A plasma display panel (PDP) is a type of flat panel display common to large TV displays 30 inches (76 cm) or larger.
They are called "plasma" displays because they use small cells containing electrically charged ionized gases, which are plasmas.
Plasma displays are bright (1,000 lux or higher for the module), have a wide color gamut, and can be produced in fairly large sizes—up to 3.8 metres (150 in) diagonally.
They had a very low-luminance "dark-room" black level compared with the lighter grey of the unilluminated parts of an LCD screen at least in the early history of the competing technologies (in the early history of plasma panels the blacks were blacker on plasmas and greyer on LCDs).
In 2010, the shipments of plasma TVs reached 18.2 million units globally. Since that time, shipments of plasma TVs have declined substantially. This decline has been attributed to the competition from liquid crystal (LCD) televisions, whose prices have fallen more rapidly than those of the plasma TVs.
In late 2013, Panasonic announced that they would stop producing plasma TVs from March 2014 onwards.
Goodbye Plasma - Panasonic Stop Production
In 2014, LG and Samsung discontinued plasma TV production as well, effectively killing the technology, probably because of lowering demand.
Plasma display - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia