Patent ID: 6850010

Claim:
A microwave powered lamp comprising: a light reflective cavity; an electrodeless bulb contained in the light reflective cavity from which light is emitted when the electrodeless bulb is excited by microwaves; a magnetron for providing the microwaves for exciting the electrodeless bulb; a waveguide which couples the microwaves emitted by the magnetron to the light reflective cavity for exciting the electrodeless bulb; a housing which contains the magnetron and the waveguide; a detector disposed within the housing or the wave guide, which detects the microwaves which are not coupled to the bulb during operation of the magnetron and outputs a signal indicative of a level of received microwaves; and a magnetron control, coupled to the detector, which causes the magnetron to be turned off when a level of the signal indicates the level of received microwaves exceeds a threshold indicative of the bulb not being ignited.