AC gas discharge display device

• Main Authors: AWAMOTO, KENJI, HIRAKAWA, HITOSHI, SHINOHE, KOJI, ISHIMOTO, MANABU, TOKAI, AKIRA
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 04.10.2006
• Subjects: ADVERTISING; ARRANGEMENTS OR CIRCUITS FOR CONTROL OF INDICATING DEVICESUSING STATIC MEANS TO PRESENT VARIABLE INFORMATION; BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; CRYPTOGRAPHY; DISPLAY; EDUCATION; ELECTRIC DISCHARGE TUBES OR DISCHARGE LAMPS; ELECTRICITY; PHYSICS; SEALS

A return path is efficiently and advantageously provided for alternate discharge current flowing between X and Y driver circuits arranged on right and left sides of an AC-driven gas discharge display device of especially a plasma tube array type. The AC-driven gas discharge display device (10) comprises a front-side, transparent substrate (14) and a rear-side substrate (16) sandwiching a plurality of thin discharge tubes arranged side by side. The front-side substrate has, on an inner surface thereof, a plurality of pairs of display electrode (15, Xj, Yj). The rear-side substrate has, on an inner surface thereof, a plurality of address electrodes (Ai) in a direction transverse to the plurality of display electrodes. In the display device, striped light-blocking, electrically conductive films (18) are formed on an outer surface of the front-side substrate at locations corresponding to locations between respective ones of the pairs of display electrode. The light-blocking, electrically conductive films are coupled at their opposite ends to respective points of common reference potential (GNDx, GNDy) in the X- and Y-electrode driver circuits, respectively, to provide a return path for alternate discharge current.