KR100293521B1 - How to Operate Plasma Display Panel Using High Frequency - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a plasma display panel driving method using a high frequency discharge.

A method of driving a plasma display panel using a high frequency of the present invention includes the step of causing a high frequency discharge to be generated by a high frequency voltage supplied to the high frequency electrode immediately after an address discharge is generated between the address electrode and the scan electrode on a scan line basis. It is done.

According to the present invention, since each scan line starts sustain discharge immediately after the address discharge (that is, high frequency discharge), it is not necessary to maintain wall charge for high frequency discharge, thereby reducing power consumption.

Description

Method Of Driving Plasma Display Panel Using High Frequency

The present invention relates to a plasma display device, and more particularly, to a plasma display panel driving method using high frequency discharge.

Recently, researches on plasma display panels (hereinafter referred to as PDPs), which are easy to manufacture panels as large-area flat panel displays, have been actively conducted according to the needs of large flat panel displays. The PDP generally uses a gas discharge phenomenon to display an image using visible light generated by vacuum ultraviolet rays generated during gas discharge by exciting the phosphor.

Referring to FIG. 1, a structure of a discharge cell configured in a PDP of a three-electrode alternating current (AC) surface discharge method which is commonly used is shown.

In the discharge cell 28 of the PDP shown in FIG. 1, the upper plate 10, which is the display surface of the image, and the lower plate 12 are arranged in parallel with the upper plate 10 by partitions (not shown). The partition wall serves to support the upper plate 10 and the lower plate 12 as well as providing a discharge space 21 inside the cell to block electrical and optical interference between the cells. A pair of sustain electrodes, that is, a scan / hold electrode 14 and a sustain electrode 16 are disposed side by side on the upper plate 10, and an address electrode in a direction perpendicular to the sustain electrode pairs 14 and 16 on the lower plate 12. 22 is arranged. In addition, the upper dielectric layer 18 for charge accumulation is formed flat on the upper plate 10 on which the sustain electrode pairs 14 and 16 are disposed, and the passivation layer 20 is formed on the upper dielectric layer 18 surface. The lower dielectric layer 24 for charge accumulation is formed on the lower substrate 12 on which the address electrode 22 is disposed, and on the surface of the lower dielectric layer 24 is a phosphor layer 26 for generating visible light having a unique color. Is applied. The phosphor layer 26 is excited by vacuum ultraviolet rays (VUV) of short wavelengths generated during gas discharge to generate visible light (red, green, blue). The discharge gas 21 is filled in the discharge space 21 provided in the discharge cell 28.

The discharge cell having such a configuration is selected by the address discharge between the address electrode 22 and the scan / sustain electrode 16, and the vacuum ultraviolet rays generated by the continuous sustain discharge between the sustain electrodes 14 and 16 are discharged from the phosphor 26. ) To emit visible light. At this time, the number of sustain discharges is adjusted to implement stepwise brightness, ie, gray scale, necessary for displaying an image. Accordingly, the number of sustain discharges is an important factor in determining the brightness and discharge efficiency of the PDP. For this sustain discharge, a step pulse having a duty ratio of 1 is periodically applied to the sustain electrodes 14 and 16 periodically. At this time, the frequency is usually about 200 to 300 kHz and the pulse width is about 10 to 20 kHz. In this case, the sustain discharge occurs only once at an extremely short instant per sustain pulse. In addition, the charged particles generated by the sustain discharge move the discharge path formed between the two sustain electrodes according to the polarity of the electrode, so that wall charges are formed inside the discharge space of the cell, and the discharge voltage in the discharge space decreases due to the wall charges. Will stop. As described above, the sustain discharge by the existing sustain pulse is generated only once at a short time per pulse, and most of the other time is consumed in the preparation of the wall charge and the next discharge, so that the discharge efficiency of the PDP is inevitably low.

In order to solve the low discharge efficiency problem of the PDP, a high frequency discharge using a high frequency voltage has recently emerged. As shown in FIG. 2, the high frequency discharge is continuously generated by a high frequency voltage of several tens of MHz to several hundred MHz, so that the electrons vibrate between the two electrodes 30 and 32 to continuously discharge the discharge gas in the discharge space 31. Ionized and excited. As a result, continuous discharge occurs without dissipation of electrons for most of the discharge time, thereby increasing the amount of vacuum ultraviolet rays, thereby increasing the luminance and the discharge efficiency. This high frequency discharge has a physical effect such as a positive column having a very high discharge efficiency when the distance between the electrodes is long in the glow discharge.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a PDP driving method using high frequency, which can increase the discharge efficiency and brightness by using high frequency discharge efficiently.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a PDP driving method using a high frequency that can reduce power consumption.

1 is a cross-sectional view showing a structure of a discharge cell of a plasma display panel of a conventional three-electrode alternating surface discharge method.

2 is a diagram for explaining the principle of high frequency discharge.

3 is a perspective view illustrating a discharge cell applied to a method of driving a plasma display panel according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a diagram illustrating an electrode arrangement structure applied to a method of driving a plasma display panel according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a voltage waveform diagram for driving the discharge cell shown in FIG.

6 is a voltage waveform diagram illustrating a method of driving a plasma display panel according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

7 is a voltage waveform diagram illustrating a method of driving a plasma display panel according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

<Brief description of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

10, 40: top plate 12, 42: bottom plate

14, 46: scanning electrode 16: sustaining electrode

18, 24, 48: dielectric layer 20: protective layer

22, 44: address electrodes 26, 54: phosphor

21, 31: discharge space 28, 34: discharge cell

30, 32: first and second electrodes 50: high frequency electrode

52: bulkhead

In order to achieve the above object, the PDP driving method using a high frequency according to the present invention is to generate a high frequency discharge by the high frequency voltage supplied to the high frequency electrode immediately after the address discharge is generated between the address electrode and the scan electrode in units of scan lines Characterized in that it comprises a step.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention in addition to the above object will become apparent from the description of the preferred embodiment of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3 to 7.

3 is a perspective view showing a discharge cell applied to the PDP driving method according to the present invention, wherein the PDP discharge cell shown in FIG. 3 is disposed on the high frequency electrode 50 disposed on the upper plate 40 and the lower plate 42. The address electrode 44 and the scan electrode 46 are provided.

In the PDP discharge cell shown in FIG. 3, the upper plate 40 and the lower plate 42 are disposed to face each other in parallel, and on the lower plate 42, the vertical address electrode 44 and the horizontal scanning electrode 46 are disposed. Is formed. A dielectric layer 48 is formed between the address electrode 44 and the scan electrode 46. The upper plate 50 is formed with a metal electrode to which a high frequency voltage is applied in the same direction as the scan electrode 46, that is, a high frequency electrode 50. A partition wall is formed between the upper and lower plates 40 and 42 in a direction parallel to the address electrode 44 to exclude optical interference between neighboring cells. On the surface of the top plate 40 and the partition wall 52 on which the high frequency electrode 50 is formed, red, green, and blue phosphors 54 are applied. Then, the discharge gas is filled in the discharge space therein.

4 illustrates an electrode arrangement structure of a PDP applied to a PDP driving method according to the present invention.

The PDP shown in FIG. 4 includes address electrode lines X1 to Xm arranged to correspond to each column line, and scan electrode lines Y1 arranged to correspond to each row line. Yn) and high frequency electrode lines RF. The discharge cells 34 are provided at the intersections of the address electrode lines X1 to Xm, the scan electrode lines Y1 to Yn, and the high frequency electrode lines RF.

FIG. 5 shows a voltage waveform diagram of driving the discharge cell shown in FIG. 3.

First, in the discharge cell of FIG. 3, the high frequency electrode 50 is continuously supplied with a high frequency voltage of several tens of MHz or more. Thus, no charge particles are generated in the discharge space during the period a in which the high frequency voltage is supplied only to the high frequency electrode 50, so that discharge does not occur. In section b where the data pulse Vd is supplied to the address electrode 44 and the scan pulse Vs is supplied to the scan electrode 46, a high voltage is applied between the address electrode 44 and the scan electrode 46. Discharge occurs and charged particles are produced. The charged particles generated by this address discharge are generated by the high frequency electrode 50 by the high frequency voltage supplied to the high frequency electrode 50 during the period c and the center voltage Vc of the high frequency voltage constantly supplied to the scan electrode 46. The ions do not move between the scan electrode 46 and only the electrons are vibrated in a state where only the electrons are not attracted to the two electrodes 46 and 50. In this way, the vibrating electrons ionize and excite the discharge gas continuously and emit vacuum ultraviolet rays while emitting excited atoms and molecules to the ground state to emit phosphors. Therefore, by adjusting the c section it is possible to adjust the time the light is emitted it is possible to adjust the brightness. In addition, the erase pulse Ve is supplied to the scan electrode 46 in the period d, so that the electrons are no longer vibrated, the electrons are attracted to the address electrode 46, and the charged particles disappear. Will not. In this case, since the erase pulse Ve only needs to change the center voltage Vc, which is a reference voltage of high frequency discharge, the voltage between the address discharge and the erase discharge is different from the method of supplying the same polarity as the data pulse Vd. If present, the voltage Ve 'having the same polarity as that of the scan pulse Vs can be supplied.

FIG. 6 is a view illustrating a voltage waveform for explaining a PDP driving method using a high frequency according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 4, the voltage waveform for driving the PDP when the number of scan electrode lines n is 4 is shown in FIG. .

First, a constant high frequency voltage is always supplied to commonly connected high frequency electrode lines RF. The scan pulses for selecting the scan line are sequentially supplied to the scan electrode lines Y1 to Y4, and the data corresponding to the selected scan line is supplied to the address electrode lines X1 to Xm in synchronization with the scan pulse Vs. Will be. Accordingly, when the scan pulse and the data coincide with each other, an address discharge occurs, and then a high frequency discharge is continued by a high frequency signal supplied to the high frequency electrode lines RF. The high frequency discharge is stopped by the erase pulses sequentially supplied to the scan electrode lines Y1 to Y4. As such, when the four scan electrode lines Y1 to Y4 finish the display corresponding to the first subfield SF1, scan pulses are sequentially supplied to the scan electrode lines Y1 to Y4 and the address electrode lines The data corresponding to the next field is supplied one by one scan line to (X1 to Xm), and the above-described operation is repeated to display the second subfield SF2. Then, the operation is repeated in subfield units so that the PDP displays an image of one frame. Here, by adjusting the time when the erase pulse is supplied to adjust the high frequency discharge period it is possible to implement the step-by-step brightness corresponding to each subfield (SF1, SF2, SF3, ...).

As described above, in the PDP driving method according to the present invention, each scan line starts sustain discharge (i.e., high frequency discharge) immediately after the address discharge, so that wall charge for sustain discharge is not required as in the prior art.

As described above, according to the PDP driving method according to the present invention, since each scan line starts sustain discharge immediately after the address discharge (that is, high frequency discharge), it is not necessary to maintain wall charge for high frequency discharge, thereby reducing power consumption. Will be.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention. Therefore, the technical scope of the present invention should not be limited to the contents described in the detailed description of the specification but should be defined by the claims.

Claims (3)

In the driving method of a plasma display panel using a high frequency discharge, And causing a high frequency discharge to be generated by a high frequency voltage supplied to the high frequency electrode immediately after the address discharge is generated between the address electrode and the scan electrode on a scan line basis. The method of claim 1, And erasing the high frequency discharge by supplying an erase voltage to the scan electrode in units of the scan lines. The method of claim 2, And adjusting brightness at which the erasing voltage is supplied to adjust brightness.