Variation of the discharge characteristics in single-sustainer driving of an AC PDP

Single-sustainer driving is an AC PDP driving scheme to reduce the circuitry by maintaining the sustain electrode at ground level. To date, however, the research on the discharge characteristics in such driving scheme is insufficient. In this study, the panel performance and discharge characteristics of the single-sustainer driving scheme were observed while varying the address electrode condition. In single-sustainer driving, the address electrode is strongly involved in the sustain discharge when the former is maintained at ground level, and the dependence of the luminous efficacy on the sustain voltage is different from that in the conventional driving scheme. The dependence of the luminous efficacy on the sustain voltage appeared similar, however, to that in the conventional driving scheme when the address electrode was floated in single-sustainer driving. In the investigation of the temporal evolution of the sustain discharge using an IICCD camera, it was found that the sustain discharge in single-sustainer driving with a floating address electrode is similar to that in the conventional driving scheme, and the strong plasma formation region was located in the vicinity of the MgO surface, which seems to be related to the lifetime of a PDP with single-sustainer driving. In the investigation of the operation characteristics, the PDP that was operated with a floated address electrode showed a narrower dynamic operation margin, but a longer lifetime was expected.