Patent ID: 7495636

Claim:
A method of driving a surface-discharge plasma display panel having a display screen comprising a matrix of lines and rows of discharge cells defined by corresponding intersections of plural pairs of sustain electrodes and plural address electrodes, respectively, a border in the line direction dividing the display screen into first and second partial screens, dividing the address electrodes into respective first and second partial address electrodes aligned in the row direction and separated at adjacent, respective ends thereof and dividing the plural pairs of sustain electrodes into first and second groups respectively in the first and second partial screens, each pair of sustain electrodes comprising first sustain electrodes used for line scanning and second sustain electrodes, at least a pair of sustain electrodes at a bottom of the first partial screen and at least a pair of sustain electrodes at a top of the second partial screen being arranged in relation to adjoining second sustain electrodes across the border, wherein each display field comprises plural subfields and each subfield comprises at least an address period and a subsequent sustain period, the method comprising: during the address period, performing line-sequential addressing of the corresponding respective lines of the first and second partial screens and, concurrently with the selection of a line of each of the first and second partial screens, applying address pulses to specific first and second partial address electrodes, selected in accordance with display data, to produce corresponding discharges in respective discharge cells; and during the sustain period, concurrently for the first and second partial screens, applying sustain pulses to the first sustain electrodes and second sustain electrodes, thereby to produce surface discharges in each of the discharge cells in which wall charges were accumulated during the address period.