Analysis of the Discharge Characteristics in an AC Plasma Display Panel Using Energy Fluid Model

In order to enhance the display characteristics of plasma display panel (PDP), it is essential to have a thorough understanding of the discharge characteristics. In this paper, we performed the discharge analysis of PDP plasma through the numerical simulation using the newly developed energy fluid (EF) model by incorporating the electron's energy conservation equation with the aim of understanding the discharge dynamics. There is a clear difference in the spatiotemporal distribution of electron temperature and Xe excited species obtained with the EF model compared with those of the previous simulation model which used the local field approximation (LFA). In particular, the experimentally observed striation phenomenon in the anode region could be seen, which could not be otherwise observed in the LFA model. Based on the difference in having the striation phenomena in the simulation results using two different models, we explained the striation phenomena occurring as a result of the ionization wave instability associated with the electron streaming in the anode region of the PDP cell.