Abstract: Disclosed is an apparatus and method for driving a plasma display panel (PDP) where a switch device can perform zero voltage switching in driving the PDP. The apparatus for driving the PDP includes a sustain-discharge unit including first through fourth switches respectively connected to both ends of a panel capacitor between a power source and ground, for sustaining a panel capacitor terminal voltage to be at a first or a second sustain-discharge voltage; a first charge and discharge unit including a first inductor, for increasing the voltage of the panel capacitor to the first sustain-discharge voltage and switching a first switch in a state of a zero voltage by half of a resonance current generated by the first inductor; and a second charge and discharge unit including a second inductor, for decreasing the voltage of the panel capacitor to the second sustain-discharge voltage and switching a third switch in a state of the zero voltage by half of a resonance current generated by the second inductor.

Abstract: An apparatus for driving a plasma display panel (PDP), which is capable of simplifying the structure of a sustain circuit directly affecting the illumination and power consumption of the PDP and increasing an energy recovery rate, and a method thereof are provided. The structure and switching sequence of the sustain circuit are designed so that the transition time to increase the amount of current of an inductor in an energy recovery circuit when charging/discharging the PDP can be minimized. Accordingly, the recovery rate of displacement power can be increased, and EMI can be decreased by not causing switching loss. In addition, the number of circuits required in the apparatus for driving the PDP can be reduced smaller than the number of circuits required in a conventional PDP driver.

Abstract: The present invention discloses an energy recovery sustain circuit for an AC plasma display panel in which includes one energy recovery sustain circuit incorporating X and Y electrodes. The invention includes a load capacitor, first and fourth switching elements to charge the load capacitor up to a predetermined positive voltage, a second and third switching elements to charge the load capacitor up to a predetermined negative voltage, a fifth switching element to apply an external voltage to the load capacitor to continually sustain the predetermined positive or negative voltage in the load capacitor during a certain period, an inductor for generating the certain leveled positive or negative voltage to charge the load capacitor, and first and second capacitors for charging or discharging a current flowing through the inductor. The invention has a simplified configuration, low production cost, and high reliability.