Patent ID: 7391165

Claim:
A discharge lamp lighting control device, comprising: a DC power converter that converts an AC power source to a rectified voltage; a power factor improving power converter (PFIPC) having a switching device, a power factor improver, and a power converter, said power factor improver smoothing said rectified voltage by storing energy in a first inductive device and by discharging energy from a second inductive device, said second inductive device being magnetically connected to said first inductive device, said storing and discharging being performed by turning ON and OFF said switching device, said power converter producing a predetermined DC voltage, said predetermined DC voltage being converted from said smoothed voltage by energy stored and discharged by a third inductive device in response to said turning ON and OFF of said switching device; a polarity reversing circuit that converts said predetermined DC voltage into a square-wave AC voltage that is applied to a lamp; a starter circuit that uses an output of said polarity reversing circuit as a power source to ignite the lamp by applying a high voltage pulse to the lamp; and a controller that controls said PFIPC and said polarity reversing circuit.