The Plasmatron, or technically plasma addressed liquid crystal (PALC), is a color television display technology developed by Tektronix and Sony in the 1990s.
When the project he was working on was canceled, he turned his attention to using the plasma elements as LCD switches, and the PALC system was born.
In July 1997 the group was joined by Philips Electronics to improve the resolution of the devices, reduce power consumption and increase brightness.
At first these devices were difficult to produce, but as processes improved the printing methods developed from the semiconductor industry replaced the mechanical complexity of the PALC cell.
PALC displays attempted to address this problem by introducing an intermediate area between the backlight and the LCD on top that used plasma techniques as a "switch".