Patent ID: 6970147

Claim:
A driving apparatus for a plasma display panel having a sustaining electrode driver, a data electrode driver and a scanning electrode driver comprising: an intensity detection means for detecting an average intensity of a display image to be displayed on said plasma display panel; a first priming pulse generation circuit, provided in the scanning electrode driver, for generating a first priming pulse having a first crest value which is applied between said sustaining electrode and scanning electrode in a priming period for driving said plasma display panel; a second priming pulse generator circuit, provided in said scanning electrode driver, for generating a second priming pulse having a second crest value which is applied between said sustaining electrode and scanning electrode in said priming period for driving said plasma display panel; and a drive control means for selectively controlling said first priming pulse generation circuit so as to output said first priming pulse and second priming pulse generation circuit so as to output said second priming pulse in accordance with a detection result obtained from said intensity detection means, wherein said drive control means controls said first priming pulse generation circuit to output said first priming pulse, in a case in which said intensity detection means detects that said average intensity of said display image to be displayed is higher than a prescribed intensity; and said drive control means controls said second priming pulse generation circuit to output said second priming pulse, a crest value of which is smaller than that of said first priming pulse, in a case in which said intensity detection means detects that said average intensity of said display image to be displayed is lower than said prescribed intensity, thereby maintaining a constant amount of wall charges on data electrodes generated by priming discharge regardless of changes in magnitude of a display load.