Patent Grant
7786673
The present invention relates generally to discharge lamps and more particularly to a discharge lamp having an arctube which is surrounded by a cooling gas confined by a containment envelope.
Existing quartz discharge headlamps have relatively poor optical efficiency because a large amount (about 30% or more) of the light radiated from the arctube must be absorbed in the headlamp system primarily to prevent unwanted glare light in the headlamp beam. Due to various effects, including scattering of the light by the liquid metal halide pool, bowing of the arc, and reflections from the arctube and shroud surfaces, the source of the light appears to be significantly larger than the arc itself. There is a need for a very small arctube for a headlamp, such as an automotive headlamp, whose apparent light source is on the order of about 5 mm long or less and about 2 mm in diameter or less. For good optical performance it is desirable to keep the arctube outside diameter about 2-3 mm or less. There are teachings of ceramic arctubes with extremely small inside and outside diameters, such as WO 2004/023517 A1, but such arctubes have extremely hot inside temperatures. When the outside diameter of a ceramic arctube operating at about 35 W is made about 2 mm with a gap length of about 5 mm, then the hot spot temperature (T3) at the top inside surface of the ceramic arctube reaches greater than 1500 K, typically about 1700 K, whereas one of the requirements for long life (about 3000 hours or more) of the ceramic arctube is T3 less than about 1500 K. There is a need to provide a cooling thermal environment external to the ceramic arctube that lowers the T3 temperature below 1500 K.
A lamp comprising an arctube having a light-transmitting envelope and a pair of spaced apart electrodes. The arctube is surrounded by a gaseous medium confined by a containment envelope external to the arctube. At least 10% of the moles of the gaseous medium at 25° C. being provided by He or H2 or Ne or another gas whose thermal conductivity is greater than that of N2 at 800 C, or a mixture thereof. The containment envelope can be a shroud. The gap between the outside surface of the envelope and the inside surface of the shroud is preferably smaller than the outside diameter of the envelope. The wall thickness of the shroud is preferably greater than 10% of the inside diameter of the shroud. The arctube has an arc portion. The wall thickness of a first portion of the shroud adjacent the arc portion can be greater than the wall thickness of a second portion of the shroud spaced apart from the first portion. (a) The wall thickness of the shroud or (b) the thickness of the gap between the arctube and the shroud or (c) both the wall thickness of the shroud and the thickness of the gap can vary in a manner effective to beneficially modify the axial temperature gradient of the arctube. The arctube longitudinal axis can be vertically offset from the shroud longitudinal axis in a manner effective to beneficially modify an azimuthal temperature gradient of the arctube.
a diagrammatically shows a lamp according to the invention wherein an arctube is located concentrically inside an asymmetric shroud.
b diagrammatically shows a lamp according to the invention wherein the longitudinal axis of an arctube is located vertically above the longitudinal axis of an asymmetric shroud.
In the description that follows, when a preferred range, such as 5 to 25 (or 5-25), is given, this means preferably at least 5 and, separately and independently, preferably not more than 25.
With reference to
The present invention can be used in headlamps and automotive discharge headlamps, but also in all high intensity discharge lamps and less preferably incandescent and LED lamps, and with any light source envelope that can be made smaller and brighter when it is passively cooled by a hermetically sealed gas or passively cooled by a shroud which is tightly fitted around the light source envelope or by a shroud with a thick wall, or by a combination of any of these benefits, as described herein. In an automotive discharge headlamp application, the arctube 12, including envelope or tube 16, is preferably made of polycrystalline alumina, polycrystalline YAG, or other ceramic as known in the art. The distance or arc gap between the tips of the electrodes is preferably 1-7, 2-6, or about 4, mm, and the lamp is preferably operating at 15-1000, 15-500, 15-100, 20-60, 30-40, or about 35, W. The inside diameter of the envelope 16 is preferably less than 2.6, 2, 1.5, 1.4, 1.3, 1.2, 1.1, 1, 0.9, 0.8, 0.7, mm and the wall thickness of tube or envelope 16 is preferably 0.2-1, 0.3-0.8, or about 0.4, mm. The outside diameter of tube or envelope 16 is preferably less than 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.5, 2.3, 2.2, 2.1, 2, 1.9, 1.8, 1.7, 1.6, 1.5, 1.4 or 1.3, mm. The ratio of the distance or gap 62 (between the inside 64 of shroud 14 and the outside 66 of tube 16) to the outside diameter of the envelope 16 is preferably less than 2, 1.5, 1, 0.8, 0.7, 0.6, 0.5, 0.4, 0.3, 0.2 or 0.1 (does not have to be a tight-fitting shroud for the He or other gas to have benefit). If gap 62 is a uniformly thick annular gap, it is preferably less than 2, 1.5, 1, 0.8, 0.7, 0.6, 0.5, 0.4, 0.3, 0.2 or 0.1, mm. Shroud 14 is preferably cylindrical and preferably has a uniform or substantially uniform wall thickness of about 0.5-6 or 1-3 or preferably about 2 mm and preferably has a wall thickness greater than 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 150 or 200, % of the inside diameter of the shroud and is preferably made of quartz or, if the temperature is low enough, a hard glass such as aluminosilicate glass (such as GE type 180) or other glass with sufficiently high temperature limits. GE type 180 glass typically has the following composition by %: 60.3 SiO2, 14.3 Al2O3, 6.5 CaO, 0.02 MgO, 0.21 TiO2, 0.025 ZrO2, <0.004 PbO, 0.02 Na2O, 0.012 K2O, 0.03 Fe2O3, 18.2 BaO, 0.001 Li2O, 0.25 SrO. The shroud preferably has an inside diameter of less than 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.8, 2.6, 2.5, 2.4, 2.2, 2, 1.9, or 1.8, mm, and an outside diameter less than 20, 15, 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5.5, 5.3, 5.2, 5, 4.8, 4.6, 4.4, 4.2, 4 or 3.8, mm or greater than 20, 15, 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5.5, 5.3, 5.2, 5, 4.8, 4.6, 4.4, 4.2, 4 or 3.8, mm. The inside diameter of the shroud 14 is preferably less than 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.5, 1.2, 1.1, 1, 0.8, 0.6, 0.5, 0.4, 0.3 or 0.2, mm larger than the outside diameter of tube 16. The difference between the outside diameter of the envelope 16 and the inside diameter of the shroud 14 is preferably less than 4, 3, 2, 1, 0.8, 0.5 or 0.3, times the outside diameter of the envelope. Arctube 12 and tube 16 can be centered inside shroud 14 or can be offset or off center inside shroud 14. The arctube 12 and/or the shroud 14 may be non-cylindrical shapes, in which case the above dimensions are measured at the mid-plane between the two electrode tips.
The space between shroud 14 and arctube 12 is filled with gaseous medium or gas or cooling gas 38, which is preferably Ne or more preferably H2 or He or another gas whose thermal conductivity is greater than that of N2 at 800 C, or a mixture thereof, at preferably 0.01-10 or 0.1-10 or 0.1-5, more preferably 0.3-3, more preferably 0.5-2, more preferably about 0.6-1.5, more preferably about 0.8, atm pressure at 25° C. With its high thermal conductivity, this gaseous medium functions as a cooling gas to help cool the arctube 12. The traditional fill in a hermitically sealed shroud is typically N2 gas in the range of 0.1-1.5 atm. Due to the heavier molecular weight of the N2 molecule (amu=28), it has lower thermal conductivity than the lighter gases Ne (amu=20), He (amu=4) or H2 (amu=2). The thermal conductivities (in W/m-K) of the gases of greatest interest at 800 C, which is a typical temperature of the gas 38, are N2=0.07, Ne=0.12, He=0.38, and H2=0.46. As illustrated in
One of the functions of gas 38 inside shroud 14 is to inhibit electrical breakdown through the gas across the outside electrical leads of the arctube 12 when the high-voltage (up to about 25 kV) ignition pulse is applied from the ballast. Due to the very high ionization potential of He, He gas might be sufficient to inhibit the breakdown. In some configurations of the lead wires 22 and 24, it may be necessary to include a partial pressure of N2 gas along with the cooling gas 38 in order to suppress electrical breakdown between the leads during ignition of the lamp. In such a case, the partial pressure of N2 relative to that of the cooling gas 38 (preferably Ne, H2 or He) should be limited to the minimum amount of N2 needed to suppress breakdown such that the maximum cooling benefit of the cooling gas is obtained. It is desired to maximize the total thermal conductivity of the gas in the region between the outside of the arctube and inside of the shroud, where the total thermal conductivity of a mixture of gases is found in the literature (Thermal Conductivity of Gases and Liquids, N. V. Tsederberg, The M.I.T. Press, 1965, pp. 144-165) to have several various estimates, mostly of the form:
where λ1 and λ2 are the thermal conductivities and x1 and x2 are the volume fractions of each component gas; A12 and A21 are coefficients that can depend on the mass and diameter of the components and the temperature. On page 146 of Tsederberg, a representative expression for A12 is given as follows (A21 has the complementary form):
The thermal conductivity of the gas mixture using Equation 1 can be plotted as in
Even though H2 and He are the most favored gases based on thermal conductivity, they may be unfavorable due to other lamp design considerations which will vary according to the particular lamp application, such as containment of the cooling gas inside the shroud, or prevention of infusion of the cooling gas into the arctube, or the high-voltage breakdown of the cooling gas during lamp ignition. It is believed that any other gas with a thermal conductivity at 800 C greater than that of N2 can be used as a cooling gas. From the Chemical Properties Handbook, 1999, the thermal conductivity as a function of gas temperature is given for 297 of the most common inorganic gases and for 1296 organic gases. The list of 41 inorganic gases having thermal conductivity @ 800 C exceeding that of N2 (k=0.072 W/m-K @ 800 C) is as follows:
The list of 31 organic gases having at least twice as much thermal conductivity @ 800 C relative to N2 (k=0.072 W/m-K @ 800 C) is as follows:
The organic gases are generally not preferred due to the possibility of depositing elemental carbon on the outside of the arctube causing light blockage and overheating.
From among the inorganic gases, excluding those that are highly toxic and those that are prohibitively expensive for lamp applications, and those that are not at least 20% more thermally conductive than N2 in order to be significantly advantageous relative to N2, the list is reduced to the following:
Further, from this list several favorable candidates are difficult to manage in manufacturing, such as hydrogen, ammonia, and others. He and Ne are safe, inexpensive, chemically inert, and easily dosed in the lamp. He is very favorable, and is the preferred cooling gas when the shroud is designed to contain the He throughout the life of the lamp.
Preferably the moles and partial pressure of N2 gas (and/or some other high-voltage resistant gas or gases other than the cooling gas taught by this invention) is not more than 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 60, 70, 80, or 90% of the total moles or total pressure of gaseous medium 38 at 25° C. Preferably 0.1-90 or 0.1-80 or 0.1-50 or 0.1-30 or 1-20 or 1-15, or 1-5% of the moles and pressure of gaseous medium 38 at 25° C. is provided by N2.
At the high operating temperature (usually in the range 400-10° C., more typically about 500-700 C) of shroud 14 in a typical lamp application, the small diameter atoms and molecules of some of the preferred cooling gases having high thermal conductivity (H2, He, Ne, or another gas whose thermal conductivity is greater than that of N2 at 800 C) typically diffuse easily through a quartz shroud. Generally, the smaller, more favorably cooling gases diffuse through quartz more quickly than the heavier, less favorable gases. Typically, more than 99% of the He is lost from a quartz shroud of typical temperature (e.g. 600 C) and typical quartz wall thickness (e.g. 1 mm) in less than 100 hours. Since the typical lifetime of a lamp is 1000 hours or more, this degree of He loss is unacceptable. H2 loss rates through typical shroud materials (quartz and glasses) is typically comparable to, or worse than, that of He, while the loss of Ne and heavier gases is typically better than that of He, but they are less favorable cooling gases. There are several techniques to reduce the diffusion loss of the more preferred cooling gases (especially He and/or H2) through the shroud 14 including, but not limited to: a coating which provides a diffusion barrier on the inside and/or outside surface of the shroud 14, or replacement of the quartz material of shroud 14 with a doped quartz, or glass, or doped glass which has a lower permeability to the cooling gas, or a combination of glass and quartz compositions in one or more shrouds nested within each other, with or without coatings. A suitable coating comprises a thin film or a dip-coating, or a sol-gel such as a transparent or substantially transparent, high-temperature thin film effective to act as a diffusion barrier to prevent or substantially prevent or substantially inhibit or diminish diffusion loss of gaseous medium 38.
The thermal conductivity of the gaseous medium 38 is independent of the pressure of the gas as long as the gas medium is in the continuum regime, or fluid regime, rather than the molecular regime. The transition from the free molecular regime to the continuum regime occurs where the Knudsen number is <<1. The Knudsen number is a dimensionless fluid parameter equal to the mean free path for collisions in the gas divided by the typical spatial dimension in the gas envelope, in this case the gap 62 between the outside of the arctube and the inside of the shroud. For Kn<0.01 for He cooling gas in a shroud with a 1.0 mm gap 62 spacing to the outside of the arctube, the He pressure must be >200 Torr. So, if about 1 atmosphere (1 bar, 760 Torr) is initially dosed into the shroud during lamp manufacture, then it is sufficient to retain as little as 30% of the initial He amount through the life of the lamp. The required retention of He throughout the life of the lamp can be much less than 30% with some moderate degradation in the cooling effect of the He, and/or if the gap between the shroud and the arctube is >1.0 mm. If there is considerable loss of He throughout the life of the lamp, and if some % of N2 has been added for the benefit of high-voltage breakdown insulation, then the amount of He which must be retained over the life of the lamp should be >about the initial % of N2 in order to retain a significant contribution from the He to the cooling effect on the arctube.
By the use of the cooling gas 38 surrounding the arctube, it is preferred that the T3 temperature inside the arctube be less than 1700, 1600, 1500 or 1475 or 1450 or 1425 or 1400 or 1375 or 1350, K in order to provide longer lamp life.
As an exemplary embodiment, the present invention can be practical in the device described in WO 2004/023517 A1, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. WO 2004/023517 A1 teaches 1.5 atm (at 25° C.) of N2 inside the shroud. According to the results of a 3-dimensional finite element thermal model, if this N2 is replaced by 1.5 atm (at 25° C.) of He, the top, center hot-spot temperature T3 inside a ceramic arctube similar to that describe in WO 2004/023517 A1 will be reduced by 240 K for the case of a quartz shroud with a 2 mm thick shroud wall, and an annular spacing between the inside of the shroud and the outside of the arctube of 0.5 mm. The reduction in arctube temperature due to the cooling effect of He vs. N2 will vary depending on the dimensions and temperatures of the arctube and the shroud, but the cooling effect will generally be in the range of about 100-350 K. The thermal advantages of He over N2 can be used for other improvements in the lamp performance, such as reducing the dimensions of the arctube and/or shroud. For example, with reference to WO 2004/023517 A1, if the dimensions of the arctube are kept the same (ID=1.2 mm, OD=2 mm) and the shroud ID=3 mm is retained, then the shroud OD may be made as small as 5.2 mm using He vs. 7 mm using N2 in order to achieve the same T3 temperature. There can be significant advantages in the optical performance of the lamp, or in the manufacturing processes of the lamp that are enabled by the smaller, thinner shroud. Significant reductions in dimensions would also accrue from reducing the ID and OD of the arctube 12 and tube 16. For example, a reduction in the T3 temperature of 240 K would allow for the OD of the arctube to be reduced from about 2.0 mm to about 1.5 mm, with commensurate reduction in the arctube ID. As the ID is made smaller, the arc diameter is reduced in the case of a wall-stabilized arc (i.e. arc gap>>ID) so that the arc luminance (brightness) typically scales in proportion to the arc diameter. Typically, the ID of the arctube may be reduced by about 20-30% by the substitution of N2 by a cooling gas such as He, thereby increasing the luminance by about 20-30%, which can provide a significant performance advantage for the light source in beam-forming applications such as automotive headlamps, or lamps for projectors, fiber optics, etc. Additionally, the reduced ID of the arctube enabled by the cooling effect on the arctube by the cooling gas results in smaller temperature differences between the top and bottom of the arctube since the convection of the high-pressure gas inside the arctube is greatly reduced approximately in proportion to the ID−3. So, for example a reduction in arctube ID of about 25% will result in a lower temperature difference by about 2×. Such a reduced temperature difference, together with the lower pressure-driven hoop stresses resulting from the smaller ID, can significantly reduce the stresses in the arctube envelope, providing a potential for longer lamp life. Additionally, the cooling effect on the arctube by the cooling gas can enable a shortening of the arctube and/or of the arc gap by similar amounts, also thereby increasing the luminance of the light source. The thermal advantages of the cooling gas 38, such as He, can also be combined with the cooling advantage that accrues from reducing the gap between the outside of the arctube and the inside of the shroud, and also by increasing the outside diameter of the shroud (or equivalently, increasing the wall thickness of the shroud). These other two advantages of the shroud design for the cooling of the arctube are comparable to the advantage offered by the cooling gas, as can be appreciated as follows. The thermal path for the heat dissipated at the arctube wall has 4 substantial elements, including the thermal conductance through the wall of arctube 12, the thermal conductance through the gas medium 38, the thermal conductance through the wall of shroud 14, and finally the heat transfer, typically by convection and radiation, to the outside ambient air. Analysis of the heat transfer equation in cylindrical geometry, including typical values for the thermal conductivities of the arctube 12, the gas medium 38, and the shroud 14, along with the coefficients for the heat transfer from the outside of the shroud 14 to the ambient, indicate that the dominant limitations to the overall heat transfer and resultant cooling of the inside of the arctube are due to the thermal resistance of the gas medium 38, and the heat transfer from the outside of the shroud to the outside ambient air, whereas the thermal conduction through the wall of the arctube 12 and through the wall of the shroud 14 do not affect the arctube temperatures as much as the other two thermal elements. The first limiting element, the thermal resistance through the gas medium 38 is approximately proportional to the thickness of the gap 62 between the outside of the arctube and the inside of the shroud, and inversely related to the thermal conductivity of the gas medium. Therefore, if the thermal conductivity of the gas medium can be increased to about 4 times the value of the typical N2 gas, by replacing it with He gas, then a comparable thermal advantage can be made by reducing the gap 62 from about 2 mm to about 0.5 mm for the dimensions typical of a discharge headlamp. In fact, the thermal model confirms that reductions in T3 of at least 100-200 C are obtained by reducing the gap 62 from about 2 mm to about 0.5 mm, enabling an even cooler and/or smaller arctube. It is usually difficult in lamp manufacture to reduce the gap 62 significantly below about 0.5 or 0.25 mm. In general, the thermal benefit of a small gap 62 will be significant if the gap is <the outside diameter of the arctube, more preferably <0.5 arctube OD, or more preferably <0.25 arctube OD, or most preferably <0.1 arctube OD. Furthermore, if the heat transfer from the outside of the shroud to the ambient air can be increased, the cooling effect on the arctube can be further increased, enabling an even cooler and/or a smaller arctube. The heat transfer, typically by convection and radiation, from the outside of the shroud to the ambient air is typically proportional to the outside surface area of the shroud, which is typically proportional to the outside diameter, OD, of the shroud if the geometry is cylindrical, or nearly cylindrical. So, for example increasing the OD of the shroud by about 20-50% or more can significantly reduce the temperature of the arctube, and/or enable a smaller arctube. Given that the ID of the shroud is determined by the OD of the arctube and the gap 62 between the outside of the arctube and the inside of the shroud, then increasing the outside surface area of the shroud requires either a thicker shroud wall, or a textured or convoluted outside surface on the shroud. For example, for the typical dimensions of a discharge headlamp with a shroud OD of about 5 to 10 mm, and a shroud wall thickness of typically 1 mm, then doubling the shroud wall thickness to 2 mm, will increase the shroud OD and increase the heat transfer from the outside surface of the shroud by about 40% to 20%. The thermal benefit of a thicker shroud continues to increase with increasing shroud wall thickness until it reaches a thickness referred to as the critical radius. For the dimensions of a typical discharge headlamp with a quartz or glass outer jacket, the critical radius is about 160 mm. Although it becomes exceedingly difficult to manufacture lamps with shrouds much thicker than about 1-3 mm, nonetheless, the thermal benefit to a cooler and/or smaller arctube will continue to improve if the quartz or glass shroud can be made much thicker, up to a limiting thickness of about 160 mm. In fact, the thermal benefit to the hottest spots in the arctube, which are generally above the arc, between the electrodes, can be obtained if the shroud wall is thick only along the section of the arctube which is adjacent to the arc gap, as in
Considering that the cooling effect of the shroud is greatly enhanced as the gap 62 is reduced and/or the shroud wall thickness is increased, then it is possible to tailor the temperature distribution in the arctube by varying the dimensions of the gap 62 and/or the shroud wall thickness along the extent of the arctube. In particular, it is desirable to decrease the temperature of the hottest spot of the arctube which is typically centrally above the arc in a horizontally burning arctube, while increasing the temperature of the coldest spot in the arctube where the liquid metal halide pool generates the desirably high vapor pressure of the light-producing gases in the arctube, which is typically located in the bottom corner of the inside of the arctube, below and/or behind the electrodes. So, it is generally desirable to decrease the arctube temperature in the regions near the center of the arc and above the arc, while increasing the arctube temperature in the regions below the arc and below and behind the electrodes. While these temperature differentials are detrimental to the performance of the lamp in that the cold spot temperature can be too low, and also detrimental to the strength of the arctube if the hot spot is too hot, the temperature gradients themselves also generate stresses in the arctube, which especially in ceramic arctubes, can cause early failure of the arctube due to cracking or leaking. The particularly concerning stresses in a horizontally burning arctube are driven by the azimuthal temperature gradients (i.e. from top to bottom, especially in the region at the center of the arc) and the axial temperature gradients (i.e. from center of the arc to ends of the legs, especially in the region near the electrodes). Increasing the performance of the arctube by raising the cold spot temperature relative to the hot spot, or increasing the strength of the arctube by lowering the hot spot temperature, or increasing the life of the lamp by reducing the stresses in the arctube all can be achieved either by reducing the ID of the arctube which is enabled by the cooling effect of the shroud design including the cooling gas 38 and the reduced gap 62 and the increased wall thickness of the shroud 14, or by tailoring the thickness of the gap 62 between the outside of the arctube and the inside of the shroud and/or tailoring the thickness of the shroud wall as a function of the axial and/or azimuthal location along the arctube. For example, to reduce the hot spot temperature, the shroud wall can be made thicker along the arc region of the arctube, as in
As shown in
In another example, the thickness of the shroud wall may be increased above the arctube relative to that below the arctube, as shown in
While the invention has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the invention without departing from the essential scope thereof. Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out this invention, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent App. No. 60/717,087 filed Sep. 14, 2005, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
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