Patent ID: 8272766

Claim:
A lamp, comprising: solid state light emitters; a bulb; a thermal handling system, comprising: a heat sink; a thermal core of a thermally conductive material, positioned in the interior of the bulb supporting the solid state light emitters; and a heat pipe coupled to the thermal core and the heat sink for supporting the thermal core, with the solid state emitters within the interior of the bulb, and for transferring heat generated by the solid state light emitters from the thermal core to the heat sink, wherein: the heat pipe includes a first section extending along the longitudinal axis of the lamp into the interior of the bulb coupled to the thermal core, and a spiral-shaped second section connected to the first section and forming a spiral in heat communicative contact with the heat sink, at least one of the solid state light emitters is supported on an end of the thermal core in such an orientation so that a principal direction of emission of light from the at least one solid state light emitter is substantially the same as or parallel with a longitudinal axis of the lamp, and a plurality of the solid state light emitters are supported on one or more lateral surfaces of the thermal core in orientations so that principal directions of emission of light from the plurality of the solid state light emitters are radially outward from the thermal core in a plurality of different radial directions; a lighting industry standard lamp base for providing electricity from a lamp socket; circuitry connected to receive electricity from the lamp base, for driving the solid state emitters to emit light; a circuit board attached to the thermal core for driving the solid state light emitters, wherein: the circuit board extends vertically upward from the lamp base in an interior space within the heat sink, and the spiral shaped second section of the heat pipe coils around a portion of the circuit board.