JP3563497B2 - Gas discharge type display panel and image display device using the same - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a gas discharge type display panel for emitting and displaying characters, figures and the like using gas discharge, and an image display device using the gas discharge type display panel.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In general, a gas discharge type display panel forms electrodes and partitions on one surface of a front substrate and a rear substrate made of a glass material by an EB (electron beam) vapor deposition method or a thick film printing method, with the surfaces facing inward. the peripheral portions of the substrate by the low melting point glass frit is a sealing material as an adhesive region in which the two substrates were sealed. Then, a predetermined gas is sealed in a discharge space between the two substrates. Extraction lead electrodes provided for connecting each electrode provided on the substrate to an external driving circuit are formed to protrude by a predetermined length from the upper, lower, left and right end surfaces of the gas discharge type display panel.
Also, in a conventional gas discharge type display panel, on a rear substrate which cannot be seen from the display surface, unnecessary gas in the gas discharge type display panel is exhausted, and gas holes used for sealing gas for discharge are provided. (Exhaust holes) were formed. This exhaust hole is provided in an invalid display area that is a peripheral portion outside an area effective for image display (that is, an effective display area) in the gas discharge type display panel and extends to the bonding area. The exhaust hole has been formed by a hole drilling using a commonly used glass drill for glass processing, a hole drilling by a sand blast method of blowing silica beads, or the like. In conventional drilling, for example, in order to drill a back substrate having a plate thickness of about 1 mm, a glass drill having a diameter substantially equal to the plate thickness is necessary from the viewpoint of the strength of the drill itself. Therefore, the minimum diameter of the exhaust hole is limited to 1.0 mmφ, and it is very difficult to form a smaller hole .
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
As described above, in the conventional gas discharge display panel, an invalid display area for forming an exhaust hole is required in a peripheral portion outside the effective display area. Further, outside the effective display area, an adhesive area and an invalid display area for disposing the lead electrode are required. Therefore, considerable ineffective display region in the conventional gas discharge display panel (e.g., surrounding the panel, the area width of about about 10 to 20 mm) has, as a result, occupied by one unit of the gas discharge display panel all There is a problem that the ratio of the effective display area to the area is small.
In addition, when forming a single screen by arranging a large number of conventional gas discharge type display panels in the vertical and horizontal directions, that is, when forming a so-called multi-type image display device, adjacent gas discharge type display panels are used. Since the invalid display areas are adjacent to each other, the joint between the panels is conspicuous in the entire image, and there is a problem that a grid-like dark portion appears clearly.
[0004]
The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a gas discharge type display panel in which the ratio of the effective display area to the total area occupied by one unit of the gas discharge type display panel is larger than in the past. It is another object of the present invention to obtain a large screen in which joints between panels are less noticeable even when a multi-type image display device is configured by using a large number of gas discharge display panels.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The gas discharge type display panel of the present invention is provided on one surface of each of the front glass substrate and the rear glass substrate opposed to each other via the discharge space and the periphery thereof is sealed by frit, and the front glass substrate and the rear glass substrate. Electrodes connected to the electrodes, lead electrodes formed on respective end surfaces of the front glass substrate and the rear glass substrate, and a plurality of discharges provided between the front glass substrate and the rear glass substrate. And the entirety of the inner side of the frit is defined as an effective display area, and the rear glass substrate is provided with an exhaust hole in the effective display area and at a boundary between adjacent discharge cells . With this configuration, the invalid display area of the screen becomes very small.
[0006]
The exhaust hole is preferably a first hole in which the diameter of a hole opened on one surface facing the discharge space is smaller than a predetermined pixel pitch, and the depth of the hole is close to the diameter of the hole, open to the other surface, and a second hole having a diameter substantially greater than the diameter of said first bore configured to be in a shape communicating with. Such a shape of the exhaust hole is obtained, for example, by cutting both sides of the glass substrate with different diameter drills, and realizes an extremely small hole diameter.
Further, when the image display device is configured by arranging the gas discharge type display panels vertically and horizontally in multiple stages and rows, as described above, since the invalid display area is small, a large screen with no noticeable discontinuity can be configured as a whole.
[0007]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, an embodiment of a gas discharge type display panel according to the present invention will be described.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an AC type gas discharge type color display panel (hereinafter simply referred to as a gas discharge type display panel). As shown in the figure, the gas discharge type display panel is configured by sealing a front glass substrate 1 and a rear glass substrate 9 with a frit 21 made of a low softening point glass material .
FIG. 2 is a partial front view showing the internal configuration of the gas discharge type display panel of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line III-III of FIG.
2, comb-shaped comb-like plurality of transparent sustain electrode 3 provided a plurality of transparent scanning electrodes 2 and similarly provided on the lower surface of the front glass substrate 1, the comb facing each other The teeth are arranged to mesh. The scan electrode 2 and the sustain electrode 3 are provided with a scan electrode bus bar 4 and a sustain electrode bus bar 5 in a portion corresponding to a common portion at the base supporting the respective comb-shaped portions.
[0008]
In FIG. 3, the scan electrode 2 and the sustain electrode 3 are all covered with a dielectric layer 6. Then, a discharge protection film 7 is formed on the entire surface of the dielectric layer 6. Further, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the gas discharge type display panel has a plurality of discharge cells 10 (FIG. 3) separated by partition walls 11 between the front glass substrate 1 and the back glass substrate 9. ing. The partition walls 11 are provided on the rear glass substrate 9 in a stripe shape, and face each other with the discharge space 8 interposed therebetween. A predetermined phosphor layer 12 is provided in a stripe shape between the adjacent partition walls 11, and an address electrode 13 is provided in a lower layer portion of each of the predetermined phosphor layers. In order to perform color display, the discharge cell 10 is constituted by, for example, three discharge cells 10a, 10b, and 10c (FIG. 2) as one pixel. A phosphor layer 12 that emits red, green, and blue light is provided on each of them.
In the discharge space 8, for example, a mixed gas of at least one of helium, neon, and argon and xenon is sealed as a discharge gas. In addition, an exhaust hole 14 is provided at a boundary between the discharge cell 10b and the discharge cell 10bb adjacent in the downward direction in FIG. Exhaust holes 14 are used to exhaust and fill a gas for discharge.
[0009]
Next, a method for manufacturing the gas discharge display panel will be described.
FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the structure of the gas discharge type display panel shown in FIGS. In the effective display area of the flat gas discharge display panel used as one embodiment of the present invention, the picture element pitch of the red, green and blue vertical stripes ( that is, the discharge cell pitch in the horizontal direction) is 1.0 mm. , the pixel pitch (i.e. the longitudinal direction of the discharge cell pitch) is 3.0 mm.
In FIG. 4, for the front glass substrate 1 and the rear glass substrate 9, a soda lime glass plate having a thickness of 1.1 mm, which is a general-purpose cut out to the same size, is used. The front glass substrate 1 is provided with a scanning electrode 2 and a sustaining electrode 3 made of a transparent material such as ITO formed by a vapor deposition method or a thick film printing method. In addition, a scan electrode bus 4 and a sustain electrode bus 5 each having a width of about 0.15 mm and made of a conductive material such as silver and copper are formed at intervals of 3 mm.
[0010]
Scan electrode bus 4 and sustain electrode bus 5 are each extended to opposite end surfaces of front glass substrate 1 using a conductive material. This conductive material is provided by a thick film printing method or a vapor deposition method.
Further, a side surface lead electrode 15 a is provided on the side surface of the front glass substrate 1, and the lead electrode 15 is provided on the opposite surface, that is, on the front surface side of the front glass substrate 1 by using a conductive material. The lead electrode 15 is formed on the end face of the front glass substrate by using a transfer printing method or an end face printing method . In particular, a sealing margin that does not impair the effective display area 51 (FIG. 1) as a screen (that is, a sealing margin ). (A part to be left to stop (also referred to as sealing)) and is formed in a part having a width of 1 mm . In other words, the lead electrode 15 is provided in the invalid display area 52 (FIG. 1). Then, the lead electrode 15 is connected to a drive circuit (not shown). FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the side surface lead electrode 15a and the lead electrode 15, and corresponds to an enlarged view of a portion V in FIG.
Sustain electrode 3 also through the side lead electrode 16a (FIG. 1) in the same manner provided a lead electrode 16 (FIG. 1), is connected to the drive circuit.
Thus, as shown in FIG. 1, the lead electrodes 15 and 16 are provided in the invalid display area 52 of the gas discharge type discharge panel.
[0011]
Next, as shown in FIG. 3, the entire surface of the scanning electrode 2 and sustain electrode 3, the thickness of 30~50μm dielectric by discharging the charge storage insulating glass such as lead borosilicate glass or bismuth lead borosilicate glass The layer 6 is formed . Then, MgO, BaO, CaO, using an alkaline earth-based oxides such as SrO, an evaporation method, a printing method, or by a method such as dipping method, discharge protection film having a thickness of 0.4～0.7Myuemu 7 To form Thus, the processing on the front glass substrate 1 side is completed.
[0012]
Next, assembly on the rear glass substrate 9 side will be described. In FIG. 4, first, a plurality of address electrodes 13 are formed on the rear glass substrate 9 at a pitch of 1 mm by a thick film printing method . Each address electrode 13 extends to the end surface of the rear glass substrate 9, and a side lead electrode 19 a is provided on the end surface by a transfer printing method or an end surface printing method. 19 are provided. Then, this lead electrode 19 is connected to a drive circuit (not shown). FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a portion of the above-described side surface lead electrode 19a and the lead electrode 19, and corresponds to an enlarged view of a VI portion in FIG.
Next, in order to partition the discharge cells 10 (FIG. 3) in the horizontal direction (the left-right direction in FIG. 4), a plurality of stripe-shaped partitions 11 made of partition glass such as zinc-based glass are provided. The partition walls 11 are provided at a width of 150 μm, a height of 200 μm, and a pitch of 1 mm. Similarly, frit stop outer frames 22 made of glass for partition walls such as zinc-based glass are provided on four sides to form a square frame. The frit stop outer frame 22 prevents a frit 21 described later from flowing inside the square. The frit stop outer frame 22 has a width of 150 μm and a height of 200 μm, and is formed, for example, by stacking thick film printing.
Finally, phosphor layers 12 of three colors of red, green, and blue are formed by flowing in a stripe pattern in a predetermined order on the address electrodes 13 between the adjacent partition walls 11. Thus, the processing on the rear glass substrate 9 side is completed.
[0013]
Next, the completed front glass substrate 1 and rear glass substrate 9 are aligned and combined as shown in FIG. Then, a frit 21 made of a glass material having a low softening point is used in a sealing margin of 1 mm width provided outside the frit stop outer frame 22 (FIG. 4), that is, around each of the front glass substrate 1 and the back glass substrate 9. The front glass substrate 1 and the rear glass substrate 9 are hermetically sealed to complete the panel.
[0014]
As described above, in the present embodiment, the lead electrode 15 connected to the scan electrode 2 and the lead electrode 16 connected to the sustain electrode 3 are ineffective display along the both longitudinal edges of the surface of the front glass substrate 1. The invalid display area has a small width of about 1 mm (FIG. 1). The lead electrodes 19 connected to the address electrodes 13 were not provided on the front glass substrate 1 side, but were formed on the rear surface of the rear glass substrate 9 (FIG. 6). As a result, only the 1 mm-wide sealing margin provided around the four sides of the panel and sealed by the frit 21 becomes the invalid display area 52 (FIG. 1), and the other areas, that is, all inside of the invalid display area 52 are valid. A flat gas discharge type display panel serving as the display area 51 (FIG. 1) is formed.
Thus, each form one side in the electrodes 2, 3 and 13, the lead electrode 15 in a portion corresponding to Futomedai the respective opposite surfaces of the glass substrates 1 and 9 of the glass substrates 1 and 9, 16 and 19 are formed. This makes it possible to form a gas discharge display panel in which the ratio of the invalid display region 52 to the entire surface area is very small, in other words, a gas discharge display panel in which the ratio of the effective display region 51 is very large.
[0015]
In the panel configured as described above and hermetically sealed, unnecessary gas in the panel is exhausted using the exhaust holes 14 (FIG. 2) provided at the boundaries of the discharge cells in the effective display area 51. Then, a gas mixture of at least one of helium, neon, and argon and xenon required for discharge is sealed as a discharge gas to complete a gas discharge type display panel.
[0016]
Next, a method of providing the exhaust holes 14 will be described in detail.
FIG. 7 is an enlarged perspective view, including a partial cross-sectional view, showing a structure around an exhaust hole of the rear glass substrate 9 of the gas discharge type display panel. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a main part of a cross section taken along line VIII-VIII in FIG. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the exhaust hole 14 is provided so as to penetrate the rear glass substrate 9 and form an opening between two specific adjacent partition walls 11. The phosphor layer 12 and the address electrode 13 at the opening are removed.
As shown in the cross-sectional view of the rear glass substrate 9 in FIG. 8, in order to perform glass processing with a diameter of 0.3 mm or less, first, the glass surface 9a corresponding to the non-display side where the discharge space 8 (FIG. 3) is not formed. Using a drill formed of an industrial diamond material having a diameter of 1 mm and a steel material studded with an industrial diamond powder having a size of 10 μm or less (submicron) on a surface thereof, a glass is formed at a location located at a boundary of a discharge cell. The hole 14b is drilled to a depth of 2/3 of the plate thickness t (= 1.1 mm). Next, from the glass surface 9b on the discharge space side , using a drill formed of an industrial diamond material having a diameter of 0.3 mm and a steel material studded with industrial diamond powder of 10 μm or less (submicron) on the surface thereof. The hole 14a is formed up to a depth of 1/3 of the glass plate thickness t while keeping the center line coincident with the hole 14b formed earlier.
Thus, a hole 14a having a diameter of 0.3 mm on the discharge space side and having a depth similar to that of the hole 14a and a hole 14b opening on the non-display side and having a diameter larger than the hole 14a are communicated. The rear glass substrate 9 having the shape of the exhaust hole 14 can be prepared.
The address electrodes 13 and the phosphor layers 12 are formed on the exhaust holes 14 so as not to be printed so as to bypass them (FIG. 7).
[0017]
Originally, a drill having a diameter of 0.3 mm can only form a hole having a depth substantially corresponding to the diameter. Therefore, it is impossible to penetrate a 0.3 mm diameter drill through the rear glass substrate 9 having a thickness of 1.1 mm. However, the thickness of the rear glass substrate 9 is locally reduced by first cutting the non-display side glass surface 9a to a certain depth when drilling holes in the rear glass substrate 9 as described above. Therefore, it is possible to provide a fine hole having a diameter of about 0.3 mm from the glass surface 9b on the discharge space side . The thus drilled holes, by using as a hole for exhaust and gas filling the gas discharge display panel, also pixel pitch and the pixel pitch in the following gas discharge display panel 1.0 mm, thereby lacking the display screen Thus, a gas discharge type display panel can be constructed without using the same.
In the above-described double-sided hole drilling method of the present invention, when the thickness of the glass substrate is 0.7 to 1 mm, the minimum hole diameter is limited to about 0.2 mm, and even smaller holes cannot be formed. In addition, as a result of partially reducing the diameter of the exhaust hole 14 as compared with the conventional example, for example, it is conceivable that the exhaust resistance increases. However, according to the experiments performed by the inventors, there is no practical difference from the conventional example and the same as the conventional example. Good evacuation / sealing work could be performed by the evacuation / sealing process under the conditions.
[0018]
Next, an outline of a procedure for configuring the gas discharge type display panel configured as described above into a “display unit” will be described. FIG. 9 is an exploded perspective view showing the configuration of the display unit 30.
As shown in FIG. 9, in the completed gas discharge type display panel 23, each of the lead electrodes 15, 16 and 19 provided on the back surface and the front surface is connected to the circuit module 25. Further, the gas discharge type display panel 23 and the circuit module 25 are fixed to the frame 24 formed by resin molding with screws or the like, and the display unit 30 is completed.
[0019]
Figure 10 is a perspective view showing an image display device having a multi scheme matrix configuration vertically and horizontally Thus the display unit 30 has been completed in the multi-stage and multi-column.
For example, when the sealing margin of one gas discharge type display panel, that is, the invalid display area is 1 mm in width, and the pixel pitch of the effective display area is 3.0 mm, which is composed of 32 pixels vertically and 80 pixels horizontally, it is completed. The size of the display unit 30 is 98 mm × 242 mm. When these are arranged in seven rows in the vertical direction and four rows in the horizontal direction, a multi-type image display device of about 46 inches is constructed.
As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, with respect to the gas discharge type display panel 23 constituting each display unit 30, the lead electrode of each electrode is formed on the opposite surface via the end surface of the substrate. By doing so, all the areas other than the sealing allowance of the gas discharge type display panel are set as the effective display area, so that the ratio of the invalid display area to the display panel surface area can be made very small. As a result, even if this gas discharge type display panel is arranged in a matrix in multiple stages and multiple rows, and a multi-type image display device is constructed, the joints of the panels are not emphasized, and there is substantially no large discontinuity as a whole. One image can be displayed.
[0020]
In the above-described embodiment, the case where the display unit constituted by the AC type color gas discharge type display panel is used is described. However, the present invention is not limited to the AC type and may be applied to the DC type and the DC pulse memory type. Is also applicable. The same effect can be obtained not only for a color display panel but also for a mono-color display panel.
[0021]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, the lead electrodes of each electrode are formed on the opposite surface via the end surface of the substrate, so that all effective margins except for the sealing allowance of the gas discharge type display panel are provided. The ratio of the invalid display area to the display panel surface area can be made very small. As a result, even if this gas discharge type display panel is arranged in a matrix in multiple stages and multiple rows, and a multi-type image display device is constructed, the joints of the panels are not emphasized, and there is substantially no large discontinuity as a whole. One image can be displayed.
Also, for example, by forming an exhaust hole by drilling holes from both sides of the rear glass substrate, it is possible to form an exhaust hole having a very small diameter, so that an exhaust hole that does not affect image display is set in the effective display area. Can be formed. That is, since it is not necessary to prepare an invalid display area for forming the exhaust hole, the ratio of the invalid display area to the display panel surface area can be made extremely small.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an AC type gas discharge type display panel according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a partial front view showing an internal configuration of the gas discharge type display panel shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line III-III of FIG. 2; FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the structure of the gas discharge type display panel shown in FIGS. FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a VI portion in FIG. 1. FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing an exhaust hole. FIG. 8 is a sectional view taken along line VIII-VIII in FIG. 7. FIG. 9 includes a gas discharge type display panel. FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing the configuration of a “display unit”. FIG. 10 is a multi-mode image display device in which display units are arranged in a matrix.
REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 front glass substrate 2 scan electrode 3 sustain electrode 8 discharge space 9 rear glass substrate 13 address electrode 14 exhaust holes 14a, 14b hole 15 lead electrode for scan electrode 16 lead electrode for sustain electrode
15a Side lead electrode for scanning electrode
16a Side electrode for sustain electrode 19 Lead electrode for address electrode
19a Side electrode 21 for address electrode Frit 51 Effective display area 52 Invalid display area

Claims (3)

A front glass substrate and a rear glass substrate opposed to each other via a discharge space and sealed around by a frit; electrodes provided on one surface of each of the front glass substrate and the rear glass substrate; connected to the electrodes; and A gas discharge type comprising: a lead electrode formed on each end surface of the front glass substrate and the rear glass substrate; and a plurality of discharge cells provided between the front glass substrate and the rear glass substrate. Display panel,
A gas discharge display panel, wherein an entirety of the inner side of the frit is an effective display area, and an exhaust hole is provided in the rear glass substrate in the effective display area and at a boundary between the adjacent discharge cells . The exhaust hole is
A first hole whose diameter is smaller than a predetermined pixel pitch, and a depth of the hole opened on one surface facing the discharge space, and the depth of the hole is close to the diameter of the hole;
A second hole opening in the other surface and having a diameter substantially larger than the diameter of the first hole;
The gas discharge type display panel according to claim 1, wherein the gas discharge type display panel has a shape communicating with the gas discharge type display panel. An image display device comprising the gas discharge display panel according to claim 1 arranged vertically and horizontally in multiple stages and multiple rows.

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