Firing and Sustaining Discharge Characteristics in Alternate Current Micro-Discharge Cell with Three Electrodes

Three electrodes in alternate current (AC) micro-discharge cell, for example, the three electrodes of AC plasma display panel (AC-PDP), consist of two sustain electrodes and one address electrode. The two sustain electrodes have a coplanar-type structure and are crossed perpendicularly to the address electrode. When the distance between two sustain electrodes is shorter than that between the sustain and address electrodes, the electric field for accelerating the charged particles such as the electrons is mainly generated in the gap region between the two sustain electrodes. Thus, the firing and sustaining voltages can be easily determined based on the voltage applied on the sustain electrodes. However, as the distance of two sustain electrodes is getting wider, the electric field generated between the sustain and address electrodes contributes to the strengthening of the total electric field, thereby resulting in affecting the firing and sustaining conditions of the micro-discharge. Thus, the firing and sustaining conditions can not be easily determined by the voltage on the sustain electrodes when the distance between the two sustain electrodes is wider than that between the sustain and address electrodes. In this paper, the firing and sustaining characteristics in the AC micro-discharge cell with three electrodes are examined based on the variations in the distances among the three electrodes. In particular, the firing and sustaining voltages are measured as a parameter of the width of the discharge gap among the three electrodes. In addition, the difference between the firing and sustaining voltages is investigated as variations in the distances among the three electrodes. As a result, the firing and sustaining conditions are found to be varied with the discharge gap among the three electrodes. It is also observed that the luminous efficiency of the micro-discharge cell strongly depends on the variations in the distances among the three electrodes. It is found that when the distance between the two sustain electrodes is wider than that between the sustain and address electrodes, the address electrode plays a significant role in determining the firing and sustaining voltages between the two sustain electrodes.