Driven by the advances in the plasma display panel (PDP) technique and Hg-free fluorescent lamps, the demand on high efficient vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) phosphors has increased dramatically in the past decade. To search for high efficient VUV phosphors in a variety of materials systems using the combinatorial approach, we have set up a scanning multi-inkjet delivery system for the solution-based combinatorial synthesis of libraries and a parallel screening apparatus for VUV photoluminescence based on a home designed cathode gas (Xe/He or Xe/Ne) discharge lamp. We demonstrated the applicability of the combinatorial strategy in high efficient VUV phosphors by fabricating a series of RE doped borophosphate phosphors libraries, characterizing their performance on VUV photoluminescence. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.