Dielectric for gas discharge panel

Abstract

A high resolution gaseous discharge display and/or memory device comprises a panel array of bistable charge storage areas designated gaseous discharge cells or sites, each cell having an associated pair of coordinate orthogonal conductors defining the cell walls which, when appropriately energized, produce a confined gaseous discharge in the selected sites. The conductors are insulated from direct contact with the gas by a dielectric insulator, the dielectric insulator being composed of a layer of refractory material having high secondary emission characteristics such as magnesium oxide doped with gold to prevent degradation of the dielectric layer during operation, to increase the memory margin and extend the life of the gaseous discharge panel, and to control the secondary emission characteristics and provide stable operating voltages for the panel.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.