Mercury-free 18-in. flat fluorescent lamp with good uniformity

We have developed an 18-in. 287 x 359-mm flat fluorescent lamp (FFL) that uses a xenon dielectric barrier discharge and analyzed its electro-optical characteristics. The surface luminance of the lamp having a diffuser sheet thickness of 3 mm was 5600 cd/m 2 and the luminance uniformity was 92% at an applied voltage of 950 Vrms. The luminous efficacy of the FFL was 24.5 lm/W for a luminance of 4200 cd/m 2 when driven by a sine-wave voltage.