The improvement of discharge characteristics by the use of asymmetric pulse driving in an alternating current plasma display panel

Asymmetric pulse driving was employed to enhance the luminance and luminous efficacy of an AC plasma display panel (PDP). We observed dependencies of operating voltages, luminance and luminous efficacy on the pulse off-time ratio in asymmetric pulse driving. The luminance and luminous efficacy of the ac PDP improved when it was operated with small pulse-off time ratios in the asymmetric pulse driving. The spectral and temporal emission characteristics of vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) were investigated to explain the improvements. The luminous efficacy and VUV emission increased with the decrease of pulse off-time ratio, and with the increase of gas pressure.