Abstract: An gas-discharge lamp lighting apparatus includes: a power conditioning unit regulating a power supplied from a power source, and outputting voltages with mutually different levels from two output terminals; a switching circuit unit coupled between the output terminals of the power conditioning unit and comprising at least one switching element; and a pulse transformer generating a high-voltage pulse, placed in a circuit connecting the output terminals of the switching circuit unit and an gas-discharge lamp. A first terminal of a primary winding of the pulse transformer is connected to a first output terminal of the power conditioning unit via a first output terminal of the switching circuit unit, and a second terminal of the primary winding is directly connected to a second output terminal of the power conditioning unit.

Abstract: A gas discharge lamp lighting device comprises a DC/DC converter (2) for adjusting electric power supplied from a power supply so as to generate and output a DC voltage, and an FET (5) electrically connected to the DC/DC converter (2), for converting the DC voltage from the DC/DC converter (2) to an AC voltage to be supplied to a gas discharge lamp (12). A control unit (14) brings the gas discharge lamp (12) to an electrode heating state in which both electrodes of the gas discharge lamp (12) are heated after supplying the AC voltage to the gas discharge lamp. The control unit (14) controls an amount of energy to be supplied to the gas discharge lamp (12) placed in the electrode heating state according to a voltage across the gas discharge lamp. The control unit (14) brings the gas discharge lamp (12) to an AC discharging state in which an AC current flows through the gas discharge lamp (12) after the amount of energy has been supplied to the gas discharge lamp (12).

Abstract: The present invention relates to a technique for driving a surface discharge type plasma display panel, and more particularly, it is an object of the present invention to freely perform setting without increasing a rating required for an IC having an address driver when a high voltage is to be output from an address electrode for a priming discharge period and a sustain discharge period. In order to attain the above-mentioned object, if the same voltage is simultaneously output to all address electrodes switches are turned off and on in a circuit respectively and a cathode of a diode and an anode of a diode are conducted. Then, the switches are forcedly turned off and on, respectively. In a circuit switches are turned on and off respectively and a voltage Va2 is substantially applied to all the address electrodes through the diode.

Abstract: In a reset period, through applying a rectangular pulse (Pya) of positive polarity to an electrode (Y) and applying a CR pulse (Pxa) of negative polarity to an electrode X, a full lighting pulse is applied between the electrodes (X and Y). The application of the voltage is stopped before a CR pulse (Pxc) reaches a final potential, to generate the pulse (Pxa). A full erase pulse (Pxb) made of a CR pulse having a polarity reverse to that of the pulse (Pxa) is applied to the electrode (X). An erase operation reverses the polarity of wall charges accumulated by a full lighting to effectively perform a potential control operation. The potential control pulse (Pxc) is applied to the electrode (X) to generate a discharge, and the state of the wall charges in a discharge cell is controlled by the discharge to generate an optimal amount of wall charges for a subsequent addressing discharge. The final voltage of the pulse (Pxc) is set equal to a voltage (−Vxg) of an address pulse (Pa).

Abstract: A wall-voltage generation period is provided once in every several tens or hundreds of frames. A wall voltage (broken line) generated in the wall-voltage generation period does no disappear irrespective of the presence or absence of discharge emission. The presence or absence of discharge emission is controlled by varying the baseline of a voltage across electrodes (solid line) depending on variations in an address voltage (Va) during a display period. The number of priming reset discharges which has been necessary at least once in each frame can be reduced.

Abstract: A method of driving a plasma display panel for generating picture or image with high quality while suppressing luminance to a low level in the display in black. One field for image display is composed of at least two different types of subfields first and second subfields.