公开(公告)号：EP1316840A2

公开(公告)日：2003-06-04

申请号：EP02021423.5

申请日：2002-09-25

申请人： MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD

发明人： Tomida, Kazuo ,  Hirohashi, Masaki ,  Kuwata, Jun ,  Imamura, Hiroko

IPC分类号： G02F1/13357 ,  H01J61/92

CPC分类号： H01J17/48 ,  H01J2217/4025

摘要： Disclosed are a gas discharge tube used for the backlight of a liquid crystal display (LCD) or the like and a drive method for the same. A flat type gas discharge tube comprises two plane glasses, a barrier and at least one electrode group comprised of a plurality of parallel electrodes. Voltages are applied to each electrode group in one discharge period in such a way that discharges of a rare gas dispersed spatially and along the time are allowed to occur. Even when a single gas discharge tube is used for the backlight of an LCD having a large display area, therefore, it does not suffer luminance unevenness and the locations of discharge can be dispersed spatially and along the time, thus ensuring a high emission efficiency. As the backlight does not require a light guide plate or a diffusion sheet, its manufacturing cost becomes lower.