Volatile and Static Flat Panel Plasma Televisions
Flat panel displays encompass a growing number of technologies enabling video displays that are lighter and much thinner than traditional television and video displays that use cathode ray tubes; they are usually less than 4 inches thick. They can be divided into two general categories; volatile or static.
Flat Panel Plasma Television - Volatile
Volatile displays require constant power output to refresh the image on screen many times a second. The image appears steady because the images are refreshed more often than the human eye can perceive.
Some examples of volatile flat panel displays are: plasma displays, liquid crystal displays, organic light-emitting displays, light-emitting diode displays, electroluminescent displays, surface-conduction electron-emitter displays, field emission displays, and nano-emissive displays.
Flat Panel Plasma Television - Static
Static flat panel displays rely on materials whose color states are bistable. This means that the image they hold requires no energy to maintain, but instead requires energy to change. This results in a much more energy efficient display, but with a tendency towards slow refresh rates which are undesirable in an interactive display.
Some examples of static flat panel displays are; electrophoretic displays, bichromal ball displays, interferometric modulator displays, cholesteric displays, and bistable nematic liquid crystal displays.
Flat Panel Plasma Television - How Plasma Works
Plasmas break pixels into sealed red, green, and blue sub-pixels, or cells that contain an inert gas. When an electric current, that is a derivative of the video signal, excites the gas, it causes the colored phosphors in each sub-pixel to glow. By driving each sub-pixel to the desired level, the signal determines the pixels exact color and brightness. By putting enough of these pixels close enough together, an image is created.
To stay ready to respond to the signal, the plasma cells inside flat panel plasma televisions remain partially on at all times, meaning that some light is inevitable, even when the signal tells the cell it wants black.
Some of the major manufactures of flat panel plasma televisions have re-engineered their sets to reduce this "idling" brightness by 80%. The result is mind-boggling, with the blackest blacks ever being produced in the history of television.
Flat Panel Plasma Television - Myths
Myth # 1 - Plasma TVs emit dangerous radiation. Plasma TVs do generate a tiny amount of UV radiation, but its even less than typical tube-type TVs generate.
Myth # 2 - The gas in a plasma TV is poisonous. The gas used in plasmas is a mix of two non-flammable "inert" gases; neon and xenon. These gases are not harmful, either individually or when combined.
Myth # 3 - Plasma TVs leak gas and require periodic "re-charging." Each individual cell in a plasma panel is sealed, so a plasma TV will never require any re- filling or re-charging of its neon-xenon gas.
