Method of forming conductors in slots in a plate

Claim 1

A method of making a display panel comprising: providing a glass support plate having a top surface and having a plurality of parallel slots formed in said top surface and varying in depth beneath said top surface, completely filling all of said slots with the same filling material comprising a carrier medium including metal and glass frit particles, permitting said metal and glass frit particles to settle through said medium to the bottom of each of said slots, removing said medium to leave a film of metal and glass frit particles as an electrode at the base of each of said slots, fusing said glass frit to fix said electrodes in place in said slots, using the top surface of said plate as a guide, removing surface portions of said electrode so that the top surfaces of all of said electrodes become uniformly spaced below the top surface of the support plate, said electrodes comprising first anode electrodes, mounting a plurality of cathode electrodes on the top surface of said support plate transverse to said first anode electrodes, so that each cathode crosses each first anode and defines a first gas cell, there being rows and columns of such first gas cells, seating a cell sheet having top and bottom surfaces on said cathodes, said cell sheet having rows and columns of apertures, each aperture being aligned with a first gas cell, providing a set of second anode electrodes on the top surface of said cell sheet, said second anode electrodes being disposed transverse to said cathode electrodes and defining rows and columns of second gas cells therewith, hermetically sealing a viewing face plate to said support plate to form an envelope enclosing said first and second anode electrodes, said cathode electrodes and said cell sheet, and filling said envelope with an ionizable gas.

Claim 2

A method of making a display panel comprising: providing a glass support plate having a top surface and having a plurality of parallel slots formed in said top surface and varying in depth beneath said top surface, completely filling all of said slots with the same filling material comprising a carrier medium including metal and glass frit particles, permitting said metal and glass frit particles to settle through said medium to the bottom of each of said slots, removing said medium to leave a film of metal and glass frit particles as an electrode at the base of each of said slots, fusing said glass frit to fix said electrodes in place in said slots, using the top surface of said plate as a guide, removing surface portions of said electrode so that the top surfaces of all of said electrodes become uniformly spaced below the top surface of the support plate, said electrodes comprising first anode electrodes, mounting a plurality of cathode electrodes on the top surface of said support plate transverse to said first anode electrodes, so that each cathode crosses each first anode and defines a first gas cell, there being rows and columns of such first gas cells, seating a cell sheet having top and bottom surfaces on said cathodes, said cell sheet having rows and columns of apertures, each aperture being aligned with a first gas cell, providing a set of second anode electrodes on the top surface of said cell sheet, said second anode electrodes being disposed transverse to said cathode electrodes and defining rows and columns of second gas cells therewith, hermetically sealing a viewing face plate to said support plate to form an envelope enclosing said first and second anode electrodes, said cathode electrodes and said cell sheet, and filling said envelope with an ionizable gas.