an automatic system and method to provide the ignition and monitoring of a pilot flame for gas burners . the circuit includes a microcontroller that acts on at least one gas valve , a flame igniter , and a flame detector circuits . the valve driver is a switching circuit able to open the valve and keep it open with power saving . the flame detection uses the ionization principle with full use of the rectification property of a flame . furthermore the flame detection is activated for reduced times to save power . the microcontroller governs the system according to the signals that it receives from points of the circuit . the system provides a circuit realizing advanced power saving techniques to provide also a long term operation on battery powered systems . in addition the automatic control can save gas resources versus traditional thermocouple based systems by applying the intermittent pilot ignition .