Three-dimensional modeling of a surface type alternating current plasma display panel cell: the effect of cell geometry on the discharge characteristics

Three-dimensional fluid code was used to investigate the effects of discharge cell's geometrical parameters on the characteristics of the addressing and the sustaining discharges. The main parameters investigated in this study are the cell pitch, the address electrode width, and the barrier rib height. The investigated discharge characteristics are the sustain voltage range, the luminance and efficiency, and the minimum applied voltage needed for the successful addressing. In this study, it was found that a larger cell pitch or a higher barrier rib can lower the sustain voltage range and a wider address electrode can lower the addressing voltage. Also, we obtained that the luminance and efficiency dependence on the sustain voltage for various values of each parameter. Especially for the analysis of the barrier rib height effect, we developed a ray-optics code where the luminance and efficiency can be calculated in terms of the visible light. From this analysis, we found that although cells with a higher barrier rib generate more VUV photons, there exists an optimal barrier rib height for a given cell pitch that gives the highest visible luminance and efficiency because of the shadow effect by the barrier ribs.