Low pressure RF discharges for lighting

Summary form only given. Features of low-pressure RF discharges which make them so attractive for fluorescent lighting yet limit their practical embodiment have been examined. Different kinds of low-pressure RF discharges suitable for lighting application, their governing mechanisms and properties, and scaling laws for basic discharge and plasma parameters have been considered. The issues of RF discharge ballasting, RF power loss in the matching circuits, and loss due to ion acceleration typically at the plasma boundaries of capacitively coupled RF discharges have been examined as well as issues of RF interference and the means for their suppression.