Plasma Tv Cabinet

Flat and tube-free, plasma TV is the latest rage.

When 11-year-old Cory Levinson got home from school one day last May, there in the family room stood a brand-new plasma television. Isn't this one of those TVs that only cool people have? Cory thought to himself.

Cool is definitely the word people are using when they first lay eyes on what may be today's trendiest piece of consumer electronics. "Cool," they say of the wide screen, the supercrisp images, and the monitor so flat it can hang like a painting on a wall.

But plasma? What, exactly, is plasma?

What's the Matter

Plasma is what physicists call the fourth state of matter, the other states being solids, liquids, and gases. It forms when a gas becomes so hot that electrons break away from the gas's atoms. Plasma forms naturally in the sun and other stars and in lightning.

The Four States of Matter

Solid

In a solid, particles
(molecules, atoms)
are so tightly packed
that they give matter
a definite shape
and volume.

Liquid

In a liquid, the particles are farther
apart, giving matter a definite
volume but not a fixed shape.

Plasma

In a plasma, the atoms
have been heated to the
point at which they release
electrons.

Gas

In a gas, the particles are
even farther apart, giving
matter no definite shape or
volume. A gas expands to fill
any container it's put into.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Plasma can also be made artificially, at much lower temperatures, for use in things like fluorescent lightbulbs. A fluorescent lightbulb contains a small amount of gas--usually mercury vapor. Switching on the bulb sends an electric field through the gas, heating it to a plasma state. That plasma gives off invisible rays of ultraviolet light, which strike a coating of phosphors on the inside of the tube. A phosphor is a substance capable of absorbing energy, including ultraviolet light, and releasing it as light. When struck, the phosphors in a fluorescent bulb give off visible white light.

Plasma Sandwich

A plasma TV screen is essentially a million or so tiny fluorescent bulbs sandwiched between two panes of glass, according to Jim Noecker, an electronic engineer at Panasonic. The tiny bulbs are sometimes referred to as cells.

Lining the inner surface of each pane of glass is an array of equally tiny electrodes, pieces of metal that are conductors of electric current. Those electrodes force an electric field through the cells, exciting a mixture of neon and xenon gas in each cell. The excited gas becomes a plasma, which gives off invisible UV light. The UV light strikes phosphors in the cells, which then emit light.

Plasma TV gives off more than the white light of a fluorescent lamp because the phosphors in the cells are different, said Noecker. Some phosphors give off red light, some blue light, and some green. Red, blue, and green are the three primary colors in light. When mixed in various intensities, red, blue, and green light yield all the other colors of visible light. The tiny cells of a plasma TV screen are arranged in groups of three (red, green, and blue) that produce the millions of tiny dots, or pixels, of colored light that make up the TV screen's image.

Flat TV

Cory's brother, Christopher, thinks their new plasma TV is neat too. "It doesn't take up so much room as a regular TV," he said. The Levinsons keep their TV in a wooden cabinet. At the flick of a remote control switch, a hydraulic mechanism lifts the TV up and out of the cabinet for viewing.

The average plasma TV is roughly 9 centimeters (3.5 inches) deep. "That thinness is due to the absence of the deep conventional picture tube found in most televisions," said Noecker. Such conventional tubes are called cathode ray tubes (CRTs). Their greater depth is due to the presence of three electron guns positioned at the back of the tube. The guns fire steady streams of electrons from the back of the tube. The electrons strike tiny dots, also called pixels, at the front of the tube. Some pixels glow red when struck, some green, and some blue. The combined effect is a TV image.

The Sharper Image

Viewers such as the Levinsons also prefer the extreme sharpness of the plasma TV image. "When we rent an old movie, it looks like the movies made in 2001," said Christopher.

The sharpness of a TV image is called its resolution, which is determined by the number of points of light on a TV screen. The more points of light, the better the resolution. Plasma TVs have twice the resolution of most of today's cathode ray TVs.

High Price

So why aren't mobs of consumers rushing out to buy a plasma TV? Some people have complained that plasma screens don't render black tones. Black appears dark gray, instead. But the bigger objection most people cite is cost. Plasma TVs sell for between $6,000 and $25,000! Eventually, Noecker predicted, the competitive market and mass production will bring down the price, as has been the case with most new electronic consumer products.

In the meantime, if you're curious about plasma TV, you might check out the sets on display in a high-end electronics shop or the ones that kids like Cory or Christopher have. "When my friends come over," said Cory, "they think it's cool too."

COPYRIGHT 2001 Weekly Reader Corp.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group

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