Plasma TV: An Introduction

Plasma Display

It is a kind of flat-panel display where a mixture of neon and xenon gases are held between two sealed glass plates having deposits of parallel electrodes on the surfaces of these sealed glass plates. Sealing of the plates are done in such a way that pixels are created by the electrodes forming right angles. The gases break down when pulse of voltage is passed between two electrodes producing feeble ionized plasma that emits ultra-violet radiation. Each pixel emits visible light through activation of colour phosphors by this ultra-violet radiation.

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Plasma TV: History & Development

Invention

The concept of plasma display had its inception in 1964 at the University of Illinois where it was jointly invented by Blitzer, Slottow and Wilson for a computer system. This first laboratory experiment of plasma display created only some points of light.

Development

The plasma technology started gradual improvement and became advanced only during the late sixties with construction of geometric shapes and orange, green or yellow monochrome panels. Its popularity soared in the early seventies because no memory or circuitry was necessary to refresh the images of plasma display. However its popularity declined with the development and widespread use of CRT technology in the late seventies which was cheaper because of its semiconductor memory although plasma technology continued to find use in high-profile places where display needed to be attractive. The first 19 inch monochrome display of orange on black which could display more than one virtual machine terminal session was developed by IBM in 1983. The first superior bright 21 inch full colour plasma display was developed in 1992 by Fujitsu. The first plasma TV was sold to the public in 1997 by Pioneer.

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