Display. Visualization - Plasma screens. Physics. Manufacturing

Plasma displays (PAP for plasma panel) are a visualization device (image presentation) based on the principle of a gas discharge producing ultraviolet photons, which in turn excite luminophores, which then produce visible photons, either red, blue or green, depending on the cell in question.

Compared with other display technologies, plasma screens offer a number of specific advantages:

• It is, of course, a flat-screen technology with a small footprint, which sets it apart from cathode ray tubes and projection devices;

• commercially available product ranges currently extend from 81 cm (32 inches) to 160 cm (63 inches), with even larger sizes to come in the near future (200 cm prototype, or 80 inches already demonstrated). So the specific "niche" of plasma screens is defined as: large flat screens.

Since the early 2000s, this niche has also been accessible to liquid crystal displays, which, after conquering the market for laptop screens and then desktop monitors, are now tackling the television market. In addition, overhead projectors based on DLP (Digital Light Processor) or LCOS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon) imagers are progressing in performance and thinness, and are also playing on this large flat-screen market. It is likely that the three technologies [PDP (Plasma Display Panel), LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), projection] will coexist in the years to come.