Abstract: A plurality of arc tubes are arranged in parallel with the long side of a rectangular screen, a plurality of first electrodes and second electrodes are arranged on the display surface side of the arc tube array in the direction intersecting the longitudinal direction of the arc tubes, and a plurality of third electrodes are arranged on the back side of the arc tube array along the longitudinal direction of the arc tubes. At the time of screen display, the third electrodes are used as scan electrodes and a scan voltage is applied sequentially to the plurality of third electrodes. In the meantime, a voltage is applied to a desired first electrode or second electrode so that discharge takes place in a desired light-emitting cell and a light-emitting cell is selected. Thereafter, display discharge takes place between the adjacent first electrode and second electrode thus performing display.

Abstract: A driving circuit of a plasma display panel is provided in which a display cell including a first electrode and a second electrode is selected to light up, for applying a first voltage Vs1 to the first electrode and a second voltage Vs2 to the second electrode adjacent to the first electrode to cause a sustain discharge between the first and second electrodes. The driving circuit generates a sustain discharge voltage such that, during the sustain discharge between the first and second electrodes, an applied voltage Vc to a third electrode adjacent to the first electrode opposite to the second electrode falls within a range Vs2?Vc<Vs1, and, in this case, when a display cell including the third electrode is selected to light up, the polarity of a wall charge formed on the third electrode becomes positive.

Abstract: A method of driving a plasma display panel, which includes controlling a charge state of a first display line being one of the two adjacent display lines utilizing the same single scan electrode, such that address discharge is not generated and controlling a charge state of a second display line being the other of the two adjacent display lines, such that address discharge can be generated, and then generating address discharge in the second display line, controlling the charge state of the second display line such that address discharge is not generated and controlling the charge state of the first display line such that the address discharge can be generated, and then generating address discharge in the first display line, and generating surface discharge simultaneously in the first and second display lines, thereby to achieve progressive display.

Abstract: The present invention provides a plasma tube array including: plural light-emitting tubes; a front supporting member and a back supporting member which spread over the front and back of the light-emitting tubes; plural display electrode pairs provided on the surface of the front supporting member facing the light-emitting tubes; and plural signal electrodes provided on the surface of the back supporting member facing the light-emitting tubes. Each display electrode constituting the display electrode pair is a display electrode which is made of a metal thin wire, provided with plural openings formed in a distributed manner and includes a first metal thin wire facing a discharge slit and extending along the discharge slit, and the first metal thin wire is a metal thin wire thicker than a second metal thin wire which forms a region closer to a non-discharge slit side than the first metal thin wire.

Abstract: A driving method of a plasma display panel is provided in which effective resolution and luminance in a display of fields that constitute a frame are improved. The method includes dividing each of M (M?2) fields that constitute a frame into K (K?2) subfields having luminance weight, displaying the k (1?k<K) subfields selected in descending order of the luminance weight in progressive format using all display lines out of the K subfields and displaying the remaining subfields in interlaced format using the display lines selected at regular intervals at a ratio of one per M display lines in arrangement order.

Abstract: A return path is efficiently and advantageously provided for alternate discharge current flowing between X and Y driver circuits arranged on right and left sides of an AC-driven gas discharge display device of especially a plasma tube array type. The AC-driven gas discharge display device comprises a front-side, transparent substrate and a rear-side substrate sandwiching a plurality of thin discharge tubes arranged side by side. The front-side substrate has, on an inner surface thereof, a plurality of pairs of display electrode. The rear-side substrate has, on an inner surface thereof, a plurality of address electrodes in a direction transverse to the plurality of display electrodes. In the display device, striped light-blocking, electrically conductive films are formed on an outer surface of the front-side substrate at locations corresponding to locations between respective ones of the pairs of display electrode.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method of driving a gas discharge display apparatus for displaying gray-scale display levels finer than those achieved by the conventional methods, and also to provide a gas discharge display apparatus with a driver capable of performing such a driving method. An opposed discharge between the sustaining electrode and the address electrode in addition to the conventional surface discharge is generated for the light emission from the fluorescent material in light emitting tubes. The method and the apparatus effect improvements in finer gray-scale display levels than those by the conventional methods.

Abstract: A driving method of a plasma display panel having a display electrodes arranged at the ratio of three per two rows is provided, in which all rows are lighted in sustaining period from an addressing period to the next addressing period and electromagnetic interference is reduced sufficiently. A display discharge is generated by controlling potentials of the display electrodes so as to satisfy two conditions. One condition is that there is a pair of display electrodes having terminals at the same side of the display screen and current directions opposite to each other. Another condition is to generate a potential difference across the display electrodes, which is necessary for discharging. Magnetic fields are canceled by each other in the pair of electrodes having current directions opposite to each other, so that electromagnetic interference is reduced.

Abstract: A plasma tube array according to the present invention includes plural light emitting tubes that have fluorescent material layers inside and are mutually lined up in parallel. The plasma tube array includes pairs of display electrodes that are formed along the respective fluorescent material layers. The fluorescent material layers are disposed in sequence in the longitudinal direction of the light emitting tubes.

Abstract: A driving circuit of a plasma display panel is provided in which a display cell including a first electrode and a second electrode is selected to light up, for applying a first voltage Vs1 to the first electrode and a second voltage Vs2 to the second electrode adjacent to the first electrode to cause a sustain discharge between the first and second electrodes. The driving circuit generates a sustain discharge voltage such that, during the sustain discharge between the first and second electrodes, an applied voltage Vc to a third electrode adjacent to the first electrode opposite to the second electrode falls within a range Vs2?Vc<Vs1, and, in this case, when a display cell including the third electrode is selected to light up, the polarity of a wall charge formed on the third electrode becomes positive.

Abstract: A light-emitting discharge tube in which an outer wall surface of a glass tube is made less susceptible to flaws by forming a protective film on the outer wall surface of the glass tube, a method of fabricating the light-emitting discharge tube, and a protective film forming apparatus are provided. The light-emitting discharge tube defines light-emitting discharge regions by a plurality of external electrodes. The outer wall surface of the light-emitting discharge tube (the glass tube) is coated with the protective film (a metal film, a conductive metal oxide film, an insulating metal oxide film, or an organic film).

Abstract: An arc tube array-type display device includes an arc tube array, a supporting member, a plurality of display electrodes, a plurality of scan electrodes, and a plurality of address electrodes. The arc tube array has a plurality of arc tubes arranged side by side. Each of the arc tubes has a discharging gas sealed therein. The supporting member supports the arc tube array. The plurality of display electrodes are arranged at an adjacent portion between the arc tubes, and generate an opposing discharge inside the arc tube by applying voltages to each of the arc tubes from both of the side faces. The plurality of scan electrodes are arranged on the display surface side of the arc tube in a stripe form in a direction intersecting the longitudinal direction of the arc tube so as to form light-emitting areas at intersecting portions against the arc tubes. The plurality of address electrodes are used for selecting light-emitting areas arranged on the back surface side of the respective arc tubes.

Abstract: A plasma display panel is provided in which color temperature of the displayed color can be optimized while securing the gradation reproducibility and the stability of driving. The plasma display panel includes a screen in which a plurality of cells arranged in rows and columns emits light by electric discharge between a pair of main electrodes, and each pixel of matrix display has first, second and third cells having different light colors. At least one of the effective area of the main electrode, the thickness of the dielectric layer, the relative dielectric constant of the dielectric material, and the area of the light shield for the first cell is different from that of the second cell.

Abstract: A display panel has a plurality of first electrodes, a plurality of second electrodes disposed adjacently and alternately with the first electrodes, a plurality of third electrodes formed to cross the first and second electrodes, and a control circuit for carrying out an address discharge during the second electrodes and the third electrodes. The control circuit carries out a sustain discharge to decrease the volume of wall charges, accumulated on a display cell in which a sustain discharge is not intended, to a level which cannot generate a sustain discharge.

Abstract: A display device capable of realizing a desired color temperature is provided. Phosphor layers 5a, 5b and 5c, which are excited by ultraviolet radiation produced by discharge and emit red, green and blue visible light, are formed inside a red, green and blue gas discharge tube 1a, 1b, and 1c, respectively. The height Yc of the phosphor layer 5c with respect to a rear support body 20 is higher than the heights Ya and Yb of the phosphor layers 5a and 5b with respect to the rear support member 20, and establishes the relationship Yc>Ya=Yb. Therefore, the distance from the phosphor layer 5c to the opposite discharge surface on a front support body is shorter than those from the phosphor layers 5a and 5b, the visible light emitted from the display device 10 is shifted toward blue, that is, the color temperature increases.

Abstract: A display apparatus includes a display panel including address electrodes and sustain electrodes crossing the address electrodes, with pixels being sandwiched between the address electrodes and the sustain electrodes. A sustain-electrode drive circuit selectively generates both sustain pulses and scan pulses and supplies them to the sustain electrodes. An address-electrode drive circuit generates address pulses based on a video signal and supplies the address pulses to the address electrodes. A control-signal generation circuit generates a control signal for controlling the sustain-electrode drive circuit to generate a selected one of the sustain pulses and the scan pulses and supplies the control signal to the sustain-electrode drive circuit. In order to display an image on the display panel, the sustain-electrode drive circuit both specifies addresses of pixels to be turned on and turns on the pixels at the specified addresses.

Abstract: An address pulse width is reduced, so that a display period for driving a plasma display panel (PDP) can be made longer. The PDP comprises cells, each cell having parallel first and second electrodes covered with dielectric and a third electrode disposed in a direction crossing the first and second electrodes. A method of driving the PDP comprises addressing ones of the cells to be illuminated for displaying. The addressing comprises effecting an operation of producing wall charges having the same polarity on the dielectric layers over the first and second electrodes before an operation of producing discharge between the second and third electrodes for addressing, so that the discharge for addressing occurs only between the second and third electrodes.

Abstract: An address pulse width is reduced so that a display period for driving a plasma display panel (PDP) can be made longer. The PDP comprises cells, each cell having first and second electrodes covered with dielectric and a third electrode covered with dielectric disposed in a direction crossing the first and second electrodes. A method of driving the PDP comprises addressing ones of the cells to be illuminated for displaying, by applying, between the second and third electrodes of the respective cells to be illuminated, a preparatory address pulse having a pulse width that produces no discharge, and by subsequently applying therebetween main address pulses, each main address pulse having a pulse width that produces discharge.

Abstract: A driving method, able to realize a PDP device having a reduced background luminance and high display quality, has been disclosed.

Abstract: A plasma display panel and a method of driving the same are provided in which circuit elements necessary for controlling potentials of scan electrodes can be reduced without using a complicated multilayered wiring. In the plasma display panel, k (k?2) data electrodes, each of which is continuous from one end of a column to the other end, are arranged for each column of a matrix display. All scan electrodes in a display screen are classified into k groups, and one of k groups is assigned to k data electrodes in each column. Each data electrode is crossed with or opposed to scan electrodes belonging to the group that is assigned to the data electrode without overlapping a partition in a plan view and is crossed with or opposed to other scan electrodes with overlapping the partition.