Patent ID: 8169158

Claim:
A cold cathode tube lighting device, comprising: a plurality of discharge tubes connected in parallel and each including a pair of internal electrodes; ballast capacitors each integrally attached at least to a respective one of the plurality of discharge tubes; a power supply arranged to supply power to the plurality of discharge tubes; and voltage detection units connected to the plurality of discharge tubes to detect voltages between the pair of internal electrodes of the discharge tubes; wherein the voltage detection units are associated with the plurality of discharge tubes on a one-to-one basis by being connected to a pair of internal electrodes of a corresponding one of the plurality of discharge tubes, each of the voltage detection units is arranged to detect a voltage between the pair of internal electrodes of the corresponding one of the plurality of discharge tubes; power supply to the plurality of discharge tubes is controlled according to the voltages detected by the voltage detection units associated with the plurality of discharge tubes on the one-to-one basis; and the ballast capacitors each include a cylindrical internal electrode arranged directly on an outer surface of a glass tube defining one of the plurality of discharge tubes, a cylindrical dielectric layer arranged to cover the cylindrical internal electrode, and a cylindrical outer electrode arranged on the cylindrical dielectric layer.