International Rectifier has introduced a 600V fully-integrated and protected ballast control IC for advanced linear fluorescent lamp ballasts which incorporate active power factor correction (PFC). The IRS2166D integrates PFC, ballast control and half-bridge driver in a monolithic IC. Its PFC circuitry operates in critical conduction mode for a power factor of 0.99, total harmonic distortion of less than 10 percent, and also precise DC bus regulation within a tolerance of 2.5 percent. Many of the protection features are programmable including those for half-bridge over-current, dead-time and preheat-time, preheat and run frequencies, and lamp end-of-life. Other features include protection from failure of the lamp to strike, filament failures, and DC bus under-voltage reset. Available in 16-lead DIP and SO lead-free packages, the devices provide 50% duty cycle, integrated bootstrap circuitry, a 15.6V Zener diode clamp on VCC, and typical micro-power startup current of 250µA. The IRPLLNR7 reference design demonstrating the features of the IRS2166D is also available. The devices are RoHS compliant.