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plasma display panel (PDP) is an emissive flat panel display where visible light is created by phosphors excited by a plasma discharge between two flat panels of glass. The gas discharge contains no mercury (contrary to the backlights of an Active matrix LCD); an inert mixture of noble gases (neon and xenon) is used instead. It is also called "gas discharge display," a flat-screen technology that uses tiny cells lined with phosphor that are full of inert ionized gas (typically a mix of xenon and neon). Three cells make up one pixel (one cell has red phosphor, one green, one blue). The cells are sandwiched between x- and y-axis panels, and a cell is selected by charging the appropriate x and y electrodes. The charge causes the gas in the cell to emit ultraviolet light, which causes the phosphor to emit color. The amount of charge determines the intensity, and the combination of the different intensities of red, green and blue produce all the colors required.
Plasma displays were initially monochrome, typically orange, but color displays have become very popular and are used for home theater and computer monitors as well as digital signs. |
The plasma technology is similar to the way neon signs work combined with the red, green and blue phosphor technology of a CRT. Plasma monitors consume significantly more current than LCD-based monitors. Characteristics of Plasma Display:  Plasma displays are bright (1000 lx or higher for the module), have a wide color gamut, and can be produced in fairly large sizes, up to 262 cm (103 inches) diagonally. They have a very high "dark-room" contrast, creating the "perfect black" desirable for watching movies. The display panel is only about 6 cm (2 1/2 inches) thick, while the total thickness, including electronics, is less than 10 cm (4 inches).
- Plasma displays use as much power per square meter as a CRT or an AMLCD television. Real life measurements of plasma power consumption find it to be much less than that normally quoted by manufacturers. Nominal measurements indicate 150 Watts for a 50" screen.
- The lifetime of the latest generation of plasma displays is estimated at 60,000 hours of actual display time. More precisely, this is the estimated half life of the display, the point where the picture has degraded to half of its original brightness, which is considered the end of the functional life of the display.
- Competing displays include the CRT, OLED, AMLCD, DLP, SED-TV and field emission flat panel displays. The main advantage of plasma display technology is that a very wide screen can be produced using extremely thin materials. Since each pixel is lit individually, the image is very bright and has a wide viewing angle.
- Most cheaper consumer displays appear to have an insufficient color depth - a moving dithering pattern may be easily noticeable for a discerning viewer over flat areas or smooth gradients; expensive high-resolution panels are much better at managing the problem.
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What is Plasma TV
