JPH01124932A - Manufacture of gas discharge panel - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to locate spacers avoiding an electrode on a substrate by applying a photoresist material mixed with spherical spacers to the entire top surface of a dielectric layer on the substrate and performing exposure and development by using a mask. CONSTITUTION:A photoresist material 9 mixed with spherical spacers 4 is applied to the entire top surface of a dielectric layer 3 on one of substrates 1 of a gas discharge panel, exposure and development are performed by using a mask to leave the spacers 4 together with the photoresist material 9 on the location avoiding an electrode 2. Causing the photoresist material 9 to disappear by baking, the spacers 4 are bonded to the dielectric layer 3. This makes it possible to locate the spacers with the accuracy of photolithography avoiding the locations on the electrode 2. As the spherical spacers 4 do not cover discharge points, display fault due to the spacers 4 is completely eliminated.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a gas discharge panel, and provides an efficient method for installing a spherical support that maintains a constant gap between two opposing substrates while avoiding electrodes on the substrates. With the aim of obtaining a photosensitive resist material, spherical spacers are mixed with a photosensitive resist material, and the mixture is applied to the entire surface of the dielectric layer of one substrate of the gas discharge panel, and exposed and developed using a mask. In this method, the spacer is left together with the photosensitive resist material in a place avoiding the electrodes, and then baked to eliminate the photosensitive resist material and at the same time, the spacer is fused to the dielectric layer.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a gas discharge panel.

More specifically, the present invention relates to a new method of installing spacers for setting the discharge gap of the panel.

[Conventional technology]

Generally, in a gas discharge panel, a large space is established by interspersing a plurality of spacers between a pair of opposing electrode substrates.

Conventionally, the method of installing this spacer was
166, in which a spacer is adhesively fixed onto a dielectric layer for electrode insulation using water glass is known.

However, with this method, each spacer must be placed and fixed by hand, which requires a large amount of man-hours and time, increases manufacturing costs, and is prone to work errors such as misalignment of spacers. This was a disadvantage in terms of panel quality.

In addition, in the conventional method, it is necessary to use a relatively large spacer, for example, a 0.5 mm square spacer, and the electrode arrangement pitch is relatively fine (for example, 0.3 mm or less). In this case, combined with the use of water glass, there was an inconvenience that there were many defective points that did not emit light.

Furthermore, in order to reduce the weight of the entire panel, the substrate 1 is required to be made thinner, and in order to maintain the discharge gap, a higher density of spacers is required, which cannot be met by conventional methods.

Furthermore, as a prior art technique for installing spherical spacers between display panels, there is a known structure in which the panel board is supported by spacer particles held by a photosensitive material with a thickness smaller than the spacer particle diameter, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 58-160927. There is.

When applied to a gas discharge panel as the object of the present application, there is a problem in that the photosensitizer remaining on the discharge surface has an adverse effect on the discharge characteristics.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the conventional situation as described above, an object of the present invention is to provide an efficient method for installing a spacer to maintain a constant gap between two opposing substrates while avoiding the electrodes on the substrates.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in the present invention, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 5, spherical spacers 4 are mixed into the photosensitive resist material 9, and the dielectric material of one substrate 1 of the gas discharge panel is mixed with the photosensitive resist material 9. The spacer 4 is left together with the photosensitive resist material 9 in a place avoiding the electrode 2 by coating the entire surface of the FIA, exposing and developing using a mask, and then baking to make the photosensitive resist material 9 disappear. , the spacer 4 is fused to the dielectric layer 3.

[For production]

By applying the above method, it is possible to easily arrange the spacer avoiding the top of the electrode with the accuracy of photolithography. Since the spherical spacers do not cover the discharge points, it is possible to create a display panel with no display defects caused by the spacers.

In other words, the diameter of the spacer sphere to be used is selected in advance based on the value of the discharge gap of several tens to 300 microns, and since this value does not exceed the distance between adjacent electrodes, it is important to ensure that the placement position is appropriate. For example, the spacer function can be achieved without blocking the discharge point. Further, it is possible to avoid an adverse effect on the discharge characteristics due to residual photosensitive resist.

〔Example〕

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings, with reference to an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an AC-driven gas discharge panel in which the electrode surface is coated with a dielectric layer.

FIG. 1 shows that a liquid mixture of glass bulbs 4 serving as spacers and a photosensitive resist that provides adhesiveness is sprayed onto one substrate 1 having electrodes of the gas discharge panel onto a dielectric layer 3 by spraying G. It is an explanatory view of making the spray adhere.

The diameter of the spacer sphere used is selected in advance based on the distance of several tens to 300 microns that will be the discharge gap, and glass spheres of a certain size are used. In this way, the glass bulbs 4 are temporarily fixed to the substrate and are distributed evenly, albeit randomly.

As mentioned above, in order to increase the holding force after temporarily holding the glass bulb 4 on the substrate, the cysts are further photo-sensitized.
It may be applied to the entire surface.

FIG. 2 shows an enlarged plan view of the substrate 1 coated with the above-mentioned photosensitive resist together with spacers after drying. The spacer spheres 4 are thinly covered with a photosensitive resist, held on the substrate 1 by the adhesive force of the material, and are randomly dispersed.

After this, the exposure mask was set so that the part excluding the electrodes, that is, the material between the electrode gaps shown by W, remained, and when exposure and development were performed, the spacer sphere 4 avoided the electrode 2 as shown in Fig. 3. position, the width T located within the unit interval W of the electrodes
It remains only in the area where is the adhesive width. When heated and fired in air at about 500 degrees Celsius in this state, the photosensitive resist with adhesive strength is evaporated and removed, and the glass bulbs 4 are softened, as shown in the enlarged plan view of the main part in FIG. It sinks into the dielectric layer 3 at the point, fuses with the dielectric N3, and is fixed in that position after cooling.

Next, the spherical glass spacer 4 fixed in this way
When the substrate 1 with a spacer and the other substrate 5 without a spacer are stacked in a predetermined position, the periphery of the substrates is sealed with a gas sealing material, and the discharge gas space 8 is filled with discharge gas, as shown in Fig. 5. The intended gas discharge panel is completed, as shown in the cross-sectional view of the main parts. Note that after fixing the spacer 4 to the dielectric layer 3,
It is preferable to form a surface protective layer (not shown) of magnesium oxide (MgO) or the like on the entire surface by means of vapor deposition or the like.

Looking at the plan view of the completed panel in FIG. 4, the spacer 4 is always located between the electrodes W on one substrate 1, and the spacer 4 is always located on the electrode 6 on the other substrate as in the case of the spacer 4a. However, since the spacer portion is not a discharge point, and the opposing electrodes located on both sides of it, X and Y, are discharge points, the present spacer sphere does not block the display discharge.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to this, and the following modifications and applications are possible. That is, as a modification, the spacer may be polyhedral, rectangular parallelepiped, cylindrical (including glass fiber), etc., in addition to being spherical.

As an example of application, it is also possible to apply it to a DC discharge type gas discharge panel where the electrode surface is not covered with a dielectric layer. In this case, the dielectric layer that holds the spacer on the substrate can be created at the spacer part, avoiding the electrode. It is necessary to do so.

Furthermore, although the present invention has been described with respect to orthogonal matrix-type panels, the application is not limited thereto, and it goes without saying that the present invention may also be applied to a segment-type panel in which the electrodes are amorphous.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, the spacer is simply arranged only in the discharge gap on one substrate, without interfering with the discharge point, and even a large number of spacers can be installed. Since it is fixed to the dielectric layer, there is no need to worry about it moving.Also, since a spacer with a diameter smaller than the electrode arrangement pitch of the panel can be used, the use of this spacer eliminates the possibility of causing a defective discharge point in the light emission, resulting in a high We can provide quality gas discharge panels.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the first step of the spacer arrangement method of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged plan view of the main part after the first step of the spacer arrangement method of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is the second step of the spacer arrangement method of the present invention. Fig. 4 is an enlarged plan view of the main part after the third step of the spacer arrangement method of the present invention; Fig. 5 is a sectional view of the main part of the gas discharge panel constructed by the method of the present invention. It is. In the figure, 1 and 5 are substrates 2 and 6 are electrodes, 3 and 7 are dielectric layers, 4 is a spherical spacer, 8 is a gas space, W is a unit electrode spacing, T is a temporary fixing width, and X and Y are discharge points. It is. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Ai insult Q□M, N; J'? 11) - Figure 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] A plurality of electrodes (2), (6) and a substrate (1), (5) provided over the entire surface of the electrodes or only between the electrodes.
In a gas discharge panel in which a pair of substrates (1) and (5) having dielectric layers (3) and (7) having a lower melting point are arranged facing each other across a gas discharge space (8), a photosensitive resist material ( 9) with a spherical spacer (4), and the dielectric layer (1) of one substrate (1) of the gas discharge panel is mixed with
3) The spacer (4) is left together with the photosensitive resist material (9) in a place avoiding the electrode (2) by coating the entire upper surface, exposing and developing using a mask, and then baking it to make it photosensitive. A method for producing a gas discharge panel, characterized in that the resist material (9) is made to disappear and the spacers (4) are fused to the dielectric layer (3).