Planar fluorescent lamp with flat electrodes and method for fabricating

A method for fabricating a planar fluorescent lamp equipped with a pair of flat electrodes comprising the steps of:

• providing a lamp housing having a bottom panel and integrally formed side panels extending upwardly away from and along a peripheral edge of said bottom panel, said planar bottom panel having an inner surface of a corrugated structure formed linearly parallel to two of said opposing side panels, said side planar fluorescent lamp,
• providing a cover plate having planar top and bottom surfaces each having a surface area substantially the same as the planar surface area of said bottom panel,
• coating a fluorescent layer on a top surface of said planar bottom panel and said bottom surface of said cover plate,
• positioning a pair of flat electrodes each formed in an elongated rectangular shape in said lamp housing juxtaposed to one of two opposite side panels, and
• sealing engaging said bottom surface of the cover plate with said side panels on said lamp housing such that said bottom surface of the cover plate being spaced-apart from said corrugated inner surface of said bottom panel forming a substantially vacuum-tight cavity thereinbetween.

A planar fluorescent lamp equipped with flat electrodes for illuminating liquid crystal display panels comprising:

• a lamp housing having a bottom panel and integrally formed side panels extending upwardly away from and along a periphery of said bottom panel, said bottom panel having an inner surface of a corrugated structure formed linearly parallel to two of said opposing side panels, said side panels having a height of not more than 5 mm,
• a cover plate having parallel top and bottom surfaces and a surface area similar to a surface area on said bottom panel, said bottom surface of said cover plate being spaced-apart from said corrugated inner surface of said bottom panel sealingly engaging said side panels on said lamp housing forming a vacuum-tight cavity therein,
• a phosphor coating on said inner surface of said planar bottom panel and said bottom surface of said cover plate,
• a pair of flat electrodes each formed in an elongated rectangular shape and positioned in said cavity juxtaposed to one of two opposing side panels for forming a substantially uniform electric discharge field in said cavity, and
• a pair of getter strips each positioned between a flat electrode and an adjacent side panel for providing a mercury vapor in said cavity.