Ceramic microdischarge arrays with individually ballasted pixels

Abstract

Arrays of cylindrical microdischarge devices, ∼200 μm in diameter, have been fabricated with internally recessed annular electrodes in multilayerceramic structures and operated both continuously and with pulsed excitation in the rare gases at pressures up to 800 Torr of Ne and 300 Torr of Xe. The overall thickness of the ceramic structure is ∼1.6 mm and each microdischarge is individually ballasted by a ∼225 kΩ resistor, produced and integrated into the structure by a thick film process. Arrays as large as 13×13 pixels have been tested to date. Spatially uniform glow discharges are generated in the pixels for all of the pressures investigated and strong emission from excited states of the singly charged Xe ion, lying ∼26–27 eV above the neutral (…5p 6 1 S 0 ) ground state, is observed. For a 169 element array drawing a total current of 30 mA, the output power of the array in the 300–1000 nm spectral region falls to ∼55% of its initial value in ∼8.3 h of continuous operation with a static gas fill.