A flat panel monitor is generally structured such that side walls are provided between a faceplate and a backplate that are provided substantially in parallel with a predetermined gap therebetween, and this assembly is sealed while maintaining a high vacuum state therein. The assembly of a flat panel display comprises a baseplate and a faceplate that are physically bonded together in forming a hermetic seal. For example, a glass powder, or frit, is placed in a continuous pattern along the outside perimeter of the display viewing area and melted at elevated temperatures to provide the desired hermetic seal. Once the display is sealed, it is generally important to uniformly cool the display assembly to minimize any thermal stress or shock that may result from immediate exposure to ambient temperature. The faceplate structure includes an insulating faceplate and a light emitting structure formed on an interior surface of the insulating faceplate. The light emitting structure includes light emissive elements such as phosphor or phosphor patterns which define the active region of the display. The backplate structure includes an insulating backplate and electron-emitting elements located adjacent to the backplate. Flat panel displays typically include a flat panel on which a matrix of cells formed between two glass substrates is arranged, a PCB module for driving the flat panel, and a case for protecting and integrating these elements. The PCB module acts as a drive circuit to enable the flat panel to perform the normal display of computer images, television images, etc. Flat screen monitor may be a reflective display or a transmissive display. In the case of a transmissive display, incident light passes through the optically active pixel element, the pixel electrode, and the substrate upon which the display is formed. In a reflective display, light is reflected off the pixel electrode, and does not pass through the substrate. A flat panel display (FPD) includes a spacer that is mounted within the display with opposing surfaces closely contacting the plates such that the two plates are supported by the spacer. The spacer is preferably made of a photosensitive glass with good conductivity to obtain FPDs having excellent display qualities such as display image, brightness and color since the spacer prevents the emission of secondary electrons and spacer charging generated upon operation of FPDs. Flat panel displays are small and light enough to be mounted on an adjustable arm which can allow the user to locate the display at a particular location. Once located, the display needs to be tilted and swiveled to the correct viewing angle.

A flat panel display utilizes various mechanisms such as cathode rays (electrons), plasmas, and liquid crystals to display information on the faceplate. The flat panel display apparatus receives an analog video signal and synchronous signal from a host such as personal computer system to convert the analog video signal by an analog to digital converter (A/D converter) to corresponding digital video signal to display. In general, the flat panel display receives image signals and horizontal and vertical synchronizing signals. The received image signals are synchronized by the flat panel display according to the horizontal and vertical synchronizing signals and displayed. The image signals generated from the host can have various types of modes according to video cards equipped in the host. For instance, a preset mode of the flat panel display is stored for the image signals by setting various parameters; such as horizontal and vertical positions and sizes. The PCB modules in flat panel monitors receive and process R, G, B image data and synchronization signals, then provide image data, scanning signals, and timing control signals to the flat panel. The PCB module is realized through a plurality of PCBs and a plurality of flexible printed cables, which are used for the transmission of signals between the PCBs. Flat panel displays are matrix driven devices as opposed to beam driven devices. Matrix driven means that driving the image is obtained by activating columns and rows. The point where a column and row meet defines a pixel. In a flat panel display, two orthogonal address lines, namely, scan lines and data lines, are used to control the pixels arranged in a matrix for image display. The scan lines and the data lines are perpendicular to each other. Each intersection of the scan lines and the data lines is located near by a pixel. The scan lines and data lines have to be long enough to cross the whole display area of the flat panel display device. A thin film transistor (TFT) in a flat display device such as a liquid display device, an organic electroluminescence display device, or an inorganic electroluminescence display device is used as a switching device for controlling operations of pixels and as a driving device for driving the pixels. The TFT includes a semiconductor active layer having a drain area and a source area which are doped with a high concentration of impurities and a channel area formed between the drain area and the source area, a gate insulating layer formed on the semiconductor active layer, and a gate electrode formed on the gate insulating layer which is located on an upper part of the channel area of the active layer. Display devices may be broadly classified into two categories: emissive displays such as cathode ray tubes (CRTs) and plasma display panels (PDPs), and non-emissive displays such as liquid crystal displays (LCD). Non-emissive displays are not self-luminous, such as liquid crystal displays, and require backlighting in the form of a lighting unit that is as flat as possible.

Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are a well-known form of flat panel monitors with advantages of low power consumption, light weight, thin profile, and low driving voltage. Liquid crystal display (LCD) panels are used in personal computers and other types of office automation equipment, as well as in televisions and other audio/video (A/V) equipment. An LCD device is a non-emissive display device that displays images by a refractive index difference utilizing optical anisotropy properties of a liquid crystal material interposed between an array substrate and a color filter substrate. LCD panel generally consists of pixel electrodes for driving the liquid crystals with an electric field, thin film transistors (TFT) used as switching devices made of amorphous-silicon thin films or poly-silicon thin films, a TFT panel on which orthogonal scan lines and signal lines are formed on a glass panel for controlling TFT switching, and a back panel comprising a color filter and back plane electrode opposing the TFT panel, with a specific gap therebetween in which the liquid crystals are filler. The active matrix type liquid crystal display (AM-LCD) using semiconductor switching devices is one of the representative flat panel liquid crystal displays. In particular, the thin film transistor type liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) has been intensively developed. A typical active matrix liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal panel and a display control unit for controlling the liquid crystal panel. The liquid crystal panel has a plurality of display pixels arranged in a matrix, a plurality of scanning lines formed along rows of the display pixels, a plurality of signal lines formed along columns of the display pixels, and a plurality of switching elements formed in the vicinity of intersections between the scanning lines and the signal lines. The switching element is driven via the corresponding scanning line in order to apply the potential of a corresponding signal line to a corresponding display pixel. A source of illumination is placed behind the LCD layers to facilitate visualization of the resultant image. In LCD monitors, a white pixel is composed of a red, a green and a blue color point or spot. When each color point of the pixel is illuminated simultaneously and with the appropriate intensity, white can be perceived by the viewer at the pixel's screen position. In the liquid crystal display device, various kinds of clock signals and a power source voltage are supplied from an external control circuit to the driving circuit and the power source circuit on the array substrate.

Plasma display panels (PDP) have long been studied as potential replacements for the cathode ray tube (CRT) displays presently used in devices such as televisions and computer monitors. One important advantage of plasma display panels is that a relatively large display area can be provided with relatively minimal thickness a compared to cathode ray tubes. Recently, plasma display panels are becoming increasingly common as big-screen flat panel displays not only for business use but also for consumer use. A PDP has front and rear glass substrates joined to each other, and a space therebetween is filled with a discharge gas. The glass substrates filled with a discharge gas is called a display panel. On the front glass plate, a number of transparent scan electrodes and transparent sustain electrodes are located in parallel to one another, and on the rear glass plate, a number of data electrodes are located in parallel to one another, orthogonally to the scan electrodes and the sustain electrodes. A drive circuit including a power device is mounted on the rear side of the display panel. The PDP displays images by using the visible ray. The principle of operation of a plasma flat panel display is the conversion of ultraviolet radiation into visible light by phosphors. An ultraviolet ray generated by gas discharge excites a phosphor to generate a visible ray. Plasma display panels comprise an array of cells containing a rare gas, particularly a neon-based gas, in which a discharge is generated to produce vacuum ultraviolet rays, by which phosphors (R, G and B) provided in the cells are excited to emit fluorescence. By applying respective predetermined voltages to these three kinds of cell electrodes at predetermined timings, an electric discharge is generated between the electrodes, so that ultraviolet is generated by the electric discharge, with the result that a phosphor coated in the display cells generates a visible light in response to the generated ultraviolet. The electrical discharges generated by the electrode pairs are confined within a small area by not only applying a potential difference to a predetermined pair of single electrodes. To display color images, different phosphors for respectively generating three primary colors of red, green and blue, are used in different display cells, so that the display cells are selectively driven for light generation, with the result that a desired color image can displayed. The plasma display is largely classified into a direct current (DC) type and an alternating current (AC) type according to a structural difference of a discharge cell thereof and a form of a driving voltage based on the structural difference. The AC type plasma display includes such a structure that a dielectric layer covers an electrode to serve as a current regulation resistor, whereas the DC type plasma display includes such a structure that an electrode is exposed to a discharge room as it is and that a discharge current comes to flow during a supply of the discharge voltage.

A field emission display (FED, also called "thin CRT" device) is a low power, flat cathode ray tube type display that uses a matrix-addressed cold cathode to produce light from a screen coated with phosphor materials. A field emission display generally comprises a lower substrate on which cathode electrodes with emitter tips and gate electrodes are formed, an upper substrate on which anode electrodes and fluorescent materials are formed, and spacers formed between both substrates. Field emission displays employ cold cathodes which produce mini-electron beams that activate phosphor layers in the pixel. Field emission displays render an image on a flat viewing surface in response to electrons striking a phosphor layer. Within the FED device, electrons are typically emitted by field emission. As an intense electric field is developed among the cathode, the gate and the anode electrodes when the space is maintained in the high vacuum condition, electrons are emitted from the emitter tips by an electric field emission and a tunneling effect. A typical FED display screen is composed of a matrix of color points where three color points (red, green, blue) make up a pixel. Therefore, an FED display screen contains a matrix of pixels. The light-emitting device in a field-emission display contains a transparent faceplate, an anode that overlies the faceplate's interior surface, and an array of light-emitting regions also overlying the faceplate's interior surface. During operation of the FED, electrons are emitting from selected electron-emissive elements and are attracted by the anode to the light-emitting device. Upon reaching the light-emitting device, the electrons strike corresponding light-emissive regions and cause them to emit light that produces an image on the faceplate's exterior surface. The field emission display is divided into a tip type FED emitting electrons by concentrating a high electric field to an acuminate emitter by using a quantum-mechanical tunnel effect and a MIM (metal insulator metal) type FED emitting electrons by concentrating a high electric field to a metal having a certain area by using a quantum-mechanical tunnel effect. The FED offers great promise as an alternative flat panel display technology. The field emission displays have the advantages of being potentially lower in cost, low power consumers, having a better viewing angle, higher brightness, less smearing of fast moving video images, and being tolerant to greater temperature ranges than other display types.

The electroluminescent displays may be categorized into inorganic electroluminescent displays (IELD) devices and organic electroluminescent display (OELD, organic EL display) devices depending upon source material for exciting carriers. The OELD electrically excites fluorescent organic compounds to emit light, and performs voltage driving or current driving on a number of organic luminescent cells so as to display images. An organic electroluminescent display emits light by injecting electrons from a cathode and injecting holes from an anode into an emission layer, combining the electrons with the holes, generating an exciton, and transitioning the exciton from an excited state to a ground state. An organic electroluminescent display element has a structure in which a luminescent layer made of an organic compound is put between an anode and a cathode. The OELD devices may be classified into passive matrix-type and active matrix-type, depending upon a method for driving the devices. The passive matrix-type OELD devices do not have additional thin film transistors (TFTs), and are commonly used. An organic electroluminescent display has advantages that visibility is high by self color development, an all-solid display superior in impact resistance is provided different from a liquid crystal display, a speed of response is high, little influence of a temperature change is exerted, and a visual field angle is large. In recent years, use as a light emitting device in an image display apparatus has been noticed. The OELD devices may be driven by low voltage direct current (DC), and have short microsecond response times. Organic electroluminescent display (OELD) devices have wide viewing angles and excellent contrast ratios because of their self-luminescence. Contrary to liquid crystal display (LCD) devices, an additional light source is not necessary for an OELD device to emit light since the transition of the exciton between the excited and ground states causes light to be emitted from the emission. Accordingly, the size and weight of the OELD device is less than that of an LCD device. The organic electroluminescent display device has drawn attention as a displaying device for natural colors because it can display every color in a range of a visible light and has a high brightness and a low voltage. In particular, active matrix type organic EL displays having thin film transistors (TFT) as switching elements are regarded as the mainstream of next-generation flat displays.

Vacuum fluorescent displays (VFD) are a type of display that utilizes thermal emission of electrons from a cathode also referred to as a VFD filament and phosphor excitation at a target anode to generate a color display. A vacuum fluorescent display is a type of electron tube that is able to recognize input/output states and operational conditions of various machines and apparatuses. A typical vacuum fluorescent display device comprises a transparent evacuated envelope containing a plurality of anodes arranged in a pattern of desired light emission, each anode being coated with a fluorescent layer for emitting light when excited, a heated filament serving as a source of electrons, and control grids located between the filament and the anodes for determining which anodes can be excited by the electrons. Vacuum fluorescent displays require a filament power supply to heat the filament to a temperature suitable for proper emission of electrons which are accelerated by an anode potential onto a fluorescent material to emit light. The filament is electrically heated to generate a cloud of electrons, which are attracted by the grid and driven into the phosphored anode segments, resulting in emission of light at the phosphor surface. An isolated power supply is usually used for a filament of a vacuum fluorescent display; otherwise, a malfunction may occur in the vacuum fluorescent display. Since a VFD has excellent visibility, a wide viewing angle, a low driving voltage, and high reliability, it is well adapted for use as a display device in various applications. Vacuum fluorescent displays have been widely applied to various products such as phonographic equipment, video recorders, CD (compact disc) players and VCD (video compact disc) players. Generally, vacuum fluorescent displays may be classified into various formats depending upon the structure, the display area, the display content, and the manner of driving. In view of the display area, the VFDs can be classified into a usual type, a front luminescent type, and a dual layer type. In view of the display content, the VFDs can be classified into a number display type, a character display type, and a graphic display type.