Discharge efficiency in plasma displays

The dependence of the panel efficacy of an alternating current-surface-discharge plasma display on the input power is investigated. Test panels with a design resembling the one used in main stream commercial products are used. The input power is varied in two ways: namely by changing the dielectric layer capacitance (thickness) and by changing the sustain voltage. An interesting different behavior is found: for increasing capacitance the efficacy decreases markedly, whereas for increasing sustain voltage the efficacy increases slightly. The different behavior is attributed to changes in the ion heating losses. It is found that plasma saturation, which implies a fundamental trade-off between luminance and efficacy, is not significant at practical input power values. A high luminance and a high efficacy are concurrent for a plasma panel design with a low dielectric layer capacitance and a high sustain voltage. © 2000 American Institute of Physics.