Patent ID: 7423614

Claim:
A method of driving a plasma display panel, said plasma display panel comprising cells, each cell having first and second electrodes covered with dielectric and a third electrode covered with dielectric disposed in a direction crossing the first and second electrodes, said plasma display panel having a screen that is made up of cells arranged in rows and columns, said method comprising; selecting one of the rows one after another for addressing, comprising: effecting a first operation of applying, at the same time between the second and third electrodes of all of the cells in the screen, respective preparatory address pulses, each pulse having a pulse width of 500 ns or less that produces no discharge; and effecting a second operation of sequentially applying, between the second and third electrodes of a cell of one of the rows that are to be illuminated for displaying, main address pulses on a row-by-row basis, each main address pulse having a pulse width that produces discharge, thereby causing the cells to be illuminated for displaying to produce respective discharges for addressing.