US 7,550,911 B2
Fluorescent lamp for use in a backlight unit and liquid crystal display device
Toshihiro Terada, Hyogo-ken (Japan); Masanobu Murakami, Osaka-fu (Japan); Kazuhiro Matsuo, Osaka-fu (Japan); Taizou Ono, Osaka-fu (Japan); Hideki Wada, Osaka-fu (Japan); Shingo Tsutsumi, Osaka-fu (Japan); Mitsuharu Kawasaki, Kyoto-fu (Japan); Hiroyuki Arata, Hyogo-ken (Japan); Yuko Habuta, Hyogo-ken (Japan); Tomokazu Matsuura, Osaka-fu (Japan); and Hirofumi Yamashita, Osaka-fu (Japan)
Assigned to Panasonic Corporation, Osaka (Japan)
Filed on May 08, 2006, as Appl. No. 11/429,767.
Claims priority of application No. 2005-141745 (JP), filed on May 13, 2005; application No. 2005-197248 (JP), filed on Jul. 06, 2005; application No. 2005-219982 (JP), filed on Jul. 29, 2005; application No. 2005-221206 (JP), filed on Jul. 29, 2005; and application No. 2006-017275 (JP), filed on Jan. 26, 2006.
Prior Publication US 2006/0261723 A1, Nov. 23, 2006
Int. Cl. H01J 1/62 (2006.01); H01J 11/00 (2006.01); H01J 65/00 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 313—489  [313/485; 313/607; 313/234] 23 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An external electrode fluorescent lamp comprising:
a glass bulb having a discharge space inside; and
external electrodes are provided at both ends of the glass bulb,
wherein a protective layer is formed on an inner surface of the glass bulb, except a part of the inner surface at at least one of the ends, the excepted part directly adjacent and parallel in position to a surface of the electrodes,
a phosphor layer is formed on the protective layer, and
the glass bulb contains sodium oxide in a range of 3 wt % and 20 wt %, wherein the protective layer is composed of an aggregate of metal oxide particles, and has an average thickness of no more than 2 μm and a surface roughness of no more than 1 μm.