# plasma display

> flat panel type

**Wikidata**: [Q185146](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q185146)  
**Wikipedia**: [English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_display)  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/plasma-display

## Summary
A plasma display is a flat-panel display technology that creates images by electrically charging tiny pockets of gas to light colored phosphors. It belongs to the flat-panel display family and is commonly referred to as a plasma display panel (PDP).

## Key Facts
- Classified as a subclass of flat-panel display (Wikidata P279)
- UNSPSC commodity code 52161542 groups plasma screens as a distinct product category
- Internationally standardized IEV number 845-32-039 covers plasma display panels across 15+ languages
- Recognized by 51 Wikipedia language editions and 33 sitelinks on Wikimedia Commons
- Alternative names include plasma, PDP, Plasma-TV, Plasmabildschirm, écran plasma, and 等离子显示器

## FAQs
### Q: What does "plasma" mean in plasma display?
A: It refers to the ionized gas inside each pixel that emits ultraviolet light when electrically excited; that UV light then strikes colored phosphors to produce the visible picture.

### Q: Is a plasma display the same as an LCD or OLED?
A: No. Plasma is a distinct flat-panel technology that uses tiny gas cells rather than liquid crystals (LCD) or organic light-emitting diodes (OLED), giving it different brightness, contrast, and power characteristics.

### Q: Why did plasma displays disappear from stores?
A: Manufacturing costs, weight, and power consumption could not compete with falling LCD prices and improving LCD picture quality, so most makers ended production by the mid-2010s.

## Why It Matters
Plasma displays were the first large-screen flat technology that delivered true cinematic contrast and wide viewing angles to living rooms. By replacing bulky cathode-ray tubes with a panel only a few inches thick, they enabled wall-mountable televisions and kick-started consumer demand for big-screen home theaters. Although later overtaken by LCD and OLED, plasma proved that flat panels could outperform CRTs in color depth and motion clarity, accelerating industry-wide adoption of flat-panel formats for TVs, monitors, and digital signage.

## Notable For
- First flat-panel technology to achieve deep blacks and high contrast ratios prized by home-cinema enthusiasts
- Maintained consistent color and brightness across very wide viewing angles, unlike early LCDs
- Carried the standardized industrial designation "PDP" (plasma display panel) in global parts catalogs and standards
- Featured in flagship large-screen TVs of the 2000s, with screen sizes routinely exceeding 42 inches—then rare for LCD

## Body
### Technology Principle
A plasma display panel contains millions of microscopic cells filled with noble gases such as neon and xenon. Electrodes apply an electric field that ionizes the gas into plasma; the charged particles collide with phosphors lining each cell, and the phosphors emit visible red, green, or blue light. Because each pixel is self-emissive, the screen can switch individual cells completely off, producing deep blacks.

### Industry Classification
Standards bodies catalog plasma displays under IEV 845-32-039, while the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code lists them as UNSPSC 52161542. Deutsche Nationalbibliothek assigns GND-ID 4174824-4, and the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary provides multilingual equivalents—from "Plasmabildschirm" in German to "等离子显示器" in Chinese—confirming global recognition of the technology.

### Market Position and Decline
Introduced commercially in the late 1990s, plasma panels quickly dominated the large-screen TV segment because LCD yields for panels above 40 inches were poor at the time. By 2007 roughly half of all 40-inch-plus televisions sold were plasmas. Rapid advances in LCD manufacturing, combined with plasma's higher power draw and heavier weight, reversed the trend; LCDs captured cost and energy-efficiency advantages. Major manufacturers wound down plasma production around 2014–2015, ending the technology's mainstream presence.

## References

1. Freebase Data Dumps. 2013
2. [Source](https://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/haslo/PDP;3955357.html)
3. KBpedia
4. [OpenAlex](https://docs.openalex.org/download-snapshot/snapshot-data-format)