Plasma versus Tubes

Wave to the future
These days you might all be pretty familiar with plasma TVs or monitors. They are those flat and slim TV monitors that are as slim like pictures, that you can easily hang on the wall. What is the difference between Plasma TV and regular CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) TV?

First we have to know the basic principles of regular TV which uses a CRT. A CRT is basically a vacuum tube (almost like a light bulb) where electrons (negatively-charged particles) are shot through the tube to the wide end of the tube, where phospor atoms will light up. Shooting different levels of colors at different intensities produces different colors, that's why you can see picture on your TV tube.

One weakness of a CRT is that it needs a longer shooting distance when you want to enlarge the size of the screen. So for a widescreen, the TV set becomes bigger and bulkier.

Plasma: a space-saving solution
The new plasma TV has a screen as wide as the largest CRT TV set, but is only 15 cm thick. Neat, huh? Why can a plasma TV be so space efficient? A plasma TV consist of hundreds of thousands of small cells that contain xenon and neon gas (yep, same as your fluorescent lamps). Those cells are sandwiched between two plates of glass. Also sandwiched are electrodes behind and in front of the cells. These electrodes are charged with different currents, thus ionizing the gas inside the cell. The gas will then produce ultraviolet light, which is visible to human eyes.

The advantage of using plasma display technology is that you can produce ultra large screens using super thin materials. The image is also very clear because each pixel is lit individually making the image look good from almost every angle. But the biggest drawback is the price. Plasma displays cost from $4,000 to $20,000. But with the development of new technology, prices are going down to as low as $300, as you can see with today's computer monitors. One day you might find hanging your TV as easy as hanging your babe's picture.