Patent ID: 7259733

Claim:
An apparatus for driving a plasma display panel comprising an address electrode and a scan electrode and sustain electrode pair with a display cell defined by a cross-section there between, comprising: an address driving circuit that applies an address signal voltage to the address electrode to select the display cell; and a sustain driving circuit and a scan driving circuit that apply a sustain signal voltage to the sustain electrode and the scan electrode, respectively, to cause a sustain-discharge in the selected display cell, wherein the scan driving circuit comprises a protecting circuit that substantially uniformly sustains an electric potential difference between both ends of the scan driving circuit so that the electric potential difference between both ends of the scan driving circuit cannot exceed a predetermined voltage, wherein the protecting circuit comprises: a voltage sensor that senses the electric potential difference between both ends of the scan driving circuit; and a switch that is turned on and off according to a result of the sensing of the voltage sensor.