JP2005302461A - Plasma display panel and its driving method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the brightness of a plasma display panel or to reduce power consumption. <P>SOLUTION: A new second barrier rib is provided for at least some of a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix form, and a new electrode is additionally provided for controlling discharge in a discharge space divided by the second barrier rib. This configuration improves UV utilization efficiency because it is possible to apply a fluorescent material onto the surface of the second barrier rib, too. Especially, a reduction in UV generation efficiency is small even if the discharge space is made narrower by providing the second barrier rib in a direction perpendicular to surface discharge. As a result, brightness can be effectively improved by the improvement in UV utilization efficiency. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a novel configuration and driving method of a plasma display panel (PDP).

  In a PDP, a pair of glass substrates called a front plate and a back plate are arranged to face each other with a gap of about 100 μm, and a discharge space in which a rare gas containing xenon is sealed at atmospheric pressure or less is divided into three electrodes. It is a self-luminous type display panel which displays an image by controlling and discharging by. Non-Patent Document 1 describes in detail the surface discharge reflection type PDP which is currently mainstream.

However, from the viewpoint of energy saving and environmental protection, it is necessary to reduce the power consumption of the PDP. For this purpose, it is important to improve the efficiency of generating ultraviolet rays and the efficiency of using ultraviolet rays. Among these, in order to improve the utilization efficiency of ultraviolet rays, for example, Patent Document 1 proposes a method of increasing the luminance by adding a device to the rib shape of the light emitting area of a blue phosphor having low utilization efficiency of ultraviolet rays. Further, in Patent Document 2, as shown in FIG. 5, a method of increasing the emission luminance by increasing the coating area of the blue phosphor layer 41 and the discharge space 44 of the blue subpixel is proposed.
SID 1984 Digest, pp 172-175 JP 2000-11894 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-54047

  Increasing the screen size, which is expected to progress in the future, will further increase power consumption. Therefore, a more effective power consumption suppression measure than the methods disclosed in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 is required.

  In the PDP of the present invention, a first substrate on which a plurality of discharge electrode pairs are disposed, and a second substrate on which a plurality of data electrodes and a phosphor layer are disposed are arranged via the first barrier ribs. A plurality of discharges in which a discharge electrode pair and the data electrode are opposed to each other so as to form a pixel group having pixels at orthogonal intersections, and a gas medium is sealed inside the first partition. A plasma display panel in which a space is formed, wherein one or a plurality of pixels are disposed in the discharge space, and at least some of the pixels of the pixel group further divide the discharge space. A barrier rib is provided, and the data electrode is disposed in each of the divided discharge spaces. Further, the above configuration can be realized by arranging the first partition in parallel with the data electrode and the second partition in parallel with the first partition. With this configuration, since the phosphor can be applied to the surface of the second partition, the efficiency of using ultraviolet rays is improved, and thus the power consumption of the PDP can be reduced. Conventionally, since the discharge space is reduced by providing barrier ribs, it has been thought that even if the utilization efficiency of ultraviolet rays is improved, the generation efficiency of ultraviolet rays is reduced, resulting in a decrease in luminance. However, according to the study by the inventors, even if the partition wall spacing in the direction perpendicular to the surface discharge is narrowed, the efficiency of generating ultraviolet rays is reduced as compared with the case where the partition wall spacing in the direction parallel to the surface discharge is narrowed. As a result, the inventors have newly found that it is possible to improve luminance, and as a result, have arrived at the invention.

  Even if the second partition is made lower than the first partition, since the pixels divided by the second partition have phosphors of the same color, color mixture (color shift) due to crosstalk does not occur. . Furthermore, it is preferable to lower the second partition wall because the exhaust efficiency in the exhaust process can be maintained high.

  In addition, it is preferable to make the second barrier rib thinner than the first barrier rib because the coating area of the phosphor is further increased.

  Further, by adopting a configuration in which the data electrodes are arranged in common in both of the discharge spaces divided by the second partition, the second partition has a higher dielectric constant than the discharge space, thereby controlling the wall charge. This is preferable because the initializing discharge is stabilized.

  In addition, it is preferable to form the second partition only in the discharge space of the blue phosphor whose luminance is lower than that of the other colors because the white balance can be adjusted.

  The second barrier rib can also be installed in parallel with the discharge electrode. In this case, a discharge electrode is provided in each of the discharge spaces divided by the second partition. In the case of this configuration, an improvement in ultraviolet light utilization efficiency due to an increase in the phosphor coating area and a decrease in ultraviolet light generation efficiency due to a decrease in the discharge space occur at the same time. It is preferable. For example, when the screen size is a large PDP exceeding 70 inches and one pixel is large, it is assumed that the luminance is improved by inserting the second partition in a direction parallel to the discharge electrode.

  In addition, it is conceivable that a plurality of second barrier ribs are put in both the case parallel to the data electrode and the case parallel to the discharge electrode. For example, it is assumed that a configuration having a plurality of second partition walls is advantageous, such as a large PDP having a screen size exceeding 70 inches.

  In addition, it is preferable to perform area gradation by a discharge space divided by a plurality of second barrier ribs because multi-gradation display can be achieved as compared with the prior art.

  According to the present invention, the brightness of the PDP can be improved. In addition, when the luminance is equivalent to the conventional luminance, the power consumption can be reduced by using the luminance improvement. Moreover, since a complicated barrier rib structure as in Patent Document 1 is not used, the yield during the phosphor coating process is not reduced.

  DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view when one pixel of the PDP of Embodiment 1 is cut along a cross section parallel to a discharge electrode. The back plate 10 has data electrodes 6, and the three data electrodes are arranged corresponding to the three subpixels (red, green, and blue) constituting the pixel. Each subpixel is divided by a partition 4. The interval between the partition walls 4 is determined by the screen size and the number of pixels. For example, in the case of 42 inches (1024 × RGB) × 768 pixels, it is about 200 μm. The thickness of the partition wall 4 is about 50 μm. In addition, although the thickness of the partition 4 was described so as to be constant from the top to the bottom in FIG. 1, it is not always necessary, and a configuration in which the thickness increases toward the bottom may be used. The height of the partition 4 is about 120 μm. A front plate 20 is disposed in contact with the partition walls 4, and the front plate 20, the partition walls 4, and the back plate 10 constitute a discharge space. The surface of the front plate 20 is covered with a protective film 8. Further, the discharge electrode 7 is provided inside the dielectric layer 9 that does not directly touch the discharge. Since FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view parallel to the discharge electrode 7, the discharge electrode 7 is illustrated as one, but actually, the discharge electrode 7 is configured by a pair of sustain electrode and scan electrode. And surface discharge is possible. The wall charges can be controlled by the pair of discharge electrodes 7 and data electrodes 6 and an appropriate drive circuit, thereby realizing screen display.

  Further, it is a feature of the present invention that only the blue sub-pixel having low luminance has the second partition wall 5 in parallel with the data electrode 6 at the center. The application area of the blue phosphor is increased by the second partition wall 5, so that the utilization efficiency of ultraviolet rays is improved. Conventionally, by inserting the barrier ribs 4 in the sub-pixel, the discharge space is reduced, so that the UV generation efficiency is reduced. This reduction offsets the effect of improving the UV utilization efficiency by increasing the phosphor coating area. As a result, it has been said that the luminance decreases.

  However, according to the study by the inventors, when the second partition wall 5 is inserted in parallel with the data electrode 6, the decrease in the UV generation efficiency is small, and the improvement in the UV utilization efficiency due to the increase in the phosphor coating area, It was found that the brightness was improved. FIG. 2 shows the result of measuring the change in luminance with a small panel when the partition spacing is changed. The height of the second partition wall 5 is about 100 μm, and the thickness is about 50 μm. The phosphor is only blue and the film thickness is about 20 μm. The discharge gas was a Ne—Xe mixed gas with a total pressure of 0.05 MPa and a Xe partial pressure of 5%. From FIG. 2, it can be seen that the luminance is improved when the partition wall distance is reduced. According to the detailed examination by the inventors, it was found that the increase in luminance is substantially proportional to the increase in the phosphor coating area, and the decrease in the efficiency of generating ultraviolet rays is not significant. The reason why the UV generation efficiency is not reduced as it has been said is unknown, but since the sustain discharge direction is almost parallel to the data electrode direction, the UV generation efficiency is reduced even if the discharge space is narrowed in this direction. I guess that it is hard to decline.

  In FIG. 1, the second partition 5 is illustrated as being thinner and lower than the partition 4. This is because the second partition wall 5 does not have a role of suppressing color mixing due to crosstalk, and thus does not need to have the same height and thickness as the partition wall 4. Since the application area of the phosphor can be adjusted by the height and thickness of the second partition wall 5, it means that the luminance can be adjusted independently of RGB. Therefore, it can be seen that the white balance can be adjusted by the height and thickness of the second partition wall 5. Of course, the structure which makes the 2nd partition 5 and the partition 4 completely the same is also considered.

  The mainstream PDP currently has both a stripe rib type and a box rib type, but the present invention can be applied to both types.

  In FIG. 1, the case where the second partition 5 is inserted only into the blue sub-pixel having low luminance is described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the second partition 5 is inserted into another color. In addition, the second partition wall 5 may be inserted in all RGB sub-pixels.

  Although FIG. 1 illustrates the configuration in which one data electrode 6 is arranged in the discharge space divided by the second barrier rib 5, the present invention is not limited to this, and the divided discharge space is not limited thereto. It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the data electrode 6 is arranged on each. In this configuration, the divided discharge space can be controlled independently, so that area gradation as described later can be incorporated.

(Embodiment 2)
Next, as a second embodiment, a case where the second barrier rib is inserted in a direction parallel to the discharge electrode will be described. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view when one pixel of the PDP according to the second embodiment is cut along a cross section parallel to the data electrode. As in FIG. 1, a blue phosphor layer 201, data electrodes 206, and barrier ribs 204 are provided on the back plate side, and a protective film 208, a discharge electrode 207, and a dielectric layer 209 are provided on the front plate side. FIG. 2 shows one blue subpixel. Inserting the second barrier increases the phosphor coating area as in the case of the first embodiment, but the discharge space becomes narrow, so the trade-off relationship is measured and the second barrier is inserted. Judge whether. According to the study by the inventors, the decrease in the UV generation efficiency due to the reduction in the discharge space is remarkable as compared with the case of the first embodiment. However, for example, when the pixel size is large on a large screen, the second partition wall It may be advantageous to add 205.

  Note that although FIG. 3 illustrates the case where the second partition 205 has the same shape as the partition 204, the second partition 205 can be lowered or narrowed as in Embodiment 1. Thereby, since the brightness | luminance of each fluorescent substance can be controlled independently, it can utilize for adjustment of a white balance.

  Although FIG. 3 shows the case where two pairs of discharge electrodes 207 are shown, the discharge electrode in the center of the figure can be configured to be shared by the left and right pixels.

(Embodiment 3)
In the third embodiment, the case where the configurations of the first and second embodiments are performed simultaneously will be described. In the future, the area of PDP is expected to increase further. In this case, there may be a case where it is desirable to include a plurality of second barrier ribs 505 parallel to the discharge electrode and the data electrode. For example, in the case of a 100-inch screen, the pixel size is 1100 μm square even with the maximum number of pixels (1920 × RGB) × 1080 of full-spec HDTV. In this case, for example, as shown in the plan view of the back plate in FIG. 4, two second barrier ribs 505 parallel to the data electrodes are placed in the RGB sub-pixels in a direction parallel to the discharge electrodes. Also, a configuration in which a plurality of second partition walls are inserted, such as a configuration in which two second partition walls 505 are inserted, is advantageous. The UV utilization efficiency is increased by increasing the phosphor coating area, and the decrease in UV generation efficiency due to the reduction of the discharge space is not significant because the original pixel is large, and therefore the luminance is improved.

(Embodiment 4)
In the fourth embodiment, a method for driving a PDP having a large number of second partitions as in the third embodiment will be described. Since the discharge space divided by the second barrier ribs can be controlled independently, gradation expression can be performed by the discharge area in the PDP having a large number of second barrier ribs as in the third embodiment. . Therefore, a finer gradation expression can be achieved by combining the gradation expression based on the normal number of sustain discharge pulses and the area gradation described above. As an example, in the case where the second partition 505 is inserted so that each color is divided into nine as shown in the third embodiment, a gradation (usually 256) × 10 gradations according to the current number of sustain pulses in each color. Expression (ie 2560) is possible. Further, the number of gradations can be further improved by changing the height of the second partition wall to be inserted by two.

  The present invention can be used for a PDP with high luminance or low power consumption, and is particularly applicable to a large screen PDP.

Schematic sectional view parallel to the discharge electrode of one pixel of the PDP according to the first embodiment The figure showing the change of relative luminance when changing the partition interval parallel to the data electrode Schematic sectional view parallel to the data electrode of one pixel of the PDP according to the second exemplary embodiment Schematic plan view of a back plate showing the configuration of a pixel having a plurality of second partitions according to the third and fourth embodiments Schematic sectional view showing a conventional pixel configuration shown in Patent Document 2

Explanation of symbols

1, 41, 201 Blue phosphor layer 2, 42 Green phosphor layer 3, 43 Red phosphor layer 4, 46, 204 Partition 5, 205, 505 Second partition 6, 206 Data electrode 7, 47, 207 Discharge electrode 8, 48, 208 Protective film 9, 209 Dielectric layer 10, 210, 410 Back plate 20, 220, 420 Front plate 44 Discharge space 45 Address electrode 49 Dielectric glass layer 400 Rear glass substrate 430 Front glass substrate

Claims (12)

A first substrate on which a plurality of discharge electrode pairs are disposed, and a second substrate on which a plurality of data electrodes and a phosphor layer are disposed are connected to the discharge electrode pairs and the data via a first barrier rib. Electrodes are disposed opposite to each other so as to form a pixel group having pixels at orthogonal intersections, and a plurality of discharge spaces are formed along the first partition wall, in which a gas medium is sealed. A plasma display panel,
One or a plurality of pixels are disposed in the discharge space, and at least some of the pixels of the pixel group further include a second partition that divides the discharge space, and each of the divided discharge spaces. In the plasma display panel, the data electrode is disposed. 2. The plasma display panel according to claim 1, wherein the first barrier rib is disposed in parallel with the data electrode. 2. The plasma display panel according to claim 1, wherein the second barrier rib is disposed in parallel with the first barrier rib. The second partition is lower than the first partition,
The plasma display panel according to claim 1. The second partition is thinner than the first partition,
The plasma display panel according to claim 1 or 2. The plasma display panel according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the data electrodes are arranged in common in both of the divided discharge spaces. 7. The plasma display according to claim 1, wherein the phosphor is a phosphor of three primary colors, and the second barrier rib is formed only in a discharge space of the blue phosphor. panel. A first substrate on which a plurality of discharge electrode pairs are disposed, and a second substrate on which a plurality of data electrodes and a phosphor layer are disposed are connected to the discharge electrode pairs and the data via a first barrier rib. Electrodes are disposed opposite to each other so as to form a pixel group having pixels at orthogonal intersections, and a plurality of discharge spaces are formed along the first partition wall, in which a gas medium is sealed. A plasma display panel,
One or a plurality of pixels are disposed in the discharge space, and at least some of the pixels of the pixel group further include a second partition that divides the discharge space, and each of the divided discharge spaces. In the plasma display panel, the discharge electrode is disposed. 9. The plasma display panel according to claim 8, wherein the first barrier rib is disposed in parallel with the data electrode. 9. The plasma display panel according to claim 8, wherein the second barrier rib is disposed in parallel with the discharge electrode. It has a plurality of the second partition walls,
The plasma display panel according to any one of claims 1 to 10. 13. The method of driving a plasma display panel according to claim 1, wherein area gradation is performed by a discharge space divided by the plurality of second barrier ribs.

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