[54] METHOD FOR DRIVING GAS DISCHARGE DISPLAY PANEL
[75] Inventors: Yoshimichi Takano; Tetsuo Sakai.
both of Tokyo; Hiroshi Murakami,
Yokohama; Kazuo Takahashi, Osaka;
Mutsumi Mimasu, Hikone; Utaro
Miyagawa, Osaka; Makoto Takei,
Osaka; Koichi Wani, Osaka, all of
Japan
[73] Assignees: Nippon Hoso Kyokai, Tokyo;
Matsushita Electronics Corporation,
Osaka, both of Japan
[21] Appl. No.: 437,747
[22] Filed: May 9,1995
Related U.S. Application Data
[62] Division of Ser. No. 54,490, Apr. 30, 1993, Pat. No. 5,572, 230.
[30] Foreign Application Priority Data
Jun. 26, 1992 [JP] Japan 4-169283
[51] Int. CI.6 G09G 3/28
[52] U.S. CI 345/60; 345/61; 345/62;
345/67
[58] Field of Search 345/60-63, 66-71,
345/204, 208, 209, 210, 211; 315/169.4;
313/501, 505
[56] References Cited
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5,231,382 7/1993 Tanaka.
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0157248 10/1985 European Pat. Off. .
57-86886 5/1982 Japan .
60-194495 10/1985 Japan .
63-127290 5/1988 Japan .
4-6734 1/1992 Japan .
5-035205 2/1993 Japan .
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
NEC Research and Development, No. 98, Jul. 1990, Tokyo JP pp. 43-47, XP000166005, Tanaka et al.: "Gray scale technique for AC fresh plasma display". 1984 Sid International Symposium, Digest of Technical Papers, Jun. 1984, New York, NY, USA, pp. 99-102, XP002002071, Sakuma et al.: "An ac-refresh panel with nigh-voltage CMOS drivers and unbalanced power supplies".
"Pulse Memory Driving Type of Discharge Panel For Displaying Colored Figure" by H. Murakami et al: The Transactions of the Institute of Electronics, Information Engineers; C-n vol. J73-C-II No. 11, pp. 594-802, Nov. 1990.
Primary Examiner—Richard Hjerpe
Assistant Examiner—Juliana S. Kim
Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Lowe, Price, LeBlanc & Becker
[57] ABSTRACT
A method for driving a gas discharge display panel consists of the steps of applying a writing pulse on a specific display electrode line selected from display electrode lines arranged side by side in the panel, applying a scanning pulse on a specific scanning electrode line selected from scanning electrode lines which are arranged side by side and cross the display electrode lines to produce writing gas discharge in cooperation with the writing pulse in a specific discharge cell arranged at an intersection space between the specific display electrode and the specific scanning electrode line, and applying a series of maintaining pulses subsequent to the scanning pulse on the specific scanning electrode during only a maintaining period to produce maintaining gas discharge subsequent to the writing gas discharge in the specific discharge cell, the maintaining gas discharge being intermittently produced in synchronism with the maintaining pulses. The scanning pulse is applied in synchronism with the writing pulse. The maintaining gas discharge is stopped without applying any pulse after the maintaining period passes.
16 Claims, 33 Drawing Sheets
