How Does Plasma TV Technology Work?
When you hear the word plasma you probably think about shows like MASH and ER. Well, Plasma TVs do not use quite the same plasma as ER. Plasma is actually defined as a state of matter where atoms are ionized by adding energy to the matter. In the case of plasma, electricity is used to energize neon and xenon gas which is stored in small cells that are coated with phosphors. There are lots of these cells normally over 1 million so dont expect to see them with the naked eye on your Plasma Television.
When the gas is electrically charged it hits Red, Green and Blue Phosphors which create the colors that make up the image we see. These groups of phosphors colors are called pixels. Yes, just like the pixels in your computer screen. Check out the image below to get a feel for what we are talking about.
Between the plates of glass are electrodes that run on both sides for the cells. There are two types of electrodes the address electrodes and display electrodes. The address electrodes run behind the cells along the rear plane of glass, so basically the towards the back of your Plasma TV. The display electrode run in front of the cells along the front plane of glass and our covered by a protective layer. As you would guess the display electrodes are towards the front of the Plasma Television.
When electricity is applied to the Display Electrode and the correct Address Electrode an electric current charges the gas in the cell which causes the gas atoms to release unltraviolet photons. This is basically just the ionizing process. The ultraviolet photons excite the phosphor lining which gives off the colored light we see depending on the color red, green or blue.
These colors are used to build the picture that shows up on your plasma television screen. Each of the cells is made up of the three sub pixels containing the different colors. There is a small light source for each one of these sub pixels. These sub pixels blend together to create the final color for the pixel. The sub pixels are energized thousands of times in less than a second. This creates the changing images we see on our TV.
The theory is that the more pixels you have on the screen the higher the resolution you can get. Since you can charge the pixels in more and more gradual colors to produce a brighter, crisper, and more real picture. For more information on other advantages of Plasma TVs check out our Plasma TV Buying Guide.