An application specific processor-based controller for plasma display panels

To display motion pictures, the driving circuit of an AC plasma display panel (PDP) applies alternating high voltages to selected panel electrodes for only a few microseconds at a time. To direct these high-voltage sequences, the PDP controller produces timed control signals. It also performs PDF-specific video processing work. Recent research on improving the performance of PDPs has resulted in the development of many sophisticated driving methods. The elaborate control schemes for these new driving methods require more flexibility and more scalability than traditional hard-wired controllers can provide. This paper presents a 32-bit processor-based PDP controller, which consists of an application specific processor and several peripheral modules necessary for PDP control. Using software programming, the proposed PDP controller provides the flexibility to implement varied control schemes without hardware redesign. We proved our design by constructing a PDP system, using the proposed PDP controller. The FPGA implementation of the controller runs at 50 MHz, and the system successfully displays motion pictures on a 42-inch panel with XGA resolution