US 5,570,104 AGranted

Discharge chamber and method of manufacturing the same

AssigneeSony Corporation

InventorMasatake Hayashi

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Abstract

A discharge chamber wherein the allowability for positional displacement of electrodes is increased to facilitate manufacture of the discharge chamber and a method of manufacturing the discharge chamber are disclosed. The discharge chamber has a flat panel structure wherein a first substrate and a second substrate are adhered to each other with a predetermined gap left therebetween. Striped anodes and cathodes are arranged alternately on the first substrate. Barrier ribs are interposed between the two substrates and arranged in a stripe pattern to partition the gap to form discharge channels. The anodes are arranged just below the barrier ribs and have a width dimension smaller than the width dimension of the barrier ribs. Meanwhile, each of the cathodes is arranged intermediately between each adjacent ones of the cathodes. Even if the barrier ribs suffer from relative positional displacement, the exposed surface area of the cathodes by which plasma discharge is dominated is kept fixed.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A discharge chamber, comprising:

first and second substrates having first and second facing surfaces respectively arranged substantially in parallel to each other to define a space which is filled with an ionizable gas;
a plurality of barrier ribs arranged in the space to define a plurality of plasma discharge channels;
a plurality of anodes arranged on said first substrate each of which is located underneath one of the barrier ribs, said barrier ribs extending from said anodes to said second substrate, each of said anodes having a width larger than the respective one barrier rib to provide an electrode exposed area parallel to said first facing surface of said first substrate and adjacent the respective one barrier rib;
and
a plurality of cathodes each of which is arranged between adjacent barrier ribs, said cathodes being entirely exposed across a width thereof to said plasma discharge channels, whereby a lateral shifting of one barrier rib from a respective supporting anode a distance toward a respective adjacent cathode during manufacture does not effect the total anode and cathode exposed width within a respective plasma discharge channel defined by said one barrier rib and an adjacent barrier rib.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 08/384,232Filed 6 Feb 1995 · continuation
Priority: JP 5-05966424 Feb 1993
Granted: 29 Oct 1996
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification7 codes

G02F 1/13334
Constructional arrangements; Manufacturing methods: plasma addressed liquid crystal cells [PALC]
G09G 3/3662
Using an active matrix: using plasma-addressed liquid crystal displays
H01J 17/48
Cold-cathode tubes: with more than one cathode or anode, e.g. sequence-discharge tube, counting tube, dekatron
H01J 2217/4025
Multiple switches: for addressing electro-optical devices, i.e. LCD's