Global modeling of a dielectric barrier discharge in Ne-Xe mixtures for an alternating current plasma display panel

A global model of a dielectric barrier discharge in Ne-Xe mixtures for an alternating current plasma display panel was developed. This model was used to evaluate electron temperature, plasma density, densities of excited state atoms, wall charge density, current density, excimer density, and vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) intensity, and their gas composition-pressure dependencies, in order to analyze the mechanism of VUV radiation and discharge efficiency. The results show that the intensity ratio of 173 to 147 nm VUV is about a few percent. This means that the contribution of excimers is small in terms of VUV radiation. The maximum discharge efficiency was about 9% for Xe fraction in the range of 2%-12% and gas pressure in the range of 100-600 Torr. Discharge efficiency increases in the high Xe fraction and gas pressure region. The increase of the discharge efficiency is attributed to a decrease of discharge current and an increase of Xe-r(*)(P-3(1)) excited state atom, due to the low electron temperature in the high Xe fraction and gas pressure region. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)08917-3].