Efficiency of an Exciplex DBD lamp excited under different methods

Three different electrical generators have been designed and used to supply an exciplex dielectric barrier discharge lamp in order to elucidate the influence of each one of these supplying strategies over the system performance; the first method consists on supplying the lamp with short bipolar voltage pulses; the second and third methods are based on semiresonant converters were current pulses, of controlled duration and magnitude, are injected into the lamp. For each one of the generators, measurements of the lamp and supply efficiency, are performed and analyzed, at different levels of power (up to 130 W) and operating frequencies (60-90 kHz). From the experimental results, the pulsed voltage-mode approach has allowed obtaining the highest lamp efficiency (7%), yet the maximum supply efficiency is offered by the resonant mode supplies. On the basis of the lamp and the supply efficiencies, the whole system performance is analyzed.