METHOD OF DRIVING PLASMA DISPLAY PANEL

Abstract

A method of driving a plasma display panel (PDP) by stably performing sustain and reset discharges. The PDP includes first and second electrode lines, and third electrode lines extending to cross the first and second electrode lines, wherein discharge cells are defined where the first, second and third electrode lines cross, the first electrode lines include first type electrode lines and second type electrode lines that are alternately arranged, and the discharge cells include first and second discharge cell groups respectively defined by the first and second type electrode lines. The method includes: performing a first address operation for addressing the first discharge cell group; performing a first sustain operation in the discharge cells addressed in the first address operation; performing a second address operation for addressing the second discharge cell group; and performing a second sustain operation in the discharge cells addressed in the first and second address operations.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other features and aspects of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an electrode layout of a plasma display panel to which a method of driving a plasma display panel according to an embodiment of the present invention, is applied;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the structure of a unit frame for displaying an image according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 3A, 3B and 3C are diagrams illustrating in more detail the structure of an eighth subfield of subfields illustrated in FIG. 2 according to embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of a plasma display including a plasma display panel to which a method of driving a plasma display panel according to an embodiment of the present invention, is applied;

FIG. 5 is a timing diagram of driving signals according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a timing diagram of driving signals according to another embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 7 is a timing diagram of driving signals according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method of driving a plasma display panel comprising first electrode lines extending in a first direction, second electrode lines each being located between adjacent ones of the first electrode lines and extending in parallel with the first electrode lines, and third electrode lines extending to cross the first and second electrode lines, wherein discharge cells are defined where the first, second and third electrode lines cross, the first electrode lines comprise first type electrode lines and second type electrode lines that are alternately arranged, and the discharge cells comprise a first discharge cell group defined by the first type electrode lines and a second discharge cell group defined by the second type electrode lines, the method comprising: performing a first address operation for selecting one or more of the discharge cells in the first discharge cell group;performing a first sustain operation in said one or more of the discharge cells selected in the first address operation;performing a second address operation for selecting one or more of the discharge cells in the second discharge cell group; andperforming a second sustain operation in said one or more of the discharge cells selected in the first address operation and said one or more of the discharge cells selected in the second address operation.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: performing a first reset operation for initializing the first discharge cell group before the first address operation; andperforming a second reset operation for initializing the second discharge cell group before the second address operation.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein a unit frame for displaying an image on the plasma display panel comprises a plurality of subfields, each subfield comprising the first reset operation, the first address operation, the first sustain operation, the second reset operation, the second address operation, and the second sustain operation.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein sustain discharge is performed in a discharge cell among the discharge cells in the second discharge cell group, which is addressed in the second address operation of a subfield right before a current subfield among the subfields, in the first sustain operation of the current subfield.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein, in the first sustain operation, sustain discharge is performed a predetermined number of times, and a sum of numbers of times that sustain discharge is respectively performed in the first and second sustain operations, corresponds to a gray-level weight allocated to each of the subfields.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein at least one subfield among the subfields further comprises a third sustain operation in which sustain discharge is performed in only the second discharge cell group so as to compensate for sustain discharge being performed in the second discharge cell group less frequently than in the first discharge cell group.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein a last subfield among the subfields comprises the third sustain operation.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the third sustain operation is performed before performing the second sustain operation.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the third sustain operation is performed after performing the second sustain operation.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein, in the third sustain operation, a sustain pulse which transitions from logic high to logic low is applied to the second electrode lines of the first discharge cell group, and a sustain pulse which transitions from logic low to logic high is applied to the second electrode lines of the second discharge cell group.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein the predetermined number of times is 1.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein, in the first reset operation, a reset pulse comprising a rising pulse and a falling pulse is applied to the second electrode lines, wherein, during application of the rising pulse, a first voltage is applied to the first electrode lines of the first discharge cell group in order to perform reset discharge, and a second voltage is applied to the first electrode lines of the second discharge cell group in order not to perform reset discharge, wherein the second voltage is greater than the first voltage.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein, during application of the falling pulse, a third voltage is applied to the first electrode lines of the first discharge cell group and the first voltage is applied to the first electrode lines of the second discharge cell group, wherein the third voltage has positive polarity and is greater than the first voltage.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein, before application of the rising pulse and the falling pulse, an erasure pulse is applied to the first electrode lines or the second electrode lines, wherein the erasure pulse is performed for erasing sustain discharge in one or more of the discharge cells.

15. The method of claim 2, wherein, in the second reset operation, a reset pulse comprising a rising pulse and a falling pulse is applied to the second electrode lines, wherein, during application of the rising pulse, a first voltage is applied to the first electrode lines of the second discharge cell group so as to perform reset discharge and a second voltage is applied to the first electrode lines of the first discharge cell group so as not to perform reset discharge, wherein the second voltage is greater than the first voltage.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein, during application of the falling pulse, a third voltage is applied to the first electrode lines of the second discharge cell group and the first voltage is applied to the first electrode lines of the first discharge cell group, wherein the third voltage has positive polarity and is greater than the first voltage.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the first address operation, a scan pulse is sequentially applied to the second electrode lines and a display data signal is applied to the third electrode lines so as to perform address discharge in the first discharge cell group.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the first address operation, a sustain pulse is alternately applied to the first electrode lines and the second electrode lines so as to perform sustain discharge in the selected one or more of the discharge cells a predetermined number of times.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the second address operation, a scan pulse is sequentially applied to the second electrode lines and a display data signal is applied to the third electrode lines so as to perform address discharge in the second discharge cell group.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the second sustain operation, a sustain pulse is alternately applied to the first electrode lines and the second electrode lines so as to perform sustain discharge in the addressed discharge cell.