gas plasma display screens manufacturer

A plasma display panel (PDP) is a type of flat panel display that uses small cells containing plasma: ionized gas that responds to electric fields. Plasma televisions were the first large (over 32 inches diagonal) flat panel displays to be released to the public.

Until about 2007, plasma displays were commonly used in large televisions (30 inches (76 cm) and larger). By 2013, they had lost nearly all market share due to competition from low-cost LCDs and more expensive but high-contrast OLED flat-panel displays. Manufacturing of plasma displays for the United States retail market ended in 2014,

Plasma displays are bright (1,000 lux or higher for the display module), have a wide color gamut, and can be produced in fairly large sizes—up to 3.8 metres (150 in) diagonally. They had a very low luminance "dark-room" black level compared with the lighter grey of the unilluminated parts of an LCD screen. (As plasma panels are locally lit and do not require a back light, blacks are blacker on plasma and grayer on LCD"s.)LED-backlit LCD televisions have been developed to reduce this distinction. The display panel itself is about 6 cm (2.4 in) thick, generally allowing the device"s total thickness (including electronics) to be less than 10 cm (3.9 in). Power consumption varies greatly with picture content, with bright scenes drawing significantly more power than darker ones – this is also true for CRTs as well as modern LCDs where LED backlight brightness is adjusted dynamically. The plasma that illuminates the screen can reach a temperature of at least 1200 °C (2200 °F). Typical power consumption is 400 watts for a 127 cm (50 in) screen. Most screens are set to "vivid" mode by default in the factory (which maximizes the brightness and raises the contrast so the image on the screen looks good under the extremely bright lights that are common in big box stores), which draws at least twice the power (around 500–700 watts) of a "home" setting of less extreme brightness.

Plasma screens are made out of glass, which may result in glare on the screen from nearby light sources. Plasma display panels cannot be economically manufactured in screen sizes smaller than 82 centimetres (32 in).enhanced-definition televisions (EDTV) this small, even fewer have made 32 inch plasma HDTVs. With the trend toward large-screen television technology, the 32 inch screen size is rapidly disappearing. Though considered bulky and thick compared with their LCD counterparts, some sets such as Panasonic"s Z1 and Samsung"s B860 series are as slim as 2.5 cm (1 in) thick making them comparable to LCDs in this respect.

Wider viewing angles than those of LCD; images do not suffer from degradation at less than straight ahead angles like LCDs. LCDs using IPS technology have the widest angles, but they do not equal the range of plasma primarily due to "IPS glow", a generally whitish haze that appears due to the nature of the IPS pixel design.

Less visible motion blur, thanks in large part to very high refresh rates and a faster response time, contributing to superior performance when displaying content with significant amounts of rapid motion such as auto racing, hockey, baseball, etc.

Earlier generation displays were more susceptible to screen burn-in and image retention. Recent models have a pixel orbiter that moves the entire picture slower than is noticeable to the human eye, which reduces the effect of burn-in but does not prevent it.

Due to the bistable nature of the color and intensity generating method, some people will notice that plasma displays have a shimmering or flickering effect with a number of hues, intensities and dither patterns.

Earlier generation displays (circa 2006 and prior) had phosphors that lost luminosity over time, resulting in gradual decline of absolute image brightness. Newer models have advertised lifespans exceeding 100,000 hours (11 years), far longer than older CRTs.

Uses more electrical power, on average, than an LCD TV using a LED backlight. Older CCFL backlights for LCD panels used quite a bit more power, and older plasma TVs used quite a bit more power than recent models.

Fixed-pixel displays such as plasma TVs scale the video image of each incoming signal to the native resolution of the display panel. The most common native resolutions for plasma display panels are 852×480 (EDTV), 1,366×768 and 1920×1080 (HDTV). As a result, picture quality varies depending on the performance of the video scaling processor and the upscaling and downscaling algorithms used by each display manufacturer.

Early plasma televisions were enhanced-definition (ED) with a native resolution of 840×480 (discontinued) or 852×480 and down-scaled their incoming high-definition video signals to match their native display resolutions.

The following ED resolutions were common prior to the introduction of HD displays, but have long been phased out in favor of HD displays, as well as because the overall pixel count in ED displays is lower than the pixel count on SD PAL displays (852×480 vs 720×576, respectively).

Early high-definition (HD) plasma displays had a resolution of 1024x1024 and were alternate lighting of surfaces (ALiS) panels made by Fujitsu and Hitachi.

Later HDTV plasma televisions usually have a resolution of 1,024×768 found on many 42 inch plasma screens, 1280×768 and 1,366×768 found on 50 in, 60 in, and 65 in plasma screens, or 1920×1080 found on plasma screen sizes from 42 inch to 103 inch. These displays are usually progressive displays, with non-square pixels, and will up-scale and de-interlace their incoming standard-definition signals to match their native display resolutions. 1024×768 resolution requires that 720p content be downscaled in one direction and upscaled in the other.

Ionized gases such as the ones shown here are confined to millions of tiny individual compartments across the face of a plasma display, to collectively form a visual image.

A panel of a plasma display typically comprises millions of tiny compartments in between two panels of glass. These compartments, or "bulbs" or "cells", hold a mixture of noble gases and a minuscule amount of another gas (e.g., mercury vapor). Just as in the fluorescent lamps over an office desk, when a high voltage is applied across the cell, the gas in the cells forms a plasma. With flow of electricity (electrons), some of the electrons strike mercury particles as the electrons move through the plasma, momentarily increasing the energy level of the atom until the excess energy is shed. Mercury sheds the energy as ultraviolet (UV) photons. The UV photons then strike phosphor that is painted on the inside of the cell. When the UV photon strikes a phosphor molecule, it momentarily raises the energy level of an outer orbit electron in the phosphor molecule, moving the electron from a stable to an unstable state; the electron then sheds the excess energy as a photon at a lower energy level than UV light; the lower energy photons are mostly in the infrared range but about 40% are in the visible light range. Thus the input energy is converted to mostly infrared but also as visible light. The screen heats up to between 30 and 41 °C (86 and 106 °F) during operation. Depending on the phosphors used, different colors of visible light can be achieved. Each pixel in a plasma display is made up of three cells comprising the primary colors of visible light. Varying the voltage of the signals to the cells thus allows different perceived colors.

The long electrodes are stripes of electrically conducting material that also lies between the glass plates in front of and behind the cells. The "address electrodes" sit behind the cells, along the rear glass plate, and can be opaque. The transparent display electrodes are mounted in front of the cell, along the front glass plate. As can be seen in the illustration, the electrodes are covered by an insulating protective layer.

Control circuitry charges the electrodes that cross paths at a cell, creating a voltage difference between front and back. Some of the atoms in the gas of a cell then lose electrons and become ionized, which creates an electrically conducting plasma of atoms, free electrons, and ions. The collisions of the flowing electrons in the plasma with the inert gas atoms leads to light emission; such light-emitting plasmas are known as glow discharges.

Relative spectral power of red, green and blue phosphors of a common plasma display. The units of spectral power are simply raw sensor values (with a linear response at specific wavelengths).

In a monochrome plasma panel, the gas is mostly neon, and the color is the characteristic orange of a neon-filled lamp (or sign). Once a glow discharge has been initiated in a cell, it can be maintained by applying a low-level voltage between all the horizontal and vertical electrodes–even after the ionizing voltage is removed. To erase a cell all voltage is removed from a pair of electrodes. This type of panel has inherent memory. A small amount of nitrogen is added to the neon to increase hysteresis.phosphor. The ultraviolet photons emitted by the plasma excite these phosphors, which give off visible light with colors determined by the phosphor materials. This aspect is comparable to fluorescent lamps and to the neon signs that use colored phosphors.

Every pixel is made up of three separate subpixel cells, each with different colored phosphors. One subpixel has a red light phosphor, one subpixel has a green light phosphor and one subpixel has a blue light phosphor. These colors blend together to create the overall color of the pixel, the same as a triad of a shadow mask CRT or color LCD. Plasma panels use pulse-width modulation (PWM) to control brightness: by varying the pulses of current flowing through the different cells thousands of times per second, the control system can increase or decrease the intensity of each subpixel color to create billions of different combinations of red, green and blue. In this way, the control system can produce most of the visible colors. Plasma displays use the same phosphors as CRTs, which accounts for the extremely accurate color reproduction when viewing television or computer video images (which use an RGB color system designed for CRT displays).

Plasma displays are different from liquid crystal displays (LCDs), another lightweight flat-screen display using very different technology. LCDs may use one or two large fluorescent lamps as a backlight source, but the different colors are controlled by LCD units, which in effect behave as gates that allow or block light through red, green, or blue filters on the front of the LCD panel.

To produce light, the cells need to be driven at a relatively high voltage (~300 volts) and the pressure of the gases inside the cell needs to be low (~500 torr).

Contrast ratio is the difference between the brightest and darkest parts of an image, measured in discrete steps, at any given moment. Generally, the higher the contrast ratio, the more realistic the image is (though the "realism" of an image depends on many factors including color accuracy, luminance linearity, and spatial linearity). Contrast ratios for plasma displays are often advertised as high as 5,000,000:1.organic light-emitting diode. Although there are no industry-wide guidelines for reporting contrast ratio, most manufacturers follow either the ANSI standard or perform a full-on-full-off test. The ANSI standard uses a checkered test pattern whereby the darkest blacks and the lightest whites are simultaneously measured, yielding the most accurate "real-world" ratings. In contrast, a full-on-full-off test measures the ratio using a pure black screen and a pure white screen, which gives higher values but does not represent a typical viewing scenario. Some displays, using many different technologies, have some "leakage" of light, through either optical or electronic means, from lit pixels to adjacent pixels so that dark pixels that are near bright ones appear less dark than they do during a full-off display. Manufacturers can further artificially improve the reported contrast ratio by increasing the contrast and brightness settings to achieve the highest test values. However, a contrast ratio generated by this method is misleading, as content would be essentially unwatchable at such settings.

Each cell on a plasma display must be precharged before it is lit, otherwise the cell would not respond quickly enough. Precharging normally increases power consumption, so energy recovery mechanisms may be in place to avoid an increase in power consumption.LED illumination can automatically reduce the backlighting on darker scenes, though this method cannot be used in high-contrast scenes, leaving some light showing from black parts of an image with bright parts, such as (at the extreme) a solid black screen with one fine intense bright line. This is called a "halo" effect which has been minimized on newer LED-backlit LCDs with local dimming. Edgelit models cannot compete with this as the light is reflected via a light guide to distribute the light behind the panel.

Image burn-in occurs on CRTs and plasma panels when the same picture is displayed for long periods. This causes the phosphors to overheat, losing some of their luminosity and producing a "shadow" image that is visible with the power off. Burn-in is especially a problem on plasma panels because they run hotter than CRTs. Early plasma televisions were plagued by burn-in, making it impossible to use video games or anything else that displayed static images.

Plasma displays also exhibit another image retention issue which is sometimes confused with screen burn-in damage. In this mode, when a group of pixels are run at high brightness (when displaying white, for example) for an extended period, a charge build-up in the pixel structure occurs and a ghost image can be seen. However, unlike burn-in, this charge build-up is transient and self-corrects after the image condition that caused the effect has been removed and a long enough period has passed (with the display either off or on).

Plasma manufacturers have tried various ways of reducing burn-in such as using gray pillarboxes, pixel orbiters and image washing routines, but none to date have eliminated the problem and all plasma manufacturers continue to exclude burn-in from their warranties.

The first practical plasma video display was co-invented in 1964 at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign by Donald Bitzer, H. Gene Slottow, and graduate student Robert Willson for the PLATO computer system.Owens-Illinois were very popular in the early 1970s because they were rugged and needed neither memory nor circuitry to refresh the images.CRT displays cheaper than the $2500 USD 512 × 512 PLATO plasma displays.

Burroughs Corporation, a maker of adding machines and computers, developed the Panaplex display in the early 1970s. The Panaplex display, generically referred to as a gas-discharge or gas-plasma display,seven-segment display for use in adding machines. They became popular for their bright orange luminous look and found nearly ubiquitous use throughout the late 1970s and into the 1990s in cash registers, calculators, pinball machines, aircraft avionics such as radios, navigational instruments, and stormscopes; test equipment such as frequency counters and multimeters; and generally anything that previously used nixie tube or numitron displays with a high digit-count. These displays were eventually replaced by LEDs because of their low current-draw and module-flexibility, but are still found in some applications where their high brightness is desired, such as pinball machines and avionics.

In 1983, IBM introduced a 19-inch (48 cm) orange-on-black monochrome display (Model 3290 Information Panel) which was able to show up to four simultaneous IBM 3270 terminal sessions. By the end of the decade, orange monochrome plasma displays were used in a number of high-end AC-powered portable computers, such as the Compaq Portable 386 (1987) and the IBM P75 (1990). Plasma displays had a better contrast ratio, viewability angle, and less motion blur than the LCDs that were available at the time, and were used until the introduction of active-matrix color LCD displays in 1992.

Due to heavy competition from monochrome LCDs used in laptops and the high costs of plasma display technology, in 1987 IBM planned to shut down its factory in Kingston, New York, the largest plasma plant in the world, in favor of manufacturing mainframe computers, which would have left development to Japanese companies.Larry F. Weber, a University of Illinois ECE PhD (in plasma display research) and staff scientist working at CERL (home of the PLATO System), co-founded Plasmaco with Stephen Globus and IBM plant manager James Kehoe, and bought the plant from IBM for US$50,000. Weber stayed in Urbana as CTO until 1990, then moved to upstate New York to work at Plasmaco.

In 1992, Fujitsu introduced the world"s first 21-inch (53 cm) full-color display. It was based on technology created at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories.

In 1994, Weber demonstrated a color plasma display at an industry convention in San Jose. Panasonic Corporation began a joint development project with Plasmaco, which led in 1996 to the purchase of Plasmaco, its color AC technology, and its American factory for US$26 million.

In 1995, Fujitsu introduced the first 42-inch (107 cm) plasma display panel;Philips introduced the first large commercially available flat-panel TV, using the Fujitsu panels. It was available at four Sears locations in the US for $14,999, including in-home installation. Pioneer also began selling plasma televisions that year, and other manufacturers followed. By the year 2000 prices had dropped to $10,000.

In the year 2000, the first 60-inch plasma display was developed by Plasmaco. Panasonic was also reported to have developed a process to make plasma displays using ordinary window glass instead of the much more expensive "high strain point" glass.

In late 2006, analysts noted that LCDs had overtaken plasmas, particularly in the 40-inch (100 cm) and above segment where plasma had previously gained market share.

Until the early 2000s, plasma displays were the most popular choice for HDTV flat panel display as they had many benefits over LCDs. Beyond plasma"s deeper blacks, increased contrast, faster response time, greater color spectrum, and wider viewing angle; they were also much bigger than LCDs, and it was believed that LCDs were suited only to smaller sized televisions. However, improvements in VLSI fabrication narrowed the technological gap. The increased size, lower weight, falling prices, and often lower electrical power consumption of LCDs made them competitive with plasma television sets.

Screen sizes have increased since the introduction of plasma displays. The largest plasma video display in the world at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, was a 150-inch (380 cm) unit manufactured by Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic) standing 6 ft (180 cm) tall by 11 ft (330 cm) wide.

At the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Panasonic introduced their 152" 2160p 3D plasma. In 2010, Panasonic shipped 19.1 million plasma TV panels.

Panasonic was the biggest plasma display manufacturer until 2013, when it decided to discontinue plasma production. In the following months, Samsung and LG also ceased production of plasma sets. Panasonic, Samsung and LG were the last plasma manufacturers for the U.S. retail market.

Vishay is a world leader in DC plasma production and custom display technology. Vishay Dale display modules allow users to personalize their products at affordable prices. A proprietary screened image display technology allows maximum freedom to design a display module that is application-specific with interface circuitry that is synergistic to the end system.

You don’t hear much about plasma TVs these days, and for good reason: no one’s made them for several years. But for a TV technology that was once the pinnacle of picture quality, where did plasma TVs go?

But what do we recall when we talk about plasma TVs? The technology that made flat screens an everyday reality for you and I originated in a humble lab in the University of Illinois. The potential of what started as an academic experiment to create a display for educational computers became very apparent to TV manufacturers, which had been struggling to find a realistic solution to take over from cumbersome CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) TV sets.

Plasma screens feature millions of cells, filled with gas, sitting neatly between two sheets of glass. When they’re charged with electricity, the cells – or pixels – lit up to form the image. That charged-up gas is called plasma, hence the name of the screens.

CRT models, on the other hand, feature a single tube that defines the size of the screen. The move to plasma technology and its use of millions of cells made it far easier to enlarge screen sizes, while also making them thin – far more slender than normal CRT sets. In addition, the higher definition and refresh rate resulted in a much higher-quality picture.

To understand the lure of plasma and how it managed to conquer hearts and living rooms alike, you must look beyond the pretty screen and deep into the heart of the technology behind it.Next-gen TVs: the OLED, Micro LED and holographic TVs of the future

“The glass is comparable to window glass, unlike LCD. There are horizontal and vertical electrode grids and a phosphor array. The connection between the two is scanned, firing the discharge at the intersection and causing the phosphor to glow,” says analyst Paul Gray(opens in new tab), who leads TV research at Omdia, a global firm that provides analysis across the technology ecosystem. “The phosphor side is similar to CRT, while the plasma is a glow discharge like a neon lamp.”

But the genesis of the technology had nothing to do with the entertainment industry. Larry F Weber, a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers wrote the following in IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science(opens in new tab):

“As with any invention, it all started with a need. In this case, it was the need for a high-quality display for computer-based education. The University of Illinois started a project in 1960 called PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations) to conduct research on the use of computers for education… The plasma display panel (PDP) was invented by Prof. Donald L Bitzer, Prof. H Gene Slottow, and their graduate student Robert H Wilson in 1964 to meet the need for a full graphics display for the PLATO system.”

The first manufacturer to take the dive into making plasma in serious numbers was Fujitsu, making a 42-inch screen in 1997. That screen was selling for $20,000 (around £15,000 / AU$26,000), according to San Francisco Business Times(opens in new tab).

“The starters were Fujitsu and Panasonic, but NEC, Pioneer, Samsung, LGE and Chunghwa (CPT) all made the displays,” says Gray. “Most brands had plasma in their ranges. It’s important to remember that in the early 2000s, the PDP [Plasma Display Panel] was in the lead in large-screen TVs such as 42-inch models, and there was serious concern whether 42-inch LCD was economically feasible. Sony and Sharp even worked on a hybrid technology called PALC, Plasma-addressed Liquid Crystal.”

It was the first time that a large TV was available in a form that could be mounted on a wall. This was a huge leap forward from the furniture-piece CRT TV sets that were boxy and heavy, although sturdy. Remember, also, that it was a strange world where small screens and large screens (LCD and projection respectively) were flat, but the ones in the middle (14-inch to 37-inch) were curved.

Plasma TVs had come a long way since its first iteration. It went on to dominate the consumer market for TV screens and provided one of the best viewing experiences available.

Plasma TVs had panels that lit up small cells of gases (xenon and neon) between two plates of glass, offering very bright and crisp images even on a large screen surface, according toSamsung(opens in new tab), which was one of the main manufacturers of plasma TVs. The screens contain phosphors that created the image on the screen light up themselves and don’t require backlighting.

The technology meant that large screens (typically from 42 inches to 63 inches) “offer high contrast ratios, gorgeously saturated colours, and allow for wide viewing angles – meaning every seat in the house is a great one,” according to Samsung, while it worked “well in dimly lit rooms, which is great for watching movies.” It could also “track fast-moving images without motion blur,” making plasma “ideal for watching action-packed sports or playing video games. The sharpness of visual detail is astonishing.”

However, there were some disadvantages. Plasma was more of an electricity guzzler than LCD (Panasonic had got the consumption pretty much to parity, and plasma’s power consumption depended heavily on the amount of light in the video content). It was heavier, with many more power electronics packed in each set. It wasn’t as bright, meaning that to enjoy it fully, you really needed to like your dimly lit, cinema-style watching experience – which wasn’t a disadvantage if you weren’t a fan of daytime telly. Burn-in was an issue, too, especially for avid gamers.

By 2005, six million units of plasma were being shipped globally per year, according to Omdia’s data. “The business peaked at 18.4 million in 2010,” says Gray.

But then other technologies started to catch up. LCD screens were lighter and brighter. They consumed far less energy and performed better in daylight.

“Essentially, the fundamental problem was the pace of innovation,” says Gray. “Plasma needed to counter the LCD industry, which had more players working on development. It faced either an uneconomic level of R&D or, alternatively, slowly falling behind. Samsung and LG were only in the PDP [Plasma Display Panel] market as an insurance policy, while the Japanese were unwilling to make big bets. In fairness, they acted rationally – while Korea Inc got its money back in LCD, Taiwan Inc only broke even and China Inc’s chances of ever making a positive return on its LCD investment are slim.”

The plasma honeymoon didn’t last, then, and there were some basic factors that had a severe impact on sales – including one of the criticisms commonly levelled at OLED, being low brightness.

“Plasma wasn’t as bright as LCD. Critically in US retailers, the TV area was brightly lit and PDP looked washed out,” says Gray. “Plasma – like all emissive displays – struggled with fine pixel densities. Only Panasonic managed to make a 1080p 42-inch, and even then it wasn’t a great product commercially. Manufacturing yield was reportedly poor. In the end, LCD had massive manufacturing capacity and the advantage of scale. PDP simply wasn’t unique enough.”

As manufacturers started making huge losses, they began to phase out plasma. Pioneer putting an end to the production of its much-loved Kuro screens was notable. When Panasonic announced that it would no longer make plasma screens, everybody knew that the end was near. LG and Samsung followed suit shortly after. And just like that, the light went out on plasma.What is OLED? The TV panel tech explainedToday"s best LG CX OLED deals

Plasma displays were once the creme-de-la-creme of television technology. With deep blacks and great colour, they could rival CRTs at a time when a lot of the LCD technology at the time was often seen as less than inspiring. But did the plasma display ever have a real future?

Consider some technological almost-greats of the last few decades, just in the field of film and TV. Anyone have a plasma display on the wall at home? No? There was a time when the writing was on the wall for CRT displays and the writing did not say “TFT-LCD”. It said “plasma display panel”. Plasma displays are made, quite literally, of tiny cells full of ionised gas. Early types were filled with neon which glowed the characteristic red-orange when a high voltage was applied, creating the bright orange flat panel displays found in early 90s laptops.

This image reveals the structure of the Pioneer PDP-V402 plasma display panel. There"s a mesh over the front of the matrix of cells to provide electrical conductivity and not great fill factor

Full-colour plasma displays are filled with a gas mix including mercury which, as in a fluorescent tube, emits ultraviolet radiation when excited. The UV light excites coloured phosphors which glow with colour performance very much like that of a CRT. Crucially, if we turn the power off to a particular cell, it is thoroughly and completely off and the light output can be zero. That means that plasma displays can achieve almost OLED-like black levels. Many don’t, as a consequence of less-than-ideal electronics, but the performance was a bit better than most LCDs.

The problem was, it wasn’t a lot better than the best LCDs, because LCD was a maturing technology. Plasma as a full-colour display dates back perhaps to a 21-inch Fujitsu panel in 1992, though they didn’t become consumer products until the late 90s and they didn’t become really practical until a few years after that. Conversely, researchers at Westinghouse created the term “active matrix” in the 1970s to describe what would become TFT-LCD. In the end, manufacturing techniques for big TFT-LCD panels improved enough to outsell plasma in the mid-2000s.

Large plasma displays were being shown at the big shows as recently as ten years ago, but, in the end, they were a technology that was quite literally outshone by a more experienced incumbent.

Images of the Pioneer PDP-V402 plasma display panel appear courtesy of the people at Rarevision LLC, whose enthusiasm for retro technology is exemplified in the VHS Camcorder application.

A gas-plasma display is a technology that is a collection of neon gas between two plates. Each plate contains a conductive print; one is horizontal, and the other is vertical. These displays ranged from 42 to 60-inches and originally cost anywhere from $8,000 to $30,000 or higher.

Although gas-plasma technology was found in older portable computers and large displays, like the CRT television, it is now obsolete. Today, because of advances in LCD technologies and the power requirements of gas-plasma displays, nearly all flat-panel screens are LED backlit LCDs.

Sano Y, Nakamura T, Numomura K, Konishi T, Usui M, Tanaka A, Yoshida T, Yamada H, Oida O, Fujimura R (1998) High-contrast 50-in color ac plasma display with 1365 × 768 pixels. SID 98 DIGEST, 275

Whang KW, Bae HS, Lee KH, Kim TJ (2005) The effect of cell geometry and plasma loss on the luminous efficiency in ac plasma display panel. SOD 05 DIGEST, 1130

Andoh S, Murase K, Umeda S (1976) Discharge-time lag in a plasma display-selection of protection layer (γ Surface). IEEE Trans Electron Devices 23(3):319

Urade T, Iemori T, Osawa M, Nakayama N, Morita I (1976) A protecting layer for the dielectric in AC plasma panels. IEEE Trans Electron Devices 23(3):313

Ryu SM, Han M, Yang DY, Lee SS, Kim DJ, Park LS (2007) Ultra-slim barrier ribs for plasma display panel by X-ray lithography process, SID 07 DIGEST, 1205

Kajiyama H, Tanno H, Shinoda T, Fukasawa T, Ramasamy R, Shanmugavelayutham G, Yasuda T (2007) Lifetime improvement of Eu-doped BAM by plasma treatment, SID 07 DIGEST, p 1321

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Hirakawa H, Katayama T, Kuroki S, Nakahara H, Nanto T, Yoshikawa K, Otsuka A, Wakitani M (1998) Cell structure and driving method of a 25-in. (64-cm) diagonal high-resolution color AC plasma display. SID 98 DIGEST, p 279

Kojima T, Toyonaga R, Sakai T, Tajima T, Sega S, Kuriyama T, Koike J, Murakami H (1979) Sixteen-inch gas-discharge display panel with 2-lines-at-a-time-driving. Proc SID 20:153

PLATO. This is one of Bitzer"s own illustrations of his invention from his original patent, which was filed in 1966 and eventually granted in 1971. Like my illustration above, you can see that the screen consists of multiple, gas-filled display "minicells" (the orange blobs in the central blue section). In front and behind this are two sets of electrodes, one running horizontally and the other vertically. Each gas minicell ("blob") in the screen can be fired by energizing the appropriate pair of electrodes either side. Since each minicell can only be either on or off, this screen can display monochrome pictures but not color ones.

Artwork: Bitzer"s original plasma display. From US Patent 3,559,190: Gaseous display and memory apparatus by Donald Bitzer et al, University of Illinois, courtesy of US Patent and Trademark Office.

in 2014 when first Panasonic and then Samsung (which, between them, made about three quarters of all plasma sets) abandoned the technology and better-funded, more-innovative rival technologies (LCDs and OLEDs (organic LEDs)) took over.

With no more major manufacturers outputting plasma displays, many reports and analysts have claimed the technology is now dead. After four decades of ups and downs and innovations, it seems plasma displays are just another victim of out-with-old, in-with-the-new mindset.

Plasma displays have many advantages and are even more affordable than current LCD screens, but that still hasn"t been enough to curb public perception and boost sales. So, in memory of plasma, we"ve rounded up a brief history, complete with hallmark moments, of the technology.

A plasma display is a flat-panel display once-commonly used for televisions 30 inches in size or larger. Plasma displays are thinner than cathode ray tube displays, a technology used in the first commercially-made electronic television sets.

Plasma displays are classed plasma because each pixel in the screen is illuminated by a tiny bit of plasma. When an electrode applies an electrical current to a small cell filled with a noble gas mixture (like neon and xenon), it excites the gas, then ionizes it, and transforms it into a plasma.

The plasma then emits ultraviolet light, and once that light hits the phosphor coating lining each cell, it causes the phosphor to glow a visible light. Just think of of each individual subpixel on a plasma display as a tiny neon light or florescent tube. The technology is the same, just on a smaller scale.

Plasma displays have been known to boast better black levels than many LCD screens, although LCD technology has greatly improved in recent years. Pricier LED-backlit LCD screens with local dimming, for instance, have black levels comparable to those of plasma displays.

Due to how plasma displays work, they can provide precise control of the relative level of brightness and intensity for red, blue, and green subpixels. The displays therefore have deep contrast, textured images, and rich colours. Due to the lack of polarising filters, they have good viewing angles too.

Another advantage is that the florescent phosphor coating lining each subpixel can stop glowing within nanoseconds, eliminating a problem known as motion blur. Pixels in lower-end LCD screens cannot shutter or close as fast, meaning they have poor refresh rates, which results in motion blur.

Burn-in was a problem often associated with early plasma displays, but it can still occur today. It happens when the same picture is displayed for long periods. If something bright is shown on a plasma display for too long (such as a network logo), it could leave a visible-yet-faint image behind.

Plasma displays are also known for their large energy consumption, especially compared to, for instance, an LED-backlit LCD screen. And despite all that energy waste, plasma displays, which are highly glossy and reflective, sometimes don"t shine as bright as new LED or CCFL-backlit LCD screens.

Kalman Tihanyi, a Hungarian engineer, developed the first flat-panel display system in 1963, and about one year later, a monochrome plasma display was invented and presented at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for the PLATO Computer System.

Manufacturers like Ownes-Illinois and Burroughs Corporation made plasma displays, which were known for their neon orange and monochrome look, throughout the 1970s. IBM then popped into the plasma scene in 1983, when it introduced a 19-inch orange-on-black monochrome display.

The 1990s saw the emergence of full-colour plasma displays. Fujitsu demonstrated a 21-inch hybrid display in 1992 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and then three years later, it introduced the first 42-inch plasma display with a 852x480 resolution.

Philips followed Fujitsu’s footprint and came out with a plasma display of the same resolution in 1997. It was marketed with a steep price tag of $14,999. That same year, Pioneer entered the market of making and selling plasma displays. And the rest is history.

Panasonic showed off a 103-inch plasma display panel at CES 2006. The display had 1080p HDTV resolution and was the world’s largest plasma display at that time, edging narrowly ahead of the 102-inch Samsung plasma display shown off the previous year.

Panasonic (then called Matsushita Electric Industrial) made jaws drop again in 2008, when it showed off a 150-inch set at CES 2008. The display stood 6-ft tall by 11-ft wide. By this time however, plasma displays had peaked in popularity and were steadily losing ground to LCD screens.

Nonetheless, Panasonic once again stole the show floor at CES when it debuted a 152-inch plasma television that had 4K resolution and 3D technology. The television set cost well-over $500,000 when it launched.

There have been many plasma display manufacturers over the last few decades, but the following were known for their world-class displays: Panasonic, Pioneer, Samsung, LG, Toshiba, Sanyo, Magnavox, Sony, Vizio, LG, and Hitachi.

The company sold many of its Kuro-branded plasma technology patents to Panasonic, one of the last remaining manufacturers concentrating on plasma displays. That said, Panasonic eventually ended sales of plasma displays in March 2014.

The Consumer Electronics Association revealed in 2013 that Americans spent $2.15 billion on 2.98 million plasma displays in 2012. In comparison, during that same year, Americans spent about $16.8 billion on about 36.2 million LCD screens.

It’s not clear why Americans (and the rest of the world, for that matter) drifted away from plasma displays. The technology, which was once expensive, was more affordable than many LCD screens on the market.

Some reports have claimed that LCD is widely perceived by consumers as being both better and newer than plasma. Perhaps it"s because LCD screens tend to appear brighter and don’t have burn-in issues. They also use less electricity, a growing concern for budget-conscious and green shoppers.

Although the 2013 report from the Consumer Electronics Association forecasted that Americans would buy 1.33 million plasma displays for a total of $923 million in 2015, that amount most likely wasn"t (and isn"t) enough for television manufacturers to continue investing in the technology.

LG"s withdrawal from plasma display means there are no major suppliers making plasma displays. The company first started manufacturing plasma displays in 1999, four years after Fujitsu made the first commercially available television using the technology. It is the last major manufacturer to withdraw from the market, following earlier moves by Panasonic and Pioneer.

Chinese firm Changhong Electric Co will now be the only plasma display maker left in existence, but it is unclear how many of its displays will end up in televisions outside of China. Analysts believe that there will be no more plasma displays by 2017.

Summary form only given. Full color plasma displays are now demonstrating high levels of image quality and performance which meet and in some cases exceed that of CRTs. This new generation of plasma displays exhibit full color capability, high brightness and contrast ratio, with wide viewing angles and rapid refresh rates. These attributes combined with the ability to achieve large diagonals, make color plasma technology the leading contender for practical "hang-on-the-wall" television. Accordingly, several major plasma display companies have announced plans for the construction of multi-million dollar manufacturing facilities for the high-volume production of large area, full color plasma displays. AC plasma displays in particular promise to be very manufacturable due to their structure and the relatively simple processes used in their production. These mature techniques are readily scaled to screen sizes of 40 to 60 inches in diagonal and are low-cost, high-volume processes. The current generation of plasma displays have achieved luminous efficiencies of 1 lm/W. However, the fluorescent lamp which operates on the same fundamental gas discharge principles achieves 80 lm/W. Therefore, it is anticipated that with very active research and development, plasma displays can increase their luminous efficiency to 5 lm/W. At this efficiency plasma displays will require lower power than backlit LCDs. Gas discharge dynamics provide very rapid addressing speed, enabling plasma displays to show a full range of colors and full motion video. The color gas discharges have wide operational voltage tolerances and require relatively low address voltages. These two characteristics allow reductions in the cost of the displays.