A Simple and Highly Efficient Energy Recovery Circuit for a Plasma Display Panel (PDP)

A simple and highly efficient energy recovery circuit (ERC) for a plasma display panel (PDP) is proposed. The main concept of the proposed circuit is the use of the current source type to charge and discharge the panel. As a result, all H-bridge switches can achieve zero voltage switching and every auxiliary switch can also do zero current switching. Moreover, since the inductor current can compensate for the large gas-discharge current, current stress in the main H-bridge switches can be reduced. Although the current source type is used to recover energy in the PDP, there is also very low freewheeling current. This means that the proposed ERC has higher efficiency, a simpler structure, less mass, less cost, and lower electromagnetic interference than those of many prior circuits.