ELECTRIC CIRCUIT FOR IGNITING A DISCHARGE LAMP AND METHOD FOR IGNITING THE DISCHARGE LAMP
The invention relates to an electric circuit (1) for igniting at least one discharge lamp (50) by applying at least one voltage pulse (30, 31, 32, 33) to an electrode (51, 52) of the discharge lamp. The invention also relates to a method for igniting the discharge lamp by applying the voltage pulses to the electrode. The circuit is configured in such a way that in order to ignite the discharge lamp at least two chronologically successive voltage pulses (30, 31) can be generated at a pulse interval (34) of 2.5 ns to 5 mu s. The voltage pulses can be advantageously generated at a sequential frequency ranging from 100 kHz - 200 MHz . The high frequency voltage pulses are transmitted to the electrode of the discharge lamp, where ionization of the gas contained in the discharge lamp occurs as a result of said voltage pulses. The electric circuit consists in particular of two galvanically separated oscillation circuits. Starting from a primary oscillation circuit, the voltage pulses are generated in a secondary oscillation circuit with the aid of a high-performance transformer (40). The electric circuit is suitable for igniting a discharge lamp which is operated with square-wave alternating current.