The performance of ac plasma display panels (PDP) is influenced strongly by the surface glow discharge characteristics on the MgO thin films. This paper deals with the surface glow discharge characteristics and some physical properties of MgO thin films prepared by reactive RF planar unbalanced magnetron sputtering in connection with ac PDP. The samples prepared with dc bias voltage of -10V showed lower discharge voltage and lower erosion rate byion bombardment than those samples prepared by conventional magnetron sputtering or E-beam evaporation. The main factor that improves the discharge characteristics by bias voltage is considered to be due to the morphology changes or crystal structure of the MgO thin film by ion bombardement during deposition process.