Discharge efficiency in plasma displays

The dependence of the panel efficacy of an alternating current-surface-disc harge plasma display on the input power is investigated. Test panels with a design resembling the one used in main stream commercial products are used . The input power is varied in two ways: namely by changing the dielectric layer capacitance (thickness) and by changing the sustain voltage. An inter esting different behavior is found: for increasing capacitance the efficacy decreases markedly, whereas for increasing sustain voltage the efficacy in creases slightly. The different behavior is attributed to changes in the io n heating losses. It is found that plasma saturation, which implies a funda mental trade-off between luminance and efficacy, is not significant at prac tical input power values. A high luminance and a high efficacy are concurre nt for a plasma panel design with a low dielectric layer capacitance and a high sustain voltage. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(0 0)01933-1].