Microhollow electrode discharge flat panel displays

Summary form only given, as follows. Microhollow electrode discharges, discharges between thin metal foils with submillimeter gap and submillimeter holes in cathode and anode, show three distinct modes of operation; (a) at low currents the predischarge mode, a glow discharge between the outer faces of the hollow electrodes, (b) at higher current a phase with increased ionization due to "pendulum" electrons in the cathode hole, and (c) at even higher current an abnormal glow discharge between the edges of cathode and anode hole. A fourth discharge mode, the so-called partial discharge seems to occur at high gas pressure at pressure times hole diameter values exceeding 10 Torr cm. Experiments in a 0.2 mm diameter hollow electrode geometry with Xe and Ar at atmospheric pressure have shown that the discharges emit excimer radiation. Control of these discharges which have a sustaining voltage of several hundred volts allows their use in flat panel displays. A second mode of operation which allows us to form addressable flat panel displays is the predischarge mode. It could be shown that with a third electrode close to the cathode, but outside the anode-cathode gap, the intensity of the discharge could be linearly varied by varying the voltage at the third electrode in a range below 100 V. The predischarges have a resistive behavior (positive slope of current-voltage characteristics) which allows us to place them in parallel without individual ballast and without segmentation of anode and cathode. This has been demonstrated in a small device with nine addressable microhollow cathode discharges.