An electric lamp assembly comprising: an electrodeless lamp including a closed-loop, tubular lamp envelope enclosing mercury vapor and a buffer gas at a pressure less than 0.5 torr; a transformer core disposed so as to surround a portion of said closed-loop lamp envelope; an input winding disposed on said transformer core; and a radio frequency power source coupled to said input winding for supplying sufficient radio frequency energy to said mercury vapor and said buffer gas to produce in said lamp envelope a discharge having a discharge current equal to or greater than about 2 amperes. view more

An electric lamp assembly comprising: an electrodeless lamp including a tubular lamp envelope enclosing mercury vapor and a buffer gas at a pressure less than 0.5 torr, said lamp envelope comprising first and second parallel tubes joined at a near one end thereof by a first lateral tube and joined at or near the other end thereof by a second lateral tube to provide a closed loop; a first transformer core disposed so as to surround the first lateral tube of said lamp envelope; a second transformer core disposed so as to surround the second lateral tube of said lamp envelope; first and second input windings disposed on said first and second transformer cores, respectively; and a radio frequency power source coupled to said first and second input windings for supplying sufficient radio frequency energy to said mercury vapor and said buffer gas to produce in said lamp envelope a discharge having a discharge current equal to or greater than 2 amperes. view more

A method for operating an electric lamp comprising an electrodeless lamp including a closed-loop, tubular lamp envelope enclosing a buffer gas and mercury vapor, comprising the steps of: establishing a pressure, of said mercury vapor and said buffer gas, in said lamp envelope of less than 0.5 torr; and inductively coupling sufficient radio frequency energy to said mercury vapor and said buffer gas to produce in said lamp envelope a discharge having a discharge current equal to or greater than 2 amperes. view more

An electric lamp assembly comprising: an electrodeless lamp including a closed-loop, tubular lamp envelope enclosing mercury vapor and a buffer gas at a pressure of less than 0.5 torr; and means for inductively coupling sufficient radio frequency energy to said mercury vapor and said buffer gas to produce in said lamp envelope a discharge having discharge current equal to or greater than 2 amperes. view more

An electrodeless lamp assembly comprising: an electrodeless lamp including a closed-loop, tubular lamp envelope enclosing krypton and mercury vapor at a pressure less 0.5 torr; a ferrite transformer core disposed so as to surround a portion of said closed-loop lamp envelope; and an input winding disposed on said transformer core for coupling to a radio frequency power source. view more

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