Sylvania Mini-Lynx 11W Compact Fluorescent
When the Sylvania Mini-Lynx was developed in 1989, it was hailed by the press as the world's smallest ever compact fluorescent lamp. Key to the miniaturisation was its tiny electronic ballast housed in a plastic base less than half the volume of its nearest competitor. The drastic reduction was achieved by another world first, in which a semiconductor integrated circuit was applied to drive its ballast and eliminate multiple electronic parts. Space was also saved by removing the magnetic components from the printed circuit boards, and packing those into the area between the two ballast halves. The X-Ray shadowgraphs illustrate the very complex construction, with almost no wasted space.

The new design was an instant hit with retail customers. Sylvania quickly earned a reputation for prodcing the most elegant and consumer-friendly CFL's that fitted much more easily into traditional luminaires. It contributed greatly to the acceptance of the new energy-saving technology vs its main contemporaries, the Osram Dulux EL and Philips PLC*E.

The complex design required a high degree of manual labour, and it was not economically viable to assemble at Sylvania's global CFL competence centre at Charlestown in England. As such only the discharge tube was made in the UK. The IC electronic ballast, developed at Sylvania's Tienen labs in Belgium, was attached to the lamp and assembled into the plastic base at a low cost site in Sri-Lanka. Lamps of this ultra-compact design were only produced for a few years, and became a few millimetres longer in 1994. They adopted an ingenious application of electrical contact springs which simplified assembly, such that the complete lamp could be manufactured in England without cost increase.
Manufacturer: GTE Sylvania
Lamp Power: 11 Watts
Lamp Voltage: 220-240 Volts
Lamp Current: 0.105 Amps Power Factor: 0.45
Cap Type: E27/27 Nickel plated brass
Bulb Type: T-12.5 T-4 in eighths/inch
Bulb Finish: Y2O3:Eu3+, CeMgAl11O19:Tb3+ Soda-lime glass
Electrodes: Triple Coil Tungsten Triple carbonate emitter
Atmosphere: Argon + Hg
Luminous Flux: 600 lm @ 100h
Luminous Efficacy: 54.5 lm/W @ 100h
Colour Temperature & CRI: CCT: 2700K CRI: Ra 85
Chromaticity Co-ordinates: CCx: 0.464 CCy: 0.411
Lifetime: 8000 hours
Warm-up & Re-strike Time: 1 minute Instant
Burning Position: Universal
Overall Length: 125 mm 5 inches
Base diameter: 45 mm 1¾ inches
Mass: 79 grams
Factory: Lamp: Charlestown, UK Assembly: Sri-Lanka
Date of Manufacture: Approx. 1990 Date Code: Not marked
Original Value: GB £12.75 (1992)
References: 1) Sylvania Catalogue, 1991 UK pp.36-37
2) Sylvania Pricelist, 1992 UK p.62
3) Sylvania Technical Manual CFL, 1991 Switzerland
4) Sylvania Brochure Mini-Lynx, 1990 Belgium
5) Sylvania Brochure Mini-Lynx, 1994 UK
6) Hanover Highlights, Lighting Equipment News, June 1990 p6