Measurements and simulations of VUV emissions from plasma flat panel display pixel microdischarges

• Published in: IEEE transactions on plasma science Vol. 26; no. 5; pp. 1532 - 1542
• Main Authors: McGrath, R.T., Veerasingam, R., Hunter, J.A., Rockett, P.D., Campbell, R.B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01-10-1998; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Atomic measurements; Computational modeling; Computer displays; Computer simulation; Display and recording equipment, oscilloscopes, tv cameras, etc; Electric discharges; Emissions; Exact sciences and technology; Flat panel displays; Gases; General equipment and techniques; Instruments, apparatus, components and techniques common to several branches of physics and astronomy; Physics; Physics of gases, plasmas and electric discharges; Physics of plasmas and electric discharges; Plasma; Plasma devices; Plasma displays; Plasma measurements; Plasma simulation; Xenon; Plasma display panel; Emission line; Experimental study; Microstructure; Extreme ultraviolet radiation; Flat panel displays; Discharge; Pixel
• ISSN: 0093-3813; 1939-9375
• DOI: 10.1109/27.736057

This paper reports on measurements of the principal vacuum ultra-violet emission lines from micro discharges operating with helium/xenon gas mixture used in full color plasma driven flat panel display pixels. The principal emission lines observed are the 147 and 129 nm lines from atomic xenon transitions and the relatively broad emissions from xenon dimers centered near 173 nm. We report on the changing intensities of these lines with variation in xenon concentration in the pixel gas mixtures, which affect the overall luminous efficiency of the display. A one-dimensional computer model has been used to simulate the discharge evolution. The model tracks the populations of twelve different representative quantum energy levels of the helium and xenon atoms, as well as the production and decay of the xenon dimers. The atomic physics description is sufficiently detailed to allow prediction of the relative intensities of the dominant emission lines. We find that model predicted intensities for xenon atomic and dimer emission lines agree well with experimental measurements.