Patent ID: 8334644

Claim:
A lighting device for a lighting application, comprising: a solid state source, containing at least one semiconductor chip within at least one package, for producing electromagnetic energy of a first emission spectrum; an optical element outside the at least one package of the solid state source and separate from the at least one semiconductor chip, arranged to receive electromagnetic energy of the first emission spectrum from the solid state source; and at least three remote phosphors associated with the optical element and apart from the at least one semiconductor chip, each of the remote phosphors being of a type excited in response to electromagnetic energy of the first emission spectrum from the solid state source for re-emitting visible light of a different one of a plurality of second emission spectra, wherein: (a) a visible light output of the lighting device for the lighting application contains a combination of light of all of the second emission spectra from the phosphors, when the remote phosphors together are excited by electromagnetic energy of the first emission spectrum from the solid state source; (b) the visible light output of the lighting device produced when the remote phosphors are excited is at least substantially white and exhibits a color temperature corresponding to a rated color temperature for the lighting device; and (c) the visible light output of the lighting device produced when the remote phosphors are excited exhibits a radiation spectrum approximating a black body radiation spectrum for the rated color temperature for the device, over at least a predetermined portion of the visible light portion of the black body radiation spectrum for the rated color temperature.