FLAT COLOUR TELEVISION DISPLAY.

An experimental flat color television display device, using color phosphor elements excited by electrical discharges in gas, has been developed. Measuring 160mm wide and 120mm high, the panel is constructed as a ″sandwich″ of front and rear glass covers with, in the middle, flat strip electrodes running vertically and horizontally to form gas discharge cells where they intersect. The cathode strips, running horizontally, have circular holes etched in them, exposing the surface of a glass insulating layer, and within each hole a washer-shaped ring of phosphor is deposited on the glass. In the center of the phosphor ring the glass insulating layer has a hole in it which exposes the surface of an anode strip electrode, running vertically. The cells so formed are filled with a xenon gas mixture, and the electrical discharge in each cell takes place between the wall of the cathode hole and the central anode, passing across the phosphor ring and exciting it into fluorescence. There are 19,200 of these cells, arranged into horizontal rows of 160 cells and vertical columns of 120 cells, with a spacing of 1 mm between cell centers. Along a row the color phosphors are deposited in a red, green, blue, red, green blue sequence, and each column has the same phosphor color in all its cells.