A plasma display panel (PDP) is a type of flat-panel display that uses small cells containing plasma (ionized gas) to produce an image. Each cell functions as a tiny fluorescent lamp, emitting ultraviolet (UV) light when the gas is energized by an electric current. The UV light then strikes phosphor coatings on the inside of the cells, causing them to emit visible light in red, green, or blue. Plasma televisions were the first large (over diagonal) flat-panel displays to be released to the public.
Plasma display technology was invented in the 1960s at the University of Illinois and were later made for niche use in luxurious monochrome computer monitors and terminals, before vanishing due to affordable color thin-film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT LCDs). Planar neon plasma displays like Burroughs's Panaplex were also in use for a short while in handheld electronics like calculators and multimeters before being squeezed out by liquid-crystal display (LCD), vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) and light-emitting diode (LED) during the 1980s.
Fujitsu's research and development in cooperation with the University of Illinois and Japanese state broadcaster NHK led to the creation of a color plasma display that was first commercially tested in 1989. Large-sized wall-mounted displays became reality with both Fujitsu and Philips (using Fujitsu panels) releasing the first consumer PDPs in 1997. As expensive high-end items, plasma TVs never matched the popularity of cathode ray tube (CRTs) but found an appreciation among home cinema enthusiasts and falling prices helped it overtake rear-projection televisions. During the mid- and late-2000s, PDPs competed directly with LCDs in the battle of flat-panel displays, with Panasonic, LG and Samsung being the largest plasma TV makers, but improvements and falling costs of LCDs had eventually eroded plasma's market share almost entirely. Manufacturing of plasma displays for the United States retail market ended in 2014, and manufacturing for the Chinese market ended in 2016. Plasma displays are obsolete, having been superseded in most if not all aspects by organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays.
History Early development
Kálmán Tihanyi, a Hungarian engineer, described a proposed flat-panel plasma display system in a 1936 paper.
The first practical plasma video display was co-invented in 1964 at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign by Donald Bitzer, H. Gene Slottow, and graduate student Robert Willson for the PLATO computer system. The goal was to create a display that had inherent memory to reduce the cost of the terminals. The original neon orange monochrome Digivue display panels built by glass producer Owens-Illinois were very popular in the early 1970s because they were rugged and needed neither memory nor circuitry to refresh the images.Brian Dear, Chapter 6 – Gas and Glass, The Friendly Orange Glow, Pantheon Books, New York, 2017; pages 92–111 cover the development and first stages AC plasma panel commercialization. A long period of sales decline occurred in the late 1970s because semiconductor memory made CRT displays cheaper than the $2500 USD PLATO plasma displays.Brian Dear, Chapter 22 – The Business Opportunity, The Friendly Orange Glow, Pantheon Books, New York, 2017; pages 413–417 cover CDC's decision to use CRTs with cheap video-RAM instead of plasma panels in 1975. Nevertheless, the plasma displays' relatively large screen size and 1 inch (25.4 mm) thickness made them suitable for high-profile placement in lobbies and stock exchanges.
Burroughs Corporation, a maker of adding machines and computers, developed the Panaplex display in the early 1970s. The Panaplex display, generically referred to as a gas-discharge or gas-plasma display, uses the same technology as later plasma video displays, but began life as a seven-segment display for use in adding machines. They became popular for their bright orange luminous look and found nearly ubiquitous use throughout the late 1970s and into the 1990s in cash registers, calculators, pinball machines, aircraft avionics such as radios, navigational instruments, and stormscopes; test equipment such as frequency counters and multimeters; and generally anything that previously used nixie tube or numitron displays with a high digit-count. These displays were eventually replaced by LEDs because of their low current-draw and module-flexibility, but are still found in some applications where their high brightness is desired, such as pinball machines and avionics.
1980s
In 1983, IBM introduced a orange-on-black monochrome display (Model 3290 Information Panel) which was able to show up to four simultaneous IBM 3270 terminal sessions. By the end of the decade, orange monochrome plasma displays were used in a number of high-end AC-powered portable computers, such as the Ericsson Portable PC (the first use of such a display in 1985),News:New Products:The Ericsson Portable PC, InfoWorld, 22 Apr 1985, Page 26 the Compaq Portable 386 (1987) and the IBM P75 (1990). Plasma displays had a better contrast ratio, viewability angle, and faster response time than the LCDs that were available at the time, and were used until the introduction of active-matrix color LCD displays in 1992.
Due to heavy competition from monochrome LCDs used in laptops and the high costs of plasma display technology, in 1987 IBM planned to shut down its factory in Kingston, New York, the largest plasma plant in the world, in favor of manufacturing mainframe computers, which would have left development to Japanese companies.Ogg, E., "Getting a charge out of plasma TV" , CNET News, June 18, 2007, retrieved 2008-11-24. Dr. Larry F. Weber, a University of Illinois ECE PhD (in plasma display research) and staff scientist working at CERL (home of the PLATO System), co-founded Plasmaco with Stephen Globus and IBM plant manager James Kehoe, and bought the plant from IBM for US$50,000. Weber stayed in Urbana as CTO until 1990, then moved to upstate New York to work at Plasmaco.
1990s
In 1992, Fujitsu introduced the world's first full-color display. It was based on technology created at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories.
In 1994, Weber demonstrated a color plasma display at an industry convention in San Jose. Panasonic Corporation began a joint development project with Plasmaco, which led in 1996 to the purchase of Plasmaco, its color AC technology, and its American factory for US$26 million.
In 1995, Fujitsu introduced the first plasma display panel; it had 852×480 resolution and was progressively scanned.Mendrala, Jim, "Flat Panel Plasma Display" , North West Tech Notes, No. 4, June 15, 1997, retrieved 2009-01-29. Two years later, at the Customer Electronics Show 1997 and CeBIT, Philips introduced the first large commercially available flat-panel TV, using the Fujitsu panels. Philips had plans to sell it for 70,000 french francs. It was released as the Philips 42PW9962, and available at four Sears locations in the United States, for the price of $14,999, including in-home installation. Pioneer and Fujitsu also began selling plasma televisions that year, and other manufacturers followed. By the year 2000 prices had dropped to $10,000.
2000s
In the year 2000, the first 60-inch (152-cm) plasma display was developed by Plasmaco. Panasonic was also reported to have developed a process to make plasma displays using ordinary window glass instead of the much more expensive "high strain point" glass. High strain point glass is made similarly to conventional float glass, but it is more heat resistant, deforming at higher temperatures. High strain point glass is normally necessary because plasma displays have to be baked during manufacture to dry the rare-earth phosphors after they are applied to the display. However, high strain point glass may be less scratch resistant.
Until the early 2000s, plasma displays were the most popular choice for HDTV flat-panel display as they had many benefits over LCDs. Beyond plasma's deeper blacks, increased contrast, faster response time, greater color spectrum, and wider viewing angle; they were also much bigger than LCDs, and it was believed that LCDs were suited only to smaller sized televisions. Plasma had overtaken rear-projection systems in 2005."Plasma TV sales overtake projection units, says report" EETimes, 17 August 2005
However, improvements in LCD fabrication narrowed the technological gap. The increased size, lower weight, falling prices, and often lower electrical power consumption of LCDs made them competitive with plasma television sets. In 2006, LCD prices started to fall rapidly and their screen sizes increased, although plasma televisions maintained a slight edge in picture quality and a price advantage for sets at the critical 42" size and larger. By late 2006, several vendors were offering 42" LCDs, albeit at a premium price, encroaching upon plasma's only stronghold. More decisively, LCDs offered higher resolutions and 1080p support before plasma.Reuters, "Shift to large LCD TVs over plasma", MSNBC, 27 November 2006
In late 2006, analysts noted that LCDs had overtaken plasmas, particularly in the and above segment where plasma had previously gained market share."Shift to large LCD TVs over plasma", MSNBC, November 27, 2006, retrieved 2007-08-12. Another industry trend was the consolidation of plasma display manufacturers, with around 50 brands available but only five manufacturers. In the first quarter of 2008, a comparison of worldwide TV sales broke down to 22.1 million for direct-view CRT, 21.1 million for LCD, 2.8 million for plasma, and 0.1 million for rear projection."LCD televisions outsell plasma 8 to 1 worldwide" , Digital Home, 21 May 2008, retrieved 2008-06-13.
When the sales figures for the 2007 Christmas season were finally tallied, analysts were surprised to find that not only had LCD outsold plasma, but CRTs as well, during the same period. This development drove competing large-screen systems from the market almost overnight. The February 2009 announcement that Pioneer Electronics was ending production of plasma screens was widely considered the tipping point in the technology's history as well.Jose Fermoso, "Pioneer's Kuro Killing: A Tipping Point in the Plasma Era" , newteevee.com, 21 February 2009
Screen sizes have increased since the introduction of plasma displays. The largest plasma video display in the world at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, was a unit manufactured by Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic) standing tall by wide.Dugan, Emily., "6ft by 150 inches – and that's just the TV" , The Independent, 8 January 2008, retrieved 2009-01-29.PCMag.com – Panasonic's 150-Inch "Life Screen" Plasma Opens CES
2010s
At the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Panasonic introduced their 152" 2160p 3D plasma. In 2010, Panasonic shipped 19.1 million plasma TV panels.
In 2010, the shipments of plasma TVs reached 18.2 million units globally.LCD TV Market Ten Times Larger Than Plasma TVs On Units-Shipped Basis , 20 February 2011, Jonathan Sutton, hdtvtest.co.uk, retrieved at September 12, 2011 Since that time, shipments of plasma TVs have declined substantially. This decline has been attributed to the competition from liquid crystal (LCD) televisions, whose prices have fallen more rapidly than those of the plasma TVs. In late 2013, Panasonic announced that they would stop producing plasma TVs from March 2014 onwards. In 2014, LG and Samsung discontinued plasma TV production as well, effectively killing the technology, probably because of declining demand.
Design