Plasma PEL brightness quadrupled by transport charges

Major obstacles impeding the advancement of large-area color plasma displays are the limited brightness, speed, and operating efficiency. A chain discharge mechanism is described in which electrons that in normal operation are lost to recombination are instead transported by a transverse field between adjacent columns to trigger a chain of discharges. Brightness of the chain discharges (occurring within 2.2 mu s) measured on a 60-line/in. plasma panel is four times as large as that of current AC memory operation. The spreading of glow to neighboring cells, due to the strong discharge, prevents the use of this effect in current panel structures. The mechanism, however, opens up opportunities for novel device structures and excitation methods for much brighter large-area displays.<>