Phosphor-containing coating systems and fluorescent lamps equipped therewith
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsAlok Mani SRIVASTAVA, William Winder BEERS, Fangming DU, William Erwin COHEN
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Abstract
Coating systems suitable for use in generating fluorescent visible light, and lamps provided with such coating systems. The coating systems includes a phosphor-containing coating that contains at least a first phosphor that is predominantly excited by ultraviolet radiation of a first wavelength to emit visible light and absorbs but is less efficiently excited by ultraviolet radiation of a second wavelength. The coating system further includes a second phosphor that absorbs the ultraviolet radiation of the second wavelength and little if any of the ultraviolet radiation of the first wavelength.
Claims20
A coating system comprising a phosphor-containing coating that generates visible light as a result of being excited by ultraviolet radiation that includes at least first and second wavelengths, the phosphor-containing coating comprising:
- at least a first phosphor that predominantly absorbs and is excited by ultraviolet radiation of a first wavelength to emit visible light and absorbs but is less efficiently excited to emit visible light by ultraviolet radiation of a second wavelength;
- and
- a second phosphor that predominantly absorbs the ultraviolet radiation of the second wavelength and substantially does not absorb the ultraviolet radiation of the first wavelength.
A coating system comprising a phosphor-containing coating that generates visible light as a result of being excited by ultraviolet radiation that includes at least first and second wavelengths having wavelengths of about 254 nm and about 185 nm, respectively, wherein the first wavelength is a predominant wavelength of the ultraviolet radiation, the phosphor-containing coating comprising:
- at least a first phosphor that is predominantly excited by ultraviolet radiation of the first wavelength to emit visible light and absorbs but is less efficiently excited to emit visible light by ultraviolet radiation of the second wavelength;
- and
- a manganese-activated barium magnesium aluminate phosphor that is activated only by manganese ions, that preferentially absorbs the ultraviolet radiation of the second wavelength compared to the first wavelength, and is excited by the second wavelength to emit visible light.
A fluorescent lamp comprising:
- a sealed tube comprising a transparent envelope enclosing an interior chamber;
- a gas mixture within the sealed tube, the gas mixture comprising mercury vapor as an ultraviolet radiation source that emits ultraviolet radiation of at least first and second wavelengths;
- and
- a coating system on a surface of the transparent envelope within the interior chamber, the coating system comprising a phosphor-containing coating that generates visible light as a result of being excited by the first and second wavelengths of the ultraviolet radiation, the phosphor-containing coating containing at least a first phosphor that is predominantly excited by ultraviolet radiation of the first wavelength to emit visible light and absorbs but is less efficiently excited to emit visible light by ultraviolet radiation of the second wavelength, the coating system containing a second phosphor that predominantly absorbs the ultraviolet radiation of the second wavelength and substantially does not absorb the ultraviolet radiation of the first wavelength.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.