Ceramic microdischarge arrays with individually ballasted pixels

Arrays of cylindrical microdischarge devices, similar to200 mum in diameter, have been fabricated with internally recessed annular electrodes in multilayer ceramic 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 similar to1.6 mm and each microdischarge is individually ballasted by a similar to225 kOmega resistor, produced and integrated into the structure by a thick film process. Arrays as large as 13x13 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 similar to26-27 eV above the neutral (...5p(6) S-1(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 similar to55% of its initial value in similar to8.3 h of continuous operation with a static gas fill. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.