Larry F. Weber

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Please improve this article if you can. (May 2007)

Dr. Larry F. Weber, is an American electrical engineer and businessman.

Weber has devoted his 30-year professional career to the advancement and promotion of plasma displays. He was a founder of Plasmaco, Inc. in 1987 with Stephen Globus and James Kehoe, and since then has held various positions at the company. In 1996, when Plasmaco was acquired by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd, he was named president and CEO. Prior to establishing Plasmaco, Dr. Weber studied under Donald Bitzer and was a research associate professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he directed the Plasma Display Research Group after receiving BS, MS and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering. He has been selected to receive the prestigious Society for Information Display (SID) Karl Ferdinand Braun Prize. The award was be presented to Dr. Weber on May 15, at the 2000 SID International Symposium in Long Beach, CA. Dr. Weber is receiving the award “For pioneering contributions to Plasma Display Panel technology and its commercialization”. Each year, SID presents the Karl Ferdinand Braun Prize to one individual worldwide, in recognition of outstanding technical achievement in, or contribution to, display technology. The award is the highest honor awarded by the society, and the recipient is selected based on the recommendation of the SID Honors and Awards Committee.

Dr. Weber has published 40 papers and holds 13 patents on plasma displays, including one for the energy recovery sustain circuit used in all current color PDP products manufactured worldwide. He is a recognized leader in the display community, serving on several SID committees and was General Chairman of the 1988 International Display Research Conference. In 1990 Dr. Weber was elected a SID Fellow. He has received numerous awards for his work on plasma displays including SID's Special Recognition Award in 1982 and again 1995.

Plasmaco, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan-based Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.. (NYSE: MC), which is best known for its Panasonic products. Based in Highland, NY, Plasmaco develops state-of-the-art, advanced plasma display panel technologies. The company recently developed and demonstrated a 60-inch diagonal HDTV plasma display prototype with a high luminance of 450 cd/m2 and a contrast ratio of greater than 500:1. The 60-inch display features a wide-screen 16:9 aspect ratio, with an array of 1366 x 768 full color pixels. The panel is capable of displaying both 720p and 1080i HDTV signals. Matsushita Electric, a worldwide leader in the development of technologies and the production of electronic and electric products for consumer, business and industrial use, has invested heavily in state-of-the-art plasma display technology. The company has recently formed its own Plasma Display Division to consolidate the plasma display development efforts of its various manufacturing and development companies in the United States and Japan. In the U.S., the Panasonic 42-inch plasma display has enjoyed outstanding sales since its introduction in July 1999, based primarily on superior brightness and contrast performance.

The Plasmaco name was dropped in 2004 and is currently known as PPDLA Panasonic Plasma Display Laboratory's of America. Larry Weber while not with the company any longer, is still working towards developing plasma tv improvements.

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