The vacuum sealing process with a base vacuum of 10-5 Torr is adopted to minimize the residual impurity gas. The address and sustain discharges in the 42-in PDP prepared by the vacuum-sealing process are observed by using the ICCD. As a result, the ICCD observation illustrates that thanks to the reduction of the impurity level by the vacuum-sealing process, the surface and plate-gap discharges are initiated and extinguished very fast and the corresponding IR emissions are also intensified.

Minimizing the residual impurity gases is a key factor for reducing temporal dark image sticking. Therefore, this paper uses a vacuum-sealing method that minimizes the residual impurity gases by enhancing the base vacuum level, and the resultant change in temporal dark image sticking is then examined in comparison to that with the conventional sealing method using 42-in. ac-PDPs with a high Xe (11%) content. As a result of monitoring the difference in the display luminance, infrared emission, and perceived luminance between the cells with and without temporal dark image sticking, the vacuum-sealing method is demonstrated to reduce temporal dark image sticking by decreasing the residual impurity gases and increasing the oxygen vacancy in the MgO layer. Furthermore, the use of a modified driving waveform along with the vacuum-sealing method is even more effective in reducing temporal dark image sticking.