Patent ID: 7176856

Claim:
A display device that displays an image by dividing a single field display cycle into cycles of a plurality of subfields each having an address cycle and a sustain cycle, in accordance with pixel data for each pixel on the basis of an input picture signal, comprising: a display panel having a front face substrate and a rear face substrate disposed facing each other with a discharge space interposed therebetween, a plurality of row electrode pairs provided on the inner face of the front face substrate, and a plurality of column electrodes arranged so as to intersect the row electrode pairs on the inner face of the rear substrate, a unit light emission region, which consists of a first discharge cell, and a second discharge cell in which a light absorption layer is provided on the front face substrate side and a secondary electron discharge material layer is provided on the rear face substrate side, being formed at each intersection between the row electrode pairs and the column electrodes; an address part that sequentially applies a positive scan pulse to a first row electrode of each of the row electrode pairs in the address cycle while sequentially applying a pixel data pulse corresponding to the pixel data at the same timing as the scan pulse to each of the column electrodes one display line at a time so that the column electrode side constitutes a cathode, such that an address discharge is selectively produced in the second discharge cell; and a sustain part that applies a sustain pulse to each of the row electrodes constituting the row electrode pairs in the sustain cycle, wherein the sustain part applies the ultimate sustain pulse of the sustain pulses applied in the sustain cycle to the first row electrode with a negative polarity.