Progress in Plasma Technologies for Extra-Large Screen Displays Tsutae Shinoda
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T Shinoda Progress in plasma technologies for Extra-large Screen Displays Tsutae Shinoda Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., Akashi, Japan, 674-8555 Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, Meguro, Tokyo, Japan, 153-8505 Abstract: A 42-inch plasma display was developed by Fujitsu Ltd. in 1995, which opened the door to the new 15,500 world of large screen flat-panel displays. For these ten A Results value C years, plasma displays have won on the great success (k set) 12,000 story from both the business and technical points of B Predicted in 2005 view. The latest development enabled us to build a 100- in. plasma display, and some of the new technical 10,000 C Predicted in 2006 9,800 C approaches are going to achieve a new plasma display B 8,000 with a screen size of as large as over 200 inches. B Especially, plasma tube arrays are to be noticed as the Result new technology that goes to achieve ultra-thin, light- 6,000 Predicted A weight, flexible displays. Prototype display of 0.5 x 1-m 4,000 screen size was fabricated and its weight was measured B at 0.6 kg. 2,000 A Keywords: PDP; FPD; Flat-panel TV; Large screen; A Wall-TV; Plasma tube array; PTA; Flexible display. 0 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 (Year) 1. Introduction Figure 1. Market seize of PDP-TV Plasma display panels (PDPs) have produced a new market of large-screen flat panel television (TV) 50-in, demand for larger screen-size increase gradually. featuring real and impressive image expression and have gone into the stage of continuous progress. The world’s On the other hand, network services with digital video first full-color 21-in. diagonal PDP was developed in imaging are progressing toward ubiquitous with the 1992 by Fujitsu [1] and the developed basic technologies spread of broadband and wireless networks. As flat of the color ac PDPs with that had several advantages panel displays will be the most important user interfaces that lead to future development for higher definition and in the ubiquitous network era, large-screen public larger screen. Based on the practical structure of PDPs displays which are set up in anywhere required places which were suitable for large screen, the 42-in. diagonal are receiving a great attention. A large-screen public color PDP was developed in 1995 [2], and the world of a display in several screen sizes from 40 to 300 inches new flat-panel large screen display was opened. PDPs diagonals such as extra-large wall-to-wall systems is have extended the market share steadily in the required. Several technologies of over 100-in. diagonal commercial display field by taking advantage of the flat were announced in these several years. Although PDPs panel, large-screen, and wide viewing angle in the 1990s. A 32-in diagonal PDP-TV had received attention in the [Inches diagonal] market in 2001, which was the first year of broadcasting 100 103 80 in. Full HD prototype 102 satellite (BS) digital HDTV broadcasting started in Mass production Japan. The number of products for consumer use Prototype exceeded the comercial use in that year, and that is 80 80 called the first year of the plasma television era. Fig. 1 76 71 42 in. W-VGA 63 65 shows recent world market of PDP-TV. The number of 60 61 sales has been doubled year by year, reaching around 5.9 55 50 65 in. Full HD 21 in. VGA million sets in 2005. The prediction for PDP-TV market 42 43 40 has been often revised upward, because PDPs have been 37 32 producing new application and new market in addition 25 to replacing large CRT. In the situation, development for 20 21 next-generation products has been powerfully promoted. 32/37 in. HDTV In the recent development, enlargement of the screen 0 size has attracted attention. Fig. 2 shows progress in 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 [Year] screen size of color PDPs since first 21-in. diagonal PDP Figure 2. Progress in screen size of color PDPs was produced. The prototype PDPs of 80-in diagonal was announced in January 2004, and that of 103-in diagonal, which is the world's largest size, was are gradually becoming larger because of advantages announced in January 2006. Although the current main with enlargement based on their emissive and simple screen size of PDP-TV for home-use is between 40-in to structure, fabrication of displays with over 100-in. 91 Proc. of ASID ’06, 8-12 Oct, New Delhi T Shinoda diagonals has two serious problems with the handling of Address electrodes large glass plates and the huge investments. We have Sustain / address electrodes X1 X2 X3 X4 A1 A2 A3 A4 been trying to solve both these problems and proposed plasma tubes arrays (PTAs) in 2002 [3] that provide a Y1 Sustain unique structure and fabrication process. PTA succeeds Y1 electrodes Y2 Y2 the basic advantages for large screen that PDP has X essentially. Y3 Y3 Sustain / scan electrodes scan / Sustain Sustain / scan electrodes Sustain In this paper, the basic structures of conventional PDPs Address Sustain Address Sustain discharge discharge discharge discharge are reviewed and advantages for larger screen in PDPs and PTA are discussed. Then, progress in recent (a) Two-electrodes configuration (b) Three-electrodes configuration development of PTA is described. And a new world produced by extra-large screen PTA display is shown. Figure 3. Progress in structure of color ac PDPs in 1980s 2. Progress in Plasma Display 2.1 Basic technologies for PDP Products Front glass plate The principle of an ac PDP was invented in 1960s and the monochrome PDPs were put into the practical use Bus electrodes with the opposed discharge technologies [4]. Fig. 3 (a) Transparent Sustain electr shows the two-electrodes opposed discharge electrodes configuration used for early stage color PDPs. At the Color emission Dielectric layer development in 1970s, color ac PDPs had difficulty of Front pla achieving enough lifetimes due to the degradation of Sustain electrodes color phosphors caused by the ion bombardment with MgO layer discharge gas the opposed discharge. Barrier rib Phosphor layer Rear glass plate Fig. 3 (b) shows a three-electrode surface discharge Address electrodes Rear plate invented by author in Fujitsu. The life problem was solved by developing the structure in the early 1980s [5]. (a) Pane with the reflective stripe rib (b) Unit cell In the structure, the parallel electrodes for sustain structure discharge were introduced on one glass plate and the Figure 4. Practical structure of the three- address electrodes were arranged on the opposite glass electrode ac PDP plate in perpendicular direction to the sustain electrodes. consists of the common thick-film printing method and With these separation, the address electrodes were thin-film formation method. Therefore, the process is released from the role of the power transmission and the very suitable for the mass production of large screen. By sustain electrodes were able to be concentrated on the comparison with the LCD technology, the process time discharge power transmission. Therefore, the display is shorter and easier to produce the large area display system including drive circuit became simple. since the PDP does not have the active device like TFT In the late of 1980s, a new structure of reflective type in the panel and also it has the simple structure, that has was developed [6] to improve the luminance. And a new the barrier ribs, electrodes, phosphors, and so on, inside. structure of the stripe rib and the stripe phosphor Because of pulse discharge in ac PDPs, the luminance arrangement were developed for the practical structure has only the two states of ON and OFF. The luminance used in full-color 21-in. diagonal PDPs production in gradation depends on the number of discharge pulses. 1992 [2]. These structures are shown in the fig. 4. In the As for grayscale driving, the address-display period reflective structure, the discharge occurs on the surface separation (ADS) subfield method shown in fig. 5 is of the dielectric layer between a pair of transparent electrodes formed on the front glass plate. The phosphor layer on the rear glass plate is stimulated by the Time ultraviolet ray that emitted from the discharge and emits 1 TV Field (16.7 ms) the color visible light. The emitted lights that reflect by 1SF 2SF 3SF 4SF 8SF the phosphor layer are also used in this structure. This stripe barrier ribs that are formed on the rear plate separates the discharge and the different color emission from the phosphor layer to avoid the color mixing. The T 2T 4T 8T 128T phosphor layer is formed both on the bottom between (a) Arrangement of subfields: binary-chop arrangement. the barrier ribs and on the sidewall of them. Due to the 1 line (1.5 - 2 μs) phosphor layer formed on the sidewall, wide-viewing angle were achieved. High accuracy aliment is not Address period Display period needed when the front and rear plates are assembled (b) Timing chart of (Address discharge) (Sustain discharge) because the cell is determined automatically by the the single subfield. display electrodes and the barrier ribs. Therefore, this 1 2 3 …. …. n structure is good for the manufacturing of the large-area Figure 5. ADS subfield driving method display. The basic process used in the production Proc. of ASID ’06, 8-12 Oct, New Delhi 92 T Shinoda adopted for operating the ac PDP to meet the 1000-in requirement and realizes a TV image with 256 Large [Billboard] grayscales [7].