Gas discharge display panel fabrication

摘要

An in situ process is disclosed for fabricating gas discharge display panels in a sequential seal, bake-out and backfill mode of operation. The single thermal cycle process involves placing unassembled panel parts in a controlled gas ambient furnace system with required seal frame, evacuating said furnace and backfilling with an appropriate ambient atmosphere to an appropriate pressure while heating the furnace. During the heating, the furnace is repeatedly evacuated to moderate vacuum and refilled to some predetermined pressure. The furnace is heated to just above the glass transition temperature of the seal frame in this evacuate-refill mode, then held for some time to achieve outgassing of both panel parts and furnace chamber. Thereafter, the furnace chamber is refilled to one atmosphere and further heated to complete the sealing of the panel. The panel is then cooled to approximately 300 DEG C, still under one atmosphere, after which the evacuate-refill cycle is continuously repeated as the temperature is lowered down to the temperature of tip-off using the refill gas for the pressurization. The panel is refilled to an appropriate pressure at elevated temperature such that at room temperature the pressure is the desired pressure and the panel is tipped off. The process of successive evacuations and backfillings at the appropriate portions of the cycle are highly desirable for cleaning of the panel parts via contaminant dilution.