While on one hand the world is up with arms to combat global warming, many industries, on the other, are coming up with better and energy-efficient solutions to those incandescent lights.
Yes, the University of Illinois researchers are coming up with panels of microcavity plasma lamps. These plasma lamps are not just energy-efficient by nature, but are also brighter than those traditional ones.
The panels are also thin and lightweight and could be used for residential and commercial lighting effectively. They can also be used in certain types of biomedical applications.
Gary Eden, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the U. of I said,
Built of aluminum foil, sapphire and small amounts of gas, the panels are less than 1 millimeter thick, and can hang on a wall like picture frames.
Though the micro-cavity plasma lamps, like the conventional fluorescent lights, are glow-discharges with atoms of a gas getting excited by electrons and radiate light, they produce the plasma in microscopic pockets and importantly, require no ballast, reflector or heavy metal housing – thus, leading to lighter, brighter and more efficient lighting compared to the incandescent counterparts.