Calculation of Ion Mobilities and their Effects on Gas Discharge of AC Plasma Display Cells

Abstract

We have found that ion mobilities in a gas mixture greatly affect discharge characteristics of a plasma display cell. Therefore, correct ion mobilities are required to obtain meaningful simulation results on plasma display cells. Since plasma display panels use microdischarges in the Xe mixed gas to generate vacuum ultraviolet light to excite phosphor for visible light emission, the condition of the discharge gas mixtures is one of the main factors that determine luminous efficacy. Thus, intensive studies on the discharge gas mixture are essential to optimize it and the accurate determination of ion mobilities in it is necessary. We have discussed how to determine necessary values of ion mobilities in various discharge gas mixtures including the three-species He–Ne–Xe mixture. Calculated ion mobilities and their effect on the discharge of an AC plasma display cell have also been presented and discussed. We have revealed that the enhanced ion mobilities in the gas mixture resulting from adding He gas to the conventional Ne–Xe mixture play an important role in increasing the luminous efficacy of a plasma display cell sustained in the He–Ne–Xe mixture by decreasing the cathode fall potential.

Improvement in Discharge Delay Time by Accumulating Positive Wall Charges on Cathode MgO Protective Layer Surface in Alternating-Current Plasma Display Panels

“…t f is usually considered to be mainly affected by the electric field applied across the discharge space and by the discharge gas species, since t f does not significantly depend on exoelectron emission when the discharge is triggered by one priming electron more than a few hundreds of s after the previous discharge, 8) where exoelectrons are priming sources of the discharge. Therefore, the correlations between t f and other factors, such as accumulated charges, 9) temperature, 10,11) electric field, 10,11) wall charge leakage, 10,11) and discharge gas composition, 12) have been intensively investigated. However, taking into account that exoelectron emission is affected by various parameters, such as temperature, electric field and gas species, and causes charge leakage, it is strongly suggested that exoelectron emission affects t f as well.…”