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History of Plasma

For around 75 years, televisions have been engineered solely around one technology using the cathode ray tube (CRT).

Not later than 1964, Donald L. Bitzer and H. Gene Slottow for the PLATO invented the plasma display panel at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Computer System. Prior to their invention, the inventors researched the feasibility of plasma displays as an alternative to the rear projection televisions sets using CRT technology. They incited such research after being unimpressed with regular television sets as computer monitors for their in-house computer network. Cathode-ray display is suitable for displaying video and broadcasts but not as much for computer graphics. By July of 1964, the team had built the first plasma display. This panel only had a single cell, while plasma televisions at present use millions of cells. The panels, originally orange or green monochrome, gained popularity in the early 1970s because the displays were rugged and needed neither memory nor refresh circuitry. By the late 1970s, semiconductor memory made CRT displays cheaper, effectively causing a long period of sales slump. In spite of, plasma's relatively large screen size and thin profile were ubiquitous in high-profile placement such as lobbies and stock exchanges.

In 1983, IBM released the model 3290 'information panel, a 19" orange on black monochrome display.  The said creation was able to show four simultaneous 3270 virtual machine (VM) terminal sessions.

Fujitsu was the first to create the 21-inch full colour display. The company introduced it in 1992. The product was a hybrid based on the plasma display created at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and NHK STRL.

However it was not until 1997 when the first Plasma TV was sold to the public. Initiated by Pioneer, displays have been sold while its screen sizes increased since the 21-inch model in 1992.

The largest plasma display in the world measured 103 ".  This was the initiative of Matsushita Electrical Industries (Panasonic). It was shown at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas in 2006.