Patent · US Expired

Electrodeless fluorescent lamp with bifilar coil and faraday shield

US5726523A · kind A · utility

10Cited by
8References
5Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 6, 1996
Grant dateMar 10, 1998
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 6, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH01J65/048
  • WIPO fieldElectrical machinery, apparatus, energy
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An electrodeless fluorescent lamp and fixture is disclosed which operates at radio frequencies and contains a bifilar coil to reduce RF voltage between the plasma and the coil and a metallic cylinder (10) to remove heat from a said bifilar coil. The bifilar coil consists of two windings. The primary (induction) winding (6) is used to generate RF electrical azimuthal field in the bulb volume needed to maintain the inductively-coupled RF plasma. The second (bifilar) winding (18) has essentially the same number of turns and is wound on the inductive winding (6), but in the direction opposite to that of the primary (inductive) winding. The RF current flowing in the inductive winding (6) induces an RF voltage of the opposite polarity in the bifilar winding (18), so two adjacent turns of both windings have equal (or nearly equal) but of opposite sign RF potentials with respect to the plasma. This results in the mutual "cancellation" of capacitive RF electric fields induced by both windings in the plasma and in a sheath formed between the plasma and the cavity walls. The reduction of the electric field in turn results in the lowering of a direct current voltage across the sheath thereby l…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.