Patent ID: 8702271

Claim:
A solid state lighting system for variable color lighting, comprising: a plurality of independently controllable sources, each of the sources comprising one or more solid state devices for emitting electromagnetic energy in a predetermined spectrum, each solid state source comprising a semiconductor chip and an enclosure about the semiconductor chip; a plurality of optical elements positioned outside the enclosures of the solid state sources, each of the optical elements arranged to receive electromagnetic energy from at least a respective one of the solid state sources coupled thereto; a plurality of different remotely deployed phosphors, a different one of the phosphors being disposed in each of the optical elements for excitation by electromagnetic energy from a respective one of the sources but remote from semiconductors of the solid state devices, each of the phosphors having an absorption spectrum that includes the predetermined spectrum of the electromagnetic energy from the sources, each of the phosphors emitting a different respective color of visible light that is at least substantially pure, wherein: the optical elements are arranged so that each phosphor in a respective one of the optical elements receives little or no excitation due to electromagnetic energy from any of the sources coupled to a different one of the optical elements, and when the sources are on, a visible light output of the lighting system includes a combination of color lights from the different phosphors, from the plurality of optical elements; a controller coupled to independently control the solid state sources to enable adjustment of respective intensities of the electromagnetic energy of the predetermined spectrum emitted by the solid state sources to adjust relative levels of excitations of the different phosphors to control color of the visible light output of the lighting system.