1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to plasma display panels and, more specifically, to the control of a plasma display panel power stage.
2. Description of the Related Art
A plasma display panel is formed of an array of cells arranged at the intersection of lines and columns. Each cell of the display panel comprises a cavity filled with a gas and at least two control electrodes. To create a light spot on the display panel by using a given cell, a potential difference is applied between the control electrodes thereof, the gas contained in the cell being then ionized, generally by means of a third electrode. This ionization comes along with an ultraviolet ray emission, the light spot creation being obtained by excitation of a red, green, or blue light-emitting material by these rays.
The display panel cells are activated in a line scanning by means of circuit 8. The non-activated lines are submitted to a quiescent voltage (generally greater than 100 volts), while the activated line is brought to an activation voltage (generally, 0 volt). The quiescent voltage of a column corresponds to ground. To activate cells based on the data provided by circuit 16 on the active line, the corresponding columns are brought to an activation voltage Vpp generally on the order of 70 volts for a given period.
The voltage difference between an activated line and a column (about 70 volts) provides lighting of the selected cell. The third electrode (not shown in
The control of circuit 14 is performed by means of three signals VH, VL, and VM. A level-shifting circuit 36 (LS), controlled by signal VH referenced to ground, is interposed between terminal 20 and the gate of transistor P1. Signal VL is directly applied to the gate of transistor N1 while signal VM is applied to that of transistor N4. The function of signals VL, VH, and VM is to control circuit 14 to organize the precharge and predischarge of the addressed cells between the actual display periods.
Signals VL (
The function of signals VL, VM, and VH is to control amplifier 14 to obtain a precharge to level VPP/2 of the concerned column (voltage Vout,
Assuming that the datum of the preceding line Li−1 is 0, signals VM and VH are low until time t1 of the pulse of signal Str, so that transistors P1 and N4 are blocked while transistor N1 is on. At a time t0, preceding time t1 towards the end of the addressing of line Li−1, signal CSE is switched to state 1 to activate the charge transfer system. At time t1 when signal Str switches to the low state to transfer the data from the shift register to circuits 14, signal VL switches to the low state to block transistor N1 while signal VM switches to the high state to turn on transistor N4. Since terminal O is in the low state, this results in a turning-on of transistor N2 and a precharge (
For the case where a next line in the scan order has to keep the same level, the predischarge (times t1′ to t2′) does not occur.
As compared with still prior solutions based on the use of a PMOS transistor to form switch K, the use of two DMOS transistors N2 and N3 space, a switch K having to be provided for each column.
However, a disadvantage of the circuit of
Another disadvantage is a risk of simultaneous conduction of transistors N2 and N3 and of transistor P1 at time t2, causing a short-circuit between supply line 20 at level Vpp and terminal 24 at level VPP/2. The same problem occurs at time t2′ with the ground.
The risk of simultaneous conduction is partly linked to the stray capacitances of the gates of transistors N2 and N3 which, when added to the stray drain capacitance of transistor P1, generate a switching delay. The risk of simultaneous conduction also originates from the recovery time of diodes D26 or D28 according to the initial cell biasing.
An additional constraint in display panels of the type to which the present invention applies is that it is not desirable to multiply the number of input signals of the column control circuits, which are in practice made in an integrated circuit. This is among others justified by a need for a compatibility of the column control circuit with the rest of the circuits.
One embodiment of the present invention overcomes all or part of the disadvantages of known circuits for controlling power stages of circuits of plasma display panel columns.
One embodiment of the present invention more specifically addresses the problems of simultaneous conduction of precharge transistors of the cells of such a display panel with one of the transistors for providing the bias voltage to the concerned cell.
One embodiment of the present invention provides a solution that does not require an additional terminal for the column control circuit.
One embodiment of the present invention provides a method for controlling a plasma display panel, successively comprising, at least for all the cells of a current line having to switch state for the next line:
a connection of a terminal of application of an intermediary supply voltage to output terminals of column control stages corresponding to the junction points of first and second switches between two terminals of application of a supply voltage, to perform a precharge or a predischarge of the screen cells;
a disconnection of said output terminals from this intermediary voltage; and
a connection of each output terminal to a first or to a second power supply voltage by the turning-on of the first or second switch of the corresponding stage, according to an addressing reference value, delayed with respect to the disconnection of the corresponding output terminal from the terminal of application of the intermediary voltage.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the delay is obtained by a resistive and capacitive cell for shifting an edge of deactivation of a signal of activation of the precharge or predischarge.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, said delay is selected according to the recovery time of parasitic diodes of N-channel MOS transistors forming a switch of connection of said intermediary voltage to the output terminals.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, an internal signal is generated from the precharge or predischarge activation signal.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, said internal signal is used to generate signals of activation and reset of flip-flops placed at the output of a circuit for generating control signals of said column control stage switches.
One embodiment of the present invention provides a circuit for controlling a column of a plasma display panel.
One embodiment of the present invention provides a plasma display panel.
The foregoing and other features and advantages of the present invention will be discussed in detail in the following non-limiting description of specific embodiments in connection with the accompanying drawings.
Same elements have been designated with same reference numerals in the different drawings which have been drawn out of scale. For clarity, only those steps and elements which are useful to the present invention have been shown and will be described. In particular, the generation of the luminance reference values and the generation of the scan control signals have not been shown, the present invention being compatible with any conventional circuit generating such signals.
A feature of an embodiment of the present invention is to shift the switching of the transistors bringing a complement to the charge or discharge of the display panel cells with respect to the turning-off of the precharge or discharge control switch.
Another feature of an embodiment of the present invention is to provide a generation of control signals internal to the column control circuit, that is, exclusively based on the signals for making data available and activating the precharge and predischarge stage.
One embodiment of the present invention exploits the conventional architecture of column control circuits such as previously described in relation with
As previously, signals Str (
As previously still, control signal VM′ of transistor N4 (
According to this embodiment of the present invention, time t3, respectively t3′, of switching to the high state of signals VH′ and VL′ to turn on switch P1 or N1 and bring the charge or discharge complement, is delayed by a delay τ with respect to times t2 and t2′ of switching of signal VM′ to the low state, and thus with respect to the control signal for turning on switch K.
Delay τ may be obtained by internal generation of a signal CSEINT common to all circuits 14. Signal CSEINT exhibits a rising edge triggered by the rising edge of signal CSE (time t0) and a falling edge (time t3) delayed with respect to the falling edge of signal CSE. Signal CSEINT is obtained, for example, by delaying the falling edge of signal CSE by a time period τ by means of a resistive and capacitive cell based on signal CSE.
In this example, an OR-type logic gate 411 combines signal CSE with a signal DELCSE obtained by delaying signal CSE by means of a resistive and capacitive cell formed of a resistor R between a terminal 412 receiving signal CSE and an input terminal of gate 411, and of a capacitor C connecting this input terminal to ground. The other terminal of gate 411 is directly connected to terminal 412 and the output of gate 411 provides signal CSEINT.
Delay τ (corresponding to the time constant of the RC cell) is selected to enable the diodes (D26 and D28,
According to this embodiment of the present invention, two D-type flip-flops 44 and 45 respectively receive signals VH and VL generated by decoder 41 as the signals of
Signal Valid is, for example, obtained by logic recombination of signals Str, CSE, and CSEINT. Signal Reset exhibits a pulse between times t2 and t3. This signal is, for example, obtained by a logic XOR-type combination of signals CSE and CSEINT. On the side of signal Valid, a first pulse (between times t1 and t4) corresponds to the pulse inverse to that of signal Str and a second pulse occurs between time t3 and a slightly later time t5. This second pulse of signal Valid is, for example, obtained by means of a resistive and capacitive cell. The first pulse of signal Valid is obtained, for example, by AND-type combination of signal CSEINT with the result of an XOR-type combination of signals Str and CSE.
As a variation, the durations of all the pulses of signals Valid and Reset are set by resistive and capacitive cells.
The generation of signals Valid and Reset to control flip-flops 44 to 46 of
An advantage of the embodiments described above is that they enable in simple fashion and without using additional external signals, avoiding the problems of simultaneous conduction in a screen of plasma display panel type.
Another advantage is that they do not adversely affect the advantages brought by control circuits based on DMOS transistors over the use of PMOS transistors.
Another advantage is that they are compatible with any conventional structure of a plasma display panel column and line addressing circuit.
Of course, the present invention is likely to have various alterations, improvements, and modifications which will readily occur to those skilled in the art. In particular, the practical generation of the signals useful for the implementation of the present invention is within the abilities of those skilled in the art based on the functional indications given hereabove. For example, the active and inactive levels may be adapted according to the control circuits.
Such alterations, modifications, and improvements are intended to be part of this disclosure, and are intended to be within the spirit and the scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the foregoing description is by way of example only and is not intended to be limiting. The present invention is limited only as defined in the following claims and the equivalents thereto.
All of the above U.S. patents, U.S. patent application publications, U.S. patent applications, foreign patents, foreign patent applications and non-patent publications referred to in this specification and/or listed in the Application Data Sheet, are incorporated herein by reference, in their entirety.
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