The concept of plasma technology is quite simple, however to fully understand it, some background in physics is required. But, don’t worry, in this article, I will explain how does plasma TVs operate in a very simple way that everybody can understand.
The basic idea of plasma displays consists of illuminating hundreds of thousands of tiny colored fluorescent lights in the display screen to create a full image. Each tiny dot on the display (pixel) should be able to emit all the color levels. To do so, every pixel has 3 led’s (sources of light) Red, Green, and Blue. To have an idea about the exact number of pixels in the screen, you just need to check its resolution: 854 x 480 (ED TV’s) have 409,920 pixels; 1280 x720 (720p HDTVs) have 921,600 pixels; and 1920 x 1080 (1080p HDTVs) have 2,073,600 lightened pixels.
Till now, everything seems simple, but, the whole challenge is “how to lighten all these micro-lamps? And how to mix their 3 components (RGB) with the exact proportions to create any color? “
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| RGB color mixing |
The answer is the following: each pixel in the display consists of 3 sub-cells (one for each color) full of xenon and neon gases sandwiched between the glass plates (figure 1).under each sub-cell, a phosphoric layer of the associated color is placed (Red , Green , or blue ). When the xenon and neon are not charged (natural conditions), the number of electrons (- charges) and protons (+ charges) are equal. But, when we introduce extra electrons to the cell, the gas become “ionized” and negatively charged. This is known in physics “plasma state” (state where gases are ionized) and this is from where the plasma TVs are called so.
When any gas is ionized, it emits a certain amount of energy as a form of an electromagnetic wave in the ultraviolet spectrum (that we cannot see). When this electromagnetic wave hits the phosphoric layer, it shines with that color (R, G or B).
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| Plasma technology |
To summarize, the process of creating the image in a plasma TV is as follows.
- Each and every gas sub-cell in the screen is charged (using electrical current ) with a specific intensity calculated by an embedded system
- When the cells are charged , the gas particles become ionized and emit an electromagnetic wave in each sub-cell
- When this electromagnetic wave hits the phosphoric layer, the ladder shines with a specific intensity.
- The 3 sub-cells of each pixel are so close that a human being eye cannot discriminate the distances between them: their colors will mix to create a customizable micro-led in the screen.
- Combining the thousands of micro-led’s will give you a very clear picture quality.
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