Patent ID: 7129647

Claim:
An electronic ballast for supplying electrical excitation to a filamentless discharge lamp, the electronic ballast comprising: power conditioning circuitry for conditioning electrical power received from a source of electrical power, and producing a conditioned power signal; and a lamp supply circuit for receiving the conditioned power signal and producing electrical signals to operate the filamentless discharge lamp, said lamp supply circuit including: a programmable processor operable to vary an operating parameter of the lamp supply circuit to enable operation of a plurality of lamp types or sizes, said programmable processor being further operable to oscillate the lamp supply circuit at 60 KHz or greater to avoid acoustic distortion and strobbing of the discharge lamp; an ignition circuit for producing an oscillating voltage signal for igniting the discharge lamp; a sustaining circuit for producing an oscillating current signal to sustain ignition of the discharge lamp; and a programmable inductor circuit having a plurality of inductance values, wherein said programmable processor is operable to select one of said plurality of inductance values for operation of a particular lamp type or size.