Plasma display device, and plasma display panel driving method

A plasma display device comprising:

• a plasma display panel, the plasma display panel being driven by a subfield method for providing a plurality of subfields in one field to display gradation, each of the subfields including an initializing period, an address period, and a sustain period, the plasma display panel including a plurality of discharge cells, each of the discharge cells including a display electrode pair, the display electrode pair being made of a scan electrode and a sustain electrode;
• a sustain pulse generating circuit that generates a sustain pulse for causing discharge at the number of times corresponding to a luminance weight in the sustain periods by causing resonance between interelectrode capacitance of the display electrode pairs and an inductor, and applies the sustain pulse alternately to the scan electrode and the sustain electrode of each of the display electrode pairs in the sustain periods;
• and
• a ramp voltage generating circuit, including:
• a first ramp voltage generating circuit for generating a first ramp voltage gently increasing in the initializing periods;
• a second ramp voltage generating circuit for generating a second ramp voltage increasing with a gradient gentler than a gradient of a rising edge of the sustain pulse and steeper than a gradient of the first ramp voltage at an end of each of the sustain periods;
• and
• a switching circuit for stopping operation of the second ramp voltage generating circuit immediately after the second ramp voltage has reached a predetermined electric potential,
• wherein, in at least one of the sustain periods in the one field, the sustain pulse generating circuit does not generate the sustain pulse, and the ramp voltage generating circuit generates the second ramp voltage.