Patent ID: 8207913

Claim:
A plasma display device comprising: a plasma display panel including a plurality of discharge cells, each having a display electrode pair composed of a scan electrode and a sustain electrode; a scan electrode drive circuit for driving the scan electrode by generating a decreasing downward inclined waveform voltage in an initializing period of the plurality of subfields in one field period, each of the subfields having the initialization period, an address period and a sustain period, and by generating an increasing first inclined waveform voltage in the initializing period of at least one subfield in the one field period; and a panel temperature detecting circuit having a thermal sensor and detecting a temperature of the plasma display panel; wherein the scan electrode drive circuit switches a lowest voltage in the downward inclined waveform voltage at a first voltage, a second voltage having a higher voltage value than the first voltage and a third voltage having a higher voltage value than the second voltage to generate the downward inclined waveform voltage; sets the lowest voltage in the downward inclined waveform voltage at the second voltage in a subfield in which the increasing first inclined waveform voltage is generated independent of the temperature detected by the panel temperature detecting circuit; and sets the lowest voltage in the downward inclined waveform voltage in a subfield in which the increasing first inclined waveform voltage is not generated: a) at the first voltage when the detected temperature is in a low temperature range, b) at the third voltage in a subfield just after a subfield in which a total number of the sustain pulses generated in the sustain period is not less than a predetermined number, when the detected temperature is in a high temperature range.