Liquid crystal display device using an electrodless fluorescent lamp

Abstract

A display device (10) is comprised of a display unit (14) and a high efficiency backlight assembly (28). The backlight assembly (28) is comprised of an inductively coupled electrodless fluorescent lamp (12) for providing light to the display unit (14). The display unit (14) includes a liquid crystal display (LCD) element (16) for displaying an image and a diffuser (22) for using the light generated by the backlight unit (28) to create a relatively uniform level of brightness over the entire area of the LCD element (16). The electrodless lamp (12) is preferably mounted in a reflective lamp housing (24) having a reflective lamp lining (36) designed to provide uniform illumination intensity on the LCD element (16). The electrodless lamp (12) may have a rectangular shape and a center reflector (44) mounted within the rectangular opening to further direct light toward the LCD element (16). In a further version of the invention, a backlight unit (66) is comprised of a light guide (68) having remote electrodless lamps optically connected to the ends (70, 84) thereof.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.