How a Plasma Screen Works

With the popularity of plasma screens in the last few years, they might seem like new technology. However, plasma screens were first created in 1964, and have been in use ever since.

The basic design located within a plasma screen consists of pockets of Xenon and Neon gas mixture, or plasma, located between two electrodes. Surrounding these gas pockets of plasma are outer flat slabs of glass, which form the outside of the plasma screen. Even though these pockets of gas are the basic unit within a plasma screen, the plasma screen will contain thousands of them.

The gas mixture within these pockets will contain both positively and negatively charged ions, which interact to produce colors on the screen. The pockets are also coated with phosphor, a fluorescent material, which will display color when it reacts with rays of light. The term "pixel" is used to describe a unit consisting of three smaller areas, each coated with red, blue, and green color-producing phosphor material. These three smaller areas are termed "sub-pixels."

To produce a colored image:

1. A certain amount of electrical current will enter the pockets of gas when the electrodes become charged.
2. The electrical current causes the positive and negative ions within the gas to become excited.
3. The excited ions will collide with each other, as they try to travel towards their oppositely charged electrode.
4. Each collision of these ions will in turn produce rays of ultraviolet light called photons.
5. The created photons, or light rays, will react with the colored phosphor material coating the sub-pixels.
6. The sub-pixels will release different amounts of red, blue, or green light.

Therefore, by controlling the amount of electrical current flowing through the gas pockets of the pixels, in different areas of the plasma screen, various colored images are produced. It should be noted that each of the sub-pixels are able to produce approximately ten to sixteen million colors.