Address margins of 512 x 512 independent sustain and address AC plasma displays

The authors consider ISA (independent sustain and address) as an alternative to standard XY AC plasma displays. It requires no manufacturing process changes and inherently provides for a reduction by a factor of two in the number of required address drivers. The remaining address drivers can themselves be open-drain-type output devices of much smaller size than the normal address drivers since they do not have to supply the high sustain currents. It is shown that the address margins achieved by using the ISA addressing mechanism are very wide. Current address margins of 33-50% of the address amplitude indicate that the ISA technology is already very practical. These margins will relax the tolerances required on the electronics used for standard XY panels and make the panel-to-panel variations in the operational space much less of a concern.<>