Electronic ballast for a lamp

Abstract

The present invention relates to an electronic ballast for a lamp having a bridge circuit, which comprises at least one first switch (S1) and a second switch (S2) which are coupled between a connection (A1) for a supply voltage and a connection (A2) for a ground potential, a center point (M) of the bridge circuit being defined between the first switch (S1) and the second switch (S2); a first connection (A1) and a second connection (A2) for a lamp (La), the first connection (A1) being coupled to the center point (M) of the bridge circuit via an inductance (L1); and a signal evaluation unit (20), the signal evaluation unit (20) comprising a first input (24) and a second input (22), the first input (24) being coupled to a signal which is at the DC voltage level of the first connection (A1) for the lamp (La), and the second input (22) being coupled to a signal which is at the DC voltage level of the second connection (A2) for the lamp (La), the DC voltage reference potential for the signal evaluation unit (20) being designed to be variable within a value range which is greater than or equal to the ground potential and is less than or equal to the supply voltage potential.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.