Electric lamp and discharge devices – With luminescent solid or liquid material – With gaseous discharge medium
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-02
2003-04-29
Patel, Nimeshkumar D. (Department: 2879)
Electric lamp and discharge devices
With luminescent solid or liquid material
With gaseous discharge medium
C313S583000, C313S582000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06555956
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display panel, and more particularly, to a method for forming an electrode in a plasma display panel and a structure thereof.
2. Background of the Related Art
Generally, a plasma display panel of three-electrode area discharge type is formed in such a manner that an upper substrate
10
and a lower substrate are opposite to each other so as to be adhered to each other, as shown in
FIG. 1
a
.
FIG. 1
b
shows a sectional structure of the plasma display panel of
FIG. 1
a
, in which the lower substrate
20
is rotated by 90°.
The upper substrate
10
includes a sustain electrode, a dielectric layer
11
deposited on the sustain electrode, and a passivation layer
12
deposited on the dielectric layer
11
. The lower substrate
20
includes an address electrode
22
, an isolation wall
23
formed between the respective address electrodes
22
, a lower dielectric layer
21
deposited on the address electrode
22
, and a phosphor
24
formed on the lower dielectric layer
21
. An inert gas is introduced into a space between the upper substrate
10
and the lower substrate
20
, and such a space serves as a discharge area.
In order to increase light transmittivity of a discharge cell, as shown in
FIGS. 2
a
and
2
b
, the sustain electrode includes a transparent electrode
16
and a metal electrode
17
.
FIG. 2
a
is a plane view of the sustain electrode, and
FIG. 2
b
is a sectional view of the sustain electrode. A discharge voltage from a driving integrated circuit (IC) which is mounted outside is applied to the metal electrode
17
. The discharge voltage applied to the metal electrode
17
is transmitted to the transparent electrode
16
. Thus, discharge occurs between adjacent transparent electrodes
16
.
The sustain electrode has a width of about 300 &mgr;m. The transparent electrode
16
is made of indium oxide or tin oxide, and the metal electrode
17
is made of a three-layered thin film of Cr—Cu—Cr. The metal electrode has a line width in the range of one third of the transparent electrode. The transparent electrode
16
has high resistance and is opaque, so that high transmittivity and low resistance can be maintained at a certain level.
The sustain electrode consisting of the transparent electrode
16
and the metal electrode
17
has a sectional structure that the metal electrode
17
is formed on the transparent electrode
16
as shown in FIG.
3
.
A method for forming the sustain electrode shown in
FIG. 3
will be described with reference to
FIGS. 4
a
and
4
b.
As shown in
FIG. 4
a
, the transparent electrode
16
is formed on the transparent substrate
10
. The transparent electrode
16
has excellent adhesive property to glass while the metal electrode
17
has poor adhesive property to glass. Therefore, in a related art method for fabricating a plasma display panel, the transparent electrode
16
is deposited on glass.
Thereafter, as shown in
FIG. 4
b
, Cr, Cu and Cr are deposited on the transparent electrode
16
and then patterned to form the metal electrode
17
. The three-layered metal electrode
17
is formed by sputtering process under the vacuum. Cu has low resistance but is not likely to be deposited on the transparent electrode. On the other hand, Cr is likely to be deposited on the transparent electrode. In this respect, Cr is deposited on the transparent electrode and then Cu is deposited on Cr. Also, since Cu is easily oxidized if it is exposed outside, a separate passivation layer is required. For passivation of Cu, Cr is again deposited on Cu.
If the dielectric layer
11
and the passivation layer
12
are deposited on the transparent electrode
16
and the three-layered metal electrode, the sustain electrode is completed on the upper substrate
10
of the plasma display panel as shown in FIG.
3
.
The related art sustain electrode has several problems.
Since the related art sustain electrode is formed by vacuum process such as sputtering, fabrication cost is high and the process steps become complicated. Also, bubbles occur in the dielectric layer
11
by reaction with the metal electrode
17
(particularly, Cu), thereby destroying insulating state and causing unstable operation of the plasma display panel. Moreover, in view of the fact that the three-layered metal electrode
17
of Cr—Cu—Cr is formed on the transparent electrode
16
, if Cu is thickly formed to lower resistance, step coverage is deteriorated.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a method for forming an electrode in a plasma display panel and a structure thereof that substantially obviate one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for forming an electrode in a plasma display panel and a structure thereof, which improve adhesive property of a metal electrode by forming a metal oxide layer on a glass substrate and chemical plating the metal electrode on the metal oxide layer, and reduce the fabrication cost.
Other object of the present invention is to provide a method for forming an electrode in a plasma display panel and a structure thereof, which simplify fabrication steps of a metal electrode and a transparent electrode and prevent bubbles from being generated due to reaction between the metal electrode and a dielectric layer, so as to form a plasma display panel of which operation is stable.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, a method for a sustain electrode of a plasma display panel according to the present invention includes the steps of forming a metal oxide layer on a transparent substrate in a predetermined pattern, etching a surface of the metal oxide layer to form an uneven portion, and chemical plating a surface of the uneven portion to form a metal electrode.
In another aspect, a sustain electrode of a plasma display panel according to the present invention includes a metal oxide layer formed on a transparent substrate, a metal electrode formed on the metal oxide layer in the same pattern, and a transparent electrode formed on the transparent substrate to be deposited on the metal electrode.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
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Fleshner & Kim LLP
Guharay Karabi
LG Electronics Inc.
Patel Nimeshkumar D.
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