The Rise and Fall of Plasma Screens

The history of plasma displays began in the 1960s as part of the PLATO project. The technology was originally conceived as a solution to the high cost of RAM, allowing displays to store data internally. However, the rapid decline in DRAM prices according to Moore's Law stripped plasma of its primary competitive advantage. Over the following decades, the technology was used in niche sectors such as military equipment and banking hardware. In the early 2000s, plasma panels experienced a brief boom in the large-screen TV market, offering superior image quality. Nevertheless, the advancement of liquid crystal display (LCD) technology eventually led to plasma's displacement. In his article, Brian Potter analyzes the technology's lifecycle, explaining why it failed to sustain its position in the long term and lost the competition to LCD panels, which proved more efficient for mass production and scaling.