Electric lamp and discharge devices – With gas or vapor – Three or more electrode discharge device
Reexamination Certificate
2003-03-17
2004-11-02
Patel, Vip (Department: 2879)
Electric lamp and discharge devices
With gas or vapor
Three or more electrode discharge device
C313S584000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06812640
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application is related to Japanese application No. 2002-087921 filed on Mar. 27, 2002, whose priority is claimed under 35 USC §119, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display panel in which light emitting regions are selected by address electrodes and display is performed by making use of gas discharge between a pair of sustain electrodes. In particular, it relates to a plasma display panel having the sustain electrodes and the address electrodes of improved structure.
2. Description of Related Art
A plasma display panel (PDP) to which light emission by electric discharge is applied has conventionally been used as a large and thin display device. The conventional PDP includes, as shown in
FIG. 9
, a front substrate
100
, a rear substrate
200
and mixture gas of neon/xenon or helium/xenon which is filled as discharge gas between the front substrate
100
and the rear substrate
200
. On an inner surface of a glass substrate
111
which serves as a base material of the front substrate
100
, a plurality of sustain electrode pairs
110
each including a first sustain electrode
114
and a second sustain electrode
113
for causing surface discharge for display are arranged parallel to each other. The first and second sustain electrodes
114
and
113
are covered with a dielectric layer
115
for AC driving and the surface of the dielectric layer
115
is covered with a protective layer
116
. The first and second sustain electrodes
114
and
113
each include transparent conductive films
114
b
and
113
b
and bus electrodes
113
a
and
114
a
of a metal film for ensuring the conductivity.
On an inner surface of a glass substrate
221
which serves as a base material of the rear substrate
200
, a plurality of address electrodes
222
for selecting a unit light emitting region in cooperation with the second sustain electrodes
113
are arranged to cross the sustain electrode pairs
110
arranged on the front substrate
100
. The address electrodes
222
are covered with a dielectric layer
223
and straight belt-shaped (stripe-shaped) ribs
224
for dividing discharge space are provided on the dielectric layer
223
such that each of which is positioned between two adjacent address electrodes
222
. The ribs
224
divide the discharge space into unit light emitting regions along a line direction (pixel arranging direction parallel to the sustain electrodes). In a plurality of concave portions formed of the ribs
224
and the dielectric layer
223
, which serve as the discharge spaces, fluorescent layers of R, G and B are arranged in a stripe pattern. The fluorescent layers
225
are excited by ultraviolet rays generated by surface discharge, thereby causing light emission. In this PDP, three adjacent unit light emitting regions (subpixels) comprise a single display pixel. Each of the unit light emitting regions comprises a display cell defined by the first and second sustain electrodes
114
and
113
and an address cell defined between the second sustain electrode
113
and the address electrode
222
.
With the above-described structure, display is performed as follows. First, a unit light emitting region is selected by causing address discharge in the address cell between the second sustain electrode
113
of the front substrate
100
and the address electrode
222
of the rear substrate
200
. Then, a sustain voltage is applied to the sustain electrode pair
110
to cause discharge only in the display cell of the selected unit light emitting region. Thereby, the fluorescent layers
225
are excited by the ultraviolet rays to emit light.
As another prior art PDP, there is a PDP of ALIS(Alternate lighting of Surfaces) type in which surface discharge for display is caused between adjacent sustain electrodes arranged at regular intervals to realize high resolution and increased pixel number.
The stripe-shaped ribs
225
, which are adopted as the mainstream of the panel structure, do not include ribs formed along the arranging direction of the sustain electrodes
113
and
114
. Accordingly, discharge interference is apt to occur along the arranging direction of the sustain electrodes
113
and
114
, i.e., along the stripe-shaped ribs
225
. Therefore, with a view of separating the discharge, width of a reverse slit RS (non-discharge gap) between adjacent sustain electrode pairs
100
where the discharge is not caused is expanded as compared with a slit S (discharge gap) between the paired sustain electrodes
114
and
113
where the discharge is caused. However, as the high resolution progresses and the pixel number increases, the width of the reverse slit RS is reduced and a sufficient distance for separating the discharge cannot be maintained. As shown in
FIG. 10
, when a sustain voltage is applied to the first sustain electrodes
114
to cause discharge A
1
and A
3
in the display cells of D
1
and D
3
, the discharge A
1
or A
3
extends to the display cell D
2
adjacent along the stripe-shaped rib
225
. That is, discharge interference occurs to cause false discharge A
2
(excessive discharge) in the display cell D
2
, which makes the light emitting operations unstable.
In the other prior art PDP, discharge occurs on both sides of each sustain electrode. Therefore, the interference is prevented by drive control. However, in the case where a pixel pitch along the column direction is reduced for higher resolution, the discharge interference as described above occurs in the column direction, which makes the operations unstable.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To solve the above-described problems, the present invention intends to provide a PDP which inhibits the discharge interference along the arranging direction of the sustain electrodes without increasing the distance between two adjacent sustain electrode pairs.
The present invention provides a plasma display panel comprising a first substrate and a second substrate opposed to each other, a plurality of sustain electrodes arranged parallel to each other on an inside surface of the first substrate, a plurality of ribs arranged orthogonally to the sustain electrodes on an inside surface of the second substrate, and elongated address electrodes each arranged between adjacent ribs, wherein adjacent sustain electrodes have a pair of protrusions oppositely projected in a direction approaching each other and one of the pairs of protrusions of two adjacent sustain electrode pairs is displaced from the other pair of protrusions along the sustain electrodes between the ribs.
These and other objects of the present application will become more readily apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
REFERENCES:
patent: 6172461 (2001-01-01), Ha
Fujitsu Hitachi Plasma Display Limited
Patel Vip
Staas & Halsey , LLP
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