Anybody know if this is for real? New kind of high efficiency light source.

[default]

Or is it like those miracle stories in EET?

Robert H.

***************************************

http://www.physorg.com/news125238861.html

A Tic-Tac-sized lightbulb that gives off as much light as a streetlamp may
offer a peek at the ultra-efficient lighting of the future. The bulb,
developed by Luxim of Sunnyvale, California, uses plasma technology to
achieve its brightness.

The tiny bulb contains an argon gas in the middle, as well as a component
called a "puck." The bulb is partially embedded in a dielectric material.
When electrical energy is delivered to the puck, the puck acts like an
electrical lens. It heats up the argon to a temperature of 6000 degrees
Kelvin, and turns the gas into a plasma that gives off light.

The plasma, whose 6000-degree temperature is similar to that of the surface
of the sun, also emits a spectrum that looks very similar to the spectrum of
sunlight.

The plasma bulb uses 250 watts, and achieves around 140 lumens per watt,
making it very bright and highly efficient. By comparison, conventional
lightbulbs and high-end LEDs get around 15 and 70 lumens per watt,
respectively.

Sounds like a "sulphur" lamp from before 1994. They used a microwave
source to excite the sulphur bit (turned into a vapor) in a low
pressure argon atmosphere. This is a 1960's (discovery) lamp that had
a lot of problems containing and exciting the plasma.

http://www.thekrib.com/Lights/sulphur.html
"In this new light bulb, sulfur excited by microwaves emits a bright
white light. At the DOE's headquarters, a sulfur bulb at each end of
one 240-foot-long light pipe replaced 240 individual 175-watt
high-intensity lamps. One Tootsie-Pop-size lamp gives off the same
light as more than 250 standard 100 watt incandescent bulbs."


Downside was the cost of the excitation gear - a magnetron and large
wattage lamps they were making - the smallest was 1,000 watts and way
more light than any single source could use - so they resorted to
light pipes and optics to distribute the light and that was too costly
for most applications.

 

[Robert]

Or is it like those miracle stories in EET?

Robert H.

***************************************

http://www.physorg.com/news125238861.html

A Tic-Tac-sized lightbulb that gives off as much light as a streetlamp may
offer a peek at the ultra-efficient lighting of the future. The bulb,
developed by Luxim of Sunnyvale, California, uses plasma technology to
achieve its brightness.

The tiny bulb contains an argon gas in the middle, as well as a component
called a "puck." The bulb is partially embedded in a dielectric material.
When electrical energy is delivered to the puck, the puck acts like an
electrical lens. It heats up the argon to a temperature of 6000 degrees
Kelvin, and turns the gas into a plasma that gives off light.

The plasma, whose 6000-degree temperature is similar to that of the surface
of the sun, also emits a spectrum that looks very similar to the spectrum of
sunlight.

The plasma bulb uses 250 watts, and achieves around 140 lumens per watt,
making it very bright and highly efficient. By comparison, conventional
lightbulbs and high-end LEDs get around 15 and 70 lumens per watt,
respectively.

 

[[email protected]]

Or is it like those miracle stories in EET?

Robert H.

***************************************

http://www.physorg.com/news125238861.html

A Tic-Tac-sized lightbulb that gives off as much light as a streetlamp may
offer a peek at the ultra-efficient lighting of the future. The bulb,
developed by Luxim of Sunnyvale, California, uses plasma technology to
achieve its brightness.

The tiny bulb contains an argon gas in the middle, as well as a component
called a "puck." The bulb is partially embedded in a dielectric material.
When electrical energy is delivered to the puck, the puck acts like an
electrical lens. It heats up the argon to a temperature of 6000 degrees
Kelvin, and turns the gas into a plasma that gives off light.

The plasma, whose 6000-degree temperature is similar to that of the surface
of the sun, also emits a spectrum that looks very similar to the spectrum of
sunlight.

The plasma bulb uses 250 watts, and achieves around 140 lumens per watt,
making it very bright and highly efficient. By comparison, conventional
lightbulbs and high-end LEDs get around 15 and 70 lumens per watt,
respectively.

It could be true, but most of the time low voltage products are the
winners in such applications even if inferior in efficiency. Low
voltage products in general are more reliable. I'd bet on LED
technology.

 

[Robert]

It could be true, but most of the time low voltage products are the
winners in such applications even if inferior in efficiency. Low
voltage products in general are more reliable. I'd bet on LED
technology.

That "puck" bit sounds like a Dielectric Resonant Oscillator. When I google
on "DRO Luxim" I get this job add. The bit at the end about Dielectric
Resonant Cavities seems to be a tip off. Given that it might not be that
high a voltage and/or entirely self contained.


****************
http://www.defensetalent.com/blog/RF microwave_jobs.htm
8/30/2006 RF Engineer

.. Design and development of novel resonant cavity structures and circuits
including EM simulation and optimization.
.. Working with a cross functional team to develop RF/Microwave circuits to
drive electrodeless lamp systems.
.. Assist applications engineering in the integration of light sources into
Televisions.
.. Will assist manufacturing in the development of processes for building RF
Electrodeless lamps.
Required skills and experience:
.. A solid understanding of RF/Microwave circuit fundamentals.
.. A good understanding of Electromagnetic theory.
.. A familiarity with general RF test equipment.
.. Experience with CAD tools such as Microwave Office or ADS as well as
electromagnetic simulation tools such as HFSS or Sonnet.
.. Knowledge of EMI reduction and FCC testing a plus
.. Knowledge of resonant structures including dielectric resonant cavities a
plus
.. Effective verbal and written communications and interpersonal skills.

Company Name: Luxim Corporation

****************

Robert H.

 

[Greg Neill]

So what is the bulb made of that it can tolerate
6000 degree temperatures and hold its integrity?

If you thought Halogen lamps were a fire hazard...

 

[Damon Hill]

So what is the bulb made of that it can tolerate
6000 degree temperatures and hold its integrity?

If you thought Halogen lamps were a fire hazard...
[/QUOTE]

http://www.lifi.com/pdfs/ID+REV+Gilliard-pgs.pdf

It's a quartz bulb (really more of a thick-walled capsule) embedded in a
dielectric which acts as a waveguide for the RF amplifier that energizes
it. A similar device using sodium or sulfur has been around for a few
years. Doesn't say what the dielectric is made of.

--Damon

 

[[email protected]]

http://www.lifi.com/pdfs/ID+REV+Gilliard-pgs.pdf

It's a quartz bulb (really more of a thick-walled capsule) embedded in a
dielectric which acts as a waveguide for the RF amplifier that energizes
it.  A similar device using sodium or sulfur has been around for a few
years. Doesn't say what the dielectric is made of.

All arc lamps contain an area within the bulb where the gas
temperature reach 6000 degrees Kelvin.

There's always a steep thermal gradient in the gas which means that
quartz bulb itself doesn't get anything like as hot, and in an
electrodeless lamp like this one, there aren't any relatively
conductive electrodes close to the arc to conduct heat out to the
surface of the bulb.

The efficiency of the lamp isn't going to be all that great - the 6000
degree arc is a black body radiator, so a lot of the radiated enegy is
in the near infra-red, and the electroncis to generate the RF that
excites the arc isn't going to be 100% efficient either. It would be
going to do as well as a conventional fluorescent lamp, but it's
probably pretty good as point sources go.

 

[Bruce Varley]

Or is it like those miracle stories in EET?

Robert H.

***************************************

http://www.physorg.com/news125238861.html

A Tic-Tac-sized lightbulb that gives off as much light as a streetlamp may
offer a peek at the ultra-efficient lighting of the future. The bulb,
developed by Luxim of Sunnyvale, California, uses plasma technology to
achieve its brightness.

The tiny bulb contains an argon gas in the middle, as well as a component
called a "puck." The bulb is partially embedded in a dielectric material.
When electrical energy is delivered to the puck, the puck acts like an
electrical lens. It heats up the argon to a temperature of 6000 degrees
Kelvin, and turns the gas into a plasma that gives off light.

The plasma, whose 6000-degree temperature is similar to that of the
surface of the sun, also emits a spectrum that looks very similar to the
spectrum of sunlight.

The plasma bulb uses 250 watts, and achieves around 140 lumens per watt,
making it very bright and highly efficient. By comparison, conventional
lightbulbs and high-end LEDs get around 15 and 70 lumens per watt,
respectively.

Several years ago there was an article in Scientific American on a company
that sells a 1MW xenon lamp. IIRC, it relied on water cooling of parts of
it, and would be high overhead to set up and run. The report said that there
aren't many takers for that much light, and the main market for it has been
sources of radiant energy, eg. for testing spacecraft.

Meanwhile, xenon lamps are the standard light source in movie projectors
these days. (very) forced air cooled.

 

[MooseFET]

Or is it like those miracle stories in EET?

Robert H.

***************************************

http://www.physorg.com/news125238861.html

A Tic-Tac-sized lightbulb that gives off as much light as a streetlamp may
offer a peek at the ultra-efficient lighting of the future. The bulb,
developed by Luxim of Sunnyvale, California, uses plasma technology to
achieve its brightness.

The tiny bulb contains an argon gas in the middle, as well as a component
called a "puck."

I'll bet that if you read it again, there is another material in it.
Neither the arc nor the inert gas sound like an efficient way to go.
A low pressure of inert gas and some metal that has a strong radiation
line near the blue sounds more likely.

 

[neon]

want to experiment go to sparkfun and buy a lexon i beleive 7watts cheap enough .

 

[legg]

It could be true, but most of the time low voltage products are the
winners in such applications even if inferior in efficiency. Low
voltage products in general are more reliable. I'd bet on LED
technology.

I think the chink in the facade is the RF power source requirement.

This can eat up a lot of efficiency, reliability and packaging
dollars.

RL

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Or is it like those miracle stories in EET?

Robert H.

***************************************

http://www.physorg.com/news125238861.html

A Tic-Tac-sized lightbulb that gives off as much light as a streetlamp may
offer a peek at the ultra-efficient lighting of the future. The bulb,
developed by Luxim of Sunnyvale, California, uses plasma technology to
achieve its brightness.

The tiny bulb contains an argon gas in the middle, as well as a component
called a "puck." The bulb is partially embedded in a dielectric material.
When electrical energy is delivered to the puck, the puck acts like an
electrical lens. It heats up the argon to a temperature of 6000 degrees
Kelvin, and turns the gas into a plasma that gives off light.

The plasma, whose 6000-degree temperature is similar to that of the surface
of the sun, also emits a spectrum that looks very similar to the spectrum of
sunlight.

The plasma bulb uses 250 watts, and achieves around 140 lumens per watt,
making it very bright and highly efficient. By comparison, conventional
lightbulbs and high-end LEDs get around 15 and 70 lumens per watt,
respectively.

There was a similar microwave excited lamp designed some years back. I
think it contained sulphur. I was at the SMUD (power utility) offices in
Sacramento about 3 years ago and there were lamps in the lobby using the
technology.

--
Joe Leikhim K4SAT
"The RFI-EMI-GUY"©

"Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason."

"Follow The Money" ;-P

 

[[email protected]]

That "puck" bit sounds like a Dielectric Resonant Oscillator. When I google
on "DRO Luxim" I get this job add. The bit at the end about Dielectric
Resonant Cavities seems to be a tip off. Given that it might not be that
high a voltage and/or entirely self contained.

****************http://www.defensetalent.com/blog/RF microwave_jobs.htm
8/30/2006 RF Engineer

. Design and development of novel resonant cavity structures and circuits
including EM simulation and optimization.
. Working with a cross functional team to develop RF/Microwave circuits to
drive electrodeless lamp systems.
. Assist applications engineering in the integration of light sources into
Televisions.
. Will assist manufacturing in the development of processes for building RF
Electrodeless lamps.
Required skills and experience:
. A solid understanding of RF/Microwave circuit fundamentals.
. A good understanding of Electromagnetic theory.
. A familiarity with general RF test equipment.
. Experience with CAD tools such as Microwave Office or ADS as well as
electromagnetic simulation tools such as HFSS or Sonnet.
. Knowledge of EMI reduction and FCC testing a plus
. Knowledge of resonant structures including dielectric resonant cavities a
plus
. Effective verbal and written communications and interpersonal skills.

Company Name: Luxim Corporation

****************

Robert H.

Their website doesn't provide much information. However, in their
project TV app, they indicate the "lamp" needs 28V. The trouble is
that could be just the input voltage to a module, which in turn boosts
the voltage.

In technology, evolution generally wins over revolution. Remember how
the world was supposed to be all gasfet. Not going to happen. I just
don't see RF excited plasma winning out over LEDs.

 

[default]

Or is it like those miracle stories in EET?

Robert H.

***************************************

http://www.physorg.com/news125238861.html

A Tic-Tac-sized lightbulb that gives off as much light as a streetlamp may
offer a peek at the ultra-efficient lighting of the future. The bulb,
developed by Luxim of Sunnyvale, California, uses plasma technology to
achieve its brightness.

The tiny bulb contains an argon gas in the middle, as well as a component
called a "puck." The bulb is partially embedded in a dielectric material.
When electrical energy is delivered to the puck, the puck acts like an
electrical lens. It heats up the argon to a temperature of 6000 degrees
Kelvin, and turns the gas into a plasma that gives off light.

The plasma, whose 6000-degree temperature is similar to that of the surface
of the sun, also emits a spectrum that looks very similar to the spectrum of
sunlight.

The plasma bulb uses 250 watts, and achieves around 140 lumens per watt,
making it very bright and highly efficient. By comparison, conventional
lightbulbs and high-end LEDs get around 15 and 70 lumens per watt,
respectively.

http://www.thekrib.com/Lights/sulphur.html

Sulfur lamps consist of a golf-ball-sized sphere filled with sulfur,
quartz,
and argon. It is energized by a 5900-watt magnetron similar to that
on a
kitchen microwave oven. The spherical lamp is constantly rotated at
about
600 rpm on a glass spindle surrounded by a jet of compressed air. If
the
lamp were ever to stop rotating, it would melt within two seconds.
The
technology is quite similar to a UV light source that Fusion Systems
has
been selling to chip manufacturers and printers for 15 years. Fusion
is
planning to release more efficient, smaller models by early 1996,
roughly
1000 watts and 140,000 lumens. Lawrence Berkeley Labs is working on a
75-watt version of this for interior lighting. They are also working
on
making the magnetron smaller by using more solid state electronics.
The
smaller models will not use cooling air and would spin about 1000 rpm.
The
technology has the environmental advantage of using no mercury.

The light emitted is reflected by a parabolic reflector into a 10"
light
pipe made of acrylic, prismatic film. This pipe is almost opaque on
top.

The bottom is made of many parallel, curved, reflective grates which
catch
some of the light and reflect in down and out to the sides. The
ration of
how much light goes down and how much out to the sides can be varied
to meet
design needs. How much light goes out altogether varies along the
length,
with more allowed to pass through farther from the light source and
less
near the light source, to create more uniform luminance along the
length.

The light pipe would therefore need to be purchased in sections, each
with
specific characteristics. A mirror at the far end of the pipe
reflects back
any light traveling that far. Smaller models may not use light pipe,
either
using a more standard fixture or possibly fiber optics. One such
application being considered is to install the light on a 7' tall
pedestal
in an office cubicle area creating a powerful indirect lighting
system.

Light output:

 

[T]

There was a similar microwave excited lamp designed some years back. I
think it contained sulphur. I was at the SMUD (power utility) offices in
Sacramento about 3 years ago and there were lamps in the lobby using the
technology.

Considering that I know of a CO2 LASER that used microwave RF to excite
the gas in the cavity into lasing. Total output power for the IR LASER
was 150W and I believe the input was about 10 times that.

It needed a water cooled jacket around the cavity to keep it from self-
destructing.