A glass tube of aluminosilicate glass, with high dielectric constant K∼6.0 and low dielectric loss tan δ∼8.0×10−4, was investigated for the external electrode fluorescent lamps (EEFLs) of a dielectric barrier discharge. Compared with conventional EEFLs made out of borosilicate glass tubes with K∼(4.9−5.3) and tan δ∼(2.3−2.4)×10−3, the efficiency of the aluminosilicate EEFL increases by 15%−25% even at high luminance above 20 000 cd/m2 and the pinhole stability of the aluminosilicate EEFL also improves remarkably. In a soda-lime glass EEFL with a high dielectric loss tan δ∼7.0×10−3, the luminance and pinhole stability deteriorate even with a high dielectric constant K∼7.2 at room temperature, because the value of tan δ escalates as the temperature on the external electrode increases due to the dielectric heat dissipation.

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The efficiency of EEFLs with the new glass tube of high dielectric constant K~6.6 and low dielectric loss tan δ, reaches 45 lm/W which is ~ 20 % higher than 38 lm/W in the conventional glasses of K ~ 5.5. And this new glass tube

The plasma propagation has been investigated by observing the optical signal along the tube of the EEFL for 32″ LCD backlight unit. The light starting from the electrode of high voltage moves toward the other side of electrode grounded electrically with the electron plasma propagation speed about 4×105 m/s.

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