The driving frequency dependence of EL characteristics were investigated in thick ceramic insulating type thin-film electroluminescent (TFEL) devices with various Mn-activated Y2O3-based phosphor thin-film emitting layers driven by a sinusoidal wave voltage. High luminous efficiencies of approximately 10 and 1 lm/W were obtained in the TFEL devices driven at 60 Hz and 1 kHz, respectively. The difference in luminous efficiency was mainly caused by the increase of input power in 1 kHz-driven-devices resulting from a dielectric loss of a thick BaTiO3 ceramic sheet used as the insulating layer. The correlation between the sound emission from the devices and the effective power consumed in the devices was found with variations in both the applied voltage and the frequency. The higher input power of the 1 kHz-driven-device may be attributable to sound emissions resulting from the piezo-electricity of BaTiO3 ceramics.

Thin-film electroluminescent (TFEL) devices have been newly developed using Y2GeO5 oxide phosphor thin films prepared by r.f. magnetron sputtering. Multicolor emissions were observed in TFEL devices fabricated using various impurity-activated Y2GeO5 phosphor thin films. A high-luminance TFEL device was fabricated using a Y2GeO5:Mn thin film prepared with a Mn content of 2 at.% and postannealed at 1020: luminances of 414 and 3020 cd/m2 and luminous efficiencies of 6.7 and 0.93 lm/W for yellow emission when driven at 60 Hz and 1 kHz, respectively. Newly developed oxide Y2GeO5:Mn phosphors are very promising for use as the thin-film emitting layer of TFEL devices.