JP3367095B2 - Driving method of plasma display panel - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a plasma display panel and a driving method thereof, and more particularly to a surface discharge type plasma display panel and a driving method thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a plasma display panel (hereinafter abbreviated as PDP) has a thin structure, no flicker, a large display contrast ratio, a large area is relatively easy, and a response speed is high. It has many features such as being large. Therefore, in recent years, it has been used as a flat display as a display output of a personal computer, a workstation, a wall-mounted television, or the like.

The PDP has a DC discharge type in which an electrode is exposed to a discharge space (discharge gas) and operates in a DC discharge state, and a PDP is covered with a dielectric to discharge gas. There is an AC discharge type (AC type) that operates in an AC discharge state without being directly exposed. The AC discharge type used in wall-mounted televisions and the like includes a memory operation type having a memory function by the charge accumulation function of the dielectric in the display cell itself due to a structure for discharging through a dielectric, and a refresh operation type not using this. The brightness of the PDP is proportional to the number of discharges, that is, the number of repetitions of the pulse voltage.

Here, a configuration example of a general AC discharge type plasma display panel (AC-PDP) will be described.
FIG. 12 is a sectional view showing a main part of an AC discharge type color PDP. The color PDP has a front substrate 10 and a rear substrate 11 made of glass, which are provided on the front and rear faces, respectively, and has the following configuration in a space sandwiched between the front substrate 10 and the rear substrate 11.

A plurality of scanning electrodes 12 and a plurality of common electrodes 13 are formed on the front substrate 10 and extend in the depth direction of the paper at predetermined intervals. The scanning electrode 12 and the common electrode 13 are each covered with a dielectric layer 15a, and on the dielectric layer 15a, Mg for protecting the dielectric layer 15a from discharge is provided.
A protective layer 16 made of O or the like is formed.

A plurality of data electrodes 19 are formed on the rear substrate 11 and extend orthogonally to the scanning electrodes 12 and the common electrode 13 in the lateral direction of the drawing. Each data electrode 19 is covered with a dielectric layer 15b, and a phosphor 18 for converting ultraviolet rays generated by discharge into visible light is coated on the dielectric layer 15b. A color display PDP can be obtained by separately coating the phosphor 18 for each display cell into, for example, three primary colors of light, red (R), green (G), and blue (B).

A partition wall 17 is formed between the dielectric layer 15a and the dielectric layer 15b to secure a discharge space 20 and divide the display cell. In each discharge space 20,
A discharge gas mixed with He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, N ₂ , O ₂ , CO _{2 and the} like is filled.

FIG. 13 is a plan view of an electrode structure in the color PDP shown in FIG. In this electrode structure, m
Scan electrodes Si (i = 1, 2, ..., M) and m common electrodes Ci paired with the scan electrodes Si extend in the row direction in parallel with each other, and n scan electrodes Si are provided. Data electrode Dj (j =
1, 2, ..., N) extend parallel to each other in the column direction, and the display cell Ce is provided at each intersection of the electrodes Si, Ci, Dj.
Are formed one by one.

FIG. 14 shows a conventional memory operation type AC-PD.
6 is a timing chart showing an example of a driving method of P,
14 shows a drive voltage waveform applied to each electrode of the color PDP of FIG. First, the erase pulse 21 is applied to all the scan electrodes 12 to stop the discharge state of the display cells that have been emitting light by the sustain discharge before the time shown in the figure to put all the display cells in the erase state. The discharge operation by the erase pulse 21 is called sustain discharge erase. Here, erasing means reducing the wall charge described later,
Or, it means the action to disappear.

Next, a pre-discharge pulse 22 is applied to the common electrode 13.
Is applied to force all display cells to discharge and emit light,
Further, a preliminary discharge erasing pulse 23 is applied to the scanning electrode 12,
Erase the discharge of all display cells. The discharge operation by the preliminary discharge pulse 22 is called preliminary discharge, and the preliminary discharge erase pulse 23
The discharge operation due to is called pre-discharge erase. The preliminary discharge and the preliminary discharge erasing facilitate the later address discharge.

After the preliminary discharge is erased, the scanning pulse 24 is applied to each of the scanning electrodes S1 to Sm while shifting the timings mutually, and the display data is displayed on the data electrodes D1 to Dn at the timing when the scanning pulse 24 is applied. The corresponding data pulse 27 is applied. The diagonal lines of the data pulse 27 indicate that the presence or absence of the data pulse 27 is determined according to the presence or absence of display data. When applying the scanning pulse 24,
In the display cell to which the data pulse 27 is applied, discharge is generated in the discharge space 20 between the scan electrode 12 and the data electrode 19, but the data pulse 2 is applied when the scan pulse 24 is applied.
If 7 is not applied, no discharge will occur. Since display information is written in each display cell depending on the presence or absence of this discharge, this is called an address discharge.

In the display cell in which the address discharge is generated, positive charges called wall charges are accumulated in the dielectric layer 15a on the scanning electrode 12. At this time, the dielectric layer 15 on the data electrode 19
Negative wall charges are accumulated in b. A positive potential due to positive wall charges formed on the dielectric layer 15a on the scanning electrode 12,
First negative sustain pulse 2 applied to common electrode 13
By overlapping with 5, the first discharge is generated. When the first discharge occurs, positive wall charges are applied to the dielectric layer 15a on the common electrode 13 and the dielectric layer 15a on the scan electrode 12 is also generated.
Negative wall charges are accumulated at.

Due to the potential difference due to this wall charge, the scanning electrode 12
A second discharge is generated by superimposing the second sustain pulse 26 applied to the. In this way, the potential difference due to the wall charges formed by the n-th discharge and n + 1
The discharge is maintained by being superimposed with the sustain pulse of the second time. Therefore, this discharge operation is called sustain discharge.
The brightness is controlled by the number of sustain discharges.

If the voltages of the sustain pulse 25 and the sustain pulse 26 are adjusted in advance so that the pulse voltage alone does not cause the discharge, the first sustain pulse 25 of the display cell in which the address discharge has not occurred. Since there is no potential due to wall charges before application, the first sustain discharge does not occur even if the first sustain pulse 25 is applied. Therefore, the sustain discharge thereafter does not occur.

Since the common electrode 13 and the scanning electrode 12 are formed on the same surface, the discharge form generated between the two electrodes is called surface discharge. A gap between the common electrode 13 and the scanning electrode 12 is about 100 μm, and this gap is called a surface discharge gap or a surface discharge gap.

In the drive voltage waveform of FIG. 14, the period in which the erase pulse 21, the preliminary discharge pulse 22 and the preliminary discharge erase pulse 23 are applied is called the preliminary discharge period, and the period in which the scan pulse 24 and the data pulse 27 are applied is scanned. The period in which the sustain pulses 25 and 26 are applied is called the sustain period. The preliminary discharge period, the scanning period, and the sustain period are collectively referred to as a subfield SF.

FIG. 15 is a timing chart for explaining the gradation display method of the plasma display panel. In the conventional gradation display method in a PDP, one field, which is a period for displaying one screen (for example, 1/60 seconds), is divided into a plurality of subfields (for example, 4 subfields). As shown in FIG. 14, in each subfield, ON / OFF for display can be performed independently of each other.

In each subfield, the length of the sustain period,
That is, since the number of sustain pulses is different from each other, the brightness is different from each other. If the subfields are divided into four subfields as shown in FIG. 15 and the luminance ratio when each subfield is made to emit light is adjusted to 1: 2: 4: 8, four subfields are displayed. Depending on the combination of ON / OFF, from the luminance ratio 0 in the case of not selecting all subfields,
It is possible to display brightness in 16 steps up to a brightness ratio of 15 in the case of selecting all subfields. Generally, one field is n
When divided into a number of subfields and the luminance ratio of each subfield is set to 1 (= 2 ⁰ ): 2 (= 2 ¹ ): ...: 2 ^n-2 : 2 ^{n-1 n} gradation display is possible.

When the above gradation display method is used, even if the brightness ratio of all subfields is not selected, light emission during the preliminary discharge period exists in each subfield, so the absolute value of the light emission brightness is 0. It doesn't. This will increase the black level in the image display, which will affect the contrast ratio.

[0020]

In the above-described conventional color plasma display panel, the driving circuit is required to have a high withstand voltage characteristic because the pulse voltage required for the preliminary discharge for causing all the display cells to discharge and emit light is high. There is a problem. In the preliminary discharge by such a high voltage pulse, since the emission brightness during the preliminary discharge is high, the contrast ratio is inevitably low. Further, when the amount of wall charges formed after the address discharge is small, it is difficult to shift to the sustain discharge, so that there is a problem that the voltage of the scan pulse or the data pulse must be increased in order to perform the address discharge that is strong to some extent.

A driving method for solving the above problem is
It is described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-259768. In the driving method described in this publication, the third row electrode dedicated to the address is placed closer to the discharge space than the row electrode for sustain discharge, thereby lowering the applied voltage for addressing. Another driving method is Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-1058.
No. 56 publication. In the driving method described in this publication, a scan electrode for applying a scan pulse is arranged at the center of a display cell, and electrodes for sustaining discharge by pairing with the scan electrode are arranged on both sides of the display cell. , Stable write operation is performed at low voltage. However, the conventional techniques described in these publications are for easily performing the opposed discharge across the discharge space, and the effect only affects the write operation.

On the other hand, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 8-306318, a plurality of surface discharge intervals are formed in the same display cell, display data is written on the side of narrow surface discharge intervals, and a transition to surface discharge is performed. There is described a method of discharging a wide surface discharge interval by utilizing. However, the discharge method described in this publication considers only the generation of sustain discharge at a wide surface discharge interval, and does not consider any measures for improving the contrast ratio due to a decrease in brightness of the preliminary discharge.

In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to provide a plasma display panel capable of reducing each voltage in sustain discharge erasing, preliminary discharge and preliminary discharge erasing.

The present invention further achieves the above object,
An object of the present invention is to provide a driving method of a plasma display panel, which can be smoothly driven with a high contrast ratio by stabilizing the transition from address discharge to sustain discharge.

[0025]

In order to achieve the above object, a plasma display panel of the present invention has a plurality of row electrodes and a plurality of column electrodes arranged between substrates facing each other, In the plasma display panel, the display cells are arranged in a matrix at each intersection of the row electrodes and the column electrodes, and the display cells emit light by writing and sustaining a data write discharge to the display cells. Electrodes each have a scanning electrode provided corresponding to the display cell on one of the opposing substrates, and first and second common electrodes adjacent to both sides in the width direction of the scanning electrode. A first dielectric layer covering a region including a first gap between the first common electrode and a first dielectric layer covering a region including a second gap between the scan electrode and the second common electrode. 2 dielectric layers,
The thickness of the first dielectric layer and / or the width of the first gap is smaller than the thickness of the second dielectric layer and / or the width of the second gap. .

In the plasma display panel of the present invention, the discharge start voltage in the first gap is set lower than the discharge start voltage in the gap between the other electrodes, and the luminous efficiency in the second gap is set between the other electrodes. The luminous efficiency in the gap can be higher. Thereby, for example, the discharge having the high luminous efficiency generated in the second gap is used for the sustain discharge that consumes most of the power consumption, and the sustain discharge erase, the preliminary discharge and the preliminary discharge erase as the other driving operation are performed. It is possible to use a low voltage discharge that occurs in the gap of 1,
An image display with high luminous efficiency can be obtained with a low driving voltage.

At least one of sustain discharge erase, preliminary discharge and preliminary discharge erase is performed by the discharge in the first gap, and at least sustain discharge is performed by the discharge in the second gap. Is preferred. As a result, a high luminous efficiency image display can be achieved with a low driving voltage.

Further, it is preferable that the second dielectric layer is formed to be higher than the first dielectric layer. Alternatively, it is also a preferable aspect that the first dielectric layer is formed so as to be recessed more than the second dielectric layer instead. As a result, the discharge start voltage in the first gap is made lower than the discharge start voltage in the second gap, and the luminous efficiency of the discharge in the second gap is higher than the luminous efficiency of the discharge in the first gap. It is possible to easily obtain a structure for increasing the height.

Alternatively, it is preferable that the scanning electrode and the first common electrode are formed closer to the surface side of the dielectric layer than the second common electrode, instead of the above. It is also a preferable aspect that the common electrode is formed on the surface side of the dielectric layer with respect to the scanning electrode and the second common electrode. As a result, the discharge start voltage in the first gap is made lower than the discharge start voltage in the second gap, and the luminous efficiency of the discharge in the second gap is higher than the luminous efficiency of the discharge in the first gap. It is possible to easily obtain a structure for increasing the height.

The present invention is a driving method for driving the plasma display panel, wherein after the address discharge, at least one cycle of sustain discharge is performed in the first gap, and then in the second gap. It is characterized by shifting to discharge.

According to the driving method of the plasma display panel of the present invention, by stabilizing the transition from the write discharge to the sustain discharge, it is possible to easily drive with a high contrast ratio.

The plasma display panel of the present invention comprises:
A plurality of row electrodes and a plurality of column electrodes are provided between the substrates facing each other, and display cells are arranged in a matrix at each intersection of the row electrodes and the column electrodes. In a plasma display panel for causing the display cells to emit light by performing a data writing discharge and a sustaining discharge, the plurality of row electrodes are sequentially arranged on one of the facing substrates in correspondence with the display cells, a first electrode. A first dielectric layer having a common electrode and a second common electrode, covering a region including a first gap between the scan electrode and the first common electrode; and the first common electrode. A second dielectric layer covering a region including a second gap with the second common electrode, wherein the first dielectric layer is formed thinner than the second dielectric layer. It is characterized by

In the plasma display panel of the present invention, the sustain discharge shifts with the wall charges on the first common electrode as an intermediary, and most of the sustain discharge is generated on the first common electrode and the second common electrode.
Since it occurs between the common electrodes, the number of pulses applied to the scan electrodes is reduced and the voltage is reduced. As a result, it is possible to reduce the breakdown voltage burden on the drive circuit that drives the scan electrodes.

The plasma display panel of the present invention comprises:
A plurality of row electrodes and a plurality of column electrodes are provided between the substrates facing each other, and display cells are arranged in a matrix at each intersection of the row electrodes and the column electrodes. In a plasma display panel for causing the display cells to emit light by performing a data writing discharge and a sustaining discharge, the plurality of row electrodes are sequentially arranged on one of the facing substrates in correspondence with the display cells, a first electrode. A first dielectric layer having a common electrode and a second common electrode, covering a region including a first gap between the scan electrode and the first common electrode; and the first common electrode. A second dielectric layer covering a region including a second gap with the second common electrode, wherein the first dielectric layer is formed thicker than the second dielectric layer. It is characterized by

In the plasma display panel of the present invention, the discharge efficiency between the scan electrode and the first common electrode is improved, and the sustain discharge is erased between the common electrode and the second common electrode during driving. Pre-discharge and pre-discharge erasure can be performed, and all sustain discharge can be performed between the scan electrode and the first common electrode.

Further, it is preferable that the scan electrodes are formed wider than the first and second common electrodes. In this case, the probability of occurrence of discharge between the scan electrode and another electrode, for example, the data electrode at the time of writing increases, and the transition to the sustain discharge becomes stable.

[0037]

The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing the structure of a color PDP according to the first embodiment of the present invention. Color PDP
Has a front substrate 10 and a rear substrate 11 made of glass, which are arranged on the front and rear faces, respectively, and has the following configuration in the space sandwiched between the front substrate 10 and the rear substrate 11.
On the front substrate 10, a plurality of scanning electrodes 12 extending in the depth direction of the paper at a predetermined interval and a plurality of common electrodes A and B.
And are formed respectively. Scan electrode 12 and common electrodes A and B
Are respectively covered with the dielectric layer 15a, and the dielectric layer 15a
A protective layer 16 made of MgO or the like for protecting the dielectric layer 15a from discharge is formed thereon.

On the rear substrate 11, a plurality of data electrodes 19 which are orthogonal to the scanning electrodes 12 and the common electrodes A and B and extend in the left-right direction of the paper are formed. Each data electrode 19 is covered with a dielectric layer 15b, and on the dielectric layer 15b,
A phosphor 18 for converting the ultraviolet rays generated by the discharge into visible light is applied. A partition wall 17 is provided between the dielectric layer 15a on the front substrate 10 and the dielectric layer 15b on the rear substrate 11 to secure a discharge space 20 and partition each display cell Ce.
Are formed. In each discharge space 20, He, N
A discharge gas in which e, Ar, Kr, Xe, N ₂ , O ₂ , CO _{2 and the} like are mixed is filled.

In such an electrode structure, m scan electrodes Si (i = 1, 2, ..., M) and scan electrodes Si are used.
And m common electrodes Ci paired with each other extend in the row direction in parallel with each other, and n data electrodes Dj (j = 1, 2, ...
., N) extend parallel to each other in the column direction,
One display cell is formed at each intersection of i, Ci and Dj.

Here, the electrode structure will be described with reference to one of the plurality of display cells Ce provided between the front substrate 10 and the rear substrate 11. In this electrode structure, the scanning electrode 12 is arranged in the central portion of the display cell Ce, and the common electrode A (first common electrode) and the common electrode B (second common electrode) are arranged on both sides of the scanning electrode 12 in the width direction. The scanning electrodes 12 extend in parallel with each other. In the display cell Ce, the scan electrode 12
And the thickness of the dielectric layer 15a covering the region including the gap D1 (first gap) formed by the common electrode A is the gap D2 formed by the scan electrode 12 and the common electrode B.
The thickness is set smaller than the thickness of the dielectric layer 15a that covers the region including the (second gap). To achieve this, the gap D
The dielectric layer 15a that covers the region including 2 is formed to be higher than the dielectric layer 15a that covers the region including the gap D1.

FIG. 2 shows a PDP having the conventional structure shown in FIG.
7 is a graph showing the measurement results of the discharge start voltage Vf and the minimum sustaining voltage Vs in surface discharge when the thickness of the dielectric layer 15a covering the common electrode 13 and the scan electrode 12 is changed in FIG. The vertical axis in FIG. 2 represents voltage, and the horizontal axis represents dielectric thickness. From this graph, as the dielectric layer 15a becomes thinner, the discharge starting voltage Vf and the minimum sustaining voltage V
It can be seen that s decreases in each case.

FIG. 3 shows a conventional PDP similar to the above.
6 is a graph showing the measurement results of the luminous efficiency when the thickness of the dielectric layer 15a is changed in FIG. In the figure, the vertical axis represents the luminous efficiency and the horizontal axis represents the dielectric thickness [μm]. From this graph, it is understood that the luminous efficiency is improved as the dielectric layer 15a is thickened. That is, the PDP having the configuration of FIG.
In the case of a cell, comparing the first discharge generated between the scan electrode 12 and the common electrode A with the second discharge generated between the scan electrode 12 and the common electrode B, the dielectric layer 15a is compared. Is low voltage / low emission efficiency, and second discharge is thick dielectric layer 15a is high voltage / high emission efficiency.

Therefore, the second discharge having a high luminous efficiency is used for the sustain discharge, which is a large part of the power consumption of the PDP, and the sustain discharge erase, the preliminary discharge and the preliminary discharge erase as other driving operations are performed. By utilizing the first discharge characterized by a low voltage, it is possible to achieve a high luminous efficiency image display with a low driving voltage. In this embodiment example,
Although the driving voltage for the sustain discharge is slightly higher, the voltage required for the preliminary discharge is much higher than the voltage for the sustain discharge in the usual driving method. In this case, since the withstand voltage condition of the drive circuit is determined by the voltage of the preliminary discharge, the present invention can achieve a lower withstand voltage of the drive circuit. Also,
In FIG. 1, only the upper part of the gap between the scanning electrode 12 and the common electrode B in the dielectric layer 15a is formed thick,
The region where the dielectric layer 15a is thickened may be made wider than this as long as it does not cover other gaps.

FIG. 4 shows another PDP in this embodiment.
It is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of. In this structure, contrary to the case of FIG. 1, the dielectric layer 15a covering the gap D1 between the scan electrode 12 and the common electrode A is more than the dielectric layer 15a covering the gap D2 between the scan electrode 12 and the common electrode B. Formed thin.
That is, the dielectric layer 15 that covers the region including the gap D1
a is formed so as to be recessed from the dielectric layer 15a that covers the region including the gap D2. Also with this structure, the same effect as in the case of FIG. 1 can be obtained.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing the structure of the PDP in the second embodiment of the present invention. In this PDP, the scanning electrode 12 and the common electrode A are different from the common electrode B,
It is formed at a level closer to the discharge space 20. That is, the scanning electrode 12 and the common electrode A are formed closer to the surface side of the dielectric layer 15a than the common electrode B is. The same effect as in the case of the first embodiment can be obtained also by the embodiment of this configuration, and the first discharge of [low voltage / low emission efficiency] by the scanning electrode 12 and the common electrode A and the scanning are performed. [High voltage / high luminous efficiency] due to the electrode 12 and the common electrode B
The second discharge can be used to achieve image display with high luminous efficiency with a low breakdown voltage drive circuit.

FIG. 6 shows another PD in the second embodiment.
It is sectional drawing which shows the structure of P. In this structure, only the common electrode A is formed at a level close to the discharge space 20. That is, the common electrode A is formed closer to the surface side of the dielectric layer 15a than the scanning electrode 12 and the common electrode B. With this configuration, the same effect as in the case of FIG. 5 can be obtained.

By the way, the thickness of the dielectric layer 15a for reducing the discharge start voltage in the first and second embodiments may be smaller than the thickness of the dielectric layer in the conventional PDP structure, but is applied to the electrodes. Considering the resistance to a voltage of about 200 V, the thickness is preferably about 5 μm or more. When the thickness of the dielectric layer in the conventional structure is about 30 μm, the recommended range of the thickness of the “thin” dielectric layer 15a for obtaining the effect of the present invention is about 5 μm to 20 μm.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing the structure of the PDP in the third embodiment of the present invention. In this PDP, the scanning electrode 12 is arranged in the central portion of the display cell Ce,
A common electrode A and a common electrode B are provided on both sides of the scanning electrode 12 in the width direction.
Are arranged. The gap D2 between the scan electrode 12 and the common electrode B is formed wider than the first gap D1 between the scan electrode 12 and the common electrode A.

FIG. 8 shows a PDP having the conventional structure shown in FIG.
5 is a graph showing the measurement results of the discharge start voltage in surface discharge when the distance between the common electrode 13 and the scanning electrode 12 is changed. In FIG. 8, the vertical axis represents the discharge start voltage [V], and the horizontal axis represents the surface discharge interval [μm]. From this graph, it can be seen that the discharge start voltage [V] increases as the distance between the scan electrode 12 and the common electrode (A, B) increases in the measurement range.

FIG. 9 shows a PDP having a conventional structure similar to the above.
5 is a graph showing the measurement results of the luminous efficiency when the surface discharge interval is changed by. The vertical axis in FIG. 9 indicates the luminous efficiency [a.
u.], the horizontal axis represents the surface discharge interval [μm]. From this graph, it can be seen that the luminous efficiency is improved as the distance between the scanning electrode 12 and the common electrode (A, B) is increased.

That is, in the PDP cell shown in FIG. 7, the first discharge generated in the gap D1 between the scan electrode 12 and the common electrode A and the second discharge generated in the gap D2 between the scan electrode 12 and the common electrode B. The first discharge having a narrow electrode interval has [low voltage / low emission efficiency], and the second discharge having a wide electrode interval has [high voltage / high emission efficiency]. Therefore, according to the present embodiment as well, similar to the first embodiment, the sustain discharge, which is a large part of the power consumption of the PDP, is performed by using the highly efficient second discharge, and the other drive operation is maintained. By performing discharge erasing, preliminary discharge, and preliminary discharge erasing by the first discharge characterized by low voltage, it is possible to achieve image display with high luminous efficiency with low driving voltage.

The wide and narrow electrode spacing in the third embodiment is largely influenced by the discharge gas composition, but according to the measurement values obtained by the present inventors, the "wide" is markedly improved in luminous efficiency. About 150 μm or more, and “narrow” is preferably about 50 μm or less at which the discharge starting voltage is sufficiently lowered.

Although the adjustment of the thickness of the dielectric layer in the first and second embodiments and the adjustment of the electrode spacing in the third embodiment are independent concepts, both adjustments are performed individually. , Or simultaneously. That is, a first structure in which a first discharge is generated between electrodes having a narrow electrode spacing and a second discharge is generated between electrodes having a thick dielectric layer, and a first discharge is generated between electrodes having a thin dielectric layer. And a second structure in which a second discharge is generated between electrodes having a wide electrode spacing, and a first discharge is generated between electrodes in which a narrow electrode spacing and a thin dielectric layer are stacked, and a wide electrode spacing and a dielectric Any one of the third configurations for generating the second discharge between the electrodes in which the body is thickly stacked can be appropriately adopted. In any case, it is possible to obtain the effect of the present invention that the sustain discharge erase, the preliminary discharge and the preliminary discharge erase are performed by the first discharge, and the sustain discharge is performed by the second discharge.

FIG. 10 is a timing chart showing an example of drive waveforms of the PDP cell in the fourth embodiment of the present invention, which is described in correspondence with FIG. 14 showing conventional drive voltage waveforms. 1 and a drive voltage waveform applied to an electrode of a PDP having any one of the structures of FIGS. 4 to 7. The drive voltage waveform in FIG. 10 is for explaining the concept, and is not limited to these waveforms and timings.

In FIG. 10, a preliminary discharge pulse is applied to the common electrode A during the preliminary discharge period (priming period), and a sustain pulse is applied at the beginning of the sustain period. The sustain erasing pulse and the preliminary discharge erasing pulse are sequentially applied, the scanning pulse is applied during the scanning period, and the sustain pulse is applied during the sustaining period. Further, the sustain pulse is applied to the common electrode B in a period other than the initial period in the sustain period, and the data pulse is applied to the data electrode 19 in the scan period.

By applying each waveform, sustain erase, preliminary discharge, preliminary discharge erase, and sustain discharge in the initial sustain period are generated between the common electrode A and the scan electrode 12, and sustain discharge in the period excluding the initial sustain period is generated. The address discharge is generated between the scan electrode 12 and the common electrode B, and the address discharge due to the scan pulse and the data pulse is generated between the scan electrode 12 and the data electrode 19. That is, most of the driving operation by surface discharge is performed between the common electrode A and the scan electrode 12 having a low discharge start voltage.
The voltage of the applied pulse can be reduced. In addition, the sustain discharge, which is another driving operation, has high emission efficiency and is a discharge between the scan electrode 12 and the common electrode B, so that it is possible to obtain effects such as reduction in power consumption and improvement in contrast ratio. it can.

Now, the sustain discharge at the beginning of the sustain period will be described. The sustain discharge in the initial sustain period generated between the scan electrode 12 and the common electrode A is started by the positive wall charges on the scan electrode 12 formed by the address discharge and the first sustain pulse applied to the common electrode A. To be done. After the first sustain discharge is completed, positive wall charges are applied to the dielectric layer 15 a on the common electrode A and the dielectric layer 1 on the scan electrode 12 is discharged.
Negative wall charges are formed on each of 5a, and the potential difference between the positive and negative wall charges and the second sustain pulse applied to the scan electrode 12 are superposed to generate the second sustain discharge. .

At this point, the dielectric layer 15 on the common electrode A is
Negative wall charges are formed on a and positive wall charges are formed on the dielectric layer 15a on the scanning electrode 12, respectively. At this time, the scanning electrode 12
The wall charge amount formed above is larger than the wall charge amount formed immediately after the address discharge. in this way,
The amount of wall charges formed on the electrodes gradually increases with each discharge until a steady state is reached.

By increasing the wall charge amount on the scan electrode 12, a discharge having a high discharge start voltage between the scan electrode 12 and the common electrode B is generated without extremely increasing the sustain pulse voltage applied from the outside. It will be possible. Accordingly, the first discharge between the scan electrode 12 and the common electrode A in the initial sustain period can be transferred to the second discharge between the scan electrode 12 and the common electrode B without using the high voltage pulse. The number of discharges between the scan electrode 12 and the common electrode A at the initial stage of the sustain discharge is
If the transition between the common electrode B and the common electrode B is possible, the minimum number of cycles may be one (the number of discharges is two).

In FIG. 10, 2 cycles (the number of discharges is 4
Times). Further, since the discharge is performed at a low voltage between the scan electrode 12 and the common electrode A, the voltage value of the sustain pulse in this period can be made lower than the voltage value of the sustain pulse in the remaining period. Conversely, by increasing the voltage value of the sustain pulse in this period to be higher than the voltage value of the sustain pulse in the remaining period, it is possible to reduce the number of discharges in this period.

In the electrode arrangements shown in FIGS. 1 and 4 to 7, each display cell has three electrodes, and the scanning electrode 1 has three electrodes.
2 showed the structure arranged in the center. However, the present invention is not limited to such a configuration, and can be applied to any electrode structure having a gap having a lower firing voltage than others and a gap having a higher luminous efficiency than others.

Other electrode structures will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 11 is a sectional view showing the structure of another modification of the PDP to which the present invention is applied.

In the electrode structure of FIG. 11A, the scanning electrode 1
2 is one end of the array, the common electrode A is arranged at the center, and the common electrode B is arranged at the other end of the array. The dielectric layer 15a covering the gap D3 (first gap) between the scanning electrode 12 and the common electrode A covers the gap D4 (second gap) between the common electrode A and the common electrode B. It is thinner than the layer 15a, and the discharge start voltage between the scan electrode 12 and the common electrode A is set lower than the discharge start voltage between the common electrode A and the common electrode B. When the PDP having such a structure is driven, sustain discharge erase, preliminary discharge, preliminary discharge erase, and sustain discharge in the initial sustain period are performed between the scan electrode 12 and the common electrode A, and the remaining sustain discharge is performed. Is performed between the common electrode A and the common electrode B.

The difference in driving the PDP shown in FIG. 1 and the PDP shown in FIG. 11A is as follows. That is, in the structure of FIG. 1, the transition of the sustain discharge is performed by using the wall charges on the scan electrodes 12 as intermediaries, whereas in the structure of FIG. 11A, the transition of the sustain discharges is performed by using the wall charges on the common electrode A as intermediaries. Further, in the structure of FIG. 11A, most of the sustain discharge is generated between the common electrode A and the common electrode B, so that the pulse applied to the scan electrode 12 is reduced and the voltage value is reduced. can get. As a result, it is possible to reduce the burden on the drive circuit (not shown) that drives the scan electrodes 12 in terms of withstand voltage.

In the electrode structure of FIG. 11B, the scanning electrode 1
2 is one end of the array, the common electrode A is arranged at the center, and the common electrode B is arranged at the other end of the array. Contrary to the configuration example of FIG. 11A, the dielectric layer 15a covering the gap D3 between the scanning electrode 12 and the common electrode A covers the gap D4 between the common electrode A and the common electrode B. By being formed thicker than the body layer 15a, the discharge efficiency between the scanning electrode 12 and the common electrode A is improved.

When the PDP shown in FIG. 11B is driven, sustain discharge erase, preliminary discharge and preliminary discharge erase are performed between the common electrode A and the common electrode B, and all the sustain discharge is performed by the scan electrode 12. And the common electrode A. In this case, if the electrode width of the scan electrode 12 is widened as shown in the same figure, the probability of occurrence of discharge between the scan electrode 12 and the data electrode 19 at the time of writing increases, and sustain discharge is increased. The transition will also be stable. This relationship is ASIA DISPLAY'9
5, p377, “Evaluation of Discharge Cell Structure
for Color AC plasma Display Panels ”.

Although the present invention has been described based on its preferred embodiments, the plasma display panel and the driving method thereof according to the present invention are not limited to the configurations of the above embodiments, and the above embodiments are not limited thereto. A plasma display panel and a driving method thereof, which are variously modified and changed from the configuration of the embodiment, are also included in the scope of the present invention.

[0068]

As described above, according to the plasma display panel of the present invention, each voltage in sustain discharge erasing, preliminary discharge and preliminary discharge erasing can be reduced. Further, according to the plasma display panel driving method of the present invention, by stabilizing the transition from the address discharge to the sustain discharge, it is possible to smoothly drive with a high contrast ratio.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a configuration of a PDP according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a graph showing a measurement result of a characteristic voltage in a surface discharge when a thickness of a dielectric layer covering a common electrode and a scanning electrode is changed in a PDP having a conventional structure.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing measurement results of luminous efficiency when the thickness of a dielectric layer is changed in a PDP having a conventional structure.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of another PDP in the first embodiment example.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of a PDP in the second embodiment example of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing the structure of another PDP in the second embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of a PDP according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a graph showing a measurement result of a discharge start voltage in a surface discharge when a distance between a common electrode and a scan electrode is changed in a PDP having a conventional structure.

FIG. 9 is a graph showing measurement results of luminous efficiency when the surface discharge interval is changed in the PDP having the conventional structure.

FIG. 10 is a timing chart showing an example of drive waveforms of a PDP cell in the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a sectional view showing the structure of another modification of the PDP to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view showing a main part of a conventional AC discharge type color PDP.

13 is a plan view of an electrode structure of the color PDP shown in FIG.

FIG. 14 is a timing chart showing an example of a driving method of a conventional memory operation type AC-PDP.

FIG. 15 is a timing chart for explaining a gradation display method of a conventional plasma display panel.

[Explanation of symbols]

10: Front substrate 11: Back substrate 12: Scan electrode 13: common electrode 15a, 15b: Dielectric layer 16: Protective layer 17: Partition wall 18: Phosphor 19: Data electrode 20: Discharge space 21: Erase pulse 22: Pre-discharge pulse 23: Pre-discharge erase pulse 24: Scan pulse 25, 26: Sustain pulse 27: Data pulse Ce: display cell D1 to D4: Gap

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01J 11/02 G09G 3/20 H01J 11/00

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A plurality of scan electrodes, which include substrates facing each other, one substrate having a plurality of data electrodes extending in a column direction, and the other substrate having a plurality of scan electrodes extending in a row direction, and both sides in the width direction of the scan electrodes. A first dielectric layer in the first gap between the scan electrode and the first common electrode, and a first dielectric layer in the first gap between the scan electrode and the first common electrode. A second dielectric layer is formed in each of the second gaps between the two common electrodes, and the thickness of the first dielectric layer and / or the width of the first gap is equal to the second gap. A driving method for driving a plasma display panel having a thickness smaller than that of the dielectric layer and / or a width of the second gap, the sustaining discharge for at least one cycle after the end of the writing discharge. It is characterized in that the discharge is performed in the gap and then the discharge in the second gap is performed. The driving method of plasma display panel. 2. At least one of sustain discharge erase, preliminary discharge, and preliminary discharge erase by the discharge in the first gap.
The method for driving a plasma display panel according to claim 1, wherein at least a sustain discharge is performed by performing discharge in the second gap.