Patent ID: 8172424

Claim:
A light fixture for providing general lighting in a region or area intended to be occupied by a person, the fixture comprising: a light transmissive structure forming a volume, the structure having a contoured outer surface, an optical aperture surface and a peripheral optical coupling surface between the contoured outer surface and the optical aperture surface, the peripheral optical coupling surface forming an obtuse angle with respect to the optical aperture surface; a reflector having a diffusely reflective interior surface extending over at least a substantial portion of the contoured outer surface of the light transmissive structure to form an optical cavity including the volume of the light transmissive structure, a portion of the aperture surface of the light transmissive structure forming an optical aperture of the cavity; a heat sink member having an inner peripheral portion of a size somewhat larger than the outer peripheral portion of the light transmissive structure and having an inner surface at an angle at least substantially corresponding to the angle formed by the peripheral optical coupling surface of the light transmissive structure; a flexible circuit board, the flexible circuit board comprising: (a) a mounting section mounted on the heat sink member, and (b) at least one flexible tab attached to and extending from the mounting section of the flexible circuit board, each flexible tab being bent around the heat sink member and positioned between the angled inner surface of the inner peripheral portion of the heat sink member and the angled peripheral optical coupling surface of the light transmissive structure; and one or more solid state light emitters, for producing light intensity sufficient for a general lighting application of the fixture, at least one solid state light emitter being mounted on a respective tab of the flexible circuit board and positioned by the respective tab between the respective tab and the angled peripheral optical coupling surface of the outer peripheral portion of the light transmissive structure, wherein the respective tab holds said at least one solid state light emitter against the peripheral optical coupling surface of the light transmissive structure for emission of light through the peripheral optical coupling surface into the volume formed by the light transmissive structure.