Dedicated Sustain Overview
The first aspect of the technology is dedicated sustain pulses. In this waveform technology, operation of the electrodes is completely separated between scanning and sustaining functions. Traditionally, setup, scanning and sustain operations take place on the scan electrodes, while bias voltages and sustain pulses are applied to the sustain electrodes. Thus, there is a redundancy of sustain pulse generation circuitry.
Advantages:
-
The scan driver circuit has traditionally been very complex due to the functions that it must provide. By isolating the sustain operations, the scan driver is greatly simplified. Simpler circuits are lower in cost and more energy efficient.
-
Sustain pulse transitions may be slower than with the traditional driving method. The traditional method employs alternating sustain pulses on the scan and sustain electrodes. The rise and fall times of these traditional pulses must be fast to prevent a problem called self-erase. Slow pulse transitions are more energy efficient than fast pulse transitions.