JPS6335034B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a driving method for an external electrode type discharge display panel, a so-called plasma display panel.

In this type of plasma display panel (hereinafter abbreviated as display panel), a plurality of generally opaque digital electrodes and a plurality of generally transparent segment electrodes facing each of the digital electrodes are arranged to face each other through a discharge space. A commonly used method is to interpose an ionizable gas between the two electrodes, and discharge, emit light, and display the intersection of a selected digital electrode and a selected segment electrode facing each other.

In such a display panel, an optical image corresponding to the input data can be displayed by controlling the electrode selection method of both electrodes in accordance with the input data.

For example, by keeping all digital electrodes in a selected state at all times and selectively controlling the segment electrodes facing each digital electrode using the corresponding data, an optical image corresponding to the input data can be displayed on the display panel surface. . For external electrode type display panels, alternating current (AC)
It must be driven by voltage, and the drive signal applied to both electrodes includes a high-frequency pulse called a toggle pulse.

In the above display panel, after leaving it unlit for a long time without discharging and emitting light,
When lighting this, the gas in the display panel is hardly ionized, so it is difficult to be excited, and it takes time to start the discharge after the signal is applied, which has the disadvantage that the so-called turn-on time becomes long. Furthermore, when a non-selected intersection of the display panel is newly brought into a selected state, the turn-on time similarly becomes longer.

An object of the present invention is to provide a driving method for a discharge display panel that not only improves the initial discharge start delay but also significantly improves the turn-on characteristics during operation.

According to the present invention, at least one digit electrode is arranged independently of each other, and a plurality of segment electrodes are arranged opposite to each digit electrode, and are arranged opposite to each digit electrode. In an external electrode type discharge display board in which each selected intersection point of a corresponding segment electrode discharges and emits light, all of the digital electrodes and segment electrodes are momentarily selected periodically to cause all of these selected intersection points to discharge and emit light. A driving method for a discharge display panel is obtained.

That is, in the present invention, in order to eliminate these drawbacks, all of the electrodes are periodically set to a selected state for a moment regardless of input data, and the selected intersection points are momentarily illuminated to accelerate the turn-on time. The lighting time of all the above selection intersections is short;
Moreover, by setting the period so as not to cause flickering, the brightness of these selected intersection points is sufficiently low and normal display is not prevented.

Next, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a method of driving a display panel according to the present invention.

The input data 1 is output-controlled by the control pulse A obtained from the pulse control section 9 in the data control section 2, and then input to the segment driver 3, where it is mixed with the toggle pulse obtained from the toggle pulse generator 7. , is stepped up to the drive voltage of the display panel 4 and is applied to each corresponding electrode of the segment electrodes 5.

The display panel 4 has a plurality of segment electrodes 5a, 5b, .
are arranged independently. Therefore, segment electrodes 5a, 5b...
The segment drive signal applied to 5n is independently controlled by each data corresponding to each digit.

On the other hand, in the digital driver 8, the toggle pulse from the toggle pulse generator 7 is stepped up to the drive voltage of the display panel, and is applied to the digital electrode 6 as a digital drive signal. That is, the digital electrode 6 is always in the selected state, and as described above, the selection of the segment electrode 5 corresponds to the input data 1, so that an optical image corresponding to the input data 1 can be displayed on the display panel 4. .

In this embodiment, by controlling the control pulse A from the pulse controller 9, all the segment electrodes 5 are periodically brought into the selected state for one moment regardless of the data, and all the intersections of the segment electrodes 5 and the digital electrodes 6 are selected. This ensures that the gas interposed between the two electrodes is ionized and the turn-on time is shortened.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing details of the data control section 2 in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 shows voltage waveforms of each section for explaining the present invention.

In FIGS. 2 and 3, the pulse controller 9 outputs a pulse width τ, a period t, as shown in FIG.
A control pulse A of 1 is obtained. The input data 1 is input to the segment driver 3 along with the toggle pulse through the gate 21, one of which is connected to the control pulse A, in the data control unit 2.
As its output, a segment drive quantity number B as shown in FIG. 3b is obtained. If input data 1 is data that should be lit, the segment drive signal is the third one.
The waveform is as shown in the T1 period of FIG _{. 3B} , and if the input data 1 is data that should not be lit, the segment drive signal B has the waveform as shown in the _T2 period of FIG. 3B.

On the other hand, the digital drive signal C is a drive signal that always includes toggle pulses, as shown in FIG. 3c. A composite signal D of the segment drive signal B and the digital drive signal C becomes as shown in FIG.

The composite signal D has input data 1 at τ ₁ and τ ₂
Regardless of the voltage, the voltage becomes higher than the discharge starting voltage of the display panel 4, causing all the intersections between the segments and the digital electrodes 5 and 6 to discharge and emit light. The discharge currents of the display panel 4 are in opposite directions at τ ₁ and τ ₂ , and this discharge is usually referred to as a pair of discharges.

As described above, all the intersections between the two electrodes on the display panel 4 are discharged and emitted once every period t regardless of the input data 1, so there is no turn-on delay. Furthermore, even when the display panel is left unlit for a long period of time and is then driven again, all the intersections between both electrodes become selected at regular intervals, so the probability of ionization of the gas interposed between the two electrodes increases. It can be easily lit for a short period of time.

The discharge at the intersection between all of the above two electrodes occurs only once in the period t, while the discharge due to the segment and digital drive signal corresponding to normal input data including n toggle pulses is n in the period t. The contrast ratio between the brightness of all intersections between both electrodes and the brightness of a selected intersection between both electrodes corresponding to input data is 1:n. Usually, if n is 30 or more, a practically sufficient contrast ratio can be obtained.

Although the static drive was described in the above embodiment, the same effect can be obtained even in the case of a dynamic drive system in which each segment electrode is shared by forcing the light to emit periodically regardless of the display signal. Needless to say.

As described above, according to the present invention, the turn-on characteristics of a display panel can be significantly improved in practical use without deteriorating display quality.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a display panel driving system according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a partial block diagram for supplementary explanation of FIG. 1, and FIGS.
d shows signal waveform diagrams for supplementary explanation of FIG. 1, respectively. 1...Input data, 2...Data control section, 3...
...Segment driver, 4...Display panel, 5...Segment electrode, 6...Digital electrode, 7...Toggle pulse generator, 8...Digital driver, 9...Control pulse generator, 21...Gate.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 At least one digital electrode arranged independently of each other; a plurality of segment electrodes arranged opposite to each digital electrode; In a refresh type driving method of a segment type external electrode type discharge display panel in which a desired display is produced by sequentially scanning and discharging and emitting light at selected intersections of segment electrodes corresponding to each digital electrode, the digital electrodes and All of the segment electrodes are periodically brought into a momentary selected state, causing all of these selected intersections to discharge and emit light, and after being brought into the momentary selected state, the selected intersections are caused to emit light without an erasing operation to display the desired display. A driving method for a discharge display board characterized by obtaining the following characteristics.