JPH0378937A - Plasma display and its driving method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain plasma display with less deterioration in the fluorescent substance brightness due to ion bombardment to be generated after long time service and with a long half value period of the brightness by arranging the fluorescent substance in positions mating with picture elements where the discharge gas space is partitioned by bulkhead. CONSTITUTION:A plasma display concerned is composed of a first insulated base board 1, a second insulated base board 2, and row electrodes 3 chiefly containing Ni fabricated by thick film printing on the first insulated base board 1, column electrodes 4 chiefly containing Au fabricated by thick film printing on the second insulated base board 2, and fluorescent substance 5 which converts ultraviolet discharge light into visible light. Further are provided a bulkhead 6 consisting of glass compound, which partitions picture elements 8 and keeps the spacing between the first insulated base board 1 and second insulated base board 2, and a discharge gas space in which He mixed with Xe exists. Thus a plasma display is obtained which is provided with less deterioration in the brightness, a long lifetime, and high value for practical application.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention is directed to the so-called dot matrix used in personal computers and office workstations, which have made rapid progress in recent years, and wall-mounted televisions, which are expected to develop in the future. Concerning types of color plasma displays.

[Conventional technology]

A conventional color plasma display has a structure shown in FIGS. 11A and 11B (FIG. 11A is a plan view and B is a sectional view).
There is something like that. In FIG. 11, l is a first insulating substrate made of glass, 2 is a second insulating substrate also made of glass,
13 is a cathode made of a thick film mainly composed of Ni, 14 is A
7 is a discharge gas space in which a gas containing He mixed with a small amount of Xe exists; 6 is a second insulating substrate that separates the discharge gas space to partition pixels 8; 2 and the first insulating substrate 1, A A'
A partition wall made of a thick glass film containing particles such as 20 s,
5 is Zn that emits visible light when excited by the ultraviolet light of gas discharge.
zS i04: A phosphor such as Mn.

Once a positive voltage is applied to the anode 14 and a negative voltage is applied to the cathode 13 to start discharging, a DC voltage is applied thereafter.

The discharge is maintained by continuing to apply a pulse voltage or a voltage obtained by superimposing a DC voltage on the pulse voltage.

Visible light emission is obtained by exciting the phosphor 5 with ultraviolet light generated by this discharge. Furthermore, the discharge is stopped by lowering the applied voltage below the threshold value or removing it.

Therefore, if the cathode 13 and the anode 14 are arranged in stripes as shown in FIG. 11A, and arranged so as to be perpendicular to each other, a dot matrix display can be obtained. Furthermore, by painting the phosphor 5 in three different colors, a plasma display capable of color display can be obtained.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in a plasma display having such a structure, since the phosphor is located near the anode, it is easily subjected to ion bombardment, and the brightness of the phosphor deteriorates quickly, resulting in a short display life.

An object of the present invention is to realize a plasma display that has a simple structure, is easy to drive, has less problems with brightness deterioration mentioned above, has a long life, and has high practical value.

[Means to solve the problem]

There are three aspects of the present invention, one of which includes a discharge gas space and two insulating substrates placed in parallel so as to sandwich the discharge gas space; has striped row electrodes that can cause direct current discharge between adjacent electrodes in contact with the discharge gas filled in the discharge gas space, and on the surface of the second insulating substrate on the discharge gas space side, It is characterized by having a column electrode extending in a direction perpendicular to the row electrode and insulated from the discharge gas space, and having a phosphor disposed at a position corresponding to each pixel in which the discharge gas space is partitioned by a partition wall. This is a plasma display panel.

The second invention has a discharge gas space and two insulating substrates placed in parallel so as to sandwich the discharge gas space, and the discharge gas is disposed on the surface of the first insulating substrate in the discharge gas space. Striped row electrodes that are in contact with the discharge gas space filled in the space and capable of causing direct current discharge between adjacent electrodes, and columns insulated from the row electrodes and the discharge gas space in a direction perpendicular to the row electrodes. The plasma display is characterized in that it has an electrode and a phosphor disposed at a position corresponding to each pixel in which a discharge gas space is partitioned by partition walls.

Another invention is that, in the above plasma display panel, two adjacent row electrodes passing through the same pixel are set as a set, and a write pulse voltage is applied to at least one of the row electrodes of the set, The start of discharge in one row of pixels is controlled by applying a data voltage corresponding to the light emitting state to the column electrode in synchronization with the write pulse voltage. Discharge light emission is maintained by a continuously applied DC pulse voltage for discharge sustaining, and by stopping or lowering the discharge sustaining voltage applied between l sets of row electrodes, the discharge of all pixels in one row is stopped. This is a method of driving a plasma display characterized by stopping the display.

[Effect]

The present invention solves the problems of the prior art by using the above-described configuration. That is, the electrodes for causing a sustain discharge are gathered on one substrate, and the sustain discharge is caused to occur between parallel electrodes on the single substrate. Then, the phosphor is placed at a position away from this sustaining discharge, for example, on the substrate on the opposite side from the parallel electrodes. This allows the phosphor to be kept away from the space where strong discharge is occurring. Therefore, the probability that the phosphor is subjected to ion bombardment is greatly reduced, so that the brightness of the phosphor is less reduced, and a long-life plasma display can therefore be obtained. Furthermore, since the column electrodes that control pixel lighting are insulated from the discharge space, the current flowing through the column electrodes during discharge lighting is greatly reduced compared to when the column electrodes are directly injected into the discharge space. The current can also be reliably kept below a certain value. Therefore, it became possible to apply a high pulse voltage necessary for reliable discharge initiation to the column electrodes, and it was possible to obtain a display that was extremely reliable and provided reliable light emission display.

〔Example〕

Next, the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a plan view (first embodiment) of an embodiment of the first invention of the present invention.
Figure A) and cross-sectional view (Figure 1 B, C"). In Figure 1, 1 is a first insulating substrate made of glass with a thickness of 2 mm, and 2 is a second insulating substrate also made of glass with a thickness of 2 mm. The substrate, 3, is a row electrode with a width of 200 μm made of nickel as a main component, which is produced by thick film printing on the first insulating substrate 1, and 4 is the main component, which is made of gold, which is also produced by thick film printing, on the second insulating substrate 2. 5 is a phosphor that converts the ultraviolet light of the discharge into visible light.The phosphor 5 also acts as an insulator covering the column electrode 4.As the phosphor, Zn2 is used for green.
SiO4:Mn, (Y,Gd)BO,:Eu” for red,
For blue, B aMg All +4023”, E u
In particular, when multi-coloring is used, the phosphor arrangement is as shown in Figure 2, and one color pixel is composed of four pixels. In addition, 6 separates pixel 8, and 2 partition walls made of a glass composition with a height of 0.2 mm to maintain the distance between the two insulating substrates 2, and 7 a discharge gas space in which He mixed with 4% Xe- and a pressure of 200 Torr exists.

Using a plasma display having such a configuration, - applying a discharge sustaining voltage between the two row electrodes 30 passing inside the pixel;
Furthermore, when a high voltage is applied to the column electrode 4 to cause a discharge to occur between the row electrode 3 and the column electrode 4, the discharge that occurs once is sustained by the discharge between the two row electrodes 3, and Book row electrode 3
The discharge could be stopped by weakening the voltage applied during this period or by stopping the voltage application.

The driving method will be explained in more detail below.

FIG. 3 shows the electrode arrangement and pixel arrangement of the plasma display of the present invention. In FIG. 3, S 1 pS! l
SSr..., S is a row electrode, :ol# D21 D
SI..., Dl are column electrodes, C, , C, □# C1s
*C21#02□.

C23# 031 $ C321Css r...,C
□ is a pixel.

One of the two row electrodes passing through one pixel is drawn out to the right and connected to the common line COM. FIG. 4 shows examples of driving waveforms and light emission waveforms of a plasma display with such a connection.

A sustain pulse with a single period t is applied to the common line COM. The value of t is determined based on the number of row electrodes and column electrodes and the conditions for maintaining discharge light emission, and is approximately 2 to 40 μs.

In this example, it was set to 10 μS. Further, the pulse width T was set to 1 μs in this example. Row electrode Sl#52pS3+・
... has write pulses W, , W as shown in FIG.
2. W31... and holding pulse S U S r , S
U S 2 , S U S s , . . . are applied. Write pulse W 1HW tr W s r...
.times.li is set to an appropriate value between 0.5 and 9 μs, and inserted between sustain pulses applied to the common line COM. In addition, the holding pulses S U S + , S U S 2 , S
US 3. The width of ... was applied continuously during the period of light emission. When the holding pulse is removed, the discharge stops. A voltage is applied to the column electrodes (j = 1°2, -, n) in synchronization with the write pulses W1*W2, Wsp'' when there is data, that is, when the pixel is turned on. If the voltage does not turn on, then the voltage is not applied.This causes, for example, a write pulse S to be applied to the row electrode S1.
When 1 is applied, if there is data, a discharge occurs in the pixel C1l at the intersection of the row electrode S1 and the column electrode S1, and this discharge continues while the holding pulse SUS is applied. The emission waveform at this time is shown in the bottom row of FIG.

When there is no data, no voltage is applied to the column electrodes, and therefore no discharge occurs at the pixel CI at the intersection.In this way, line by line, the row electrodes 5lpS2+S3
By selectively scanning p..., each pixel turns on/off.
I was able to control turning off the lights.

Further, FIG. 5 shows another example of the drive waveform. In this example, unlike the case of FIG. 4, the holding pulse S
1. SUS2, SUSs,...
is not used.

Sustaining the discharge is performed by making the sustaining pulse voltage applied to the common line COM sufficiently high. In addition, to stop the discharge, an erase pulse E synchronized with the holding pulse voltage is used.
+, E21 Esp... to the row electrode S l pSap
The method is to insert it in S31... Even with such a driving waveform, the plasma display of the present invention can still be
I was able to drive it. In Figures 4 and 5, zero voltage is applied during the sustain pulse applied to the common line COM, but in order to narrow the voltage and fluctuation width of the sustain pulse, -positive or negative DC voltage is applied. may be applied superimposed on the sustain pulse.

In FIG. 3, one set of row electrodes passing through each pixel is all connected to the common line COM, and collectively connected to the drive element, but the current supply capacity of the drive element is limited. When the number of row electrodes is small, when there are many row electrodes, or when higher-speed driving is required, divide the row electrodes connected to the common line COM into several groups, and connect each group or each row electrode separately. Of course, a driving element may be attached and driven. Moreover, the voltage waveform described here can be easily realized using a high withstand voltage IC currently on the market.

Next, a second embodiment of the first aspect of the present invention will be described. In the second embodiment, the plan view is the same as the first embodiment and is the same as that in FIG. 1A, so the aa' in FIG.
A sectional view and a bb' sectional view are shown in FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B, respectively. In FIG. 6, reference numeral 9 denotes an insulating layer formed to cover the column electrodes in order to reliably insulate the column electrodes 4 from the discharge gas space 7. The other parts are the same as in the previous embodiment. In the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the phosphor 5 also served as the insulating layer 9, but by using the insulating layer 9 in this way, the row electrode 4 can be more securely connected to the discharge gas space 7. In addition to being able to insulate the phosphor 5, the thickness of the phosphor 5 can be set to the optimum thickness for the phosphor. A third embodiment of the first aspect of the present invention is shown in FIG. In Figure 7, Figure 1 and 6
Unlike the figure, transparent column electrodes 4a were used. As the transparent electrode material, ITO (a mixture of SnO2 and In2O3) and NESA film (mainly composed of SnO2) were used.

In this case, there is an advantage that all the light emitted within the pixel can be extracted through the transparent column electrode 4a. However, since ITO and NESA films have a higher resistivity than metal conductors, transparent column electrodes 4a
is set to have a width of one pixel.

A fourth embodiment of the first aspect of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 8A is a plan view of this embodiment, FIG. 8B is a sectional view taken along line aa' in FIG. 8A, and FIG. 8C is a sectional view taken along line bb' in FIG. 8A. In FIG. 8, the same symbols are used for the same parts as in the first embodiment shown in FIG. In Figure 8, 3
The row electrode a is a cathode row electrode that mainly serves as a cathode, and was manufactured by a thick film printing method using Ni, which has good spatter resistance. Further, 3b is a row electrode, which mainly functions as an anode, and was manufactured by a thick film printing method using silver having good electrical conductivity. By increasing the cathode area in this way, the discharge current was increased and higher luminance could be obtained. In addition, when driving, the common line C shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 is connected to the anode row electrode 3b.
A voltage waveform applied to the OM is applied to the cathode row electrode 3a.

Row electrodes S,, S2. The voltage waveform applied to S, . . . may be applied.

Next, FIG. 9A is a plan view of one embodiment of the second invention of the present invention.
In addition, the aa' cross-sectional view of FIG. 9A is shown in FIG. 9B, and the bb'
A cross-sectional view is shown in FIG. 9C. In FIG. 9, the same symbols are used for the same parts as in FIG. In Figure 9, 1
0 is an insulating layer that insulates the row electrode 3 and column electrode 4 and also insulates the column electrode 4 from the discharge gas space 7. In FIG. 9, unlike the embodiment in FIG. 1, the column electrodes 4 are also laminated on the first insulating substrate 1 like the row electrodes 3, so the second insulating substrate 2 has only the phosphor 5 or the phosphor. 5 and part or all of the partition walls 6, there is an advantage that the degree of freedom in the configuration on the second insulating substrate increases. Note that the driving method may be the same as in the first embodiment.

Further, in this embodiment, as in the fourth embodiment of the first invention, the row electrodes 3 are connected to the cathode row electrode 3a and the anode row electrode 3b.
It goes without saying that they may be formed to have different widths.

In the above embodiments, the case was described in which the phosphor was coated only on the second insulating substrate, but unlike these cases, the phosphor was coated on the side surfaces of the partition walls as shown in FIG. Good too. By doing so, it was possible to increase the amount of phosphor that contributes to light emission, and it was possible to obtain a plasma display with even higher brightness.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above, and in both the embodiments of the first invention and the second invention, the half-life time of luminance can be more than doubled compared to the conventional example. This was very effective in obtaining a long-life color plasma display.

Furthermore, since the column electrodes are covered with an insulator, it is possible to stably apply a higher voltage to the column electrodes than in the past, making it possible to reliably control the lighting of pixels. Further, at this time, since the current flowing through the column electrodes can be sufficiently restricted by the insulator, the power input to the column electrodes can be lower than that of the conventional method, which is also effective in reducing the power consumption of the plasma display.

Note that the numerical values shown in this example are shown for illustrative purposes only, and do not limit the scope of application of the present invention. Furthermore, it goes without saying that the method for manufacturing the electrodes and insulating layers does not necessarily require thick film printing, and thin films formed by vapor deposition or sputtering may be used.

In addition, although a color plasma display has been described in this embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this, and is not limited to a conventional photochromic light-emitting plasma display that uses Ne as the main gas in the discharge gas, utilizes the light emission of No itself, and does not use a phosphor. It goes without saying that the structure of the present invention may be applied to the above.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to obtain a plasma display in which luminance deterioration due to ion bombardment of the phosphor due to long-time lighting is reduced and the luminance half-life time is longer than in the prior art. Therefore, the life of the plasma display is extended, which is very useful for using the plasma display. Furthermore, since the column electrodes are covered with an insulator, a sufficient voltage can be applied to the column electrodes, making it possible to reliably control the lighting of each pixel. Moreover, since the current is reliably limited by the insulator, the power consumption applied to the column electrodes can be reduced compared to the conventional method.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of a plasma display according to the first aspect of the present invention, where A is a plan view and B is aa'
2 is a schematic diagram showing the color pixel arrangement of the plasma display having the structure shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 and 5 are voltage waveform diagrams applied to electrodes of various parts in the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a structural diagram of the second embodiment of the plasma display of the first invention. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a third embodiment of the plasma display of the first invention,
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a fourth embodiment of the first invention, FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the second invention of the invention, FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the coating shape of the phosphor, and FIG. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a conventional plasma display. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...First insulating substrate, 2...Second insulating substrate, 3...Row electrode, 3a...Cathode row electrode, 3b... ... Anode row electrode, 4 ... Column electrode, 4a ... Transparent column electrode, 5 ... Phosphor, 6 ... Partition wall, 7 ... ...Discharge gas space, 8...Pixel, 9, 10...Insulating layer, 13...Cathode, 14...Anode.

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) It has a discharge gas space and two insulating substrates placed in parallel so as to sandwich the discharge gas space, and on the surface of the first insulating substrate on the discharge gas space side, there is a space for filling the discharge gas space. It has striped row electrodes that can cause DC discharge between adjacent electrodes in contact with the discharge gas, and extends in a direction perpendicular to the row electrodes on the surface of the second insulating substrate facing the discharge gas space, 1. A plasma display panel comprising column electrodes insulated from a discharge gas space, and phosphors disposed at positions corresponding to pixels in which the discharge gas space is partitioned by partition walls. (2) It has a discharge gas space and two insulating substrates placed in parallel so as to sandwich the discharge gas space, and on the surface of the discharge gas space example of the first insulating substrate, the discharge gas space is filled. A striped row electrode that is in contact with a discharge gas space and can cause direct current discharge between adjacent electrodes, and a column electrode that is insulated from the row electrode and the discharge gas space in a direction perpendicular to the row electrode. A plasma display comprising a phosphor disposed at a position corresponding to each pixel in which a discharge gas space is partitioned by partition walls. (3) In the plasma display panel according to claim 1 or 2, two adjacent row electrodes passing through the same pixel are made into a set, and a write pulse voltage is applied to at least one of the row electrodes in one set. By applying a data voltage corresponding to the light emitting state to the column electrode in synchronization with the write pulse voltage, 1
The discharge start of the pixels in the row is controlled, and once the discharge has occurred, the discharge light emission is maintained by a DC pulse voltage for maintaining the discharge that is continuously applied between one set of row electrodes. 1. A method for driving a plasma display, comprising stopping discharge of all pixels in one row by stopping or lowering a sustaining voltage applied between row electrodes.