Apparatus and method of recovering reactive power of plasma display panel

A method of recovering reactive power of a plasma display panel including a power supply source, a panel capacitor charged with a supply voltage from the power supply source, first and second discharge electrodes performing a surface discharge according to charge/discharge of the panel capacitor, switches to charge/discharge the panel capacitor, and an inductor connected in series to the panel capacitor, the method comprising:

• charging the panel capacitor;
• discharging the panel capacitor and charging the inductor with a discharged current from the panel capacitor;
• forming a first electric current path from the inductor to the panel capacitor and charging the panel capacitor with a charged energy of the inductor;
• and
• forming a second electric current path in a reverse direction of the first electric current path and discharging the charged energy from the panel capacitor.

A plasma display panel, comprising:

• a front substrate;
• first and second discharge electrodes disposed along a first direction on a bottom surface of said front substrate;
• a first dielectric layer on the bottom surface of said front substrate to cover said first and second discharge electrodes;
• a rear substrate opposite to and facing said front substrate;
• address electrodes on a top surface of said rear substrate, said address electrodes being disposed in a second direction non-parallel with the first direction of said first and second discharge electrodes;
• a second dielectric layer on said rear substrate to cover said address electrodes;
• partitions to partition a discharge space under said first dielectric layer, said partitions being on said second dielectric layer;
• phosphor layers formed on inner walls of said partitions;
• a power supply source to supply a supply voltage for use in performing a surface discharge using said first and second discharge electrodes;
• and
• a reactive power recovering circuit comprising:
• a panel capacitor having opposite ends, each end being connected to a corresponding one of said first and second discharge electrodes, the panel capacitor being discharged by alternately supplying a charge voltage to said first and second discharge electrodes, and
• an energy storage device provided between the panel capacitor and one of said first and second discharge electrodes, the energy storage device being charged by a discharge current from the panel capacitor and to store the charge voltage to be recovered for use by the panel capacitor using the discharge current.