Patent ID: 7982407

Claim:
An illumination system, comprising a base, a stroboscopic flash tube having a set of electrodes and an electrically excited gas contained within a helical envelope, both ends of the helical envelope being mounted to the base, configured to emit a continuous series of broadband illumination pulses synchronized with a line current oscillation comprising heat, visible and ultraviolet rays, wherein the heat is sufficient to cause an uncooled stroboscopic flash tube to have unstable operation over a continuous extended period; and a conduit through said base configured to supply, from a fan, a sufficient flow of cooling gas to cool at least the ends of the helical envelope of said stroboscopic flash tube to ensure stable operation over the continuous extended period, wherein said base is configured to serve as a heat sink for at least one electrode for exciting said stroboscopic flash tube, and said conduit is in thermal conduction with said at least one electrode, to thereby convectively transfer heat through a wall of said conduit to the cooling gas therewithin.