A new method of driving miniature fluorescent tubes for liquid crystal display backlighting, with diameters as small as 2 mm, has been devised with the objective of improving the luminance and luminous efficacies of such lamps. The driver voltage wave form consists of high frequency oscillations at the leading and trailing edges of conventional square-wave form voltage pulses of relatively low frequency. The wave form is produced simply by inserting coils between low frequency square-wave pulse generators and the lamp electrodes. A lamp driven in this way operates in a different discharge mode from the conventional glow discharge obtained in the absence of the coils. The twofold intensity increase of visible emission from the positive column region indicates that the vacuum ultraviolet emission increases, enhancing the excitation of the phosphor in the lamp. There is evidence that the luminous efficacy is also increased by a factor of 2 as a result of more efficient use of the input energy. The minimum voltage needed to maintain a discharge is reduced. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.