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From: jimc@iscuva.ISCS.COM (Jim Cathey)
Newsgroups: sci.physics,sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Neon/gas discharge Iluminators
Message-ID: <1077@iscuva.ISCS.COM>
Date: 19 Jan 88 16:59:09 GMT
References: <636@ndmath.UUCP>
Organization: ISC Systems Corporation, Spokane, WA
Lines: 34

In article <636@ndmath.UUCP> milo@ndmath.UUCP (Greg Corson) writes:
>1. If you created a glass sandwitch with a thin space in between and
>   placed electrodes along two opposite (thin) edges. When the thing was
>   powered up would you get an even light across the entire sandwitch?
>   (say the thing was around 6x6 inches.
>   How about if you used transparent electrodes covering the entire sheet
>   of glass, front and back?  Even lighting or would you be likely to have
>   hot spots.
>
>2. If you have a large volume (say about a square foot) with the proper
>   gas mix for a neon light and you put a number of small electrodes at
>   various places in the box, would you end up with streamers of light
>   between positive and negative electrodes or would a fairly large volume
>   of space light up?  How about if you used two large flat electrodes
>   on opposite sides of the box?  Would the whole thing light up?

With DC/Low frequency AC excitation I would expect hot spots since neon
gas has a hysterisis effect (different turn-on and turn-off voltages).
Once one path was found through the gas, I would expect most of the current
to flow along the first path found, thus loading down the power supply and
preventing more paths from starting.  With high-frequency (like radio)
excitation things can get 'weird' (what with inductance of plasma paths and
so on), so you might get acceptable results this way.  Of course, high-voltage
RF generation isn't trivial, and might have some drawbacks. (Can _you_ say
FCC?  Sure, I knew you could!)

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