The discharge characteristics of a plasma display panel (PDP) cell are investigated by two-dimensional fluid simulation and experiment in order to analyze the effects of permittivity and thickness of dielectric layers Four-inch test panels having the same cell size as a 50-inch FHD (full high definition) resolution were fabricated to measure static margin, luminance, power consumption, and luminous efficacy As the dielectric permittivity decreases and the dielectric thickness increases, firing voltage increases, but luminous efficacy increases due to the decreases of power consumption It was observed that the luminous efficacy increases by 30% in the case of relative permittivity epsilon(r) = 7 and dielectric thickness d = 25 mu m compared with the case of epsilon(r) = 12 and d = 35 mu m (C) 2009 Elsevier B V All rights reserved