New Electrodeless Lamp System Produces Light Like Sunlight

The search to produce a light source similar to sunlight reached a new level.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. announced the development of the world's first electrodeless lamp system. The light from the system is close to sunlight, and the luminous element is smaller than conventional electrodeless discharge lamps. This new lamp system employs the following new technologies:

1. Indium-bromide is applied as the emission material
   
2. A vane-type resonator as an energy supply for an electrodeless discharge lamp.

The system features:

• a continuous radiation spectrum similar to sunlight.
  
• downsized luminous element (3 mm) (Approximately one tenth the size of the luminous part in conventional electrodeless lamps).
  
• long lifetime (More than 10 times that of conventional high intensity light sources [3] with high color rendering properties [4]).

This system has the following effects:

• high color rendering property
  
• high flexibility in the design of various optical systems (e.g. spot light, fiber illumination)
  
• reduced maintenance cost.

The company plans to commercialize this development around 2002.

Edited by: Jerry R. Borland, P.E.