Influence of surface contamination on the electrical breakdown between Ag electrodes in AC plasma display panels

In this study, the surface contamination and related electrical current were examined by TOF-SIMS and Micromanipulators in order to identify the main factors on the electrical short phenomenon between Ag electrodes in the 50-in. full HD AC-PDPs with a various contaminations. The experimental results reveals that such atoms as Na, K, and Cl were detected on both Ag electrode and glass surface as culprits causing sever surface contamination. It was also found that the more severely contaminated the samples were, the more increased the electrical current became. This result confirms that the electric breakdown on the Ag electrode is closely related with its surface contamination.