Field emission display (FED) is currently being explored as a potential flat panel display technology. The need of new materials for low voltage blue phosphors for FED focused our attention on the $Y_2O_3-Nb_2O_5$ sys-tem. Yttrium niobate doped with $Bi^{3+}$ was prepared by solid state reaction technique and the optimization of the luminescent properties with a control of $Bi^{3+}$ amounts and Y/Nb ratio was studied. Under 254 nm and low voltage electron excitations $Bi^{3+}-activated$ YNbO4 phosphors showed a strong and relatively narrow blue em-ission band with a range of 420 to 450 nm, Especially 0.4wt% $Bi^{3+};doped;YNbO_4$ phosphors with Y/Nb ratio of 1/1 showed the maximum emission intensity. Under low voltage electron excitation maximum emission in-tensity appeared at the Y/Nb ratio of 0.495/0.505.