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.

Modern Plasma Technology

The modern plasma display of wider viewing angle, full colour and super brightness has been made possible by the advanced manufacturing technology using improved materials and high-speed digital processing. The plasma televisions are becoming thinner and larger in size. The thinness gives plasma technology an edge over projector screens. The 21 inch size developed in 1992 has now become much larger and plasma display as large as 103 inch has been demonstrated by Panasonic. The digital video revolution has made plasma technology more relevant. It has made dramatic improvement in image quality of video sources like HDTV, DTV, computer video, digital satellite broadcasts, etc. The features of plasma TV such as faster response time, large colour spectrum, superb brightness and wide angle of view have made them ideally suited for digital video flat panel display.