Non-Reactive Cathode for a PALC Display Panel Using Hydrogen-Doped Helium Gas

This invention relates to a structure for a plasma addressed liquid crystal (PALC) display panel having a helium filling doped with hydrogen.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,553 discloses apparatus for addressing data storage elements. A practical implementation of the apparatus shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,553 is illustrated schematically in FIG. 4 of the accompanying drawings.

The display panel shown in FIG. 4 comprises, in sequence from below, a polarizer 2, a channel member 4, a cover sheet 6 (commonly known as a microsheet), a layer 10 of electro-optic material, an array of parallel transparent data drive electrodes (only one of which, designated 12, can be seen in the view shown in FIG. 4), an upper substrate 14 carrying the data drive electrodes, and an upper polarizer 16. The channel member 4 is typically made of glass and is formed with multiple parallel channels 20 in its upper main face. The channels 20, which are separated by ribs 22, are filled with an ionizable gas, such as helium. An anode 24 and a cathode 26 are provided in each of the channels 20. The channels 20 are orthogonal to the data drive electrodes and the region where a data drive electrode crosses a channel (when viewed perpendicularly to the panel) forms a discrete panel element 28. Each panel element can be considered to include elements of the layer 10 and the lower and upper polarizers 2 and 16. In the case of a color display panel, the panel elements include color filters (not shown) between the layer 10 and the upper substrate 14. The region of the upper surface of the display panel that bounds the panel element constitutes a single pixel 30 of the display panel.

When the anode in one of the channels is connected to ground and a suitable negative voltage is applied to the cathode in that channel, the gas in the channel forms a plasma that provides a conductive path at the lower surface of the cover sheet 6. If a data drive electrode is at ground potential, there is no significant electric field in the volume element of electro-optic material in the panel element at the crossing of the channel and the data drive electrode and the panel element is considered to be off, whereas if the data drive electrode is at a substantially different potential from ground, there is a substantial electric field in that volume element of electro-optic material and the panel element is considered to be on.

It will be assumed in the following description, without intending to limit the scope of the claims, that the lower polarizer 2 is a linear polarizer and that its plane of polarization can be arbitrarily designated as being at 0.degree. relative to a reference plane, that the upper polarizer 16 is a linear polarizer having its plane of polarization at 90.degree., and that the electro-optic material is a twisted nematic liquid crystal material that rotates the plane of polarization of linearly polarized light passing therethrough by an angle that is a function of the electric field in the liquid crystal material. When the panel element is off, the angle of rotation is 90.degree.; and when the panel element is on, the angle of rotation is zero.

The panel is illuminated from the underside by an extended light source (not shown) that emits unpolarized white light. A rear glass diffuser 18 having a scattering surface may be positioned between the light source and the panel in order to provide uniform illumination of the panel. The light that enters a given panel element from the source is linearly polarized at 0.degree. by the lower polarizer 2 and passes sequentially through the channel member 4, the channel 20, the cover sheet 6, and the volume element of the liquid crystal material toward the upper polarizer 16 and a viewer 32. If the panel element is off, the plane of polarization of linearly polarized light passing through the volume element of liquid crystal material is rotated through 90.degree., and therefore the plane of polarization of light incident on the upper polarizer element is at 90.degree.. The light is passed by the upper polarizer element and the pixel is illuminated. If, on the other hand, the panel element is on, the plane of polarization of the linearly polarized light is not changed on passing through the volume element of liquid crystal material. The plane of polarization of light incident on the upper polarizer element is at 0.degree. and therefore the light is blocked by the upper polarizer element and the pixel is dark. If the electric field in the volume element of liquid crystal material is intermediate the values associated with the panel element being off and on, light is passed by the upper polarizer element with an intensity that depends on the electric field, allowing a gray scale to be displayed.

There are three principal methods currently used for fabricating the channel member of a PALC display panel. In accordance with one method, a glass substrate is etched to form an array of parallel channels in its upper surface and the anodes and cathodes are then formed in the channels. Another method involves depositing layers of paste on discrete areas of a glass substrate using a screen printing process. The third method involves depositing blanket layers of material on a glass substrate and selectively removing the material by sandblasting.

The channel member 4 shown in FIG. 4 is formed using the first method described above. For ease of processing, the anodes of the channel member shown in FIG. 4 are formed at the same time as the cathodes and are of the same structure as the cathodes.

During operation of the PALC panel, the cathode is subject to sputtering by the positive ions of the plasma. It has been proposed that the cathode should be protected from sputtering damage by providing a protective top coating of refractory material over the cathode. See U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/520,996 (Attorney Docket 5843-US) and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/023,418 (Attorney Docket 5843-US-1). The coating of refractory material may be composed of a rare earth hexaboride, such as LaB.sub.6, in which case the coating may be deposited by cataphoretic deposition.

When the PALC display panel disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,553 is used as a raster scan display panel for displaying an NTSC video signal, the panel is oriented so that the channels extend horizontally and the data drive electrodes extend vertically. The first active line of a frame of the video signal is sampled. A negative-going strobe pulse is applied to the cathode in the first channel to establish a plasma in the first channel, and the data drive electrodes are driven to voltage levels that depend on the respective sample values. In each panel element along the first channel, an electric field that establishes the state of the panel element is created between the data drive electrode and the lower surface of the cover sheet. The strobe pulse is removed, and the plasma is extinguished, but the electric field persists, maintaining the state of the panel element until the first channel is again addressed, on the next frame of the video signal. This sequence of operations is repeated in order for the remaining active lines of the frame and the remaining channels of the display panel.

The plasma that was created in the first channel is not extinguished instantaneously when the strobe pulse is removed, but decays over a finite interval. If the voltages for the next line of video data are applied to the data drive electrodes before the plasma in the first channel is fully decayed, the electric field that is created in a panel element along the first channel will not have the proper value, and this will generally result in a loss of image quality. Therefore, it is necessary that the plasma created in response to a previous strobe pulse shall be fully extinguished before the data drive electrodes are driven to the voltages for the next line of video.

A plasma is considered to have decayed fully (or to be fully extinguished) if the voltage stored by the active display element will change by less than 10 percent if the data voltage changes.

It can be shown that in the event that the display panel disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,553 is used to display a video signal composed of 480 lines addressed at a frame rate of 60 Hz, the time that elapses between removing the strobe pulse in one channel and driving the data drive electrodes for the next line of the display is approximately 30 .mu.s. Accordingly, the plasma created in a given channel must decay within approximately 30 .mu.s after the strobe pulse is removed.

Helium is an advantageous choice for the gas to use in a plasma addressed liquid crystal display panel because it is inert and therefore does not react with the electrodes in the plasma channels. Also, helium is a favorable choice with respect to sputtering damage because the helium ions are light. However, use of helium as the ionizable gas in a PALC display panel is subject to the disadvantage that on recombination of a helium ion with an electron, the helium atom does not always pass immediately to the ground state, but it may remain for a significant period of time in a metastable state. If a metastable helium atom receives energy, e.g. from a collision with an electron or with another helium atom, the metastable helium atom might undergo secondary ionization, thus delaying complete extinction of the plasma.

One mechanism by which a metastable helium atom in a PALC display panel decays is through collision with the walls of the channel. In the case of a plasma addressed liquid crystal display panel suitable for an NTSC display, the dimensions of the channels are such that metastable helium atoms will collide with the walls of the channel and revert to the ground state at a sufficient rate that the plasma will be considered to be fully extinguished within 30 .mu.s after removal of the strobe pulse. Accordingly, the existence of the metastable state does not significantly degrade operation of a plasma addressed liquid crystal display panel when driven by an NTSC signal.

In the event that the PALC display panel is to be used to provide an HDTV display, the number of lines of the display and the frequency at which the frame is refreshed are such that the plasma in a given channel must be reliably extinguished within about 8-16 .mu.s after the pulse is removed from the cathode. If helium alone is used as the gas in the panel, the existence and persistence of the metastable states impairs the viewability of the display.

It has been found that if a suitable dopant gas is present in the panel, the extinction of the plasma is accelerated. The mechanism by which the dopant gas operates is not fully understood, but it is believed that it reduces the number of metastable atoms formed and/or hastens the decay of the metastable atoms. Several dopant gases have been evaluated.

Hydrogen is a dopant gas that is effective to accelerate extinction of the plasma. See U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/022,002 (Attorney Docket 6242-US). The hydrogen ion is light and so sputtering damage to the cathodes is small.

It has been found that a satisfactory high addressability image is displayed if hydrogen is present in a helium filling at a concentration, measured in partial pressure, in the range from about 0.01 percent to 20 percent in a total chamber pressure between 50 mB and 500 mB. Thus, the partial pressure of hydrogen is between about 0.005 mB and about 100 mB.

An HDTV display panel would typically have 1,200 channels. In the case of the channels each being about 40 cm long, the total volume of the channels would be about 0.05 liters. If the total pressure in the chamber is 200 mB and the partial pressure of hydrogen is 2 mB, the quantity of hydrogen present at 300 K is about 0.1 mB liter (1,000 mB liter is the quantity of gas at standard temperature and pressure occupying one liter). A possible disadvantage to use of hydrogen as the dopant gas is that hydrogen particles may be highly reactive, and therefore the hydrogen is consumed by reaction with the electrode material. It has been estimated that hydrogen is consumed by reaction with the electrode material at the rate of 1.times.10.sup.-6 mB liter/hour/cm channel length. The maximum rate of consumption fo r such an HDTV display panel would be about 50.times.10.sup.3 - mB liter/hour and 0.1 mB liter would therefore be consumed in about two hours. Thus, the viewability of the panel may deteriorate to an unacceptable degree after only a few hours of operation. If the concentration of hydrogen were increased to 15 percent (36 mB partial pressure of hydrogen and total pressure of 240 mB), the quantity of hydrogen would be about 1.8 mB liter and this would be consumed in approximately 36 hours.

It is generally accepted that in order for a television display panel to be commercially acceptable, it must operate for at least 10,000 hours (corresponding to a useful life of about 10 years) without significant degradation in the quality of the display. In order to maintain the partial pressure of hydrogen at 36 mB over 10,000 hours of use, a total hydrogen capacity of 500 mB liter would be needed, having a mass of about 60 mg, or about 280 times the amount needed to charge the panel to a partial pressure of 36 mB. For a panel having channels of length other than 40 cm, the mass of hydrogen required to maintain the partial pressure of hydrogen at 36 mB over 10,000 hours of use scales in accordance with the length of the channels.

It has been proposed in accordance with U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/022,002 that a quantity of hydrogen storage material should be provided in communication with the plasma channels of a PALC display panel.

Hydrogen is highly reactive. Accordingly, a possible disadvantage to use of hydrogen as dopant gas in a PALC display panel is that the hydrogen would react with the electrodes and the conductivity of the electrodes would therefore be impaired.

It has been proposed in accordance with U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/026,661 (Attorney Docket 6279-US), the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein, that the cathodes of a PALC display panel should have a surface that is refractory and that the anodes should have a surface that is uniform and has high conductivity. The refractory surface on a cathode protects the cathode from sputtering damage.

It may be desirable with respect to emission of electrons from the cathode that the surface of the cathode have a fairly high resistivity, and since most refractory materials have a higher resistivity than non-refractory metals, a refractory surface on the cathode is advantageous for this reason also. However, although it may be desirable that the surface of the cathode have a rather high resistivity compared with a non-refractory metal, it is not desirable that the cathode be made entirely of refractory material, because this would impair the ability of the cathode to supply electrons to the plasma.

In accordance with a first aspect of the invention there is provided a channel structure for a PALC display panel, comprising a channel member defining at least one channel, at least one cathode having a conductive core, a protective coating of a material that is electrically conductive and is non-reactive with hydrogen, and an outer coating of refractory material, and at least one anode having a surface exposed in said one channel, said surface of said one anode being of a material that is electrically conductive and is non-reactive with hydrogen.

In accordance with a second aspect of the invention there is provided a channel subassembly for a PALC panel comprising a channel member defining a plurality of channels, a cover sheet attached to the channel member, a gas filling in the channels defined by the channel member and the cover sheet, at least on e cathode exposed in each channel, said cathode comprising a core of electrically conductive material, a protective coating of a material that is electrically conductive and is non-reactive with hydrogen, and an outer coating of refractory material, and at least one anode having a surface exposed in each channel, said surface being of a material that is electrically conductive and is highly resistant to oxidation and is non-reactive with hydrogen.

For a better understanding of the invention, and to show how the same may be carried into effect, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawings, in which

FIG. 1 is a schematic partial illustration of a PALC display panel in accordance with the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a schematic partial sectional view of the channel member of the PALC display panel shown in FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a schematic partial sectional view of the channel subassembly of the PALC display panel shown in FIG. 1,

FIG. 3A is an enlarged schematic view of a possible modification of the structure shown in FIG. 3, and

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a PALC display panel in accordance with the prior art.

In the several figures of the drawings, like reference numerals are used to designate corresponding components.

FIG. 1 shows the plasma channels 20 formed in the channel member 4 of a PALC HDTV display panel. The channel member 4 may be fabricated using any suitable method, such as one of the three methods mentioned above. The plasma channels 20 communicate with a manifold channel 34. The manifold channel communicates in a manner not shown in FIG. 1 with a container 38, which is outside the display field. The container 38 contains a body 42 of hydrogen storage material. Hydrogen storage materials store hydrogen by incorporating the hydrogen into the molecular structure of the material. Such hydrogen storage materials are well known and are commercially used as hydrogen getters.

FIG. 2 illustrates the electrodes 24 and 26 in one channel of the channel member 4 part-way during fabrication of the electrodes. As shown in FIG. 2, each electrode includes an adhesion layer 46 and a bulk layer 48. The layers 46 and 48 are conductive and are uniform in composition over the length of the electrode. In addition, each electrode has a protective coating 50 of a material that is electrically conductive and does not react with hydrogen. For the sake of brevity, the term "non-reactive material" is used hereinafter to refer to a material that does not react with hydrogen. The coating 50 is uniform in composition over the length of the electrode and covers the top surface and the side walls of the structure 46/48. Suitable non-reactive materials for the protective coating 50 are gold, silver, indium and thallium.

Referring to FIG. 3, a coating 54 of refractory material is formed on the cathode 26. The refractory material is preferably a rare earth hexaboride, such as LaB.sub.6. In order to apply the coating 54, the channel member 4 is placed in an eletrophoretic deposition cell for cataphoretic deposition of LaB.sub.6 and the cathodes are connected to the negative terminal of the cataphoretic deposition voltage source. The anodes 24 are out of circuit or, alternatively, they are connected to a terminal that is at a positive potential relative to the negative terminal of the cataphoretic deposition voltage source, such as the positive terminal of the cataphoretic deposition voltage source or a terminal that is biased positive relative to the positive terminal. Accordingly, the refractory material is not deposited cataphoretically on the anodes 24.

The cover sheet 6 is then attached to the channel member 4 to form the channel subassembly. At this point, the interior space of the container 38 and the interior space of the channel member are sealed from the exterior of the channel subassembly and form a closed panel chamber. A filling of helium and hydrogen is introduced into the panel chamber. The channel subassembly is attached to the upper substrate subassembly, composed of the upper substrate, the data drive electrodes and the layer of liquid crystal material, to complete the PALC display panel.

The protective coating 50 on the structure 46/48 does not react with hydrogen and is essentially impervious to hydrogen. Since the protective coating 50 is deposited over the top surface and side walls of the structure 46/48, it serves as a seal that isolates the bulk layer 48 from hydrogen in the gas filling and thereby prevents the hydrogen in the gas filling from reacting with the bulk layer and reducing its conductivity.

In the event that the protective coating 50 is made of gold or silver, it is non-oxidizing as well as being non-reactive with hydrogen, and this may be advantageous for the reasons explained in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/967,879, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/967,685, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein, discloses subject matter that is related to the subject matter disclosed in this application.

The coating 54 is provided in order to protect the cathode from sputtering damage. Most refractory materials, including LaB.sub.6, have a higher resistivity than the material of the bulk layer 48 or the protective coating 50 and impart suitable electrical characteristics to the surface of the cathode. Since the protective coating 50 is below the coating 54, it does not impair the effect of the coating 54 in providing the cathode with a surface that is resistant to sputtering and has a higher resistivity than the bulk layer.

Referring to FIG. 3A, there may be one or more additional layers between the bulk layer 48 and the protective coating 50. For example, in the event that the bulk layer 48 is copper, it may be expedient to deposit a layer 52 of chromium before the coating 50 of non-reactive material, particularly if the channel member is to be placed in an oxidizing environment for a significant period of time before the protective coating 50 is applied.

It will be appreciated that the invention is not restricted to the particular embodiments that have been described, and that variations may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims and equivalents thereof.