Method of driving AC surface-discharge type plasma display panel

A method of driving an AC surface-discharge type plasma display panel having first and second insulating substrates placed so as to face each other, a plurality of scanning electrodes and a plurality of common electrodes being placed on a side of a face of said first insulating substrate facing said second insulating substrate and being extended in a first direction and being alternately arranged, a first dielectric layer to cover said plurality of said scanning electrodes and said plurality of said common electrodes, a plurality of data electrodes being placed on a side of a surface of said second insulating substrate facing said first insulating substrate and being extended in a second direction orthogonal to said first direction, and a second dielectric layer to cover said plurality of said data electrodes, for having a surface-discharge alternating-current-type plasma display panel, in which picture cells are formed in a matrix form in a manner that each of said picture cells contains one nearest contact point of each of said plurality of said data electrodes to each of said plurality of said scanning electrodes and one nearest contact point of each of said plurality of said data electrodes to each of said plurality of said common electrodes and that a discharge gap is formed between each of said plurality of said scanning electrodes and each of said plurality of said common electrodes in each of said picture cells, display images based on display data, said method comprising:

• a step of constructing one field to display one image of one sub-field or a plurality of sub-fields and;
• wherein said sub-field is made up of a resetting period during which a state of an electric charge in each of said picture cells is initialized, a scanning period during which a scanning pulse is sequentially applied to each of said scanning electrodes and, at a same time, a data pulse is selectively applied, based on said display data, to said data electrodes with same timing as for said scanning pulse to cause writing discharge to selectively occur in each of picture cells, a wall charge forming period during which wall charges are formed in said picture cells where said writing discharge has occurred by application of a wall charge forming pulse having an orientation of an electric field determined by a relative relation of potentials among three types of electrodes one being said scanning electrodes, another being common electrodes, and an other being data electrodes being same as an orientation of an electric field produced at a time of said writing discharge during said scanning period, to one electrode or two or more electrodes selected from a group consisting of said scanning electrodes, said common electrodes, and said data electrodes, and a sustaining period during which sustaining discharge is made to occur between a scanning electrode region over said scanning electrode in a surface of said first dielectric layer and a common electrode region over said common electrode in said surface of said first dielectric layer in said picture cell where wall charges have been formed by applying a sustaining pulse alternately to said scanning electrode and said common electrode.