Drive unit and drive method of light-emitting display panel

• US 6,788,277 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2002
• Issued: 09/07/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tohoku Pioneer Company Limited (Pioneer Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Tohoku Pioneer Company Limited (Pioneer Corporation)
• Inventors: Seki, Shuichi, Kanauchi, Katsuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo, Tuyet T.
• Application Number:
  US10/259,637
• Publication Number:
  US 20030197472A1
• Time in Patent Office: 708 Days
• Field of Search: 345/77, 345/76, 345/82, 345/87, 345/88, 345/90, 345/98, 345/100, 345/55, 345/60, 345/61, 345/63, 345/74, 315/169.2, 315/169.3
• US Class Current: 345/77
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2300/0809 Several active elements per pixel in active matrix panels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2300/0842 forming a memory circuit, e.g. a dynamic memory with one capacitor
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/0221 with use of split matrices G09G3/3644 and G09G3/3666 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/0232 Special driving of display border areas
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/0251 Precharge or discharge of pixel before applying new pixel voltage
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/0262 The addressing of the pixel, in a display other than an active matrix LCD, involving the control of two or more scan electrodes or two or more data electrodes, e.g. pixel voltage dependent on signals of two data electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/027 Details of drivers for data electrodes, the drivers handling digital grey scale data, e.g. use of D/A converters
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/062 Waveforms for resetting a plurality of scan lines at a time
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/021 Power management, e.g. power saving
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/022 in absence of operation, e.g. no data being entered during a predetermined time
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/20 for presentation of an assembly of a number of characters, e.g. a page, by composing the assembly by combination of individual elements arranged in a matrix no fixed position being assigned to or needed to be assigned to the individual characters or partial characters
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/2018 by time modulation using two or more time intervals
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3266 Details of drivers for scan electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3275 Details of drivers for data electrodes

Abstract

Power saving is more realized when a partial display is executed in active matrix type EL display elements.

When the partial display is executed, a scan driver 2 repeatedly scans all the scan lines as executed ordinarily. In contrast, when a scan shifts from a display region to a non-display region, black display data is captured by a shift resister 1_a in a data driver 1 for one horizontal period and latched by a latch circuit 1_b. Then, while the non-display region is being scanned, the drive of the data driver 1 is stopped. Accordingly, in the scan of the non-display region, a non-display state is achieved by the black display data latched by the latch circuit 1_b. Low power consumption can be realized because the drive of the data driver 1 operating at a high speed is stopped while the non-display region is being scanned.

Claims

1. A drive unit of an active matrix type light-emitting display panel having a plurality of light-emitting elements which are disposed at a plurality of intersecting positions where a plurality of data electrode lines and a plurality of scan electrode lines intersect and the light emission of which light-emitting display panel is controlled by drive circuits, respectively, comprising:

a data driver for supplying image data to the respective data electrode lines,

a scan driver for sequentially supplying a scan signal to the respective scan electrode lines, and

control means for stopping the operation of the data driver when a partial display drive for controlling the light emission of a part of the effective light-emitting elements in the display panel is executed and when the scan driver scans a non-display region;

wherein said drive circuits include control transistors for transmitting image data supplied from the driver based on a scan signal supplied from the scan driver and drive transistors for supplying a drive current to the light-emitting elements based on the image data transmitted by the control transistors, at least one of said control transistors and at least one of said drive transistors being correspondent to each light-emitting element.

2. A drive unit of a light-emitting display panel according to claim 1, wherein the data driver and the scan driver are disposed on the same substrate constituting the display panel together with the respective drive circuits and the respective light-emitting elements corresponding thereto.

3. A drive unit of a light-emitting display panel according to claim 1, wherein the data driver includes a shift register for capturing serial image data as parallel image data by sequentially shifting up the serial image data based on a clock signal and a latch circuit for outputting pixel unit image data to the respective data electrode lines by latching the image data captured by the shift resister based on a latch signal.

4. A drive unit of a light-emitting display panel according to claim 1, wherein the scan driver includes a shift resister for outputting a scan signal to the respective scan electrode lines by sequentially shifting up it based on a clock signal.

5. A drive unit of a light-emitting display panel according to claim 4, comprising black data set means for capturing black data for controlling the light-emitting elements in a non-lighting state for at least one horizontal period when a scan is executed from a display region to a non-display region while the partial display drive is being executed to control the light emission of a part of the effective light-emitting elements in the display panel.

15. A drive unit of a light-emitting display panel according to any of claims 1 to 5 or any of claims 8 to 14, wherein the light-emitting elements comprise organic EL elements using an organic compound in the light emitting layers thereof.

6. A drive method of an active matrix type light-emitting display panel having a plurality of light-emitting elements which are disposed at a plurality of intersecting positions where a plurality of data electrode lines and a plurality of scan electrode lines intersect and the light emission of which light-emitting display panel is controlled by drive circuits, respectively, a data driver for supplying image data to the respective data electrode lines, and a scan driver for sequentially supplying a scan signal to the respective scan electrode lines, the drive method executing:

a black data set step of capturing black data for controlling the light-emitting elements in a non-lighting state for at least one horizontal period when a scan is executed from a display region to a non-display region while a partial display drive is being executed to control the light emission of a part of the effective light-emitting elements in the display panel; and

a step of scanning the non-display region with the scan signal from the scan driver in a black data set state that is set by the data driver.

7. A drive method of a light-emitting display panel according to claim 6, wherein the supply of a clock signal for driving the data driver is stopped while the step of scanning the non-display region is being executed.

8. A drive unit of an active matrix type light-emitting display panel having a plurality of light-emitting elements which are disposed at a plurality of intersecting positions where a plurality of data electrode lines, a plurality of scan electrode lines, and a plurality of erase electrode lines intersect and the light emission of which light-emitting display panel is controlled by drive circuits, respectively, characterized by comprising a data driver for supplying image data to the respective data electrode lines, a first scan driver for sequentially supplying a scan signal to the respective scan electrode lines, a second scan driver for supplying an erase signal to the erase electrode lines, and control means for stopping the operation of the data driver when a partial display drive for controlling the light emission of a part of the effective light-emitting elements in the display panel is executed and when the first scan driver scans a non-display region as well as for forcibly extinguishing the light-emitting elements corresponding to the non-display region by supplying an erase signal to the erase electrode lines corresponding to the non-display region from the second scan driver.

9. A drive unit of a light-emitting display panel according to claim 8, wherein the data driver, the first scan driver, and the second scan driver are disposed on the same substrate constituting the display panel together with the respective drive circuits and the respective light-emitting elements corresponding thereto.

10. A drive unit of a light-emitting display panel according to claim 8, wherein the drive circuits include control transistors for transmitting image data supplied from the data driver based on the scan signal supplied from the first scan driver, drive transistors for supplying a drive current to the light-emitting elements based on the image data transmitted by the control transistors, and erase transistors for disabling the operation of the drive transistors based on the erase signal supplied from the second scan driver.

11. A drive unit of a light-emitting display panel according to claim 8, wherein the second scan driver includes a shift resister to which erase control data corresponding to a partial display pattern is set based on a clock signal.

12. A drive unit of a light-emitting display panel according to claim 11, wherein the erase control data corresponding to the partial display pattern is set to the shift resister in the second scan driver during a preparation frame period.

13. A drive unit of a light-emitting display panel according to claim 12, wherein black data for controlling the light-emitting elements in a non-lighting state is captured by the shift resister in the data driver during the preparation frame period.

14. A drive unit of a light-emitting display panel according to claim 8, wherein the first scan driver stops its operation during a period until the starting point of a next one frame or one sub-frame is scanned after the first scan driver has scanned the final display region of one frame or one sub-frame.

16. A drive method of an active matrix type light-emitting display panel having a plurality of light-emitting elements which are disposed at a plurality of intersecting positions where a plurality of data electrode lines, a plurality of scan electrode lines, and a plurality of erase electrode lines intersect and the light emission of which light-emitting display panel is controlled by drive circuits, respectively, a data driver for supplying image data to the respective data electrode lines, a first scan driver for supplying a scan signal to the respective scan electrode lines, and a second scan driver for supplying an erase signal based on a partial display pattern to the respective erase electrode lines, the drive method executing:

a step of setting the erase data based on the partial display pattern to the second scan driver;

a step of executing a partial display based on the image data supplied from the data driver when a display region is scanned with the scan signal from the first scan driver; and

a step of forcibly extinguishing the light-emitting elements corresponding to a non-display region based on the erase data set to the second scan driver when a scan is executed from the display region to the non-display region.

17. A drive method of a light-emitting display panel according to claim 16, wherein the drive of the data driver is stopped as well as the first scan driver stops its operation during a period until the starting point of a next one frame or one sub-frame is scanned after the first scan driver has scanned the final display region of one frame or one sub-frame in the state in which the non-scan region is scanned.

18. A drive method of a light-emitting display panel according to claim 16, wherein a step of capturing black data for controlling the light-emitting elements in a non-lighting state by the shift resister in the data driver is executed just before a step of setting the erase data based on the partial display pattern to the second scan driver is executed.

19. A drive unit of an active matrix type light-emitting display panel having a plurality of light-emitting elements which are disposed at a plurality of intersecting positions where a plurality of data electrode lines and a plurality of scan electrode lines intersect and the light emission of which light-emitting display panel is controlled by drive circuits, respectively, comprising:

a data driver for supplying image data to the respective data electrode lines;

a scan driver for sequentially supplying a scan signal to the respective scan electrode lines; and

control means for stopping the operation of the data driver when a partial display drive for controlling the light emission of a part of the effective light-emitting elements in the display panel is executed and when the scan driver scans a non-display region;

wherein the data driver and the scan driver are disposed on the same substrate constituting the display panel together with the respective drive circuits and the respective light-emitting elements corresponding thereto, and

wherein the drive circuits include control transistors for transmitting image data supplied from the data driver based on a scan signal supplied from the scan driver and drive transistors for supplying a drive current to the light-emitting elements based on the image data transmitted by the control transistors.

20. A drive unit of an active matrix type light-emitting display panel having a plurality of light-emitting elements which are disposed at a plurality of intersecting positions where a plurality of data electrode lines and a plurality of scan electrode lines intersect and the light emission of which light-emitting display panel is controlled by drive circuits, respectively, comprising:

a data driver for supplying image data to the respective data electrode lines;

a scan driver for sequentially supplying a scan signal to the respective scan electrode lines;

control means for stopping the operation of the data driver when a partial display drive for controlling the light emission of a part of the effective light-emitting elements in the display panel is executed and when the scan driver scans a non-display region; and

black data set means for capturing black data for controlling the light-emitting elements in a non-lighting state for at least one horizontal period when a scan is executed from a display region to a non-display region while the partial display drive is being executed to control the light emission of a part of the effective light-emitting elements in the display panel;

wherein the scan driver includes a shift resister for outputting a scan signal to the respective scan electrode lines by sequentially shifting up it based on a clock signal.