Patent ID: 7164394

Claim:
A plasma display apparatus, comprising: plural common electrodes formed on a first substrate and extending in a first direction; plural scan electrodes formed on the first substrate and extending in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction; and plural address electrodes formed on a second substrate, opposed to the first substrate and extending in the first direction, and each address electrode is aligned with a respective common electrode, wherein: the scan electrode is provided on a side near the address electrode at the crossing portion of the common electrode and the scan electrode on the first substrate and the common electrode is provided under the scan electrode via a dielectric, a discharge space is formed between the first substrate and the second substrate, a display cell is formed at a crossing portion of each common electrode and address electrode pair and each scan electrode, a lit state or an unlit state of each display cell is selected by applying, in individual succession, scan pulses to the plural scan electrodes and, synchronously with the scan pulses, selectively applying address pulses to the plural address electrodes, and a sustain discharge is produced in each display cell selected to be lit by applying sustain pulses between the plural common electrodes and the plural scan electrodes.