Patent ID: 7804253

Claim:
An electronic ballast for a discharge lamp with a step-up converter (L, D 1 , T 1 , C 2 ), which has a storage inductor (L), a diode (D 1 ), an intermediate circuit capacitor (C 2 ) and a switching element (T 1 ), characterized in that it is designed to switch off the switching element (T 1 ) in the step-up converter (L, D 1 , T 1 , C 2 ) when a maximum current value of the current flowing through the switching element (T 1 ) is reached, and to switch on the switching element (T 1 ) by means of a jump in the potential (V 2 ) between the storage inductor (L) and the diode (D 1 ) after demagnetization of the storage inductor (L), so that the step-up converter (L, D 1 , T 1 , C 2 ) oscillates in self-excited fashion.