Electronic ballast

1. An electronic ballast for driving at least one lamp comprising:

a rectifying circuit operatively connectable to an AC line for providing a rectified voltage;

a current drawing circuit connected across said rectifying circuit;

said current drawing circuit drawing current from said AC line only when the instantaneous voltage of said AC line nears zero to reduce the total harmonic distortion of the input current drawn by said ballast; and

an inverter circuit connected to said rectifying circuit that supplies a lamp current to said at least one lamp.

2. The electronic ballast of claim 1 , wherein said current drawing circuit is a cat ear circuit.

3. The electronic ballast of claim 2 , wherein said cat ear circuit draws current from said AC line when the rectified voltage is below a fixed value.

4. An electronic ballast for driving at least one lamp comprising:

a rectifying circuit operatively connectable to an AC line;

a valley fill circuit including a capacitor;

said valley fill circuit operable to selectively charge said capacitor directly from said AC line through said rectifying circuit, an impedance, and a first electronic switching device; and

an inverter circuit including at least one electronic switching device for supplying lamp current to said at least one lamp;

wherein said capacitor is charged during at least 90° of each half-cycle of said AC line.

5. The electronic ballast of claim 4 , wherein said valley fill circuit includes a buck converter circuit.

6. The electronic ballast of claim 4 , wherein said valley fill circuit includes an inductor.

7. The electronic ballast of claim 4 , wherein said first electronic switching device is a MOSFET.

8. The electronic ballast of claim 4 , wherein said valley fill circuit includes at least one of said at least one switching device of said inverter circuit.

9. The electronic ballast of claim 4 , which further includes a flyback transformer coupled to said capacitor, to control the delivery of energy to said capacitor.

10. The electronic ballast of claim 9 , wherein said flyback transformer is connected to said capacitor by a controllably conductive device.

11. An electronic ballast for driving at least one lamp comprising:

a rectifying circuit operatively connectable to an AC line;

a valley fill circuit including an energy storage device;

said valley fill circuit operable to selectively charge said energy storage device;

a back end which includes an inverter circuit that supplies a lamp current to said at least one lamp;

a control circuit for controlling the operation of said inverter circuit; and

a cat ear circuit that supplies power to said control circuit;

wherein said inverter circuit draws a first current from said AC line during a first predetermined portion of each half cycle which is greater than 90° of each half cycle of said AC line and said cat ear circuit draws a second current from said AC line during a second predetermined portion of each half cycle which is less than 90° of each half cycle of said AC line.

12. An electronic ballast for driving at least one lamp comprising:

a rectifying circuit operatively connectable to an AC line;

a valley fill circuit including an energy storage device;

said valley fill circuit operable to selectively charge said energy storage device directly from said AC line through said rectifying circuit, an impedance, and a first controllably conductive switch.

13. The electronic ballast of claim 12 , wherein said energy storage device is a capacitor.

14. The electronic ballast of claim 12 , wherein said impedance is an inductor.

15. The electronic ballast of claim 12 , wherein said impedance is a resistor.

16. The electronic ballast of claim 12 , wherein said first controllably conductive switch is a MOSFET.