Method of Coating Yttrium Vanadate Phosphors With Al.sub.2 O.sub.3

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a view of a fluorescent lamp, particularly in section, diagrammatically illustrating an embodiment of the invention in accordance with the present invention.

For a better understanding of the present invention, together with other and further objects, advantages and capabilities thereof, reference is made to the following disclosure and appended claims in connection with the above-described drawing

Referring now to the drawings with greater particularity, there is shown in FIG. 1 a fluorescent lamp 10. Lamp 10 comprises an elongated sealed glass envelope 12 of circular cross section It has the usual electrodes 14 and 16 at each end supported by lead-in wires 18, 20 and 22, 24, respectively, which extend through glass presses 26, 28 in mount stems 30, 32 to the contacts in bases 34, 36 affixed to the ends of the lamp 10.

Envelope 12 is filled with an inert gas such as argon or a mixture of argon and neon at a low pressure, for example, two torr, and a small quantity of mercury, at least enough to provide a low vapor pressure of about six microns during operation.

The interior of envelope 12 is coated with a layer of yttrium vanadate phosphor 38 or a blend containing a yttrium vanadate phosphor

A phosphor coating suspension is prepared by dispersing the phosphor particles in a water base system employing polyethylene oxide as the binder with water as the solvent.

The phosphor suspension is applied in the usual manner of causing the suspension to flow down the inner surface of envelope 12 and allowing the water to evaporate, leaving the binder and phosphor particles adhered to the envelope 12 wall. The phosphor coated envelope 12 is then heated in a lehr oven to volatilize the organic components, the phosphor layer 38 remaining on the envelope 12 wall.

According to method 1), the yttrium vanadate phosphor layer 38 is then coated by physical vapor deposition (PVD) with a layer of metallic yttrium; this is followed by a lehring operation to convert the metallic-yttrium layer to a yttria layer, thus forming a continuous protective yttria coating 40 overlying the yttrium vanadate phosphor layer 38. In accordance with the present invention yttrium vanadate phosphors overlaid with a continuous protective coating of yttria exhibit greatly reduced lumen loss during operation in fluorescent lamps and exhibit higher output than lamps containing the uncoated phosphors. This maintenance improvement has been observed in Eu.sup.3+ and Dy.sup.3+ activated yttrium vanadate phosphors coated with yttria (Y.sub.2 O.sub.3) The maintenance improvement can also be obtained with yttrium vanadate activated with trivalent rare-earth ions such as Pr.sup.3+, Nd.sup.3+, Sm.sup.3+, Gd.sup.3+, Tb.sup.3+, Ho.sup.3+, Er.sup.3+, Tm.sup.3+, and Yb.sup.3+ as well as activated with trivalent bismuth and trivalent indium.

Layers of YVO.sub.4 :Dy phosphor were prepared by settling on pyrex slides (of dimensions 1".times.0.75".times.1 mm) a slurry of the phosphor powder in a water-base vehicle The phosphor slides were dried in air at room temperature, and then underwent a firing treatment in air at 625.degree. C. (lehring), to simulate the baking step in lamp fabrication. Some of the settled, lehred slides were subsequently PVD coated in vacuum with an evaporated layer of Yttrium metal, approx. 400 Angstrom thick. The coated slides then underwent a second lehring treatment at about 500.degree. C. to about 625.degree. C., to convert the Yttrium metal to the corresponding oxide Some of the uncoated slides, to be used as controls, also underwent the second lehring treatment.

Both coated and uncoated slides were then positioned contiguously in demountable fluorescent lamps, of approximate T-12 bore, operating at a current of approx. 400 mA RMS, and at a Argon pressure of 2-3 Torr. The brightness output from the phosphor layer facing the mercury plasma was monitored by means of a Tektronix Lumen Probe Model J-16. The demountable fluorescent lamps also contained uncoated slides, similarly prepared, of phosphors, such as Y.sub.2 O.sub.3 :Eu and (Ce,Tb)MgAl.sub.11 O.sub.19, i.e., CAT, known to exhibit very low maintenance losses in this type of lamp.

The phosphor-output measurements during lamp operation gave the following results. In the case of one lamp (lamp #3 of the test station), the brightness of the phosphor slides was measured after 45 minutes of lamp operation, and normalized to that of the CAT phosphor contained in the same lamp. The uncoated slide (A22) of YVO.sub.4 :Dy exhibited at 45 minutes a relative brightness of 60.9%, while the Yttria-coated slide (A40) showed a lower brightness of 55.8, approximately 9% lower than that of the uncoated slide.

After 500 hours of lamp operation, the situation was reversed, in the sense that the uncoated phosphor was less bright than the coated one, with brightness (relative to CAT) of 47.5% vs 53.6%, respectively This trend, whereby the brightness of the coated phosphor exceeded that of the uncoated material, continued throughout the lamp operating lifetime, until at approx. 1,900 hrs. the maintenance loss, defined as relative brightness at 45 minutes less the relative brightness at approx. 1,900 hrs., divided by the original value of the relative brightness, had the following values:

Similar observations were recorded for phosphors run in lamp #2 of the test station.

These results demonstrate a very substantial improvement, up to a 10 fold improvement, in lamp maintenance of yttrium vanadate phosphors coated with a thin Y.sub.2 O.sub.3 layer.

Europium-activated Yttrium Vanadate (Sylvania Type 2390) in powder form was slurried in water based vehicle and settled onto slides, as per Example 1. The dried phosphor slides were lehred in air at 625.degree. C. After lehring, some of the phosphor slides were mounted in the sample stage of an electron-beam evaporator and coated with a 200 Angstrom thick layer of Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, obtained from the e-beam evaporation of an alumina target.

Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 coated phosphor slides (and similarly treated, but uncoated, slides used as controls) were mounted in the demountable test-lamps, as described for Example 1.

After 1250 hours of lamp operation, the lumen loss was reduced to 12% by the presence of the protective oxide coating as compared to a 30% loss for the uncoated phosphor slide. The protective action of the coating was less dramatic than for Example 1, either because of insufficient thickness of the Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 layer, or because of its nonuniformity. In effect, during e-beam evaporation the sample stage was not rotated, as customary to ensure uniform deposition, because of detachment and loss of powder from the down-facing phosphor slides.

YVO.sub.4 :Eu was coated with approx. 200 Angstrom of Y.sub.2 O.sub.3 by the procedure described in Example 2. After 914 hours of lamp operation, the brightness loss was reduced from 29% (uncoated phosphor) to 15% (coated phosphors).

Phosphor slides of YVO.sub.4 :Eu were prepared as per Example 1 After the first lehring step, a PVD coating, approx. 200 Angstrom thick of aluminum isopropoxide, i.e. Al(C.sub.3 H.sub.7 O).sub.3, was produced on the phosphor slides by heating, at a low temperature (approx. 100.degree. C.) in vacuum, a boat containing the aluminum isopropoxide in powder form.

Coated (and uncoated) phosphor slides underwent a second lehring treatment at about 500.degree. C. to about 625.degree. C., to convert the isopropoxide to the oxide.

After 980 hours of operation in the test lamps, the brightness loss of the uncoated phosphor was 28%, while that of the coated material was 16%.

While there has been shown and described what is at present considered the preferred embodiment of the invention, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.