Discharge tube for display device

A discharge tube for display comprising:

• a front memory element including a front memory electrode having a plurality of apertures arranged in an XY matrix form serving as discharge cells, the entire surface of said front memory electrode being covered with an insulating layer;
• a rear memory element formed of a conductive layer, the entire surface of which is covered with an insulating layer, said front memory element and said rear memory element being disposed in an opposing relation;
• a plurality of parallel striped first and second address electrodes being disposed respectively at predetermined intervals so that said first and second electrodes cross each other, said front memory element being disposed between said first and second address electrodes such that the respective crossing points of said address electrodes correspond to respective discharge cells;
• and
• a hermetically sealed tubular body containing a discharging gas and into which said plurality of second address electrodes are sealed such that they are disposed between said front and rear memory elements, wherein when a predetermined voltage is applied between selected ones of the first and second address electrodes, a discharge is caused to occur in said discharge cell located at the crossing point of said first and second address electrodes, and when a predetermined AC voltage is applied between said front and rear memory electrodes, said discharge is thereby maintained.

A discharge tube for display comprising:

• a front memory element including a front memory electrode formed of a transparent conductive layer, the entire surface of said front memory electrode being covered with a transparent insulating layer;
• a rear memory element including a rear memory electrode formed of a conductive layer, the entire surface of said rear memory electrode being covered with an insulating layer, said front memory element and said rear memory element being disposed in an opposing relation;
• a plurality of parallel striped first and second address electrodes disposed between said front and rear memory elements so that said first and second electrodes cross each other;
• an insulating barrier having a plurality of apertures serving as discharging cells corresponding to the respective crossing points of said first and second address electrodes disposed between said first and second electrodes;
• and
• a hermetically sealed tubular body containing a discharging gas and into which said memory elements, said address electrodes and said insulating barrier are sealed, wherein when a predetermined voltage is applied between selected ones of the first and second address electrodes, a discharge is caused to occur in said discharge cell located at the crossing point of said first and second address electrodes, and when a predetermined AC voltage is applied between said pair of memory electrodes, said discharge is maintained.

A discharge tube for display comprising:

• a rear memory element including a plurality of first and second memory electrodes arranged alternately with respect to each, the entire surface of each of said first and second memory electrodes being covered with an insulating layer;
• a plurality of parallel striped first and second address electrodes disposed on opposite sides of said rear memory element so as to cross each other;
• an insulating barrier having a plurality of apertures serving as discharge cells corresponding to respective crossing points of said first and second address electrodes disposed between said first and second memory electrodes;
• and
• a hermetically sealed body containing a discharging gas and into which said rear memory element, said address electrodes and said insulating barrier are sealed, wherein when a predetermined voltage is applied between selected ones of the first and second address electrodes, a discharge is caused to occur in the discharge cell located at the crossing point of said first and second address electrodes, and when a predetermined AC voltage is applied between said plurality of first and second of memory electrodes, said discharge is maintained.

A discharge tube for display comprising an assembly of first and second memory elements, each element being formed of a conductive layer having a plurality of apertures arranged in an XY matrix, the surfaces of said conductive layer being covered by an insulating layer, said first and second memory elements being positioned one over the other such that the apertures in one layer are in register with the aperture in the other layer to form a common matrix of discharge cells;

• and
• a plurality of first address electrode strips uniformly disposed on the outer surface of the first memory element in parallel spaced arrangement and a plurality of second address electrode strips uniformly disposed on the outer surface of the second memory element in parallel spaced arrangement, the first electrode strips extending transversely to the second electrode strips to form a plurality of crossing points corresponding to the discharge cells, said assembly being hermetically sealed in a tubular body in which a discharging gas is housed;
• means for applying to selected ones of said first address electrode strips and to selected ones of said second address electrode strips, respectively, a voltage to cause the gas discharge to occur in the discharge cell located at the crossing point of said selected address electrodes;
• and
• means for applying an AC voltage to the conductive layers of each of said memory electrodes to thereby maintain said gas discharge.