KR20000025156A - Method and apparatus for driving plasma display panel - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An apparatus for driving a plasma display panel is provided to increase the discharge efficiency and the brightness by lengthening maintenance discharge time to reduce the number of maintenance electrodes half and to make a maintenance discharge occur between a scan electrode and a maintenance electrode. CONSTITUTION: An apparatus for driving a plasma display panel comprises a display panel(20), an address driver(28,30), and a scan/maintenance drivers(22,24,26). The display panel(20) includes address electrodes and scan/maintenance electrodes perpendicular to each other. The address drivers(28,30) drives the address electrodes. The scan/maintenance drivers(22,24,26) divides the scan/maintenance electrodes into a plurality of blocks, and supplies a maintenance pulse having a phase difference per each block.

Description

Apparatus Of Driving Plasma Display Panel and Method

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a plasma display panel (hereinafter referred to as a PDP), and more particularly, to a PDP driving apparatus and a method capable of increasing the length of a sustain discharge to increase luminance and discharge efficiency.

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

The PDP is classified into a direct current (DC) type driven by a direct current voltage and an alternating current (AC) type driven by an AC voltage according to the type of driving voltage. Hereinafter, only a driving method of the AC type PDP will be described.

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a configuration of a conventional PDP driving apparatus. The PDP driving apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1 may include a scan / hold driving unit for driving scan / holding electrodes Y1 to Yn of the PDP 10. 12, the sustain driver 14 for driving the sustain electrodes Z1 to Zn of the PDP 10, and the address electrodes X1 to Xm of the PDP 10 are odd-numbered address electrodes X1, First and second address drivers 16 and 18 are provided to separately drive X3, ..., Xm-1 and even-numbered address electrodes X2, X4, ..., Xm.

In the PDP driving apparatus of FIG. 1, the PDP 10 includes scan / hold electrodes Y1 to Yn and sustain electrodes Z1 to Zn alternately arranged in the horizontal direction, and address electrodes disposed in the vertical direction. X1 to Xm). Discharge cells are provided at the intersections of the scan / sustain electrodes Y1 to Yn, sustain electrodes Z1 to Zn, and address electrodes X1 to Xm, so that the PDP 10 has n × m discharge cells. Will be provided. Here, the scan / sustain electrodes Y1 to Yn are mainly used to scan the screen and maintain the discharge, and the sustain electrodes Z1 to Zn are mainly used to maintain the discharge, and the address electrodes X1 Xm) is mainly used for data input. To this end, the scan / hold driver 12 includes a sustain pulse for maintaining the discharge of the cell on each of the scan / hold electrodes Y1 to Yn, and an erase pulse and the address electrodes for stopping the discharge of the discharged cell. A scanning pulse synchronized with the video data signal applied to X1 to Xm) is supplied. The sustain driver 14 supplies the sustain pulse to the sustain electrodes Z1 to Zn in common. The first address driver 16 supplies a data pulse synchronized with the scan pulse to each of the odd-numbered address electrodes X1, X3, ..., Xm-3, Xm-1, and together with the second address driver 18 ) Also supplies data pulses to each of the even-numbered address electrodes X2, X4, ..., Xm-2, Xm.

However, the PDP of the three-electrode structure has a problem in terms of brightness and efficiency because only the sub-glow region is used in the glow discharge structure as the size of the discharge cells provided is too small. In general, in the glow discharge structure, since the light emission is generated in the process of being ionized while continuously consuming energy, the discharge efficiency is poor, whereas the positive light region has good discharge efficiency because a lot of light emission is generated by excitation. In order to use the positive light main region, the size of the discharge cell may be increased, but the size of the discharge cell is inevitably limited because an increase in the scan line and resolution according to the size should be satisfied. In addition, in pursuit of a high resolution PDP, when the number of discharge cells increases in response to an increase in the number of pixels, the size of the discharge cells is further reduced, which inevitably leads to lower luminance and efficiency.

In order to solve this problem, a method of improving the luminance and efficiency by reducing the number of sustain electrodes is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-160525. In short, a conventional PDP requires n scan / sustain electrodes and sustain electrodes for n scan lines, whereas the PDP only needs n / 2 scan electrodes and sustain electrodes. The PDP having such a configuration is driven in an interlace manner by dividing an image of one frame into a plurality of subfields, and then dividing each subfield into an odd field and an even field. In detail, in the odd field, the data pulse corresponding to the odd line is supplied to the address electrode, and the scan pulse is supplied to the n / 2 scan electrodes disposed between the n / 2 + 1 sustain electrodes to perform the address discharge according to the data. Will be raised. Subsequently, in the sustain period, sustain discharge is caused between the scan electrodes and the adjacent sustain electrodes. Then, data pulses corresponding only to the even lines in the even field are supplied to the address electrodes, and the scan pulses are sequentially supplied to the scan electrodes to cause address discharge according to the data. Subsequently, in the sustain period, sustain discharge is caused between the scan electrode and the sustain electrode adjacent to the other one direction.

As described above, the above-described PDP can reduce the number of sustain electrodes in half as compared with the conventional one, thereby increasing the length of the electrodes and increasing the brightness and efficiency. In addition, by reducing the number of electrodes can be easily applied to implement high resolution. However, the above-described PDP has a limitation that is applied only to an interlace driving method such as a television (TV) driving method.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a PDP driving apparatus and method capable of improving luminance and discharge efficiency by lengthening sustain discharge using an adjacent scan / hold electrode.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a PDP driving apparatus and method which can be applied to not only an interlace method but also a progressive method.

1 is a view showing a conventional plasma display panel driving apparatus.

2 is a view showing a plasma display panel driving apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a view illustrating a scan / hold electrode arrangement structure of the plasma display panel shown in FIG.

4 is a view illustrating a driving waveform for address discharge in a method of driving a plasma display panel according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a view showing a driving waveform for sustain discharge in the plasma display panel driving method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

6 is a view showing a light emission sequence by sustain discharge according to the driving waveform shown in FIG.

7 is a view showing a driving waveform for sustain discharge in the plasma display panel driving method according to another embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a view showing a light emission sequence by sustain discharge according to the driving waveform shown in FIG.

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

10, 20: PDP 12: scan / hold driver

14: holding driver 16, 28: first address driver

18, 33: second address driver 22: first scan / sustain driver

24: second scan / hold driver 26: third scan / hold driver

In order to achieve the above objects, a PDP driving apparatus according to the present invention includes a display panel including orthogonal address electrodes and scan / hold electrodes, an address driving means for driving address electrodes, and a plurality of scan / hold electrodes. And dividing into blocks to provide scanning / holding driving means for supplying a sustain pulse having a phase difference for each block.

The PDP driving method according to the present invention is characterized in that it comprises the step of dividing the scan / sustain electrode into a plurality of blocks to generate a sustain discharge with a predetermined time difference for each block.

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. 2 to 6.

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates a configuration of a PDP driving apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. In the PDP driving apparatus illustrated in FIG. 2, scan / hold electrodes Y1 to Yn and address electrodes X1 to Xm are illustrated. First to third scan / hold drivers 22, 24, and 26 for driving the PDP 20 arranged at right angles and the scan / hold electrodes Y1 to Yn disposed on the PDP 20 in three divisions. ), And the address electrodes X1 to Xm of the PDP 20 are divided into odd-numbered address electrodes X1, X3, ..., Xm-3 and Xm-1 and even-numbered address electrodes X2, X4, ..., And first and second address drivers 28 and 30 for driving by dividing into Xm-2 and Xm, respectively.

In the PDP driving apparatus shown in FIG. 2, the PDP 20 includes n scan / hold electrodes Y1 to Yn arranged in the horizontal direction and m address electrodes X1 to Xm arranged in the vertical direction. do. Discharge cells (not shown) are provided between the scan / sustain electrodes Y1 to Yn where the address electrodes X1 to Xm are disposed. In other words, a discharge cell is provided between the Y1 electrode and the Y2 electrode, between Y2 and Y3, between Y3 and Y4, and the like. In the address period, address discharge occurs between the scan / suspension electrodes Y and the address electrode X intersecting, and in the next sustain period, sustain discharge occurs between adjacent scan / suspension electrodes Y. The first to third scan / hold drivers 22, 24, and 26 are disposed at both sides of the PDP 20 to divide the n scan / hold electrodes Y1 to Yn into three parts to perform scan and sustain drives. .

In other words, the scan / sustain electrodes Y1 to Yn disposed in the PDP 20 are driven by being divided into three blocks as shown in FIG. 3. For example, the first block consists of scan / hold electrodes Y1, Y4, Y7, Y10, ..., Y478 having equal spacing of three lines from the first scan / hold electrode, and the second block is the second block. It is composed of scan / hold electrodes Y2, Y5, Y8, Y11, ..., Y479 having equal spacing of three lines from the scan / hold electrode, and the third block has three equal intervals from the third scan / hold electrode. And scan / hold electrodes Y3, Y6, Y9, Y12,..., Y480. Here, the scan / sustain electrodes Y1, Y4, Y7, Y10,..., Y478 of the first block are driven by the first scan / sustain driver 22 disposed on the left side of the PDP 20 in FIG. 2. The scan / sustain electrodes Y2, Y5, Y8, Y11,..., Y479 of the second block are driven by the second scan / sustain driver 24 disposed at the right side of the PDP 20. The scan / sustain electrodes Y3, Y6, Y9, Y12,..., Y480 of the block are driven by the third scan / sustain driver 26 disposed on the right side of the PDP 20.

In the address period, scan pulses are sequentially applied from the first to third scan / sustain driver 22, 24, and 26 to the entire scan / sustain electrodes Y1 to Yn, and the first and second address drivers 28, Since the data pulse is supplied from the 30 to the address electrodes X1 to Xm, address discharge is generated in a non-interlace method.

As another method, address discharge may occur in block order according to the address driving waveform shown in FIG. In other words, after the scan / hold electrodes Y1, Y4, Y7, Y10,..., Y478 included in the first block are sequentially scanned by the first scan / hold driver 22, the second scan / The sustain driver 24 scans the scan / sustain electrodes Y2, Y5, Y8, Y11,..., And Y479 included in the second block. Subsequently, the scan / hold electrodes Y3, Y6, Y9, Y12,..., And Y480 included in the third block are sequentially scanned by the third scan / hold driver 26. Here, the block order may be changed.

Subsequently, in the sustain period, the sustain discharge is generated as the sustain pulse is applied to the scan / sustain electrodes Y of the block from the first to third scan / sustain driver 22, 24, and 26. At this time, each of the first to third scan / sustain driving units 22, 24, and 26 supplies a sustain pulse having a different phase to the scan / sustain electrodes Y of the corresponding block. Accordingly, the scan / sustain electrodes Y generate a sustain discharge with a predetermined time difference for each block, and the scan / sustain electrodes Y included in the same block generate sustain discharge at the same time. Hereinafter, a PDP driving method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 5.

5 shows sustain pulses supplied to six scan / sustain electrodes Y1 to Y6.

In FIG. 5, the sustain pulses supplied to the scan / sustain electrodes Y1, Y4, Y2, and Y5 included in the first and second blocks have the same phase and are the same, but the scan / sustain electrodes included in the third block. It can be seen that the holding pulses supplied to (Y3, Y6) are slightly different. This is to prevent interference and mis-discharge between adjacent scanning lines during sustain discharge. In detail, during t1, a high level voltage is supplied from the first scan / sustain driver 22 to the scan / sustain electrodes Y1 and Y4 of the first block, and the scan / sustain electrodes Y2 and Y5 of the second block. The low level voltage is supplied from the second scan / sustain driver 24, and the middle level voltage is supplied from the third scan / sustain driver 26 to the scan / hold electrodes Y3 and Y6 of the third block. do. Accordingly, in the t1 section, the sustain discharge occurs only between the Y1 electrode and the Y2 electrode, the Y4 electrode and the Y5 electrode, and the sustain discharge does not occur because the voltage difference for the start of the sustain discharge does not occur in the other lines. In this case, the sustain discharge is generated only in the discharge cells that are turned on in the previous address period, and thus varies depending on the previous data. Next, during t2, the intermediate level voltage is supplied to the scan / sustain electrodes Y1 and Y4 of the first block, and the high level voltage is supplied to the scan / sustain electrodes Y2 and Y5 of the second block. The intermediate level voltage is supplied to the scan / sustain electrodes Y3 and Y6 of the three blocks. Accordingly, sustain discharge occurs between the Y2 electrode, the Y3 electrode, the Y5 electrode, and the Y6 electrode in the t2 section. Subsequently, during t3, the low level voltage is supplied to the scan / sustain electrodes Y1 and Y4 of the first block, and the middle level voltage is supplied to the scan / hold electrodes Y2 and Y5 of the second block. The high level voltage is supplied to the scan / sustain electrodes Y3 and Y6 included in the block. Accordingly, sustain discharge occurs between the Y3 electrode and the Y4 electrode in the t3 section. Here, it can be seen that the period for the sustain discharge in Figure 5 is t1 to t6.

As shown in FIG. 6, light emission by sustain discharge occurs simultaneously in the same block as shown in FIG. 6, and light emission due to sustain discharge progresses with a phase difference for each block.

FIG. 7 illustrates a driving waveform for explaining a PDP driving method according to another embodiment of the present invention. The driving waveform shown in FIG. 7 is supplied to six scan / sustain electrodes Y1 to Y6.

7, the sustain pulses supplied to the scan / sustain electrodes Y2, Y5, Y3, and Y6 included in the second and third blocks have the same phase and are the same, but the scan / sustain electrodes included in the first block. It can be seen that the holding pulses supplied to (Y1, Y4) are slightly different. This is to prevent interference and mis-discharge between adjacent scanning lines during sustain discharge. In detail, an intermediate level voltage is supplied only to the scan / hold electrodes Y1 and Y4 included in the first block from the first scan / hold driver 22 in the t1 section, and no sustain discharge occurs. Next, a high level voltage is supplied to the scan / sustain electrodes Y1 and Y4 of the first block and a middle level voltage is supplied to the scan / sustain electrodes Y2 and Y5 of the second block in a period t2. The low level voltage is supplied to the scan / sustain electrodes Y3 and Y6 of the third block. Accordingly, in the t2 region, sustain discharge occurs between the dummy electrode disposed on the Y1 electrode, the Y1 electrode, the Y3 electrode, and the Y4 electrode. At this time, the sustain discharge does not occur in the other lines. Then, a low level voltage is supplied to the scan / sustain electrodes Y1 and Y4 of the first block and a high level voltage is supplied to the scan / sustain electrodes Y2 and Y5 of the second block in a period t3. The intermediate level voltage is supplied to the scan / sustain electrodes Y3 and Y6 of the third block. Accordingly, sustain discharge occurs between the Y1 electrode and the Y2 electrode, the Y4 electrode, and the Y5 electrode in this t3 section. At this time, the sustain discharge does not occur in the other lines. Next, an intermediate level voltage is supplied to the scan / sustain electrodes Y1 and Y4 of the first block in a period t4, and a low level voltage is supplied to the scan / sustain electrodes Y2 and Y5 of the second block. The high level voltage is supplied to the scan / sustain electrodes Y3 and Y6 of the three blocks. Accordingly, sustain discharge occurs between the Y2 electrode, the Y3 electrode, the Y5 electrode, and the Y6 electrode in the t4 section. At this time, the sustain discharge does not occur in the other lines. Here, in FIG. 7, it can be seen that the period for sustain discharge is t1 to t6.

As shown in FIG. 8, light emission by sustain discharge occurs simultaneously in the same block as shown in FIG. 8, and light emission due to sustain discharge progresses with a phase difference for each block. In the PDP shown in FIG. 8, the dummy electrode 34 additionally disposed on the Y1 electrode is included in the third block B3 to be driven.

As described above, the PDP of the present invention can increase the light emitting area by reducing the number of sustain electrodes and causing sustain discharge between adjacent scan lines during sustain discharge. In particular, the PDP of the present invention can be applied not only to an interlaced scheme but also to a progressive scheme to be used in a high resolution TV in the future.

As described above, according to the PDP driving apparatus and method according to the present invention, the number of sustain electrodes can be reduced by half, and the length of the sustain discharge can be increased as the sustain discharge is caused between adjacent scan lines. Accordingly, it is possible to utilize the positive light main region to increase the discharge efficiency and brightness. In addition, the PDP driving apparatus and method according to the present invention can be applied not only to an interlaced method but also to a progressive method to be used in a high resolution TV in the future. In addition, according to the PDP driving apparatus and method according to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the number of sustain electrodes to facilitate high resolution, and to simplify the structure, thereby reducing the manufacturing cost of the PDP.

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 (15)

A display panel including orthogonal address electrodes and scan / hold electrodes; Address driving means for driving the address electrodes; And a scan / hold driving means for dividing the scan / hold electrodes into a plurality of blocks to supply a sustain pulse having a phase difference for each block. The method of claim 1, The scan / hold drive means A plasma display panel driving apparatus comprising supplying a sustain pulse to generate a sustain discharge between adjacent scan / sustain electrodes. The method of claim 1, The scan / hold drive means And a sustain pulse having a predetermined phase difference for each of the blocks to the scan / sustain electrodes. The method of claim 1, Wherein each block includes scan / sustain electrodes spaced by the same number of lines. The method of claim 4, wherein The scan / sustain electrodes a first block composed of scan / sustain electrodes increased by three lines from the nth scan / hold electrode, a second block composed of scan / sustain electrodes increased by three lines from the n + 1th scan / hold electrode; and a sustaining drive divided into a third block comprising scan / hold electrodes increased by three lines from the n + 2th scan / hold electrode. The method of claim 4, wherein The scan / hold drive means And first to fourth scan / hold drivers for driving the scan / hold electrodes of the first to third blocks in block units. The method of claim 6, Each scan / maintenance drive means The plasma display panel driving apparatus, characterized in that to supply the same sustain pulse to the scan / sustain electrodes of the block. The method of claim 1, The scan / hold drive means And a sustain pulse having a voltage level of at least three states or more supplied to the scan / sustain electrodes. A method of driving a plasma display panel including orthogonal address electrodes and scan / hold electrodes, the method comprising: And dividing the scan / maintenance electrode into a plurality of blocks to generate a sustain discharge at a predetermined time difference for each block. The method of claim 9, And generating an address discharge by a scan pulse supplied to each of the scan / sustain electrodes line by line and a data signal supplied to the address electrodes in horizontal period units. The method of claim 10, And the address discharge is line-sequentially generated. The method of claim 10, And the address discharge is generated in the block order. The method of claim 9, And the sustain discharge is generated between adjacent scan / sustain electrodes. The method of claim 9, Wherein each block includes scan / sustain electrodes spaced by the same number of lines. The method of claim 9, And a scanning / holding electrode included in the same block to generate the sustain discharge at the same time.