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plasma display panel
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Diagram showing a cross section of a flat-panel plasma display, with a zoomed-in view illustrating how each pixel is made of red, green, and blue subpixels. The close-up labels parts including addressable electrodes, phosphors, and glass layers, demonstrating how plasma discharges create visible light for high-definition color television.
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plasma display panel

electronics
Also known as: PDP
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Diagram showing a cross section of a flat-panel plasma display, with a zoomed-in view illustrating how each pixel is made of red, green, and blue subpixels. The close-up labels parts including addressable electrodes, phosphors, and glass layers, demonstrating how plasma discharges create visible light for high-definition color television.
flat-panel plasma TV A pulse of electricity between the addressable electrodes and the transparent sustain and discharge electrodes causes gas sealed in a subpixel to form a plasma and discharge ultraviolet light. This discharge in turn causes the phosphor coating of the subpixel to flash visible light through the front glass panel. A red, green, and blue subpixel together form one pixel, which is perceived by the human eye as a single spot of one combined hue. Through complex circuitry, each subpixel is discharged in series multiple times per second, creating a moving television image.

Plasma display panels (PDPs) are a type of television display technology that overcomes some limitations of older technologies like CRTs and LCDs. They can be manufactured in large sizes, are thin, and offer wide viewing angles. PDPs produce bright, sharp images with rich colors because they are light-emissive, similar to CRTs.1

The core principle of a plasma display involves exciting a gas mixture (typically neon and xenon or helium and xenon) between two glass plates using an electric field. This creates a plasma that emits ultraviolet light. This UV light then strikes a phosphor coating, causing it to emit visible light. A matrix of cells, each coated with red, green, or blue phosphors, forms pixels. By controlling the voltage applied to electrodes associated with these cells, individual pixels can be turned on or off to create an image. While PDPs require significant power and complex circuitry, they were particularly suited for wide-screen, high-definition televisions.1

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2 Britannica Sources
  1. television - Plasma display panels
  2. television - Liquid crystal displays

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