Plasma display panel

Abstract: It is a main object of the present invention to provide a plasma display panel making it possible to be designed using common electronic device, wherein a large size screen of the plasma display panel is divided by maintaining a stable discharge state of each cell and decreasing each data amount the operating circuits, the divided screens are operated in parallel at the same time. To accomplish the above object, there is provided a plasma display panel having a common electrode, a scanning electrode, a data electrode being disposed between an upper substrate and a lower susbtrate. The common electrode is arranged parallel to the scanning electrode, and the data electrode is arranged perpendicular to the common electrode and the scanning electrode. A cell is at the intersection where the common electrode and the scanning electrode intersect with the data electrode. The data electrode is divided for the purpose of dividing a screen.

Description: The present invention generally relates to a plasma display panel, more particularly to a plasma display panel capable of: dividing one screen of the plasma display panel into a plurality of smaller screens, the plurality of smaller screens operating independently at the same time, whereby each cell keeps a state of stable discharge; and decreasing the sharing data of working circuits, whereby it is possible to design circuits with common electronic devices so that it is cheaper to manufacture and easy to design circuits. European Patent Specification No. 0444962 discloses a display device in which suitable brightness of displayed pictures is achieved by controlling the luminous times of luminous elements corresponding to the pixels. It describes a gas discharge panel divided into upper and lower parts and using 2-line-at-a-time addressing, but does not explain how this is accomplished. Reference is also directed at US Patent No. 4320418 which relates to the design and fabrication of gas discharge (plasma) display panels, and to European Patent Specification No. 0800157, published on 8 th October 1997. The present invention is directed at a method for dividing a plasma display panel into a plurality of smaller screens for operation independently and at the same time. The method comprises disposing a common electrode, a scanning electrode and a data electrode between an upper substrate and a lower substrate, with the common electrode parallel to the scanning electrode, and the data electrode perpendicular to the common electrode and the scanning electrode; and positioning a cell at the intersection where the common electrode and the scanning electrode intersect with the data electrode. The data electrode is divided for the purpose of dividing the plasma display panel. It is preferred that the data electrode is provided by a barrier rib. The invention is also directed at a plasma display panel comprising a common electrode positioned parallel to a scanning electrode; a data electrode positioned perpendicular to the common electrode and the scanning electrode; and a cell positioned at the intersection where a common electrode and a scanning electrode intersect with a data electrode. Consistent with the method describe above, the data electrode is divided, preferably by a barrier rib, for the purpose of dividing the display panel into a plurality of smaller screens. The present invention seeks to make it possible to design a plasma display panel using common electronic device, wherein a large-sized screen of the plasma display panel is divided by maintaining a stable discharge state of each cell and decreasing each data amount the operating circuits, the divided screens are operated in parallel at the same time. Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description referring to the accompanying drawings of a known display panel arrangement, and some preferred embodiments of the present invention. In the drawings: Fig. 1 is a view showing an electrodes arrangement of a plasma display panel according to conventional art; Fig. 2 is a timing chart of an operating signal according to conventional art; Fig. 3 is a view showing a scanning method of subfields for 256 gray scale; Fig. 4 is a partial sectional view of a plasma display panel according to conventional art; Fig. 5 is a view showing electrodes arrangement of a plasma display panel according to the present invention; Fig. 6 is a timing chart of an operating signal provided in the present invention; Fig. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line A-A' of Fig. 5; Fig. 8 is a sectional view taken along the line B-B' of Fig. 5; and Fig. 9 is a view showing electrodes arrangement of a plasma display panel according to another embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Fig. 1, an electrode array of a general three-electrode surface-discharge Plasma Display Panel includes scanning electrodes 2 where a scanning pulse is applied during an address period, common electrodes 3 where a sustaining pulse is applied in order to sustain discharge state and data electrodes 1 where a data pulse is applied in order to generate sustaining discharge between- selected scanning electrodes 2 and the common electrodes 3. A cell 5 is formed at the intersection where a vertical electrode; one pair of the scanning electrodes 2 and the common electrodes 3 intersect with a horizontal electrode and data electrodes 1. The plasma display panel is formed by the aggregation of such a plurality of cells. Fig. 4 is a partial sectional view of a plasma display panel. Referring to Fig. 4, a discharge space 20 is formed between barrier ribs 16 which support a horizontal electrode 14 and a vertical electrode 19. Phosphor 17 is formed over the vertical electrode 19. Reference numeral 12 and 13 designate substrates, and reference numeral 15 and 18 designate insulating layers. Fig. 2 is a timing chart of signals to operate the plasma display panel. A sustaining pulse 7 is applied to the common electrodes 3 of C1-Cn. A sustaining pulse 8 having the same cycle as the sustaining pulse 7 is also applied to the scanning electrodes 2 of S1-Sn, but it has different timing from the pulse of the common electrodes 3. A scanning pulse 10 and an extinguishing pulse 9 are also supplied to respective scanning electrodes. A data pulse is applied to data electrodes of D1-Dn at the same time as the scanning pulse is applied to the scanning electrodes. In order to light the cell 5 where the scanning electrodes 2 intersect with the data electrodes 1, a data pulse 11 synchronized with the scanning pulse 10 applied to the scanning electrode 2 should be supplied to the data electrodes 1. As a result, discharge occurs at the cell 5 and maintained by the sustaining pulses 7 and 8 which are supplied to the common electrode 3 and the scanning electrodes 2, and it is completed by an extinguishing pulse 9. In a method operating one screen as shown in Fig. 1 using a single operating circuit, a pulse width for operating respective cells of the plasma display panel varies with respective cells properties. A general scanning pulse, however, has the width of around 2.5µs. As shown in Fig. 2, since there should be provided a time interval in order that one scanning pulse 11 and two sustaining pulses(7+8) can be applied in one sustaining period, a possible minimum period of the sustaining pulse is 5.5µs. 2.5µs[width of the scanning pulse 10] + 1.5µs[width of the sustaining pulse 7] + 1.5µs[width of the sustaining pulse 8] = 5.5µs This time is also a period of a data pulse required for applying a data pulse to the scanning electrodes on a next scanning line after the data pulse has been applied to scanning electrodes on one scnning line. It takes 1/60 second in scanning one field in a NTSC television signal of an interlaced scanning method. When the number of the scanning electrodes 2 of a plasma display panel is given to N, since one field in a 256 gray scale is composed of eight subfields, and interlaced scanning mode should satisfy a below equation 5.5µs × N/2 × NfS ≤ 1/60 wherein N is the number of the scanning electrodes, and NfS is the number of subfields making one field. From the above equation (2), when eight subfields making one field, in other words, NfS=8, the allowable maximum number of the scanning electrodes becomes 757. A plasma display panel, one of the flat display devices, is developed as a large size wall-hanging display device because it is easy to achieve a large picture display size in its aspects of panel structure. One problem in fabricating and operating a large-sized screen display device is that more pixels have to be given to one screen according to the increase of a screen size. The increase in the number of pixels means the increase in a data amount to be processed in one frame. A flat display device for a high definition television has to satisfy the requirements of a 256 gray levels and a resolution of 1280 × 1024 and higher. In order to satisfy the above requirements, a vast data amount of about one giga bits per second must be processed. The periods of the data pulse and the sustaining pulse to satisfy the resolution of 1280 × 1024 can be obtained from the equation (2), and a below equation (3) comes out. Ts1 ≤ 1/60 ÷ N/2 ÷ 8 Thus, in order to operate a large size television having the horizontal electrodes of 1024, the period of the sustaining pulse has to satisfy Ts1 ≤ 4µs equation. In order to decrease the period of the sustaining pulse, turning-on time of cells in a display panel has to be decreased. When the decrease in the widths of the sustaining pulse and the scanning pulse is excessive, the discharge state of cells of the plasma display panel becomes unstable. Thus, it is impossible to decrease the pulse width below a certain time required for the discharge. This limits the number of electrodes which can be operated at the same time and acts as an important limitation to make a large size display device. In addition, a high speed electronic device made of GaAs should be used in order to process a large amount of data of one giga bits. In case that the electronic device is used, the cost of driving circuits, which acts as a problem in a plasma display panel business. Another hindrance in designing the driving circuit is a response time of the driving circuit. In order to operate the plasma display panel by a subfield method, eight bits data have to be stored in a field memory and then the same weight bits have to be sequentially transferred to a serial to parallel converter(SPC) one by one. When the pixel number of the plasma display panel is MXN, a data amount of M×N×8 should be transferred to the SPC during one field. Therefore, the time Td required for transferring one bit becomes a below equation (4). M × N/2 × 8 × Td1 <1/60 Accordingly, the time Td1 is obtained from the substitution of M=1280 and N=1024 in the equation (4) and comes out about 3.2nsec. SPC can be made using a flip flop. In considering that Td of a flip flop in common use is approximately 8nsec, a SPC has to be specifically designed using a GaAs device which has 2.5 times faster than the flip flop in common use. However, the GaAs device is very expensive compared with a common electronic device, so it is difficult to design an inexpensive operating circuit by the use of the GaAs device. Embodiments of the invention are described with reference to Figures 5 to 9. As to four divided screens in the Fig. 5, a perpendicular electrode of a data electrode 101 is divided into two portions of an upper portion and a lower portion, and a horizontal electrode of a common electrode 103 and a scanning electrode 102 is divided into two portions of a left portion and a right portion by a barrier rib 104. Fig. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line A-A' of Fig. 5. Referring to Fig. 7, a barrier rib 116 divides an insulating layer 115 and the horizontal electrode 114 into a left portion and a right one. Fig. 8 is a sectional view taken along the line B-B' of Fig. 5 in the event that the barrier rib 116 is formed along with a horizontal direction of a panel. Referring to Fig. 8, a perpendicular electrode 119 is divided into an upper portion and a lower portion by the barrier rib 116 and becomes two division screens. Thus, the panel becomes four divided screens of two screens of a horizontal electrode 114 and those of a perpendicular electrode divided by the barrier rib 116 respectively. Reference numeral 117 is phosphor, and reference numeral 118 is an insulating layer. Hereinbelow, operation of the present invention is described. When a plasma display panel which has 757 and over scanning electrodes is operated by a sole operation circuit, the period of the sustaining pulse becomes around 4.0µsec and below, whereby discharge of cells in the plasma display panel becomes unstable, and this acts as important limitation in making large screens. Accordingly, in order to sustain the stable discharge of each cell, the period of the sustaining pulse have to be maintained above a certain time. This requirement limits the number of electrodes capable of being operated at the same time. With the intension of solving this problem, a large screen is divided into two small screens being concurrently operated by a parallel operaion method, shown in Fig. 4. First, a method for dividing the screen into two screens of an upper portion and a lower portion is described below. When a display device such as a high definition television with the resolution of 1280 × 1024, whose one field is composed of eight subfields, is operated, an allowable period Ts2 of the sustaining pulse is obtained from Eq. (3) and becomes a below equation. Ts2 ≤ 1/60 ÷ N/2 ÷ 8 Since the screen is divided into two portions, N=1024/2=512 is substituted in the above equation. Therefore, the allowable period Ts2 is Ts2 ≤ 8.14µs It means that the period of the sustaining pulse can be increased twice comparing with Ts1 ≤ 4µs for the conventional art. Accordingly, when a display element with same resolution of 1280 × 1024 is operated according to the method of the present invention, the period of the sustaining pulse is increased twice comparing with the conventional art, thereby satisfying a minimum requirement time necessary for discharge which is given from the discharge characteristic of the cell of the plasma display panel. A timing chart of an operation signal according to the present invention is shown in Fig. 6. The present invention can also resolve a limiting condition of responding time which is a problem in the conventional art. When a display device with the resolution of 1280 × 1024 is operated according to the conventional operating method, the time taken in transferring from a signal of 1 bit to a serial to parallel converter is Td1 ≤ 3.2ns, whereas when the display device is operated according to the present invention, the time Td4 can be obtained by substituting M=1280, N=1024 for the above mentioned equation (4) and becomes Td4 < 12.8ns Therefore, the present invention can employ the serial to parallel converter using a common flip flop whose delay time is generally 8ns. According to another embodiment of the present invention, as shown in Fig. 9, the present invention is not limited to four smaller screens, but it can be also divided into a plurality of smaller screens. As described previously, the present invention divides one screen of a plasma display panel into a plurality of smaller screens and operates the divided a plurality of screens independently at the same time. As a result it increases the period of the sustaining pulse, thereby not only maintaining a stable discharge state of cells but also processing a large amount of field data through divided a plurality of screens. Accordingly, manufacturers can make an operating circuit capable of processing a large amount of field data followed by a large-sized screen by using common eletronic devices instead of using an expensive specific eletronic devices.

Claims: Claims for the following Contracting State : NL A method for dividing a plasma display panel into a plurality of smaller screens for operation independently and at the same time, which method comprise as: disposing a common electrode (103), a scanning electrode (102) and a data electrode (101) between an upper substrate and a lower substrate, with the common electrode parallel to the scanning electrode, and the data electrode perpendicular to the common electrode and the scanning electrode; and positioning a cell at the intersection where the common electrode and the scanning electrode intersect with the data electrode; CHARACTERISED IN THAT the data electrode is divided for the purpose of dividing the plasma display panel. A method as claimed in Claim 1, including the additional step of dividing the common electrode and the scanning electrode by barrier ribs, thereby dividing one screen into a plurality of smaller screens. A method as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2, including the additional step of dividing the data electrode by a barrier rib. A plasma display panel comprising a common electrode (103) positioned parallel to a scanning electrode (102); a data electrode (101) positioned perpendicular to the common electrode and the scanning electrode; and a cell positioned at the intersection where a common electrode and a scanning electrode intersect with a data electrode; CHARACTERISED IN THAT the data electrode is divided for the purpose of dividing the display panel into a plurality of smaller screens. A plasma display panel as claimed in Claim 4, wherein the common electrode and the scanning electrode are divided by barrier ribs, thereby dividing one screen into said plurality of smaller screens. A plasma display panel as claimed in Claim 4 or Claim 5, wherein the data electrode is divided by a barrier rib. Claims for the following Contracting States : FR, DE A method for dividing a plasma display panel into a plurality of smaller screens for operation independently and at the same time, which method comprise as: disposing a common electrode (103), a scanning electrode (102) and a data electrode (101) between an upper substrate and a lower substrate, with the common electrode parallel to the scanning electrode, and the data electrode perpendicular to the common electrode and the scanning electrode; and positioning a cell at the intersection where the common electrode and the scanning electrode intersect with the data electrode, CHARACTERISED IN THAT the data electrode is divided by a barrier rib for the purpose of dividing the plasma display panel. A method as claimed in Claim 1, including the additional step of dividing the common electrode and the scanning electrode by barrier ribs, thereby dividing one screen into a plurality of smaller screens. A plasma display panel comprising a common electrode (103) positioned parallel to a scanning electrode (102); a data electrode (101) positioned perpendicular to the common electrode and the scanning electrode; and a cell positioned at the intersection where a common electrode and a scanning electrode intersect with a data electrode; CHARACTERISED IN THAT the data electrode is divided by a barrier rib divided for the purpose of dividing the display panel into a plurality of smaller screens. A plasma display panel as claimed in Claim 4, wherein the common electrode and the scanning electrode are divided by barrier ribs, thereby dividing one screen into said plurality of smaller screens.

Inventors: KANG BONG-KOO, KIM YOUNG-HWAN, LEE EUN-CHEOL, SONG YOUNG-BOK, KANG, BONG-KOO, KIM, YOUNG-HWAN, LEE, EUN-CHEOL, SONG, YOUNG-BOK
Applicants: LG ELECTRONICS INC, LG ELECTRONICS INC.
Application year: 1997
Main classification: H01J17
IPC codes: G09G3, H01J11, H01J17