Plasma display device and method for driving plasma display panel

A plasma display device comprising:

• a plasma display panel having a plurality of discharge cells, each of the discharge cells including a display electrode pair formed of a scan electrode and a sustain electrode;
• a cumulative time calculating circuit for calculating a cumulative current-carrying time of the plasma display panel;
• and
• a driving circuit for driving the plasma display panel having a sustain-pulse generating circuit, the sustain-pulse generating circuit including:
• a power-recovery circuit for collecting electric power accumulated in an inter-electrode capacitor of the display electrode pair, and supplying the collected power to the display electrode pair;
• and
• a clamping circuit for clamping each display electrode pair to a power-supply voltage and a base potential,
• wherein, the display electrode pair is clamped to base potential, in a period between a sustain pulse for generating a last sustain discharge and an immediately preceding sustain pulse in a sustain period of each of a plurality of subfields, and
• a length of the period is increased when the cumulative current-carrying time calculated by the cumulative time calculating circuit exceeds a threshold, and
• a pulse width of the sustain pulse for generating a last sustain discharge and a pulse width of the immediately preceding sustain pulse are independent of the cumulative current-carrying time.