Patent ID: 6448946
Filing Date: 2002-09-10
Classification: G09G

Abstract:
A method of operating an AC plasma flat-panel display comprising the steps of:(a) providing a hermetically sealed gas filled enclosure, the enclosure including a top transparent substrate having an array of paired top electrodes covered by an insulating film, microchannels formed in the top transparent substrate parallel to the electrodes, and an electron emissive surface; a bottom substrate in contact with the top substrate, the bottom substrate having a plurality of parallel micro-grooves arranged orthogonally to the top electrodes and forming gas filled cavities; a bottom electrode formed of metal and deposited within each micro-groove including bottom and side-walls; and a phosphor material deposited on and coincident with each bottom electrode thereby forming sub-cell pairs called sub-pixels at the projected intersections of top electrodes forming rows and microgrooves forming columns, the microgroove columns being connected by the microchannels formed on the top substrate; (b) applying a sustain step comprised of a first voltage to first electrodes of top electrode pairs and a reference voltage to all bottom electrodes, the difference of sufficient magnitude to cause an initiating discharge to sidewalls of bottom electrodes intersected at the Paschen minimum only for sub-cells which have charges stored under corresponding top electrodes, and (c) applying a second voltage, of opposite polarity to the first voltage, to the second electrodes paired with the first electrodes which creates lateral discharges between virtual electrodes, formed by the initiating discharges to sidewalls, between sub-cell pairs at pressure gap product values greater than the Paschen minimum, (d) maintaining the voltages until discharges extinguish thereby depositing charges under the top electrodes but of opposite polarity, (e) applying first terminating voltages to first top electrodes and second terminating voltages to second top electrodes as necessary to sweep residual charges in gas volume, and (f) reversing the polarities of first and second top electrodes and repeating the sequence continuously in conjunction with optional selective addressing steps comprising: (g) applying a selective write step comprised of applying a write voltage of common polarity to a preceding or co-incident sustaining voltage to a first electrode of one or more pairs of top electrodes and a selective write voltage to selected bottom electrodes, the difference of sufficient magnitude to cause a discharge to sidewalls of all bottom electrodes intersected at the Pachen minimum in conjunction with applying a second write voltage, of opposite polarity to the first, to the second electrode paired with the first electrode causing discharges to initiate and spread along the top substrate microchannels, and (h) maintaining the voltages until discharges extinguish thereby depositing and storing charges on dielectric coating under the top electrodes along the entire row; and (i) applying a selective erase step comprised of applying an erase voltage of opposite polarity to a preceding sustaining voltage to a first electrode of one pair of top electrodes and a column voltage to selected bottom electrodes, the resulting voltage of combined magnitude sufficient to cause a discharge to sidewalls of the selected bottom electrodes at the Paschen minimum but only at sub-cell sites which have charges stored under corresponding top electordes, and (j) maintaining the voltages until discharges extinguish thereby removing stored charges which prevent discharging at subsequent sustain steps.