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Technology Behind Plasma Displays
digg writes "CoolTechZone.com has an in-depth article that gives an overview of how Plasma Displays work. From the article: 'So, what exactly is plasma? Plasma by definition is one of the four states of matter (apart from solid, liquid and gas) and consists of positively and negatively charged particles, which are added in roughly the same quantity.' This obviously makes the gas more or less inert but ensures that the charged particles are free to conduct electricity. Plasma can be produced if a gas is energized enough to split the molecules into positive and negatively charged ions. Mostly, the plasma displays use a mixture of noble gases like Neon and Xenon."
Of course, you can get all this (and more) at Wikipedia's Plasma Display page.
;-)
[I realize this is probably karma whoring, but I hate it when there's only one link in summary and it doesn't even have much info, and is littered with ads, and you have to look at 3 pages to get the whole article. That and run on sentences.]
--Xandu
I hate to be totally pedantic (mildly pedantic is usually sufficient), but I read the first two paragraphs of this and had to stop. It reads like a creative writing exercise in poor writing. Too many words that need to be cut, laden with cliches. I rarely read the articles around here, are they really this bad? I'll stick to scanning the comments for "+5 Funny", thanks.
Ben Garrison, a mindless idiot who will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.
4 states?
What is this? 1990?
We've actually doubled the number of states of matter in the past half century.
I'd personally be more interested in reading a comparison of Plasma and LCD. Preferably one that I could stand reading without my attention immediately turning to something else.
My discreet math professor, Dr. Bitzer showed us some of the original designs he had of the plasma screen (which was originally was developed for his distance learning program) he told us that the original problem most designers were having was that they were trying to put the capictors (resisters for the alternating current) inside of the plasma chamber which made the displays too clunky
he showed us his original working model
Make that "one of at over a dozen known phases of matter" , not "one of the four phases".
Every long-term plasma display installation I have seen (train stations, malls, building foyers), have lots of broken, noisy pixels. As if a burn-in effect had occured. I took this problem into account when designing a display about 4 years ago, by randomly placing images/text (within constraints) and this still occured.
I would be really pissed off if this happened to me on one of these super expensive displays. What's more, have they made plasma look good yet? I've never seen a plasma display which looked good. Even when opperated at their native resolution through digital interfaces.
To me, they seem way overpriced for the quality and durability you get.
War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
If only chicks went down as easy as that server.
"No fair, you changed the outcome by measuring it!" - Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth
'So, what exactly is plasma? Plasma by definition is one of the four states of matter (apart from solid, liquid and gas) and consists of positively and negatively charged particles, which are added in roughly the same quantity.' This obviously makes the gas more or less inert but ensures that the charged particles are free to conduct electricity.
"Makes the gas more inert?" Those guys should stick to writing about case mods.
Plasma panels have actually been around since the 1960s, as neon-red displays. The early concept was that a sustaining voltage applied to all pixels kept them lit if they were on, and an X/Y array of wires could be used to turn individual pixels on and off. Thus, the display itself had memory, back when having enough memory to refresh the display was expensive.
Color, intensity variation, and speed took a long time to achieve. Now there are transistor drivers behind every pixel, and the panel is built in what's effectively a big wafer fab. But that's not the toughest part of the manufacturing problem. All the electronics is on the back glass, while the phosphors are on the front. These two big pieces of glass have to be welded together with subpixel precision, held in contact only by millions of tiny ridges that have to match up. That's the most difficult step, and the one that limits display size.
In our cleanroom, we use plasmas for etching silicon. Plasma etching is a standard process that is used in the manufacturing of just about every chip. The plasma in TV-screens is generated in the same manner as the plasma in our etching machines. Therefore I have to conclude that plasma screens will suffer from the etching, and will not have a long lifetime. Add to that the amazing energy consumption, and my choice for my next TV is made: LCD, or maybe even another CRT. I still think CRT monitors give a better poicture than LCD, and for TV's the difference is even greater.
-- Cheers!
I have a 50" Samsung 3rd Gen DLP TV ($1600 at Best Buy a few months ago, 0% APR for 2 years). I could not be happier with it. Not only does it have more HD ports than any TV I found in its price range (VGA, DVI, HDMI, 2 x Component), the color and contrast ratio are outstanding (1500:1 claimed) using a 7-segment color wheel (and no, I do not see the rainbow effect, I believe partly die to the higher rotation rate of the 7 segment wheel). Not only that, but it does not suffer from burn-in or fading the way plasma does (important for me for gaming). The only part that needs periodic replacing is the lamp unit itself, which you can find online for around $200, and according to other people with similar sets to mine, each lamp lasts 2-3 years, depending on use. The power savings of DLP over plasma or CRT more than makes up for it, I believe the set I have uses 60-70 W during normal use. In the long run, I don't see plasma sticking around. I see technologies like DLP and LCoS (or D-ILA as JVC calls their version) being the market leaders in 5 years. Plasma always looks over-saturated and grainy to me, not to mention the heat that comes off those things. They might be a little brighter than most DLPs, but I do not believe they are worth it. The only plus side is their depth, 4" versus 14" or so for my DLP.
today is spelling optional day.