Electric lamp or space discharge component or device manufacturi – Process – With assembly or disassembly
Reexamination Certificate
2002-09-20
2004-11-23
Patel, Ashok (Department: 2879)
Electric lamp or space discharge component or device manufacturi
Process
With assembly or disassembly
C445S025000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06821177
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a plasma display panel and a method of manufacturing the plasma display panel.
The present application claims priority from Japanese Application No. 2001-366448, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recent years, a surface-discharge-scheme alternating-current-type plasma display panel (hereinafter referred to as “PDP”) as an oversized and slim display for color screen has been received attention, which is becoming widely available.
FIG. 7
is a perspective view of the configuration of a prior art PDP with a separation between a front glass substrate
1
and a back glass substrate
4
for illustration.
In
FIG. 7
, on the back surface of the front glass substrate
1
, a plurality of row electrode pairs (X′, Y′) are regularly arranged and covered with a transparent dielectric layer
2
. In turn, a transparent protective layer
3
made of MgO is formed on the back surface of the dielectric layer
2
.
Each of the row electrodes X′ (or Y′) is constructed of a transparent electrode Xa′ (or Ya′) formed of a transparent conductive film of a larger width made of ITO or the like, and a bus electrodes Xb′ (or Yb′) formed of a metal film of a smaller width assisting the electrical conductivity of the corresponding transparent electrode. The row electrodes X′ and Y′ are arranged in alternate positions in the column direction such that protrusions Xa″ and Ya″ are formed on the mutually facing sides of adjacent row electrodes X′ and Y′ at regular intervals, and each protrusion Xa″ faces the corresponding protrusion Ya″ with a discharge gap g′ interposed therebetween.
On the surface of the back glass substrate
4
facing the front glass substrate
1
, a plurality of column electrodes D are regularly arranged and each extends in a direction at right angles to the row electrode pair (X′, Y′). The column electrodes D are protected by a column-electrode protective layer
5
.
Band-shaped partition walls
6
are formed on the column-electrode protective layer
5
and each extends in parallel with and between adjacent column electrodes D. Further, phosphor layers
7
having three primary colors are provided in order of a red color, green color and blue color in the column direction and each covers the side faces of adjacent partition walls
5
and the column electrode D.
The front glass substrate
1
and back glass substrate
4
designed as described above are situated opposite to and in parallel with each other to define a discharge space between them. The discharge space hermetically sealed between the front and back glass substrates
1
and
4
is filled with a discharge gas of a mixture of neon, xenon and the like.
The PDP includes discharge cells, defined in matrix form by the partition walls
6
, in the discharge space at intersections of the row electrode pair (X′, Y′) and the column electrode D. Discharge is caused selectively in the discharge cells to form an image according to a video signal.
The PDP is typically manufactured with the following process.
First, as illustrated in
FIG. 7
, the front glass substrate
1
having the row electrode pairs (X′, Y′), dielectric layer
2
, and protective layer
3
formed thereon is placed opposite the back glass substrate
4
having the column electrodes D, column-electrode protective layer
5
, partition walls
6
and phosphor layers
7
formed thereon. Then, sealing glass is provided to seal around the periphery of the front glass substrate
1
and the back glass substrate
4
for a hermetic seal of the space (discharge space) defined between the front and back glass substrates
1
and
4
.
Then, a vacuum is created in the sealed discharge space via a ventilation hole provided in either one of the glass substrates, and then a discharge gas is introduced through the ventilation hole.
As illustrated in FIG.
8
and
FIG. 9
, the ventilation hole
8
for introducing the discharge gas is formed in a portion of one of the glass substrates (the back glass substrate
4
in the prior art example) which face a non-light-emission area where an image is not generated. The ventilation hole
8
is opened toward a space formed by a glass wall
9
constituted by sealing glass sealing around the periphery of the front glass substrate land back glass substrate
4
, and a gas introduction rib
10
provided on the inner surface of the back glass substrate
4
to form a gas introduction path R between itself and the glass wall
9
.
The ventilation hole
8
is connected to a gas introduction tube
11
. The discharge gas is introduced from the gas introduction tube
11
via the ventilation hole
8
, then passes through the gas introduction path R provided between the glass wall
9
and the gas introduction rib
10
, to fill the discharge space defined between the front and back glass substrate
1
and
4
. After that, the gas introduction tube
11
is closed to hermetically seal the discharge space.
In the above manufacturing process for the PDP, during the introduction of the discharge gas, undesired contaminated gas such as moisture vapor or the like easily mixes with the discharge gas. Due to the mixing, the impurity is adhered to the inner face of the discharge space near the ventilation hole
8
to cause degradation in the characteristics of MgO forming the protective layer
3
. Therefore, there is a problem of unstable discharge properties in the above part of the discharge space where the characteristics of the MgO of the protective layer has been degraded.
Conventionally, various methods are adopted in order to remove the contaminated gas entering the inside of the discharge space during the feeding of the discharge gas as described above: for example, the gas introduction rib
10
provided on the back glass substrate
4
is used to form the gas introduction path R for introducing the discharge gas via the ventilation hole
8
into the discharge space in the display area of the PDP, and further an adsorbent layer, made of MgO or the like, for adsorption of the contaminated gas is provided on a face of the gas introduction rib
10
, or alternatively, an island-shaped adsorbent rib (not shown) for adsorption of the contaminated gas is provided inside the gas introduction path R.
However, even in the adoption of the methods for removing the contaminated gas as described above, there is a problem of impossibility of completely removing the contaminated gas and therefore unstability remaining of the discharge properties in the discharge space in the vicinity of an end of the gas introduction rib
10
forming the gas introduction path R.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made to solve the above problems associated with the method of manufacturing the plasma display panels in the prior art as described above.
It is therefore a first object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a plasma display panel which is capable of considerably approaching the perfect removal of contaminated gas entrained with a discharge gas introduced into a discharge space of the plasma display panel, to provide favorable discharge properties throughout the discharge space.
It is also a second object of the present invention to provide a plasma display panel which is capable of considerably approaching the perfect removal of contaminated gas entrained with a discharge gas introduced into a discharge space thereof and therefore of providing favorable discharge properties throughout the discharge space.
To attain the first object, according to a first feature of the present invention, a method of manufacturing a plasma display panel in which a first substrate provided on its inner surface with a plurality of row electrode pairs each extending in a row direction and arranged in a column direction to form display lines, a dielectric layer covering the row electrode
Arent & Fox PLLC
Patel Ashok
Pioneer Corporation
Santiago Mariceli
LandOfFree
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