1C: Flat Panel Displays

 

1C0102: Diagnostics of Dynamic Behaviors of Excited Atoms in Microplasmas for Plasma Display Panels Kunihide Tachibana, Department of Electronic Science and Engineering, Kyoto University, Yoshida, Sakyo, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan.

 

1C0304: Electrical Breakdown Properties of High-Pressure Discharge in the Plasma Display Panel Han Sup Uhm and Eun H. Choi* Department of Molecular Science and Technology, Ajou University, San 5 Wonchon-Dong, Paldal-Gu, Suwon 442-749, Korea.

 

1C05: Cell Geometry Designs for Efficient Plasma Display Panels G. Veronis and U.S. Inan, Space, Telecommunications, and Radioscience Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305.

 

1C06: Improvement of Luminous Efficiency and Radiation Transport in PDP S.W. Shin, S.S. Yang, H.C. Kim, H.J. Lee, and J.K. Lee, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 790-784, S. Korea.

 

1C07: Mechanism of High Efficiency Discharge in PDP Cell Under High Pressure Conditions W.J. Chung, T.J. Kim, H.S. Bae, and K.-W. Whang, Plasma Laboratory, School of Electrical Engineering, Seoul National University San 56-1, Shinrim-dong, Kwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742, KOREA.

 

1C08: Influence of Ne-Xe Gas Mixture Ratio on Vacuum Ultraviolet and Infrared Line in AC-PDPs J.C. Ahn, P.Y. Oh, Y. Jung, E.H. Choi, Charged Particle Beam and Plasma Laboratory, Department of Electrophysics PDP Research Center, Kwangwoon University, Seoul 139-701, Korea.

 

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1C0102:

Diagnostics of Dynamic Behaviors of Excited Atoms in Microplasmas

for Plasma Display Panels

 

Kunihide Tachibana

 

Department of Electronic Science and Engineering, Kyoto University, Yoshida, Sakyo, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan

 

Improvement of luminous efficiency from a current typical value of 1-2 m/W to 5 lm/W is the most crucial issue for PDPs to be of practical home use. Although variety of cell structures and operating conditions have been tested up to now, it is still difficult to get firm guiding principles towards the goal. Much effort to understand the basic physics of the microdischerge in a PDP cell has been done mostly by computer simulations, but the validity of the results should be checked by proper diagnostics.

 

We developed a microscopic laser-absorption method for the absolute measurement of excited Xe(1s4, 1s5) atoms, which lead to VUV emissions for the excitation of RGB phosphors, with a spatial and temporal resolution of 20 mm and 5 ns, respectively. For the measurement of higher lying excited Xe(2p) atoms and Ne(2p) atoms, the corresponding near IR and visible emissions were observed by a gated CCD camera equipped with appropriate optical band pass filters.

 

For the simultaneous front and side view observations, we constructed a special panel, which had a realistic AC-type cell structure and sizes. The essential point to realize this panel was the use of transparent glass prisms as barrier ribs. Those prisms were assembled with other rectangular glass spacers to fit into the supporting ceramic ribs print-formed on the front glass plate. The panel has a pair of transparent ITO sustain electrodes on the front glass plate and an address electrode on the back glass plate. A mixture of Xe and Ne was filled in the panel at a pressure of 500 Torr. Two different contents of Xe (5% and 10%) were tested.

 

At a normal operating condition with a pulse voltage of about 200 V, both the behaviors of Xe(1s) and Xe(2p) atoms showed a similar characteristic feature; there appeared several sharp density peaks on the temporal anode side and a broader peak at the cathode side. The decay of Xe(1s4) atoms was governed mostly by the effective lifetime of the imprisoned resonant radiation, while that of Xe(1s5) atoms was determined by the three-body collisions to form Xe2* excimers. With increase of the pulse voltage to 250 V, a different feature appeared; the distribution bowed to the counter address electrode side. This suggests that the accumulated charge on the address electrode in the preceding pulse influences the discharge to trigger a sort of self-erasing discharge at the tailing edge of the pulsed voltage.

From the measured density of Xe(1s4, 1s5) atoms, the VUV emission intensity was estimated. Those results are compared with simulations, and the dependence of the luminous efficiency on the operating parameters will be discussed.

 

1C0304:

Electrical Breakdown Properties of High-Pressure Discharge

in the Plasma Display Panel

 

Han Sup Uhm and Eun H. Choi*

 

Department of Molecular Science and Technology, Ajou University

San 5 Wonchon-Dong, Paldal-Gu, Suwon 442-749, Korea

 

One of the most important issues in the PDP study is the reduction of the electrical breakdown voltage, which is the key element in enhancing the electrical efficiency of PDP operation. The electrical efficiency enhancement in turn prolongs panel life. The plasma display panel is operated with high-pressure gas, for which the breakdown voltage reduction may be accomplished by mixing a small amount of xenon with neon gas. The UV light emitted from xenon discharge plasma is converted into fluorescent light, providing TV images. A recent theoretical calculation indicates that the breakdown voltage is significantly reduced for the mixed gas due to a collisional frequency decrease. It is easy to ionize xenon atoms with low ionization energy. The electrons can also easily get their kinetic energy in neon gas mixed with xenon atoms, thereby reducing their collisional cross-section and ionizing xenon atoms. However, previous literature indicates that the breakdown voltage can be reduced further by the Penning effects, which have been studied mostly in low-pressure discharge. We therefore investigate the influence of the Penning effects on the electrical discharge properties in a mixed gas in connection with applications to the plasma display panel, where the pressure is almost one atmosphere. A theoretical model of the breakdown voltage in a mixed gas is developed, based on the Townsend criteria. The breakdown temperature Tb and voltage Vb are obtained in terms of the gas mixture ratio. As an example, electrical breakdown properties in neon gas mixed with xenon are investigated. It is shown that the electron breakdown-temperature Tb decreases monotonically as the xenon mole fraction c increases. The Penning effects modify the electron temperature significantly, particularly in the range of a small mole fraction. A preliminary experiment using the plasma display panel is carried out to verify some of the theoretical models. The Paschen curves of the breakdown voltage are experimentally obtained in terms of the pressure parameter (pd) and the xenon mole fraction. It is shown that the breakdown voltage is reduced significantly at the xenon mole fraction of 0.015, which agrees remarkably well with experimental data.

 

*Address: Department of Electrophysics, Kwangwoon University, Seoul, Korea

 

 

1C05:

Cell Geometry Designs for Efficient Plasma Display Panels

 

G. Veronis and U.S. Inan

 

Space, Telecommunications, and Radioscience Laboratory,

Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305

 

Plasma display panels (PDPs) are one of the leading candidates in the competition for large-size, high-brightness flat panel displays, suitable for high definition television (HDTV) wall-mounted monitors. Recent progress of PDP technology development and manufacturing has been remarkable. One of the most critical issues in ongoing PDP research is the improvement of the luminous efficiency, which is still low compared to conventional cathode ray tube displays (CRTs). Another important problem is the relatively high operating voltages.

 

We use a two-dimensional self-consistent simulation model to study the effect of the geometric parameters on the operating voltages and the efficiency of a coplanar-electrode plasma display panel cell. For the standard coplanar-electrode geometry it is found that there is a trade-off between high efficiency and low operating voltages as the electrode gap, or other parameters of the upper dielectric are varied, while variation of the sustain electrode width has no significant effect on either the operating voltages or efficiency. We also investigate the performance of several non-standard cell geometry designs involving two-dimensional variations of the coplanar-electrode PDP cell. A PDP cell with modified shape of sustain electrodes is found to have ~20% larger luminous efficiency without substantial increase of the operating voltages. Similar performance improvement is achieved by designs with different shapes of the upper dielectric, or by those involving two different dielectric layers. The dependence of PDP performance on the design parameters of these structures is also investigated.

 

1C06:

Improvement of Luminous Efficiency and Radiation Transport in PDP

 

S.W. Shin, S.S. Yang, H.C. Kim, H.J. Lee , and J.K. Lee

 

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 790-784, S. Korea

 

Plasma display panel (PDP) has been the brightest prospective candidate for the next generation high-definition (HD) display device. However low luminous efficiency and high power consumption are still important research issues of present PDP. There are two essential factors to increase the luminous efficiency. One is to improve the discharge efficiency and the other is to increase the phosphor utilization. Low electric field induces high discharge efficiency and long path and downsweeeping discharge has not only high discharge efficiency but also luminous efficiency [1]. Using two- and three-dimensional fluid simulation codes (FL2P, FL3P), we have suggested several new PDP cell structures that have higher efficiency than conventional PDP cell. Varying electrodes and pulse shapes, arch-shaped long discharge path can be formed in the plasma region. Arch-shaped long discharge path reduces the power consumption and increases the discharge efficiency in cathode. Because the proximity between generated Xe* and phosphor layer is also improved, we have obtained high luminance and luminous efficiency. Furthermore, effective cutting of central region in large area sustain electrodes makes two discharge regions near the barrier ribs, on which phosphor layer is deposited. Using these kinds of new structures, we have achieved 80~100% improvement in luminous efficiency in simulation. For the accurate radiation trapping simulation of xenon (Xe) excited species in PDP cell, we have calculated full radiation transport using Holstein’s equation instead of effective decay time approximation. From the simulation with full radiation transport, there are differences in space distribution of Xe*(3P1) and photon flux compared with conventional calculation.

 

[1] C.H. Shon, J.K. Lee, S. Dastgeer, S.S. Yang, and S.W. Shin, “Striation Phenomenon of Plasma Display Panel(PDP) Cell and Its Application to Efficiency Improvement”, SID’01(2001)

 

 

1C07:

Mechanism of High Efficiency Discharge in PDP Cell

Under High Pressure Conditions

 

W.J. Chung, T.J. Kim, H.S. Bae, and K.-W. Whang

 

Plasma Laboratory, School of Electrical Engineering, Seoul National University

San56-1, Shinrim-dong, Kwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742, KOREA

 

Plasma display panel (PDP) is one of the promising flat panel display devices with the size lager than 40-inch diagonal. One of the main and urgent issues in PDP research is the improve-ment of the luminous efficiency. Because the PDP uses the micro-discharges in the Xe mixed gas to generate VUV to excite phosphor for visible light emission, the gas condition is one of the main factors which determine the luminous efficiency of PDP. Recent experimental studies reported that high efficiency could be obtained under the gas condition of high pressure (>400Torr) and high Xe concentration (>10%). Especially interest thing is that under those high-pressure condition, the efficiency increases as the sustain voltage increases unlike the low-pressure condition where the efficiency decreases as the sustain voltage increases. Using 2D fluid PDP cell simulation, we investigated the mechanism of different efficiency dependence on the sustain voltage under low and high-pressure gas condition.

 

The VUV generation efficiency is determined mainly by two partial efficiencies. The first is the electron heating efficiency by electric field, and the second is the Xe excitation efficiency by electron. We found that these two partial efficiencies have different dependencies on the sustain voltage. As the sustain voltage increases, the Xe excitation efficiency by electron decreases because more electron power is used for ionization than excitation. We found that under low-pressure, this mechanism is dominant, which results in that the total VUV efficiency decreases as the sustain voltage increases. On the other hand, we found that under high-pressure condition, the electron heating efficiency determines the VUV efficiency. The mechanism is as follows. At high pressure, the cathode sheath is formed locally and strongly due to low ion mobility. Thus, as the sustain voltage increases, the electric field intensity in the cathode sheath increases, which results in the more generation of Ne+ than Xe+. Because the Ne+ has much higher secondary electron emission coefficient than that of Xe+, much more secondary electrons are emitted from cathode surface, and these secondary electrons experience all the cathode sheath potential, which results in higher electron heating efficiency in the discharge volume. Thus, the total VUV efficiency increases as the sustain voltage increases. Consequently, it can be said that there exist two kinds of discharge mode from the viewpoint of efficiency dependence on the sustain voltage. Under the low ion mobility condition resulted from high pressure and high Xe concentration, the VUV generation efficiency is determined by electron heating efficiency.

 

 

1C08:

Influence of Ne-Xe Gas Mixture Ratio on

Vacuum Ultraviolet and Infrared Line in AC-PDPs

 

J.C. Ahn, P.Y. Oh, Y. Jung, E.H. Choi

 

Charged Particle Beam and Plasma Laboratory,

Department of Electrophysics / PDP Research Center, Kwangwoon University

Seoul 139-701, Korea

 

The surface discharge AC-PDPs (alternating current plasma display panels) utilizes the photoluminescence phenomena of phosphors excited by VUV(Vacuum Ultra Violet) rays from xenon in the Penning mixture gas. The luminous efficiency improvement is one of the most important parts to make PDP into leader of large flat panel display device. The present AC-PDPs showed very little change, for example, cells structure, pressure and mixing condition of rare gas, phosphor, and MgO, and driving scheme, with its panel luminance efficiency staying at 1.5 lm/W level in 40" class. In order to improve the discharge luminous efficiency for AC-PDP, the emission characteristics of VUV rays from xenon is important for color AC-PDPs. The influence of Ne-Xe gas-mixture ratio on resonance state Xe*(3p1) and exited state Xe* (3p2) has been investigated. At first, we observed xenon 823 and 828nm infrared light which relates to VUV 173nm and 147nm emission, respectively, and we measured the 147nm from Xe(3p1) resonance emission and the 173 nm from molecular dimer Xe2*(3p2) for Ne-Xe mixture gas using an vacuum monochromator. It is found that the intensity of VUV 147nm emission is proportional to that of the IR 828 nm emission, and the VUV 173nm emission is roughly proportional to that of the IR 823nm emission. It is noted that for high Xe gas mixture ratio greater than 7 % the increase of the luminous efficiency is found to be saturate. This saturation characteristic with increasing Xe gas mixture ratio associates with the plasma saturation. For increasing Xe gas mixture the ratio of molecular dimmer emission to resonance emission increases, due to the increasing emission probability for molecular dimmer formation in three-body collision. The electron temperature and plasma density have been experimentally measured from the center of sustaining electrode gap by a micro Langmuir probe and high-speed ICCD (intensified charged couple device)camera methods in AC-PDPs. The plasma density from the center of sustaining electrode gap is shown to be maximum value of 9×1011 cm-3, while the electron temperature is about 1 eV in this experiment.