Patent ID: 7973480

Claim:
A high-pressure discharge lamp comprising: an outer envelope in which a discharge vessel is arranged around a longitudinal axis, the discharge vessel enclosing, in a gas-tight manner, a discharge space provided with an ionizable filling, the discharge vessel having a first and a second mutually opposed neck-shaped portion through which a first and a second current supply conductor, respectively, extend to a pair of electrodes arranged in the discharge space, a lamp base of electrically insulating material supporting the discharge vessel by means of the first and second current supply conductors, the lamp base also supporting the outer envelope, the outer envelope enclosing the first and second current supply conductors, and the outer envelope being connected to the lamp base in a gas-tight manner, wherein a length of the outer envelope generally extends in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis except for a portion of the outer envelope in an area around the discharge vessel wherein the outer envelope is substantially spherical, wherein a ratio of a distance d e between the pair of electrodes to a height h dl of the high-pressure discharge lamp along the longitudinal axis complies with: 0.02 <d e /h dl <0.2.