GB1479732A - Gas discharge display and/or memory devices - Google Patents

Abstract

1479732 Gas discharge display panels; multigap cold-cathode tubes OWENS-ILLINOIS Inc 21 June 1974 [22 June 1973] 27587/74 Heading H1D A gas discharge display and/or memory device comprises first and second conductors 19- 1a and 19-1b having surfaces lying in a common plane, the conductors being closely spaced and isolated from each other; independent respective electrical connections to said first and second conductors; a third conductor 20-1a juxtaposed and spaced from said first and second conductors and co-operating therewith to form first and second discharge sub-sites 18 between said third conductor and each of said first and second conductors respectively, the spacing of said first and second discharge sub-sites being such that a discharge in one of said sub-sites while said sub-sites are subjected to a sustaining voltage causes a discharge in the other subsite; an insulating dielectric layer on the face of at least one of said conductors; and a volume of ionizable gas confined between said conductors, with the dielectric layer bounding the volume of ionizable gas. In the arrangement shown each cell 21 comprises four sub-sites 18 conditions at any one of which influences conditions at the other three sub-sites. It is possible by applying suitable manipulating and sustaining pulses to perform logic and decoding operations inside the panel itself, thus reducing the amount of external circuitry required. Control by inversion logic by interchanging the sustaining voltages imposed on the opposed conductor arrays is also referred to. In one practical construction (Fig. 2, not shown) arrays of pairs of conductors are deposited on two support members and covered by dielectric layers bounding a gas-filled discharge space. In an alternative construction, Fig. 7, a first array of paired conductors 44 is formed on a support member 43 and covered by a dielectric layer 45 on which is formed a second array of paired conductors 49 separated by troughs 47 and covered by a dielectric layer 51 spaced from a glass plate 53 bounding the discharge space. The troughs 47 define the principal discharge region of each cell. In a further alternative embodiment (Figs. 9 and 10, not shown) the troughs 47 are replaced by a cavity at the centre of each cell formed by two crossed pairs of conductors.