Patent ID: 6914585

Claim:
A method for driving a three-electrode surface discharge AC type plasma display panel having an electrode matrix including an arrangement of display electrodes and an arrangement of address electrodes, the method comprising: performing an initialization process for equalizing wall voltage in all cells that constitute a display screen to a preset value, an addressing process for controlling the wall voltage in each cell in accordance with display data and a sustaining process for generating display discharge only in cells to be lighted; applying an obtuse waveform pulse three times to all cells as an operation of the initialization for simply increasing or decreasing potential of at least one electrode; in the first obtuse waveform pulse application, generating discharge only in a previously lighted cell that was lighted in the last sustaining before the initialization, so that the wall voltage thereof approaches wall voltage in a previously unlighted cell that was not lighted in the last sustaining; in the second obtuse waveform pulse application, generating discharge in the previously lighted cell and in the previously unlighted cell, so that the wall voltages in these cells change to a value within an appropriate range; and in the third obtuse waveform pulse application, generating discharge in the previously lighted cell and in the previously unlighted cell, so that the wall voltages in these cells change to the preset value.