The discharge characteristics, especially the address discharge characteristics, were examined relative to the number of sustain pulse from 2 to 200 applied during the prior sub field under the variable Xe gas conditions (11, 15, and 20%) of plasma display panels (PDPs). As the Xe contents increased from 11 to 20%, the formative delay time was observed to be increased. In particular, as the number of sustain pulse was increased from 2 to 200 during the prior sub field, the formative delay time of the subsequent address discharge was considerably increased under the high Xe (20%) content. Based on this experimental observation, the modified driving waveform, featuring being able to produce a stable address discharge irrespective of the sustain pulse number during the prior sub field, is proposed for the stable address discharge of the high Xe PDP.