Patent ID: 8222813

Claim:
A flat panel display comprising: a first substrate comprising; a plurality of electrically addressable pixels, each of said pixels includes a conductive pad coated with an insulator and having a phosphor on said insulator; a plurality of thin-film transistor (TFT) driver circuits each being electrically coupled to an associated one of said pixels; a passivating layer on said thin-film transistor driver circuits and at least partially around said pixels; a conductive frame on said passivating layer, said conductive frame at least partly coated with an insulating material, said insulating material being porous to allow current to pass therethrough; a plurality of cold cathode emitters located in the vicinity of said pixels; and means for exciting said conductive frame and addressing one of said pixels using said associated TFT driver circuit to cause said cold cathode emitters to emit electrons which strike a phosphor causing said phosphor to emit light; and a second substrate including a metal layer thereon, wherein said first substrate and said second substrate are sealed about a periphery to form an internal hollow therein, said hollow being filled with at least one of: an inert gas and a mixture of inert gases; and means for applying a voltage to the metal layer to ionize the one of the inert gas and the mixture of inert gases to generate a plasma, wherein said electrons emitted by said cold cathode emitters further interact with ions in said plasma causing the ions to be attracted to said conductive frame area covered by said insulating material to cause additional electrons to be emitted from said conductive frame area, said additional electrons when striking said phosphor increase the light emitted by said phosphor.