JPS5836914B2 - Drive method of self-shifting gas discharge panel - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention relates to a drive method for a self-shifting gas discharge panel, and in particular, the speed of the shift operation is switched in at least two stages, such as skip feed and normal feed, depending on the mode of display information. This relates to a new drive system.

The so-called self-shift type gas discharge panel, which has a discharge spot shifting function, is used for matrix display AC.
It was developed to simplify the drive circuit in drive type plasma display panels, and various types have already been proposed.

Basically, it has a shift channel consisting of a periodic arrangement of a plurality of shift discharge cells, and these shift discharge cells are defined by an electrode array regularly connected to a plurality of bus bars, and the shift discharge cells are defined by an electrode array regularly connected to a plurality of bus bars. By sequentially applying a shift voltage pulse train to each electrode group through the shift voltage pulse train, the discharge spot generated in the write discharge cell located at the l end is sequentially shifted toward the other end along the arrangement of the shift discharge cells. ing.

However, this type of self-shifting gas discharge panel has the advantage of not only displaying functions based on memory operation but also being more compact than display devices using ordinary cathode ray tubes, so it has recently been adopted as an educational display device. is being attempted.

Display information for educational purposes can be divided into two types: content that is displayed simultaneously on one screen, and content that is displayed over several screens in a continuous moving display similar to that of a lightning news.In the former case, the display moves at high speed. In the latter case, it is desirable that the display moving operation be performed at a relatively slow speed.

In other words, in the former, the discharge spot generated in the write discharge cell is shifted at high speed along the shift channel according to the display information and quickly set to the final display position.
In the latter case, it is desirable that the shift operation be performed at a speed that is slow enough to be recognized during movement.

In order to handle these two types of display information, conventionally, self-shifting gas discharge panels each having a dedicated drive circuit have been used.

In short, in the past, the purpose of the display device was fixed, and there was no practical use of the above-mentioned educational display device.

This invention was made in view of the above points, and expands the scope of application of self-shifting gas discharge panels. The purpose is to provide a new drive system that can

The invention to be briefly described is that, in a drive method that sequentially switches and supplies pulse trains having different phases to a plurality of electrode groups through corresponding busbars in each drinking cycle, one cycle of shift operation is performed in response to the mode 0 of display information. The present invention is characterized in that the speed of the shift operation can be switched in at least two stages by varying the length of at least one unit period.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

First, before explaining the driving method, the structure and operating principle of the self-shifting gas discharge panel used as a display device in the present invention will be briefly explained.

FIGS. 1 and 2 are a plan view showing the electrode arrangement of a self-shifting gas discharge panel equipped with a meandering electrode structure, and a cross-sectional view taken along the line nn', in which two shift channels SC1 and SC2 are representatively shown.

In relation to both sides, this gas discharge panel has a group of first electrodes X111X12... connected to two busbar conductors X1 and X2 alternately on one substrate 1, and a second group of electrodes
are provided with a group of electrodes x2,
are arranged so as to alternately straddle and face adjacent electrode pairs belonging to the electrode group of
1 and Y2 alternately connected to the third electrode y11,y
1..., and the fourth electrodes y21, y22...
It has a group of...

The surface of each electrode is covered with dielectric layers 3 and 4 made of alumina or low-melting glass, etc., and a gas mixture of neon (Ne) and a small amount of xenon (Xe) is injected into the gap 5 between them. - p- of 4 Torr Cm
It is sealed so as to have the a value.

Thus, in the gas-filled gap 5, four-phase discharge cells ai, bi, ci, and di (i=1.2) are arranged in each of the four groups of electrode-facing regions according to the combination of these electrodes.
) are arranged in a regular manner, and this arrangement of discharge cells forms the aforementioned shaft channels SCI, S
C2 is configured.

And two bus conductors X1 and X on each side of X and Y
By sequentially switching and applying pulse voltages to 2, Y1, and Y2, a discharge spot generated on the write discharge element W is sequentially transferred to an adjacent discharge element according to input information to the write electrode located at one end of each shift channel. It becomes possible to shift.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the drive voltage waveform for such a shift operation, and shows VY1, VX1, VY2 and VX2.
is the voltage waveform applied to the four electrode groups through each bus conductor, and VA, VB, VC, and VD are the voltage waveforms applied to the four-phase discharge cells as the sum of the electrode voltage waveforms.

Further, VWi is a write voltage waveform applied to the write electrode, and VWC is a total voltage waveform applied to the write discharge cell W.

As is clear from Fig. 3, the shift operation of this gas discharge panel is performed by distributing the four basic pulse trains ■, ■, ■, and ■ in such a manner that they rotate sequentially with respect to the four busbars. - t3, which is one rotation period (one cycle) consisting of four unit periods, at which the D-phase and K-phase discharge cells are energized by the shift voltage pulse Ps.

Writing is performed in unit cycles of .

And this t. The discharge spot generated by the application of the write voltage pulse Pw during the period is sequentially shifted so as to share two adjacent discharge cells, and after the shift, the discharge cell has the basic pulse train ■ and ■ or ■ and ■. A narrow erase voltage pulse Pe is applied based on the phase difference between the two.

Furthermore, if the rotational switching of the basic pulse train is stopped, the discharge spot remains at the shifted position to provide a static display mode, and if the rotational order of switching is reversed, a shift in the opposite direction becomes possible.

In the case of character display, one character can be written using 5x7 dots by assembling seven shift channels and sequentially supplying a plurality of basic pulse trains to each of these shift channels in five cycles. will be held.

Further, a space of two cycles is provided between characters, and the eighth cycle is the writing timing for the next character.

Now, this invention uses a self-shifting gas discharge panel as described above and provides a completely new drive method for causing the panel to perform a display movement operation according to the mode of display information, and specifically, to select the speed of the shift operation. The present invention proposes a method for switching between the two, and an embodiment thereof will be described below with reference to the fourth section.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example configuration of a drive circuit for achieving such switching of shift operation speed,
It is characterized by a configuration in which the time of one cycle of the basic pulse train is varied in two stages.

This drive circuit is roughly divided into a basic timing signal generation circuit unit 10, a control signal generation circuit unit 20, and a rotation circuit unit 30, each surrounded by a dotted line.
, a shift driver unit 40, a write signal generation circuit unit 50, a write driver unit 60, and a speed switching circuit unit 70.

The basic timing signal generation circuit unit 10 includes the above-mentioned 4
It controls the generation timings of ■, ■, and ■ of the two basic pulse trains, and is mainly composed of a binary 10-bit counter 12 that counts clock pulses from a clock pulse generator 11, and an inverter 13 for the first and second bits.
．． The inverted output from 14 is passed through an AND gate 15, and a first timing signal corresponding to the aforementioned basic pulse train is outputted onto line 1 every four counts of clock pulses.

Further, the inverted output of the first bit and the output of the second bit are passed through an AND gate 16 to output second and fourth timing signals corresponding to the aforementioned basic pulse trains (1) and (2) onto lines 2 and 4.

and these second and fourth timing signals themselves;
The delayed signal that is further passed through the delay circuit 17, and the third and fourth bit output signals of the 10-bit counter 12 are logically combined in the phase switching circuit 18 to correspond to the basic pulse train ① described above. A third timing signal is obtained on line 3.

That is, during each unit period with 16 counts of clock pulses as one unit period, when the first timing signal pulse is output on lines 2 and 4, the AND gate 181 of the third and fourth bits is opened. A timing signal pulse (corresponding to CP in FIG. 3) having the same phase as that on line 2 is output on line 3 through one of the AND gates 182 and the mixing OR gate 183.

However, at the timing of the second and subsequent signal pulses, the output of at least one of the third and fourth bits is at a low level, so the signal with the same phase as the output on line 2 is The signal pulse from the delay circuit 17 (EP in FIG.
) outputs on line 3.

On the other hand, the control signal generation circuit unit 20 passes the outputs of the fifth and sixth bits of the 10-bit counter 12 through a shift speed switching circuit unit 70, which will be described later, and then through AND gates 21 and 22 to switch the rotation. The signals A and B are input to the 4-line decoder 35 of the rotation circuit unit 30.

AND gates 21 and 22 are connected to the 10-bit counter 1.
Controlled by the output through the NAND gate 24 of the 3-bit counter 23 that counts the output of the 6th bit (and 10th bit) of 2, the output of the 6th bit (and 10th bit) is rotated until it counts 8. Signal A,
Output B.

In other words, when writing characters in a 5 x 7 dot pattern, in a self-shifting gas discharge panel with the electrode structure shown in Figure 1, the four groups of discharge points are periodically Since the shift operation is arranged in
By rotating the shift channel of the book five times, a pattern for one character can be written.

If you take two lines of space between characters, it will be exactly 8.
The second rotation cycle becomes the writing timing for the next new character, and the entry of this new character is controlled by the output of the 3-bit counter 23.

The 3-bit counter 23 counts 8 times, that is, the rotation operation of 1 rotation in 4 unit periods is performed 8 times, with 16 counts of tick clock pulses as the unit period, and all the outputs are ''.
X1", the aforementioned AND gates 21 and 22 are closed by the output of the NAND gate 24, and the writing operation finger /+MR for the next character is issued.

On the other hand, the rotation circuit units 30 each have four
Set of AND gates 311-314, 321-324,3
31-334 and 341-344 and or gate 31,
32, 33 and 34.

Lines 1, 2, and 3.4 that emit the aforementioned basic timing signals are connected to one input of each of these AND gates in the relationship shown, and the other input of each of these is connected to the aforementioned rotation switching signal. The outputs of a 4-line decoder 35 for decoding A and B are connected in the combination shown.

Further, each output of the OR gate receiving the output of each set of AND gates is connected to the next shift driver unit 40.

Therefore, as described above, the output of the 4-line decoder 35 is switched every 16 counts of clock pulses corresponding to one unit period, and accordingly, the distribution order of the basic timing signals is also switched in a rotating relationship. Become.

Therefore, the four drivers 41, 4 of the shift driver unit 40 are driven in response to such basic timing signals.
2,43.44 is self-shifting gas discharge panel FD
A shift voltage pulse train as shown in FIG. 3 is supplied to the four bus lines Y1, X1, Y2, and X2 of P, the distribution order of which is switched every unit period.

Here, each driver of the shift driver unit 40 includes a pair of a pnp transistor 411 for up and an npn transistor 412 for down, which are connected in series between the +Vsh power supply and the ground, as specifically shown for 41 of the drivers. , are alternately driven by a common basic timing signal to extract the shift voltage from the midpoint of the voltage.

In the configuration shown in FIG. 4, the write signal generation circuit unit 5
0 is a character generator 58 that is selected by an external character code data signal and sequentially outputs the selected 5 x 7 dot character pattern signal by 7 dots every 4 unit cycles, and the output is converted into a basic pulse train. It includes AND gates 51 to 57 to match the timing of (2).

The character pattern signals from the AND gates 51 to 57 are applied in parallel to the write drivers 61 to 67 included in the next write driver unit 60, and a write pulse of the write voltage level +Vw is applied to the write corresponding to each shift channel in the panel FDP. The voltage is applied to the electrodes W1 to W7 according to the relationship shown in FIG.

In this way, the information corresponding to the character pattern is sequentially written into the seven shift channels for one line, and the discharge spots generated thereby are sequentially written into two shift channels by the aforementioned rotation operation.
This means that the two adjacent discharge points are shared.

On the other hand, the shift speed switching circuit unit 70 includes a shift speed switching switch 71, two inverters 72 and 73,
4 AND gates 74-77 and 2 OR gates 7
8. 79.

Fixed contacts a and b of a changeover switch are connected to the input of the inverter, and one input of an AND gate is connected to the output in the relationship shown.

In addition, the outputs of the fifth, sixth, ninth, and tenth bits of the 10-bit counter 12 described above are input to the other input of the AND gate, and the input of the OR gate is connected to the output in the combination shown in the figure. The outputs of the connected OR gates are the outputs of the control signal generation circuit unit 20 mentioned above. The inputs 21 and 22 are connected 1).

Thus, the display movement operation of information that can be displayed within one screen is achieved.

That is, when the movable element of the shift speed changeover switch 71 is connected to the high speed side fixed contact a in order to select a high speed shift operation, the inverted output of the inverter 72 becomes 1''.

This inverted output is an AND game}74. 76 to open its gate, resulting in the output of the fifth and sixth bits of 10-bit counter 12 being input through AND gates 74 and 76 to OR gates 78 and 79.

The outputs of these OR gates are the aforementioned AND gates 21 and 2.
2 to become rotation switching signals A and B,
Since the switching signal in this case is based on the output of the fifth and sixth bits of the 10-bit counter 12, the mode is the same as described above, and therefore the number of shift voltage pulses in this one rotation (one cycle) is As is clear from Figure 3, there are 16 pieces.

An l shift operation is performed using these l6 shift voltage pulses as a reference, and by repeating this operation, display information is sequentially written and shifted along the shift channel of the gas discharge panel FDP.As a result, the shift speed is fast, so during this shift The information cannot be read visually, but by stopping this shift operation and displaying the display stationary, it becomes possible to read the information visually.

On the other hand, the display movement operation of display information over several screens can be achieved.

In other words, when the shift speed selector switch 71 is switched to the low speed side fixed contact b in order to perform the shift operation slowly, the inverted output of the inverter 73 becomes 91''.

The gates of the AND gates 75 and 77 are opened by the inverted output, and the ninth and tenth gates of the 10-bit counter 12 are opened.
The bit outputs are input to OR gates 78 and 79, respectively.

The outputs of the 9th and 10th bits passed through these OR gates are input to AND gates 21 and 22, and become rotation switching signals A and B. In this case, the 3-bit counter of the control signal generation circuit unit 20 23 counts the output of the 10th bit, and the 10th
Since the repetition period of the bit output is 16 times that of the sixth bit output, the repetition period of the rotation switching signals A and B determined by the output of the 3-bit counter 23 is equal to the repetition period of the high-speed shift control described above. It becomes 16 times.

Therefore, the number of shift voltage pulses in this case is 1 unit period 6
With 4 pieces, there are 256 pieces in one rotation.

Since one shift operation is completed with these 256 shift voltage pulses, the speed of the shift operation in this case is the key to the above-mentioned high-speed shift.

Therefore, the discharge spots indicating the display information written in the write cells are sequentially written and shifted at a slow speed along the shift channel, and as a result, the information being shifted is displayed moving across the screen in a lightning news style. It is visually readable enough.

One embodiment of this invention has been described above, but
The essence of the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and various other modifications and applications are possible.

For example, in the circuit configuration shown in FIG. 4, in order to perform a display operation by fixing the discharge spot after a predetermined write and shift operation is completed, the control signal generation circuit unit 20 is used.
It is sufficient to keep the 3-bit counter 23 in a full count state (stop resetting due to the introduction of the write strobe signal STB), and inhibit the AND gates 21 and 22 using the output of the NAND gate 24.

As a result, only the C-A phase discharge cell group is continuously energized, as shown in period 13 in FIG.
Since static display is performed by sharing two adjacent cells of d1, if the length of a predetermined unit period set in advance in one rotation can be arbitrarily varied, one shift operation can be performed. The speed changes, and the resulting display operation can be a moving display similar to that of a lightning news.

This shift speed control can be easily achieved by controlling the write strobe signal STB.

Further, as mentioned above, this invention is suitable for a self-shift type gas discharge panel having a meander type electrode structure, but it is also suitable for a detour method as shown in Japanese Patent Application No. 51-79308. A gas discharge panel equipped with a shift channel of the shape, a panel having an electrode structure in which the number of electrode groups is increased to 2 groups x 2 groups or more, and JP-A-48
It is applicable regardless of the structure of the panel, such as a panel with a parallel electrode structure as shown in Japanese Patent No. 73064, or a panel with a matrix electrode structure.

Furthermore, another possible application of the present invention is a monitor display for a typewriter.

That is, this type of display has a multi-line display format, with the bottom row serving as an editing line, and the display information keyed into this editing line is sequentially shifted vertically to the upper display line.

Therefore, we made the display movement operation (shift operation) when keying in to the edit line faster, and the display movement operation when rolling up the information on this edit line or rolling down the information on the display line to the edit line was made relatively faster. By selectively switching to a slower speed, it is possible to improve operability and display quality.

As is clear from the above explanation, in this invention,
By variable control of the speed of the shift operation in a self-shifting gas discharge panel, the display can be moved according to the mode of the displayed information, so it can be used for all kinds of applications, which means it can be used in a wide range of applications. can.

Therefore, the present invention has great advantages as a driving method for a self-shifting gas discharge panel.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIGS. 1 and 2 are plan views of essential parts showing the electrode configuration of a self-shifting gas discharge panel applied to the present invention, and
-m' line sectional view, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a drive voltage waveform of a self-shifting gas discharge panel, and FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example structure of a drive circuit in an embodiment of the present invention. . SC1 and SC2: shift channel, Y1 and Y2: Y electrode group terminal, X1 and X2: X electrode group terminal,
SRI SRn: Shift row, 10: Basic timing signal generation circuit unit, 20: Control signal generation circuit unit, 30: Rotation circuit unit, 40: Shift driver unit, 50: Write signal generation circuit unit,
60: Write driver unit, 70: Shift speed switching circuit unit, PDP: Gas discharge panel.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A shaft channel is provided with a periodic arrangement of a plurality of groups of shifting discharge cells determined by an electrode array regularly connected to a plurality of bus bars, and a plurality of pulse trains having mutually different phases are applied to each of the busbars every unit period. A self-shift type gas discharge panel configured to sequentially switch and supply gas, comprising a control means for varying the length of at least one unit period constituting one cycle of the shift operation, and the variable control means adjusts the speed of the shift operation. A driving method for a self-shifting gas discharge panel, characterized in that the gas discharge panel is switched in at least two stages.