KR100560500B1 - Driving device of plasma display panel and driving method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of scan electrode lines having the same subfield data and the same subfield data generated in any one scan electrode line corresponding to the video signal corresponding to the video signal in the address period are identical. If is present, addressing time can be reduced by simultaneously applying scan pulses to the corresponding scan line.

Gradation, address period, video signal, moving picture

Description

Driving device for plasma display panel and driving method thereof {DRIVING DEVICE OF PLASMA DISPLAY PANEL AND DRIVING METHOD THEREOF}

1 is a schematic partial perspective view of a typical plasma display panel.

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

3 is a diagram illustrating a gray scale display method of a plasma display panel.

4 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for driving a plasma display panel according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a schematic block diagram of a controller of a plasma display panel according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

6 is a diagram illustrating an overall timing diagram for driving waveforms of a plasma display panel according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating subfield data based on a driving waveform of the plasma display panel of FIG. 6.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a driving method and a driving apparatus of a plasma display panel (PDP), and more particularly to a driving apparatus and a driving method of a plasma display panel which can shorten an addressing time in an address period.

A plasma display panel is a flat panel display device that displays characters or images using plasma generated by gas discharge, and tens to millions or more of pixels are arranged in a matrix form according to their size.

First, a structure of a general plasma display panel will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

1 is a partial perspective view of a typical plasma display panel.

As shown in FIG. 1, the plasma display panel includes two glass substrates 1 and 6 facing each other apart. On the glass substrate 1, the scan electrode 4 and the sustain electrode 5 are formed in pairs and in parallel, and the scan electrode 4 and the sustain electrode 5 are covered with the dielectric layer 2 and the protective film 3. have. A plurality of address electrodes 8 are formed on the glass substrate 6, and the address electrodes 8 are covered with the insulator layer 7. The address electrode 8 and the partition 9 are formed on the insulator layer 7 between the address electrodes 8. In addition, the phosphor 10 is formed on the surface of the insulator layer 7 and on both sides of the partition wall 9. The glass substrates 1 and 6 are disposed to face each other with the discharge space 11 therebetween so that the scan electrode 4, the address electrode 8, the sustain electrode 5, and the address electrode 8 are orthogonal to each other. The discharge space 11 at the intersection of the address electrode 8 and the paired scan electrode 4 and the sustain electrode 5 forms a discharge cell 12.

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

As shown in FIG. 2, the electrode of the plasma display panel has a matrix structure of n × m. In the column direction, address electrodes A ₁ -A _m are arranged, and in the row direction, n rows of scan electrodes Y ₁ -Y _n and sustain electrodes X ₁ -X _n are arranged in pairs.

In the method of driving the plasma display panel, each subfield (which explains waveforms in one subfield for convenience) generally consists of a reset period, an address period, a sustain period, and an erase period.

The reset period is a period for initializing the state of each cell in order to perform an addressing operation smoothly on the cell, and the address period (or scan period, write period) is a cell that is turned on by selecting a cell that is turned on and a cell that is not turned on. This is a period during which the wall charges are accumulated in the addressed cells). The sustain period is a period in which discharge for actually displaying an image is performed on the addressed cell, and the erase period is a period in which the wall discharge of the cell is reduced to end the sustain discharge.

3 is a diagram illustrating a gray scale display method of a plasma display panel.

As shown in FIG. 3, each subfield which divides one frame into a plurality of subfields and time-division controls to implement gradation, has a reset period, an addressing period, and a sustain period described above. 3 illustrates a case in which one frame is divided into eight subfields to implement 256 gray levels. Each subfield SF1-SF8 consists of a reset period (not shown), an address period A1-A8, and a sustain period S1-S8, and the sustain periods S1-S8 are light emission periods 1T, 2T. , 4T, ..., 128T) becomes 1: 2: 4: 8: 16: 32: 64: 128. Referring to FIG. 3, it can be seen that scan pulses are sequentially applied to the scan electrodes Y1-Yn during the address period when the plasma display panel is driven.

As described above, in the conventional plasma display panel having the conventional subfield arrangement, reset, address, and sustain discharge are controlled by applying driving waveforms to the scan electrode Y, the sustain electrode X, and the address electrode A, respectively. In particular, in the address period, addressing time is increased by applying scan pulses sequentially from Y1 to Yn to the scan electrodes Y1 to Yn. For example, conventionally, addressing time is increased by sequentially addressing each scan line (640 lines or 1024 lines) at 1.6 ms per line for addressing, thereby limiting the actual number of subfields and the number of sustain discharge pulses. Will receive. As a result, problems arise in image quality and brightness. In particular, when the number of lines of the scan electrodes Y is large, as in the case of a large screen, more addressing time is required, which causes a problem.

The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and the same subfield data generated corresponding to each subfield in any one scan electrode line corresponding to an image signal is the same, and the same scan described above. The present invention provides a driving apparatus for a plasma display panel and a driving method thereof, which can reduce addressing time by simultaneously applying scan pulses to a corresponding scan line when a plurality of electrode lines exist.

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

A plurality of first electrodes and second electrodes formed on the first substrate, and a plurality of third electrodes formed on the second substrate and crossing the first and second electrodes, respectively; A driving method of a plasma display panel in which a discharge cell is formed by a second electrode and a third electrode, and one frame is divided into a plurality of subfields for driving.

generating subfield data based on reference weights set in the subfields in response to an input image signal;

(b) determining the plurality of electrode lines of the first electrode having the same subfield data by determining the subfield data for each electrode line of the first electrode; And

(c) when there are a plurality of electrode lines of the first electrode having the same subfield data in step (b), the plurality of first electrodes having the same subfield data in the address period of the corresponding subfield. And simultaneously applying scan pulses to the electrode lines.

A driving apparatus of a plasma display panel according to another aspect of the present invention is

A plurality of first electrodes and second electrodes formed on the first substrate, and a plurality of third electrodes formed on the second substrate and crossing the first and second electrodes, respectively; In a driving device of a plasma display panel in which a discharge cell is formed by a second electrode and a third electrode, and one frame is divided into a plurality of subfields for driving.

The driving apparatus of the plasma display panel includes a control unit for outputting a control signal for driving the first, second and third electrodes and a corresponding driving signal for driving each electrode to the plasma panel in response to an input image signal. Each drive unit for outputting,

The control unit,

A subfield generator for generating subfield data based on a reference weight set in each subfield in response to an input image signal;

A subfield comparator for determining whether the plurality of electrode lines of the first electrode having the same subfield data exist by determining the subfield data for each electrode line of the first electrode; And

When there are a plurality of electrode lines of the first electrode having the same subfield data, control to apply a scan pulse to the plurality of electrode lines of the first electrode having the same subfield data in an address period of the corresponding subfield. And a holding and scanning drive control unit for outputting a signal.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art may easily implement the present invention. As those skilled in the art would realize, the described embodiments may be modified in various different ways, all without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. In the drawings, parts irrelevant to the description are omitted in order to clearly describe the present invention. Like parts are designated by like reference numerals throughout the specification.

A method of driving a plasma display panel according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

4 is a schematic block diagram of a plasma display panel according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 4, a plasma display panel according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a plasma panel 100, an address driver 200, a Y electrode driver 300, an X electrode driver 400, and a controller 500. do. Here, the address driving unit 200, the Y electrode driving unit 300, the X electrode driving unit 400, and the control unit 500 except for the plasma panel 100 may be included to form a driving device of the plasma display panel.

The plasma panel 100 includes a plurality of address electrodes A1 to Am arranged in a column direction, scan electrodes Y1 to Yn arranged in a row direction, and sustain electrodes X1 to Xn.

The address driver 200 receives an address driving control signal S _A from the controller 500 and applies a display data signal for selecting a discharge cell to be displayed to each address electrode.

The Y electrode driver 300 and the X electrode driver 400 receive the scan electrode driving signal S _Y and the sustain electrode driving signal S _X from the control unit 500, respectively, so that the sustain electrode X and the scan electrode Y ) Is applied.

The controller 500 receives an image signal and a synchronization signal from the outside, divides one frame into several subfields, and divides each subfield into a reset period, an address period, and a sustain period to drive the plasma display panel. At this time, the control unit 500 adjusts the number of sustain discharge pulses in each sustain period of the subfield in one frame to provide a necessary control signal to the address driver 200, the Y electrode driver 300, and the X electrode driver 400. To feed. The control unit 500 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides a control signal for simultaneously applying scan pulses to the scan electrode lines when there are subfields that are simultaneously turned on / off in the same subfield among the respective scan electrode lines. It transfers to the Y electrode driver 300.

5 is a schematic block diagram of a controller of a plasma display panel according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

As illustrated in FIG. 5, the controller 500 of the plasma display panel according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a subfield generator 510, a subfield comparator 530, and a scan and sustain drive controller 550.

The subfield generator 510 generates data (subfield data) on / off of each subfield based on a reference weight set in each subfield in response to the input image signal, and then the subfield comparator 530. To transmit.

In the subfield comparator 530, the subfields of all the discharge cells corresponding to each scan electrode line for each scan electrode line in every discharge cell constituting one frame through the subfield data generated by the subfield generator 510. Compare field on / off data. As a result of the comparison, when all the discharge cells of the scan electrode lines have scan electrode lines simultaneously on / off in the same subfield among the respective subfields, the scan electrode lines having the same on / off information are compared with all other scan electrode lines. The comparison is made to see if there is a subfield having on / off characteristics at the same time as in the scan electrode line. The comparison result is transmitted to the scan and sustain drive control unit 540.

On the other hand, the scan and sustain drive control unit 540 transfers the driving control signal Sy to the Y electrode driver 300 to simultaneously apply scan pulses to the plurality of scan electrode lines with reference to the comparison result. The Y electrode driver 300 applies a driving signal to the scan electrode Y according to the driving control signal Sy.

6 is a diagram illustrating an overall timing diagram for driving waveforms of a plasma display panel according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating subfield data based on a driving waveform of the plasma display panel of FIG. 6.

Referring to FIG. 6, the driving waveform according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a reset period, an address period, and a sustain period. In the plasma display panel, a scan / hold driving circuit (not shown) for applying a driving voltage to the scan electrode (Y) and the sustain electrode (X) in each period and an address driving circuit for applying a driving voltage to the address electrode (A) in each period. (Not shown) is connected. The driving circuit and the plasma display panel are connected to form one plasma display device.

Gray levels to be expressed in all the discharge cells of any one scan electrode line are the same or not the same for all the discharge cells constituting one frame.

First, when the gray to be expressed in all the discharge cells of any one scan electrode line is the same, when comparing the subfield on / off data in all the subfields (eg, SF1 to SF8) of each of the discharge cells, The subfield data in the same subfield are all the same. In this case, when the scan electrode line is compared with all other scan electrode lines and at least one scan electrode line having the same subfield data as the scan electrode line is present, scan pulses are simultaneously applied to the plurality of scan electrode lines. . Since the same subfield data is applied, scan pulses can be simultaneously applied to scan electrodes in common, and the same address data can be applied to address electrodes.

By doing this, the addressing time can be saved.

On the other hand, even when the gray scales to be expressed in all the discharge cells of one scan electrode line are not the same as described above, there are subfields that are simultaneously turned on and off in the same subfield in each discharge cell of one scan electrode line. . That is, for convenience of explanation, assuming that there are 10 discharge cells of one scan electrode line, and each of the discharge cells expresses a gray level increasing by 5 up to 5, 10, 15 to 50, the gray level to be expressed in each discharge cell is If there is a subfield having a weight greater than 50, which is the maximum gray scale to be expressed in each subfield SF1 to SF8, but all subfields including the subfield having a weight greater than 50 are included in all 10 discharge cells. Is off. In this case, when there are a plurality of other scan electrode lines having the same subfield on / off data as the scan electrode lines by comparing the scan electrode lines with all other scan electrode lines, as described above, the plurality of scan electrode lines By simultaneously applying the scan pulse to the address, the address time can be saved.

In FIG. 6, (a) and (b) show examples of simultaneously applying scan pulses to scan electrode lines having information that is simultaneously turned on or off in the same subfield among the scan electrode lines. Specifically, first, in FIG. 7, the subfield data of all the discharge cells of the scan electrode line Y2 and the scan electrode line Yn-1 is the same as "1". In this case, as shown in Fig. 6A, scan pulses are simultaneously applied to the scan electrode lines Y2 and Yn-1. Further, the subfield data of all the discharge cells of the scan electrode line Y3 and the scan electrode line Yn are the same, and in this case, the scan electrode lines Y3 and Yn are similarly shown in FIG. At the same time, a scan pulse is applied.

In this way, the address time can be shortened by applying a scan pulse to the plurality of scan electrode lines at once through the subfield data even in the case of having the same gray scale or not.

In general, 10% to 15% of the average gray level displays the same gray level. For example, in the case of 1024 × 768 lines, the same gray level is displayed in the range of 100 to 150 lines. Assuming 1.2 ms, the scan time of 120 ms per subfield can be reduced. Since one screen is composed of at least eight subfields, it is possible to save 960 ms of time.

In this case, the larger the area displaying the same gray scale, the more the scan time can be reduced. Therefore, the spare time is increased. Therefore, if the subfield is increased or the number of sustain discharge pulses is increased during this spare time, the image quality and The brightness can be further improved.

In addition, when the area having the same gradation is 10% in the total display area, since the period of the sustaining period is 5 ms, 400 pieces can be further increased, so that an effect of increasing brightness of 200 cd / m 2 can be obtained.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and various modifications and improvements of those skilled in the art using the basic concepts of the invention defined in the following claims are also provided. It belongs to the scope of rights.

As described above, according to the present invention, the subfield on / off data of all the discharge cells is compared for each scan line corresponding to the video signal input in the address period, and the cells are turned on at the same time in all the discharge cells of any one scan electrode line. When there are the same subfields that are turned on / off and there are other scan electrode lines satisfying the same conditions as above, by simultaneously applying scan pulses to the plurality of scan electrode lines, addressing time can be shortened, The image quality and brightness of the screen may be improved by increasing the number of actual subfields or increasing the number of sustain pulses.

Claims (6)

A plurality of first electrodes and second electrodes formed on the first substrate, and a plurality of third electrodes formed on the second substrate and crossing the first and second electrodes, respectively; A driving method of a plasma display panel in which a discharge cell is formed by a second electrode and a third electrode, and one frame is divided into a plurality of subfields for driving. generating subfield data based on reference weights set in the subfields in response to an input image signal; (b) determining the plurality of electrode lines of the first electrode having the same subfield data by determining the subfield data for each electrode line of the first electrode; And (c) when there are a plurality of electrode lines of the first electrode having the same subfield data in step (b), the plurality of first electrodes having the same subfield data in the address period of the corresponding subfield. Simultaneously applying scan pulses to the electrode lines Method of driving a plasma display panel comprising a. The method of claim 1, In the step (c), when the scan pulse is applied to the plurality of electrode lines of the first electrode at the same time, the same address voltage is applied to the third electrode. The method of claim 1, In the step (b), the gray level of the input image signal representing on or off data of each subfield for each electrode line of the first electrode are all the same. A plurality of first electrodes and second electrodes formed on the first substrate, and a plurality of third electrodes formed on the second substrate and crossing the first and second electrodes, respectively; In a driving device of a plasma display panel in which a discharge cell is formed by a second electrode and a third electrode, and one frame is divided into a plurality of subfields for driving. The driving apparatus of the plasma display panel includes a control unit for outputting a control signal for driving the first, second and third electrodes and a corresponding driving signal for driving each electrode to the plasma panel in response to an input image signal. Each drive unit for outputting, The control unit, A subfield generator for generating subfield data based on a reference weight set in each subfield in response to an input image signal; A subfield comparator for determining whether the plurality of electrode lines of the first electrode having the same subfield data exist by determining the subfield data for each electrode line of the first electrode; And When a plurality of electrode lines of the first electrode having the same subfield data exist, scan pulses are simultaneously applied to a plurality of electrode lines of the first electrode having the same subfield data in an address period of the corresponding subfield. Holding and scanning drive control unit for outputting control signals Driving device for a plasma display panel comprising a. The method of claim 4, wherein And applying the same address voltage to the third electrode when the subfield comparator simultaneously applies a scan pulse to the plurality of electrode lines of the first electrode. The method according to claim 4 or 5, And a gray level of the input image signal representing on or off data of each subfield for each electrode line of the first electrode is the same.

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