Serpentine fluorescent lamp with shaped corners providing uniform backlight illumination for displays

摘要

A bent fluorescent lamp for backlighting a display providing uniform illumination. A fluorescent lamp is made from a tubular glass envelope having right angles formed therein with shaped corners. The right angles provide improved illumination of a plane surface for backlighting a liquid crystal display. The right angles and shaped corners eliminate dark regions in the illuminated surface. A right-angled bend is also formed at the ends of the fluorescent lamp. An electrode is positioned sufficiently far from a central portion of the lamp so that any dark spaces in the gas discharge of the fluorescent lamp, such as the Faraday dark space associated with a cathode of a lamp are not formed within the central portion.