United Technologies Corporation

Robert E Wisnieff

Elias Snitzer

Peter E Raber

A flat display panel arrangement including crossed patterns of parallel electrode wires and a reflective layer for increasing panel luminous intensity.

Reflection-enhanced flat panel display

A fusible spacer for use in the manufacture of a plasma panel rigidly maintains a preselected spacing between the panel sidewalls. The fusible spacer comprises a core fabricated from a refractory glass, such as R-6 glass, and has a first transverse dimension sized in accordance with the desired spacing between the panel sidewalls. A cladding surrounds the core along and is formed from a material which has a much lower softening point, i.e., 350.degree. C. to 500.degree. C. The separation between the two halves of the panel is set by the first dimension of the core member while the solder glass cladding is fused to rigidly attach to both panel sidewalls bonding the composite structure together. The core and fusible cladding are drawn to size by covering the cladding with a second transitory cladding of the same material as the core material to allow a dimensionally controlled fiber to be drawn even through the fusible cladding has a substantially lower softening point. The core member can have a circular cross section or numerous other cross sections so long as the first transverse dimension defines the panel spacing and the second transverse dimension is not too large to interfere with the discharge sites between row and column electrodes.

Method of making fusible spacer for display panel

A circuit for use with an AC plasma panel to cause gray shade or brightness variation at the discrete points on a displayed rastor by varying the number of emitted light pulses within a flicker period. The gray scale range is divided into a predetermined number of levels, each of which corresponds to a particular gray shade. The gray shade level for all of the discrete points along a row of rastor information is stored in binary form in recirculating shift registers. All of the points along each column are addressed simultaneously and the data bits from the recirculating shift registers are used to clock either erase pulses, write pulses, as the case may be, to all of the rows simultaneously as each column is sequentially addressed. Accordingly, by addressing all of the row electrodes simultaneously, all of the discrete sites can be addressed a sufficient number of times within a flicker period to minimize any rastor flicker.

Gray shade operation of a large AC plasma display panel

A circuit configuration for use with a small plasma panel to allow independent variation of the brightness level on a raster in addition to the information displayed by the raster. The gray scale level of all or part of the displayed information can be changed in response to a change in a sensed condition. The desired gray shade level or levels for a particular raster of digital information is stored in a simple memory. The data out of the memory is used by an E/W pulse gate to clock write pulses and erase pulses to the addressing circuitry of the plasma panel. The write or erase pulses then combine with the sustainer voltage waveform at each site to either strike, entinguish, or not change discharge state of each site as the plasma panel as the individual site locations are sequentially addressed.

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Weston, CT, United States of America

Robert E Wisnieff