Electric lamp and discharge devices – With gas or vapor – Three or more electrode discharge device
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-08
2003-06-10
Patel, Nimeshkumar D. (Department: 2879)
Electric lamp and discharge devices
With gas or vapor
Three or more electrode discharge device
C313S482000, C313S292000, C445S025000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06577063
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display panel (PDP) and the method for making the same, and more particularly, to a PDP having two plates tightly fixed together and the method for making the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the continuing advances of the electronics industry, the consumer's demand for flat panel displays (FPD) has increased, with plasma display panels (PDP) having some of the greatest market potential of all FPDs. Typically, a front plate and a rear plate of a PDP are formed first, and the front plate is inverted for mounting onto the rear plate. The two plates are then sealed together to form closed discharge cells. The tightness of the sealing process can affect the yield of subsequent processes that remove gases from, or inject gases into, the PDP. Additionally, the sealing process may affect the isolation between each discharge cell. Hence, a method for tightly sealing the front plate and the rear plate is necessary.
Please refer to FIG.
1
.
FIG. 1
is a perspective view of a method for sealing a front plate
12
and a rear plate
14
of a PDP
10
according to the prior art. The prior art PDP
10
includes the front plate
12
, the rear plate
14
in parallel with the front plate
12
, and a plurality of barrier ribs
16
on a predetermined area of the rear plate
14
.
In the prior art method for sealing the two plates, a sealing layer
18
is formed and surrounds the barrier ribs
16
on the rear plate
14
, and a corresponding sealing layer
20
is also formed on the front plate
12
. The front plate
12
and the rear plate
14
are affixed, and the sealing layer
18
and the sealing layer
20
temporarily bond to each other. The front plate
12
and the rear plate
14
are then placed into an oven and heated to 450° C. (842° F.), the frit within the sealing layers
18
and
20
are melted. After cooling, the front plate
12
and the rear plate
14
are tightly fixed together.
The PDP
10
is frequently used for displays with a large area. As the scale of the PDP increases, relying only on the sealing layers
18
and
20
is not sufficient to ensure a tight seal between the front plate
12
and the rear plate
14
. This is especially true as it is not easy to align the sealing layers
18
and
20
when using the prior art method. Furthermore, the barrier ribs
16
are not all of the same height, which may allow some space between the front plate
12
and the top end of any barrier rib
16
that has a low height. This results in cross talk between two discharge cells, and reduces the isolation properties of the barrier ribs
16
. However, if the width of the barrier rib
16
is increased to prevent cross talk, the number of the discharge cells must necessarily decrease due to limited size of the plates
12
and
14
, preventing the construction of a high resolution PDP.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore a primary objective of the present invention to provide a PDP that has a front plate tightly fixed to the rear plate with a precise alignment so as to solve the above mentioned problems.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the PDP includes a rear plate, a plurality of barrier ribs on the rear plate, and a front plate in parallel with the rear plate. The front plate includes a transparent dielectric layer, a plurality of joint notches on the transparent dielectric layer, and a protective layer on the transparent dielectric layer that covers the joint notches. The position of each of the joint notches is aligned with the position of a corresponding barrier rib, and each joint notch has a filler that is used to fix the joint notch and the corresponding barrier rib. When the front plate is mounted onto the rear plate, the top end of each of the barrier ribs of the rear plate is pushed through the protective layer above the corresponding joint notch on the transparent dielectric layer and is embedded in the corresponding joint notch of the front plate. The filler in each of the joint notches fills the gap between the top end of the barrier rib embedded in the joint notch and the joint notch so that the front plate is tightly fixed to the rear plate.
It is an advantage of the present invention that each of the barrier ribs is embedded in a corresponding joint notch. the fillers are used to seal the two plates together tightly, greatly increasing the sealing strength of the present invention PDP, and ensuring that there are no gaps between the top ends of the barrier ribs and their joint notches. Furthermore, the front plate and the rear plate can be easily aligned.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5667418 (1997-09-01), Fahlen et al.
patent: 5736815 (1998-04-01), Amemiya
patent: 5746635 (1998-05-01), Spindt et al.
patent: 6342754 (2002-01-01), Kuroda et al.
patent: 6353287 (2002-03-01), Sasaki et al.
Hsu Kuo-Pin
Lin Chien-Ho
AU Optronics Corp.
Guharay Karabi
Hsu Winston
Patel Nimeshkumar D.
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