Patent ID: 7852296

Claim:
A plasma display device for displaying an image on a plasma display panel in accordance with an input video signal, said plasma display panel having a plurality of row electrode pairs, and a plurality of column electrodes intersecting with said plurality of row electrode pairs, so as to form display cells each having discharge space at the intersections, respectively, and a display period for one field of the input video signal being configured of a plurality of subfields each formed of an address period and a sustain period for the image display, said plasma display device comprising: a magnesium oxide layer formed on a plane in contact with the discharge space in each of said display cells, containing magnesium oxide monocrystals which have a characteristic to emit cathode luminescence light having a peak within a wavelength range of 200 to 300 nm when excited by electron-beam irradiation; an addressing portion which selectively generates address discharge in each of said display cells in accordance with pixel data based on the video signal in the address period; and a sustaining portion which applies at least one of a first sustain pulse having a first leading period and a second sustain pulse having a second leading period shorter than the first leading period between row electrodes forming each of said row electrode pairs by a number of times previously determined for each of the plurality of subfields, in said sustain period; wherein said sustaining portion changes an application ratio between the first sustain pulse and the second sustain pulse in the sustain period of each of the plurality of subfields in accordance with a luminance level of the video signal, and wherein in the sustain period of each of the plurality of subfields, the first sustain pulse generates a first discharge in a period resonantly transited from a first potential to a second potential, in the first leading period, and generates a second discharge after reaching the second potential, the second potential being a peak potential.