Patent ID: 7816850

Claim:
A display device, comprising: a plurality of gas discharge tubes sandwiched between a front support member and a rear support member, the plurality of gas discharge tubes comprising triads of three color light-emitting gas discharge tubes; a plurality of display electrodes formed on a surface of the front support member facing the gas discharge tubes to extend across the axial direction of the gas discharge tubes; and a plurality of signal electrodes formed on a surface of the rear support member facing the gas discharge tubes to extend along the longitudinal direction of said gas discharge tubes, the plurality of signal electrodes being divided into a number of groups, each group including an integer multiple of the three signal electrodes, wherein the signal electrodes in each group are spaced from one another by a first distance substantially equal to a width of each gas discharge tube, the gas discharge tubes corresponding to the signal electrodes in each group being substantially in contact with each other, the rear support member comprises a number of separated support sections, the number of separated support sections being equal to the number of the groups, each of the support sections has a number of the signal electrodes in each group formed thereon that is equal to a number of the gas discharge tubes corresponding to each group, and an irregular gap is provided between the gas discharge tube at an end of each group and the gas discharge tube at an adjacent end of an adjacent one of the groups.