Abstract: A matrix display device comprises cavities (20) having walls at least one of which is covered with a material (24) having a secondary emission coefficient of more than unity. The cavities form a planar arrangement substantially parallel to the display screen which has a phosphor display screen. The cavities are provided with electrodes (21, 215, 217, 5 22, 225, 228) and the display device has a circuit for supplying an oscillating AC voltage (Vr, VRF) to said electrodes (21, 215, 217, 22, 225, 228) for generating electrons within the cavities by secondary emission. The cavities (20) have apertures (25) facing the screen (41), and the display device has a circuit for selectively letting electrons generated within the cavities pass said apertures and accelerating electrons having passed said apertures to the phosphor display screen.

Abstract: The display panel (21) comprises a light guide (2), a second plate (4) and a movable element (3) between both plates for locally decoupling light out of the light guide (2). Voltages, applied to electrodes (5,6 resp. 25), associated with the light guide (2), the second plate (4) and the movable element (3), locally bring the movable element (3) into 5 contact with the light guide plate (2) or the second plate (4). If, between the light guide (2) and the first electrodes (5) a layer (51) is present with a second refractive index being smaller than the first refractive index of the light guide (2), and the light guide (2) is positioned between the first electrodes (5) and the movable element (3), absorption of the light transported through the light guide plate (2) is reduced, providing a display panel (21) with 10 improved power efficiency.

Abstract: The invention relates to an AC plasma display panel (12) of the surface discharge type, and more specifically to the structure of the address electrodes (5) of the panel and of the phosphor elements, and to a plasma display panel device comprising such a panel. According to the invention, only one address electrode (5) is used for one out of every two columns. Scan electrodes (8) and common electrodes (7) may comprise transparent parts (11). These parts (11) may extend over one out every two cells in a checkerboard fashion. In a preferred embodiment, the columns may have alternating wide (15) and narrow (16) cells (2). Furthermore, each cell has a neighbor-cell of the same color on the same address electrode but in a neighboring column and in a neighboring row. The display panel device comprises a driving circuit (22) arranged such that in at least one of the sub-fields the neighboring cells are addressed simultaneously.