KR100450217B1 - A driving apparatus and a method of plasma display panel - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention is directed to an address-display simultaneous driving method that can have a long address operation time and can apply a large number of scan pulses.

To this end, the present invention provides a method of driving a plasma display panel including a plurality of first sustain electrodes and a second sustain electrode alternately arranged in pairs with each other, and a plurality of address electrodes intersecting the first and second sustain electrodes. In this case, scan pulses are applied to the plurality of first sustain electrodes for the scan operation of the n-th subfield, and scan pulses are applied to the plurality of second sustain electrodes for the scan operation of the m-th subfield.

Description

Driving device and driving method of plasma display panel {A DRIVING APPARATUS AND A METHOD OF PLASMA DISPLAY PANEL}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a driving apparatus and a driving method of a plasma display panel (PDP), and more particularly to a driving apparatus and a driving method of a plasma display panel driven by an address-display simultaneous method.

Recently, flat display devices such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs), electroluminescence (EL), field emission displays (FEDs), and PDPs have been actively developed. Among these flat panel display devices, PDPs have advantages of higher luminance and luminous efficiency and wider viewing angles than other flat panel display devices. Therefore, the PDP is in the spotlight as a display device to replace the conventional cathode ray tube (CRT) in a large display device of 40 inches or more.

PDPs are flat display devices that display characters or images using plasma generated by gas discharge, and dozens to millions or more of pixels are arranged in a matrix according to their size. Such PDPs are classified into a direct current type (DC type) and an alternating current type (AC type) according to the shape of the driving voltage waveform applied and the structure of the discharge cell.

In the DC-type PDP, since the electrode is exposed to the discharge space as it is, the current flows in the discharge space while voltage is applied, and there is a disadvantage in that a resistance for current limitation must be made for this purpose. On the other hand, in the AC type PDP, the electrode covers the dielectric layer, so the current is limited by the formation of a natural capacitance component, and the electrode is protected from the impact of ions during discharge.

1 is a partial perspective view of an AC plasma display panel.

As shown in FIG. 1, a first sustain electrode 4 and a second sustain electrode 5 covered with a dielectric layer 2 and a protective layer 3 are paired and arranged on the first glass substrate 1 in parallel. . A plurality of address electrodes 8 covered with the insulator layer 7 are provided on the second glass substrate 6. On the insulator layer 7 between the address electrodes 8, a partition 9 is formed in parallel with the address electrode 8. In addition, the phosphor 10 is formed on the surface of the insulator layer 7 and on both side surfaces of the partition wall 9. The first glass substrate 1 and the second glass substrate 6 have a discharge space 11 such that the first sustain electrode 4 and the address electrode 8 and the second sustain electrode 5 and the address electrode 8 are perpendicular to each other. ) And are disposed to face each other. The discharge space at the intersection of the address electrode 8 and the pair of the first sustain electrodes 4 and the second sustain electrodes 5 forms the discharge cells 12.

2 shows an electrode arrangement diagram of the plasma display panel.

As shown in Fig. 2, the PDP electrode has a matrix structure of m × n. Specifically, the address electrodes A1 to Am are arranged in the column direction and the nth sustain electrodes (n rows) in the row direction. Y1 to Yn and second sustain electrodes X1 to Xn are alternately arranged. The discharge cell 12 shown in FIG. 2 corresponds to the discharge cell 12 shown in FIG.

In order to drive the plasma display panel shown in Figs. 1 and 2, an address-display separation driving method (hereinafter, referred to as an 'ADS driving method') is generally used.

3 is a view showing a conventional ADS driving method.

Referring to Fig. 3, the unit frame is divided into eight subfields SF1, ..., SF8 to realize time division gray scale display. Each subfield SF1, ..., SF8 is divided into address periods A1, ..., A8 and display periods S1, ..., S8.

In each address period A1,..., A8, an address signal is applied to the address electrode lines A ₁ ,..., A _{m in} FIG. ₁ , and at the same time, the first sustain electrode lines Y ₁ ,. ..., Y _n ) are sequentially applied with the scanning pulses. In this manner, wall charges are formed by the address discharge in the discharge cell to which the high level address signal is applied while the scan pulse is applied, and wall charges are not formed in the discharge cell that is not.

In each display period S1, ..., S8, all the first sustain electrode lines Y ₁ , ..., Y _n and all the second sustain electrode lines X ₁ , ..., X _n ), A display discharge pulse is alternately applied, so that display discharge occurs in discharge cells in which wall charges are formed during the address periods A1, ..., A6.

The luminance of the plasma display panel is proportional to the length of the display periods S1, ..., S8 occupying a unit frame. The length of the display periods S1, ..., S8 occupying the unit frame is 255T (T is the unit time). Therefore, it can be displayed in 256 gray scales, even if it is not displayed once in a unit frame.

According to this ADS driving method, since the time domains of the subfields SF1, ..., SF8 are separated in the unit frame, the address period and the display period of each subfield SF1, ..., SF8 are separated. The time domains are also separated from each other. Therefore, in the address period, for example, when a specific first and second sustain electrode (X, Y electrode) line pair is addressed, the display discharge operation may not be performed immediately, and all other first and second sustain electrode line pairs are addressed. Wait for the display discharge operation. As a result, the time period occupied by the address period for each subfield becomes longer and the display period becomes relatively short. Therefore, the luminance of light emitted from the plasma display panel is relatively low. In order to solve this problem, a known method is an address-display-display (hereinafter, referred to as AWD driving method) driving method as shown in FIG.

4 is a view showing a conventional AWD driving method.

Referring to FIG. 4, a unit frame is divided into _eight sub-fields SF ₁ ,..., SF ₈ for time division gray scale display. Here, each unit sub-field overlaps each other based on the first sustain electrode lines Y ₁ ,..., And Yn being driven to form a unit frame. Therefore, since all sub-fields SF ₁ , ..., SF ₈ are present at every time point, an address time slot is set between each sustain discharge pulse for performing each address step.

5 is a view showing a driving waveform used in the conventional AWD driving method.

Referring to FIG. 5, a basic waveform for sustain discharge is simultaneously applied to all the first sustain electrodes and the second sustain electrodes. In Fig. 5, Vsh and Vsl represent a positive sustain discharge voltage and a negative sustain discharge voltage, respectively. In the AWD driving method, when the address operation is performed, the voltage Vsc for the addressing operation is applied only to the sustain electrode to which the address operation is performed, and the selection operation is performed according to the pulse of the address electrode. In this case, according to the conventional AWD driving method, as shown in FIG. 5, the scan operation is performed only on the first sustain electrode and the scan operation is not performed on the second sustain electrode. That is, as shown in FIG. 5, for example, not only the scan operation of the fourth subfield SF4 but also the scan operation of the fifth subfield SF5 is performed on the first sustain electrode, and the scan operation is performed on the second sustain electrode. Not performed at all.

As described above, according to the conventional AWD driving method, since the scan operation is performed only on the first sustain electrode, it is difficult to have sufficient address operation and thus it is difficult to accurately perform the address operation. There was a problem that is limited.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and the present invention is to provide an AWD driving method which can have a long address operation time and can apply a large number of scan pulses.

1 is a partial perspective view of an AC plasma display panel.

2 is an electrode array diagram of a plasma display panel.

3 is a diagram showing a conventional address-display separation driving method.

4 is a diagram showing a conventional address-display simultaneous driving method.

Fig. 5 is a diagram showing driving waveforms used in the conventional address-display driving method.

6 illustrates a plasma display panel according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

7 is a view showing a drive waveform used in the embodiment of the present invention.

The driving method of the plasma display panel according to the characteristics of the present invention for achieving the above object is

A driving method of a plasma display panel including a plurality of first sustain electrodes and a second sustain electrode alternately arranged in pairs with each other, and a plurality of address electrodes intersecting the first and second sustain electrodes.

applying a scan pulse to the plurality of first sustain electrodes for a scan operation of an n-th subfield;

applying a scan pulse to the plurality of second sustain electrodes for a scan operation of an m-th subfield; And

And a third step of applying an addressing voltage corresponding to the scan pulse applied in the first and second steps to the address electrode.

In addition, the plasma display panel according to an aspect of the present invention

A plasma panel comprising a plurality of address electrodes and a plurality of pairs of sustaining electrodes crossing the address electrodes and a plurality of first and second sustaining electrodes arranged in pairs alternately with each other;

A controller configured to receive an image signal from an external source and generate an address driving control signal and first and second sustain discharge signals;

An address driver which receives the address drive control signal from the controller and applies a display data signal to the address electrode to select a discharge cell to be displayed; And

A discharge cell selected by receiving the first sustain discharge signal and the second sustain discharge signal from the controller, respectively, and alternately input a positive discharge sustain voltage and a negative discharge sustain voltage to the first sustain electrode and the second sustain electrode; A first and a second holding driver configured to perform a sustain discharge with respect to the

The first sustain driver applies a scan pulse to the plurality of first sustain electrodes for the scan operation of the n-th subfield, and the second sustain driver applies the second sustain to the plurality of second sustain fields for the scan operation of the m-th subfield. The scan pulse is applied to the electrode.

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

6 illustrates a plasma display panel according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 6, the PDP according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a plasma panel 100, an address driver 200, first and second sustain drivers 320 and 340, and a controller 400.

The plasma panel 100 includes a plurality of address electrodes A1 to Am arranged in the column direction, first storage electrodes Y1 to Yn, and second storage electrodes X1 to Xn that are alternately arranged in the row direction. Include.

The address driver 200 receives an address driving control signal S _A from the controller 200 and applies a display data signal for selecting a discharge cell to be displayed to each address electrode.

The first and second sustain drivers 320 and 340 receive the first and second sustain discharge signals S _Y and S _X from the controller 200, respectively, and maintain the discharge voltages at the first sustain electrode and the second sustain electrode. Alternately inputs the sustain discharge to the selected discharge cells. At this time, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the first sustain driver and the second sustain driver 320 and 340 alternately scan scan voltages for performing the address operation in the address operation period as described below. 2 is applied to the sustain electrode.

The controller 400 receives an image signal from an external source, generates an address driving control signal S _A , and first and second sustain discharge signals S _Y and S _X to maintain the address driver, the first and second sustains, respectively. Deliver to drive.

7 is a view showing a driving waveform used in the AWD driving method of the plasma display panel according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 7, first, a basic waveform for sustain discharge is applied to all the first sustain electrodes and the second sustain electrodes simultaneously. In Fig. 7, Vsh and Vsl represent a positive sustain voltage and a negative sustain voltage, respectively.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 7, the scan operation is performed not only on the first sustain electrode but also on the second sustain electrode. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, scan operations of the third and fourth subfields SF3 and SF4 are performed on the first sustain electrodes Y1, Y2, Y3, and Y4, and the fifth and sixth subfields. The scan operation of the SF5 is performed at the second sustain electrodes X1, X2, X3, and X4.

Therefore, more scans can be performed at the same time as compared with the conventional driving method shown in Fig. 5, in which only the first sustain electrode scans all the subfields. Therefore, since a larger number of scan operations can be performed during the same time, a large number of address operations can be performed. Accordingly, the number of subfields can be increased to reduce pseudo contouring.

In addition, if one scan operation time is constant, in the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, since the scan operation is performed on both the first sustain electrode and the second sustain electrode, the conventional driving method performs the scan operation only on the first sustain electrode. On the contrary, the time for scanning the entire line can be cut in half, thereby increasing the sustain discharge time and improving the luminance.

In addition, in the case where the total scan time is made constant, one scan operation time can be doubled, and the addressing operation can be performed accurately.

As mentioned above, although the Example of this invention was described, this invention is not limited only to the Example mentioned above, A various other deformation | transformation and a change are possible.

As described above, according to the present invention, since the scan operation is performed on both the first sustain electrode and the second sustain electrode, the sustain discharge time may be increased to improve luminance.

In addition, according to the present invention, it is possible to sufficiently have a scan operation time, it is possible to accurately perform the addressing operation.

Claims (4)

A driving method of a plasma display panel comprising a plurality of first sustain electrodes and a second sustain electrode alternately arranged in pairs with each other, and a plurality of address electrodes intersecting the first and second sustain electrodes, applying a scan pulse to the plurality of first sustain electrodes for a scan operation of an n-th subfield; a second step of applying a scan pulse to the plurality of second sustain electrodes for a scan operation of an m (m ≠ n) subfield; And And a third step of applying an addressing voltage corresponding to the scan pulses applied in the first and second steps to the address electrode. The method of claim 1, And the scan pulse is applied when the sustain discharge voltage is a negative sustain discharge voltage. A plasma panel comprising a plurality of address electrodes and a plurality of pairs of sustaining electrodes crossing the address electrodes and a plurality of first and second sustaining electrodes arranged in pairs alternately with each other; A controller configured to receive an image signal from an external source and generate an address driving control signal and first and second sustain discharge signals; An address driver which receives the address drive control signal from the controller and applies a display data signal to the address electrode to select a discharge cell to be displayed; And A discharge cell selected by receiving the first sustain discharge signal and the second sustain discharge signal from the controller, respectively, and alternately input a positive discharge sustain voltage and a negative discharge sustain voltage to the first sustain electrode and the second sustain electrode; A first and a second holding driver configured to perform a sustain discharge with respect to the The first sustain driver applies a scan pulse to the plurality of first sustain electrodes for the scan operation of the n-th subfield, and the second sustain driver applies the second sustain to the plurality of second sustain fields for the scan operation of the m-th subfield. And a scan pulse applied to the electrode. The method of claim 3, And the scan pulse is applied when the sustain discharge voltage is a negative sustain discharge voltage.