Light source
AssigneeCeravision Limited
InventorBarry Preston
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A lamp has microwave resonant body (11) of transparent quartz. The body has a central bore (16), having a sealed plasma enclosing bulb (17) inserted in it. The bulb is of quartz also and has an external diameter which is a close fit in the bore. The bulb itself is of drawn quartz tube (18) and as such has a smooth internal bore (19). End caps (20) are fused to the tube and encapsulate a charge of a material excitable to form a light emitting plasma in the bulb when microwaves are fed into the body via an antenna (7) in a bore (21) in the body. The body is sized to establish resonance within the Faraday cage in the body (11), bulb (17) and fill containing void (22) within the bulb. There is negligible gap between the bulb and body, whereby they can be regarded as one for resonance purposes. The bulb is fixed in the body by welds (23).
Claims15
A light source to be powered by microwave energy, the source having:
- a dielectric body of material which is lucent for exit of light therefrom,
- a void within the dielectric body,
- a microwave-enclosing Faraday cage surrounding the dielectric body,
- the dielectric body within the Faraday cage providing a microwave resonant cavity,
- a sealed plasma enclosure of lucent material within the void within the dielectric body,
- means for locating the plasma enclosure within the void with respect to the dielectric body,
- a fill, sealed in the plasma enclosure, of material excitable by microwave energy to form a light emitting plasma, and
- an antenna extending within the Faraday cage for transmitting plasma-inducing, microwave energy to the fill, the antenna having:
- a connection extending outside the body for coupling to a source of microwave energy.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.