Electrical and Optical Characteristics of Evaporable-Glass-Dielectric AC Gas Display Panels

This paper presents the characteristics of a prototype gas display panel fabricated with electron-beam deposited dielectric films. It is shown that panels with a 6-µm-thick dielectric layer and a 0.2-µm-thick MgO layer exhibit short stabilization times (15 min), long life (20,000 h), small drift effects (<0.5 V), and adequate brightness (21 cd/m
²
). The devices have a large dynamic write margin (>10 V) over a wide pressure range. Dielectric glass layers as thin as 3.2 µm were found to be stable. A panel with a small H
2
O impurity concentration was used to show that the hydrated MgO surface caused charge leakage and loss of memory margin, while a panel with an air leak confirmed that the surface saturated before the effects of gas contamination were observed.