Patent ID: 7969387

Claim:
A method for driving a plasma display device using a plasma display panel having a plurality of scan electrodes and a plurality of discharge cells, the plurality of scan electrodes being divided into a first scan electrode group and a second scan electrode group, and the plasma display device including: a first scan electrode driving section for driving scan electrodes that belong to the first scan electrode group; a second scan electrode driving section for driving scan electrodes that belong to the second scan electrode group; a sustain pulse generating section for generating a sustain pulse to be applied to the plurality of scan electrodes; a first switching element for adding the sustain pulse onto reference voltage of the first scan electrode driving section; a second switching element for adding the sustain pulse onto reference voltage of the second scan electrode driving section; and a third switching element for connecting between the reference voltage of the first scan electrode driving section and the reference voltage of the second scan electrode driving section, wherein, one field period is formed by a plurality of subfields, each of the subfields having: an initializing period for generating a initializing discharge in the discharge cells; a first address period for generating an address discharge on the scan electrodes that belong to the first scan electrode group; a second address period for generating an address discharge on the scan electrodes that belong to the second scan electrode group; and a sustain period for applying the sustain pulse to the plurality of scan electrodes and generating a sustain discharge in the discharge cells, the method comprising: applying a different voltage between the reference voltage of the first scan electrode driving section and the reference voltage of the second scan electrode driving section by turning OFF the third switching element in the first address period; applying a same voltage between the reference voltage of the first scan electrode driving section and the reference voltage of the second scan electrode driving section by turning ON the third switching element in the second address period; and in the sustain period, adding the sustain pulse onto the reference voltage of the first scan electrode driving section and the reference voltage of the second scan electrode driving section by turning ON the first switching element and the second switching element; and turning ON the third switching element.