GB1481941A - Gas discharge display panel - Google Patents

Abstract

1481941 Gas discharge display panels BURROUGHS CORP 20 Jan 1976 [20 Feb 1975] 02092/76 Heading H1D In a gas discharge panel 10, e.g. of the "self scan" type including insulating base 20 and transparent face plate 80, sealed to form a gas-tight enclosure, parallel cathode electrodes 40 on the inner side of the base, e.g. screen printed, face on the inner side of face plate 80 intersecting anode film strip electrodes 90, 94 separated by barriers on an intermediate plate 70 extending down to divide the cathode strips 40 into elements 42, each comprising a pair of areas acting respectively as a narrow priming cathode and a wide display cathode (Fig. 2, not shown); priming cathode areas in the same transverse row are opposed by a narrow opaque priming anode strip 94 and display cathode areas in the same row are opposed by wider transparent display anode strip 90, the gas fill is, e.g. Xe or Ne with Hg at 400 torr total. In each cell the priming cathode space communicates with the display cathode space via central or lateral (Fig. 7, not shown) gaps in the dividing barrier 62 or round the edges of the cathode strip (Figs. 8 and 11, not shown). "Keep Alive" electrodes 43, 45 at one end provide a continuous supply of ions and a reset cathode 41 initiates the self-scan. All primary anodes are connected to a common supply, possibly via resistive means, and each display anodes strip is coupled to a data source possibly via resistive means (Fig. 6, not shown). Every third cathode strip 40 is connected to the same bus energized insequence from a clock source, causing the scanned column in which primary cathode glow discharges occur to progress across the panel. As each column is scanned, synchronized data signals to the display anode cause selected primed light cells to glow from their display cathode, shining through their transparent display modes.