A research team funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research has pioneered the use of micro-plasmas in a revolutionary approach to illumination. Just as in a fluorescent light, a micro-cavity array is energized by an applied voltage. By successfully confining that plasma in parallel rows of micro-cavities within thin sheet materials, Drs. Gary Eden and Sung-Jin Park of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, ultimately arrived at various implementations of micro-plasma arrays, which result in inexpensive, wafer-thin, and very flexible sheets of light. Credit: Courtesy of Eden Park Illumination