve as the cathode [7, 8]. The
uncountable field emission array made of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) will emit electrons to impact
the phosphor layer to generate visible light when the driving voltage is high enough to built a
properly electric field intensity [9]. Generally, the brightness of the FEL is proportional to the
electric field intensity; however, the lamp current is exponential increasing with the electric field
intensity [10, 11]. Therefore, the FEL can be modeled as a diode in steady operation. Consequently,
maintaining a proper operating point is essential to keep stable luminance.
There are three existing driving methods for the FEL, including constant voltage driving method,
sinusoidal driving method, and pulse voltage driving method [12]. However, apart from low
efficiency and temperature rise, the constant voltage method will result in arcing phenomenon
caused by the accumulation of numerous charges in the phosphor layer, and reduction in lamp
lifespan. Next, while the sinusoidal driving method is employed, the effective duration of the
electric field will be too short and cannot be kept constant because of the sinusoidal voltage with
time variation. Therefore, the effective electric field can be constructed just in a short duration.
Moreover, the luminance conversion is ceased and the lamp life is impacted during the negative
voltage portion.
Compared with the above-mentioned methods, the pulse voltage driving method can provide
higher instantaneous energy and improve the mentioned drawbacks. Nevertheless, it is difficult
to generate high voltage without voltage multiplier. In general, the phosphor has better lumen
efficiency while excited by higher voltage. However, it is difficult to provide continuously high
pulse voltage for driving a capacitive load like FEL. In order to eliminate these disadvantages, the
proposed current pulse driving method provides instantaneous energy for driving FEL and enough
halt time for releasing the accumulated electron and thermal on FEL. Therefore, the used FEL can
be energized and obtain higher brightness and lumen efficiency.
In this paper, a simple and low cost discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) flyback converter
is proposed to produce pulse current so as to output pulse-type power into the FEL. Therefore, the
proposed system can improve the mentioned drawbacks and to prolong the FEL lifespan.

2. THE EQUIVALENT MODEL OF FEL

Both the structure and the driving requirements of the FEL are much different from the traditional
discharge lamp such as fluorescent lamp and CCFL. Figure 1 shows the cross-sectional view of
the flat FEL, where the upper glass with phosphor layer acts as the anode, and the lower glass
is fabricated field emission array to serve as the cathode. There is vacuum state between these
two glasses and the surrounding spacer. Recently, another type of FEL with tubular profile is
developed and applied especially in lighting. Figure 2 shows the profile of the tubular FEL used
in this paper, where the inner glass of the TFEL is coated with phosphor layer on the Indium Tin
Oxide electrode and connected with the anode, and the inner electrode is coated with CNT field

Figure 1. The cross-sectional view of the flat FEL.

Copyright 䉷 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2012; 40:1127–1141
DOI: 10.1002/cta
 PULSE CURRENT GENERATOR FOR DRIVING TFEL 1129

Figure 2. The structure of the tubular FEL.

Figure 3. The equivalent model of the TFEL: (a) before ignition and (b) after ignition.

emission array serves as the cathode which is stable to temperature fluctuation, have high emission
current density, and does not need preheating [13]. There is also vacuum state between these two
electrodes. Therefore, both these mentioned above two kinds of FELs obviously possess inherent
capacitance characteristics due to their geometries.
Field emission is one of an optoelectronics mechanism to generate visible light. According to
the principle of the field emission, electrons are emitted from incalculable CNTs when high enough
electric field intensity is applied to the tip of sharp emitters in vacuum. Electrons that are emitted
from field emission array directly impact and excite the phosphor layer on anode to generate
visible light. Because the TFEL needs a high voltage or called threshold voltage to perform the
field emission effect, we can infer that the electric characteristics of the TFEL before ignition
are similar to a zener diode with the inherent capacitance Ceq . Moreover, the reverse current will
not be generated when negative voltage is applied on the TFEL because the electrons just can be
emitted from the cathode Therefore, the equivalent model can be represented as Figure 3(a). After
ignition, the TFEL can be as a capacitive load due to its geometries. Therefore, the equivalent
model can be represented as an equivalent capacitance Ceq in series with an equivalent resistance
Req as show in Figure 3(b) [14].
To estimate the equivalent capacitance value of the proposed model [15–17] the TFEL can be
viewed as a cylindrical conductor. Moreover, the electric field of a cylindrical conductor is


E= (1)
2ε0r
where  is the charge per unit length, r is radius of the TFEL, ε0 is free-space permittivity
 
−12 F
ε0 = 8.854×10 (2)
m

The voltage difference on the TFEL can be obtained by integrating the electric field along the
radial line
 b  
 1  b
V = dr = ln (3)
2ε0 a r 2ε0 a
where a is the radius of the cathode and b is the radius of the TFEL.

Copyright 䉷 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2012; 40:1127–1141
DOI: 10.1002/cta
1130 C.-H. LIN ET AL.

By the definition of a capacitance and (3), the equivalent capacitance shown in Figure 3 can be
modeled as
 2ε0
Ceq = ×L =   ×L (4)
V b
ln
a
where L is the length of the TFEL.
Next, in order to estimate the equivalent resistance value of the proposed model, we can obtain
the relationship between the lamp voltage vlamp and the lamp current i lamp from Figure 3(b)

vlamp (t) = Req ×i lamp (t)+vCeq (t) (5)

Therefore, the equivalent resistance can be modeled as (5):

vlamp(t)−vCeq (t)
Req = (6)
i lamp (t)

3. CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION AND OPERATION

The block diagram of the proposed driving circuit is shown in Figure 4. In this system, the 48-V
adapter is used to provide a compact dc source for our experimentation and then the flyback
converter will generate high DC voltage and pulse current by controlling the PWM controller. In
practical design, as shown in Figure 5, a flyback transformer with high turns ratio is connected in
series with a high rating voltage power switch to form a flyback topology to produce a high DC
voltage and the desired pulse current. Furthermore, the parasitic capacitance Cp , which is resulted
from the considerable turns in the secondary side, of the flyback transformer is considered in this
paper. Besides, the proposed system is operated in DCM to raise the system efficiency [18–25].
The sketch waveforms of the proposed pulse generator are shown in Figure 6, where the three
operating states are described as follows, respectively.

Figure 4. The block diagram of the proposed driving circuit.

Figure 5. The schematic of the proposed driving circuit.

Copyright 䉷 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2012; 40:1127–1141
DOI: 10.1002/cta
 PULSE CURRENT GENERATOR FOR DRIVING TFEL 1131

Figure 6. The sketch waveforms of the proposed driving circuit.

Figure 7. The proposed pulse current generator in Mode 1: (a) Power flow and (b) equivalent circuit.

Mode 1 [t, t1 ]:
Figure 7(a) shows the power flow of the mode 1 whose equivalent circuit is depicted as
Figure 7(b). Assuming the first mode begins at t = t, the power switch S is turned on, thus, the
magnetizing inductance L m is charged by the dc voltage source VDC . The voltage across the
magnetizing inductance L m is
 
i L m
VL m = VDC = L m (7)
t
Therefore, the switch current i sw starts to rise linearly. Because the proposed system is operated
in DCM, the magnetizing inductance current will begin at zero. Moreover, the peak current in

Copyright 䉷 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2012; 40:1127–1141
DOI: 10.1002/cta
1132 C.-H. LIN ET AL.

Figure 8. The proposed pulse current generator in Mode 2: (a) Power flow and (b) equivalent circuit.

primary side equals the magnetizing inductance current i L m

VDC
Ipp = i L m = (t1 −t0 ) (8)
Lm
At the time, the lamp voltage maintains a high DC voltage without the lamp current because of
the capacitance characteristics of the TFEL.
Mode 2 [t1 , t2 ]
As t = t1, S is turned off, both the power flow and the equivalent circuit are shown in Figure 8.
During this state, the energy stored in L m will be coupled to the secondary side of the transformer T .
At this time, the peak current in the secondary side is
Ipp
I2,pk = (9)
N
where N is the turn ratio of the transformer that is defined as N = n 2/n 1 .
The energy stored in L m will be released completely in this time interval. Therefore, the
secondary side current linearly decreases to zero at t = t2. Then the secondary side current can be
expressed as:
 
Ipp Ipp
i 2 (t) = ×(t −t1 )+ (10)
N (t1 −t2 ) N
From Figure 8(b), it is clear that the secondary side current will flow into the parasitic capacitance
Cp and the TFEL. Therefore, Equation (10) can be rewritten as:
dvlamp (t) dvCeq (t)
i 2 (t) = i cp(t)+i lamp (t) = Cp +Ceq (11)
dt dt
And then,
 
Ipp Ipp dvlamp (t) dvCeq (t)
×(t −t1 )+ = Cp +Ceq (12)
N (t1 −t2 ) N dt dt
By using Laplace transform
   
Ipp 1 t2 × Ipp 1
× 2− × = SC p Vlamp + SCeq VCeq (13)
N (t1 −t2 ) S N (t1 −t2 ) S

Copyright 䉷 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2012; 40:1127–1141
DOI: 10.1002/cta
 PULSE CURRENT GENERATOR FOR DRIVING TFEL 1133

From the equivalent circuit shown in Figure 8(b) the lamp voltage can be expressed as:
vlamp (t) = i lamp(t)× Req +vCeq (t) (14)
Hence, we yield,
dvCeq (t)
vlamp (t) = Ceq × Req +vCeq (t) (15)
dt
By using Laplace transforms
Vlamp = SReq Ceq VCeq + VCeq (16)
The voltage drop of the equivalent capacitance Ceq is
⎛ 1 ⎞
⎜ Req Ceq ⎟
VCeq = Vlamp ⎜
⎝
⎟ (17)
1 ⎠
S+
Req Ceq
By substituting (17) into (13), the lamp voltage can be obtained
     
Ipp 1 Ipp 1
Vlamp = × 3 + ×[Req Ceq −t2 ]× 2
N (t1 −t2 )Ceq S N (t1 −t2 )Ceq S
⎡ ⎤
 
Ipp ⎢ 1 1⎥
+ ×(t2 Req + Req
2
Cp ) × ⎢⎣ − ⎥ (18)
N (t1 −t2 ) 1 S⎦
S+
Req Cp
After calculating inverse Laplace transforms
     
A A A
vlamp(t) = ×(t −t1 )2 + ×(Req Ceq +t1 −t2 )×(t −t1 )+
2Ceq Ceq Ceq
  −(t−t1 ) −t1
1
× Req Ceq t1 + t12 −t1 t2 +(AReq )×(t2 + Req Cp )×[e Req Cp ×e Req Cp −1] (19)
2
where
A = Ipp /N (t1 −t2 ) (20)
According to (19) and (18), it is clear that the lamp voltage is proportional with the peak current
Ipp . Moreover, from (8), it is noted that Ipp is proportional with time interval (t1 −t0 ). Therefore,
the lamp voltage and lamp current can be directly controlled by the duration of (t1 −t0 ).
By substituting (19) into (15), the voltage drop of the equivalent capacitance Ceq can be
expressed as:
 
A A ×(t1 −t2 ) At 2 At1 t2
vCeq (t) = ×(t −t1 )2 + ×(t −t1 )+ 1 − − A Req
2
Cp
2Ceq Ceq 2Ceq Ceq
−(t−t1 ) −t1 −(t−t1 ) −t1
AC p 2
+ ×[(t2 + Req Ceq )×e Req Ceq ×e Req Ceq −t2 ×e Req Cp ×e Req Cp ] (21)
Ceq
Moreover, by substituting (10) and (19) into (11), the lamp current can be obtained
dvlamp(t)
i lamp (t) = i 2 (t)−i cp (t) = A(t −t1 )+ A(t1 −t2 )−Cp (22)
dt

Copyright 䉷 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2012; 40:1127–1141
DOI: 10.1002/cta
1134 C.-H. LIN ET AL.

Figure 9. The proposed pulse current generator in Mode 3: (a) Power flow and (b) equivalent circuit.

By using Laplace transforms

A A ×(t2 + Req Cp ) 1
Ilamp = − + A ×(t2 + Req Cp )× (23)
S2 S 1
S+
Req Cp
Therefore, the lamp current in mode 2 is
−t
i lamp (t) = A ×(t −t1 )+ At1 + A ×(t2 + Req Cp )×(e Req Cp −1) (24)
Mode 3 [t2 , t3 ]:
At the last mode, the energy stored in magnetizing inductance is released completely as shown
in Figure 9. Thus, the field emission effect is progressively terminated. Moreover, the lamp voltage
maintains a constant level due to its capacitance characteristic.

4. DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

The specifications of the test TFEL used in this paper are listed in Table I, where the minimum
operating voltage is about 3.5 kV, and the lumen value is proportional with the driving voltage.
In order to achieve the desired lumen value of 15 000 cd/m2 , the amplitude of the driving voltage
up to 6.9 kV is essential. The detail electrical specifications of the proposed system in this paper
are listed in Table II. In practical design, we need a flyback transformer T, its specification and
other selected components are shown in Table III. In this paper, we select the operating frequency
f sw = 26 kHz and the supplied DC voltage VDC = 48 V. The related design considerations are
described as follows:
(1) Estimate the turns ratio
In the used high-voltage flyback converter, where a power MOSFET IRF840 is selected as the
power switch. From Figure 5, the voltage stress of the power switch can be estimated
 
n1
vsw = VDC + Vout (25)
n2
In order to avoid the higher voltage spike to destroy the power switch, the rating of vsw is set at
450 V. Moreover, in order to boost the amplitude of the output voltage up to 6.5 kV, by substituting

Copyright 䉷 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2012; 40:1127–1141
DOI: 10.1002/cta
 PULSE CURRENT GENERATOR FOR DRIVING TFEL 1135

Table I. The specifications of the TFEL.

Lamp length 200 mm
Lamp diameter 15 mm
Lamp radius 7 mm
Cathode radius 0.5 mm
Lamp phosphor length 150 mm
Ignition voltage 3.5 kV

Table II. The specifications of the system parameters.

Input voltage VDC 48 V
Operating frequency f sw 26 kHz
Output voltage (peak value) vlamp 6.9 kV
Output current (peak value) i lamp 40 mA
Lamp luminance 15 000 cd/m2

Table III. The specifications of the components.

Transformer turns ratio n1 : n2 1:20
Magnetizing inductance Lm 300 H
Parasitic capacitance Cp 15 pF
Switch S IRF840
Rectifier diode D FR02-60*2
Capacitor C 220 F/63 V

the parameters listed in Table II into (25), we obtain N = n 2 /n 1 >17.2 Finally, we select the turns
ratio n 1 : n 2 = 1 : 20.
(2) Calculate the magnetizing inductance
Assume the system efficiency  = 80% and the rated power of the TFEL is about 15 W; thus,
the input power Pin = 18.75 W is required. The input power of the DCM flyback converter can be
expressed as
Pin = 12 (L m )(Ipp )2 ( fsw ) (26)
where L m is the magnetizing inductance, Ipp is the peak current of the magnetizing inductance,
and f sw is the operating frequency. The magnetizing inductance L m can be derived as:
   
VDC D
Lm = × (27)
Ipp f sw
By substituting (27) into (26), the peak current of the magnetizing inductance is obtained as:
2Pin
Ipp = (28)
VDC × D
To provide enough rest time to reduce the arcing phenomenon, the duty cycle D = 0.35 is preset
in practical design. And then substituting D = 0.35 into (28), the peak current of the magnetizing
inductance Ipp = 2.23 A can be obtained. Besides, in order to avoid higher switching loss, the
operating frequency f sw is chosen the value of 26 kHz. Finally, we can obtain the magnetizing
inductance L m = 289.76 H by (27).
(3) Determine the turns of the transformer
To avoid the core saturation, the turns of the primary side must be satisfy Faradays’ law as
follows:
(VDC )×(D)×(108 )
Np = (29)
( f sw )×(Ae )×(Bmax )

Copyright 䉷 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2012; 40:1127–1141
DOI: 10.1002/cta
1136 C.-H. LIN ET AL.

where Np is the turns of primary side, Ae is effective cross-sectional area and Bmax is saturation
magnetic flux density. By substituting Ae = 1.21 cm2 and Bmax = 2000 Gauss into (29), we can
obtain Np = 23.14. Thus, we select the turns of the primary side Np = 25, and then the turns of the
secondary side Ns = 500
(4) Estimate the equivalent capacitance Ceq and equivalent resistance Req
The specifications of the used TFEL in this paper are listed in Table I. By substituting the
specification of the TFEL into (4), the estimated value of the equivalent capacitance is
 2ε0
Ceq = ×L =   ×200 = 4.216 nF (30)
V 7
ln
0.5
By substituting (20), (22) and (28) into (6), and t = t1 , the equivalent resistance can be esti-
mated as:
vlamp (t1 )−vCeq (t1 )
Req = = 49.17 k (31)
i lamp (t1 )

5. SIMULATED RESULTS AND EXPERIMENTS

To compare the driving performance, the TFEL is tested under the traditional DC high-voltage
driving and the proposed one, respectively. First, Figure 10 shows the measured waveforms of the
TFEL by using the traditional DC high-voltage driving. It is obviously that the lamp voltage is
kept at 5.8 kV and the lamp current is around 2 mA. During the experimental procedure, the tested
TFEL is operated with low-frequency flicker due to the said arcing phenomenon and suffered from
the temperature rise problem. Therefore, it will result in the shortening of the TFEL lifespan.
Before implementing the proposed pulse power supply, some simulations are performed to verify
the feasibility by the simulation software IsSpice. In this paper, all the simulation parameters are
identical with the actual values of the used components, which are listed in Tables II and III.
According to the specifications and parameters listed in Table II, some of the simulation results are
depicted as shown in Figures 11(a) and 12(a), which are almost close to the theoretical predictions.
Figures 11(b) and 12(b), respectively, display the measured waveforms, including the control signal
vgs , the lamp voltage vlamp , the lamp current i lamp , the lamp power plamp and the switch current i sw .
Figures 11(a) and (b), respectively, show the simulated waveforms and the measured waveforms
where the lamp voltage almost keeps constant. In fact, the lamp voltage still has a peak fluctuation
in the instant of lamp current starting due to the mentioned capacitive characteristics. However,

Figure 10. Measured waveforms of the vlamp and i lamp by using the traditional DC driving.
(Ver: 2 kV/div for vlamp ; 1 mA/div for i lamp ; Hor: 10 s/div).

Copyright 䉷 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2012; 40:1127–1141
DOI: 10.1002/cta
 PULSE CURRENT GENERATOR FOR DRIVING TFEL 1137

Figure 11. Waveform comparisons of the vlamp , i lamp , plamp and vgs . (a) Simulated
waveforms and (b) Measured waveforms (Ver: 5 kV/div for vlamp ; 20 mA/div for i lamp ;
100 W/div for plamp ; 20 V/div for vgs ; Hor: 10 s/div).

Figure 12. Waveform comparisons of the i lamp , i sw and vgs . (a) Simulated waveforms and (b) measured
waveforms (Ver: 20 mA/div for i lamp ; 2 A/div for i sw ; 20 V/div for vgs ; Hor: 10 s/div).

Copyright 䉷 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2012; 40:1127–1141
DOI: 10.1002/cta
1138 C.-H. LIN ET AL.

the lamp current exhibits a desired pulse-shaped. And then, the corresponding lamp power can be
calculated by a used digital oscilloscope TDS-3014B as shown in Figure 11(b).
In practical experimentations, the energy stored in magnetizing inductance will be released for
an instant when the switch is turned off. From the measured waveforms, lamp current and power
are both impulse forms, and their peak values are 40 mA and 260 W, respectively. Although the
peak lamp power is 260 W, the average lamp power is merely about 13 W.
When the energy stored in magnetizing inductance is released completely, the lamp current will
be decayed to zero and the field emission effect will be stopped. However, the lamp voltage still
maintains at 5 kV due to the capacitance effect.
From Figure 12, it is obvious that the switch current i sw rises linearly while the control signal vgs
is high, i.e. the switch is turned on and the magnetizing inductance is charged by the DC voltage
source during this period. After the power switch is turned off, the energy stored in magnetizing
inductance will be coupled to the secondary side. At this time, the field emission effect starts and
cause massive electrons which are emitted from field emission array from cathodes to anode and
to generate visible light. Moreover, the lamp current presents an impulse form as the theoretical
predictions. Actually, after completely releasing the energy stored in magnetizing inductance, the
leakage inductance in the transformer primary side will be resonated with the parasitic capacitance
of the MOSFET. Therefore, there is a small amount of oscillation in the primary side current.
From the measured waveforms shown in Figure 12(b), the switch current will increase linearly
while the power switch S is turned on. After the power switch S is off, the lamp current achieves
40 mA instantaneously lead to luminance value up to 15 080 cd/m2 . Moreover, the lamp current is
decayed very soon because the high lamp voltage makes the magnetizing inductances release its
energy very fast. From Figure 13 it is clear that the voltage across the MOSFET still has a small
amount of oscillation after the energy stored in magnetizing inductance is released [26]. Therefore,
the switch can be turned on with zero-voltage switching feature. Accordingly, the switching loss
is reduced in the proposed system to improve the system efficiency.

Figure 13. Waveform comparisons of the i sw , vds and vgs . (a) Simulated waveforms and (b) measured
waveforms (Ver: 2 A/div for i sw ; 200 V/div for vds ; 20 V/div for vgs ; Hor: 10 s/div).

Copyright 䉷 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2012; 40:1127–1141
DOI: 10.1002/cta
 PULSE CURRENT GENERATOR FOR DRIVING TFEL 1139

Figure 14. The relationship between the peak lamp voltage and the peak lamp current.

Figure 15. The relationship between the peak lamp current and brightness.

Figure 16. The relationship between the average lamp power and brightness.

According to the experimental results, some relationships related to the lamp voltage, the lamp
current, the average lamp power, and brightness can be described as follows, respectively. The
current–voltage characteristic of the TFEL shown in Figure 14 is similar to diode characteristics,
where the lamp current will exponentially rise when the applied voltage is over than the threshold
voltage. According to Figure 14, the threshold voltage of the TFEL in this paper is about 6 kV.
Besides, under the same value of lamp current, the higher operating frequency is used, the higher
lamp voltage is required.
According to Figure 15, the brightness of the TFEL is almost linearly proportional with the
TFEL current under various operating frequencies. Therefore, the brightness of the TFEL can be
regulated by controlling the TFEL current.
From Figure 16, the lumen efficiency of the TFEL is much better when the operating frequency
is higher. As Figure 14, while the operating frequency is higher, the required lamp voltage is higher.

Copyright 䉷 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2012; 40:1127–1141
DOI: 10.1002/cta
1140 C.-H. LIN ET AL.

Figure 17. A photograph of the tubular FELs driven by: (a) high-voltage DC power supply and (b) the
proposed high-voltage pulse current driving circuit.

Therefore, the produced higher electric field will make electrons impact the deeper phosphor layer
so as to convert more energy into visible light. In other words, the higher voltage is used, the
higher lumen efficiency can be obtained. Figure 17 shows some actual photographs of the TFEL
driven by using the high-voltage DC power supply and the proposed high-voltage pulse current
driving circuit, respectively. It is clear that the cost, efficiency, and the volume of the proposed
high-voltage pulse current driving circuit are significantly improved to compare with the high
voltage DC power supply. In a long-term test, the lamp luminance reaches as high as 1508 cd/m2
without any low-frequency flicker. Moreover, there is also no temperature rise on the lamp bulb by
using the proposed current pulse driving technique, because the rest time is enough for releasing
the accumulated charges and thermal on the TFEL.
Obviously, the proposed driving circuit not only eliminates the arcing phenomenon but also
achieves the desired illumination performance by using the current pulse driving technique.

6. CONCLUSION

In this paper, a pulse current driving circuit is implemented to energize a high-voltage low current
capacitive load. Moreover, the proposed circuit is operated in DCM to generate pulse power feature
and raise the system performance. The proposed system can avoid the arcing phenomenon caused
by the accumulation of excess charges in the phosphor layer, and then prolong the TFEL lifespan.
According to the experimental results, the proposed circuit can generate pulse current to achieve
pulse-shaped power. From the measured waveforms, it is clear that the instantaneous power is
higher than 260 W, however, the average power is merely 13 W. And the measured brightness can
achieve 15 080 cd/m2 . Finally, some simulation results and experiments are provided to confirm
the theoretical analysis and feasibility of the proposed system.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was sponsored by the National Science Council, Taiwan, R.O.C., Project number: NSC 98-
2221-E-036-044-MY2. The authors thank the Tatung University for their financial support, Project number:
B99-E03-034. Finally, the authors also thank Tatung Co. Ltd. for their assistance in experimentation.

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Copyright 䉷 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2012; 40:1127–1141
DOI: 10.1002/cta