Characteristics and diagnostics of horizontal long-column plasma displays

The horizontal long-column plasma display was proposed in order to improve the luminous efficacy. The 7.5-inch test panels with 0.81-mm pixel pitch were fabricated and tested. For the proposed configuration, the gap (d = 350 mum) between the coplanar electrodes is greater than the height (1 = 130 mum) of barrier rib while the gap is smaller than the rib height in conventional cell geometries. During the sustain period, for the case of long-column displays, the discharge is initiated between one of the coplanar electrodes and the address electrode (negative glow region). Then, propagates to the other coplanar electrode (transient positive column region). Within the positive column region, the electric field is weaker and the discharge efficacy is higher than those in the negative glow region. When the address electrode is electrically isolated, the efficacy of a long-column with 8 % Xe is higher than that of conventional configurations with Ne-Xe mixtures from 4 % to 14 % Xe. Moreover, an auxiliaxy pulsed bias on address electrode contributes to the increase in the efficacy. The discharge efficacies were calculated for the conventional configuration and for the new configuration under the same gas conditions (8 % Xe-Ne & 500 Torr). According to the calculated results, the discharge efficacy of the conventional configuration was 14 % and that of the long-column configuration was 29 %..