Abstract
Since its inception in the 1960s, PDP technology has been applied to commercial, industrial and military programs in significant volumes. While the basic monochrome construction and processing has evolved very little, there has been very significant advancement in PDP color structure, electronics and packaging. Since 1986, a number of companies have made innovations leading to full motion video/graphics displays with high level pixel by pixel gray scale and full color performance in large size and high definition formats. Presently, PDPs represent the most viable technology for high definition and large are, nonprojected flat panel display (FPD) applications such as direct vide HDTVs with 40' + diagonals. In addition, recent advancements are addressing medium area, high definition display applications requiring high imaging capabilities in very demanding conditions, including sunlight viewability. The impetus from increasing performance and applications is now directing the developmental focus to be on manufacturing improvements to achieve very high yields and low cost. Because of their primarily thick film construction and non-semiconductor materials technology, PDPs offer the opportunity for the lowest costs of large area FPDs in both capitalization and recurring categories.
