Study on Cathode Materials of DC PDP

Gadolinium Hexa-boride Cathode

Abstract

In color DC plasma display panels, Xe is expected to be used as the discharge gas. However, this gas is absorbed by the cathode material, LaB₆. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze Xe's absorption mechanisms into the cathode material and to develop new cathode materials which do not absorb Xe. In this study, we tested the absorption of Xe and Kr gases into cathode materials such as GdB₆ and MoB. We found that these gases were absorbed less by the GdB₆ cathode than by the LaB₆ one and not at all by MoB. The absorption mechanism was investigated by spectral spectrum analysis of the discharge light and analysis of the degradation of illumination intensity for tests for running several hundred hours. The presence of absorbed gases in the cathode was also analyzed by XMA after the tests. We found that the absorbed Xe distribution in the cathode conceded with the distributions of these cathode materials : Gd, Mo, Ba, and Al.