Fluorescent Lamp, Back Light Unit, And Method Of Manufacturing The Fluorescent Lamp

-3. (canceled)

-7. (canceled)

A fluorescent lamp including a curved glass bulb that has a layer including a phosphor layer on an inner surface, mercury and a rare gas enclosed inside, and a pair of electrodes at both ends, characterized in that:

• a gas pressure in the glass bulb is in a range of 4.0 kPa to 13.4 kPa inclusive;
• and
• when a tube inner diameter, expressed in mm, of the glass bulb is plotted on a horizontal axis of an orthogonal coordinate system and a total amount of CO2 and CO, expressed in mol %, contained in gas present inside the glass bulb is plotted on a vertical axis of the orthogonal coordinate system, the tube inner diameter and the total amount of CO2 and CO are in a predetermined area or on a boundary thereof, the predetermined area being bounded by line segments EF, FG, GH, and HE that connect a point E (2.0 mm, 0.005 mol %), a point F (3.0 mm, 0.0015 mol %), a point G (3.0 mm, 0 mol %), and a point H (2.0 mm, 0 mol %) in the stated order.

A manufacturing method of a curved fluorescent lamp, which forms a phosphor layer on an inner surface of a straight glass bulb, attaches a pair of electrodes to both ends of the glass bulb, encloses mercury and a rare gas in the glass bulb, and then bends the straight glass bulb into a curved shape, characterized in that:

• after the bending, an aging process of eliminating CO2 and CO in the glass bulb is performed by passing a current exceeding a current value for steady lighting through the pair of electrodes.