This invention relates generally to organic light emitting device (OLED) displays that have light emitting layers that are semiconductive polymers or small molecules.
OLED displays use layers of light emitting materials. Unlike liquid crystal devices, the OLED displays actually emit light, making them advantageous for many applications.
OLED displays may use either at least one semiconductive conjugated polymer or a small molecule sandwiched between a pair of contact layers. The contact layers produce an electric field that injects charge carriers into the OLED layer. When the charge carriers combine in the OLED layer, the charge carriers decay and emit radiation in the visible range.
It is believed that some OLED compounds containing vinyl groups tend to degrade over time and use due to oxidation of the vinyl groups, particularly in the presence of free electrons. Since driving the display with a current provides the free electrons in abundance, the lifetime of the display is a function of applied current between an anode and cathode. Newer compounds based on fluorine have similar degradation mechanisms that may be related to chemical purity, although the exact mechanism is not yet well known in the industry.
In general, OLED displays have a lifetime limit related to the total integrated charge passed through the display. Thus, the luminance of OLED displays generally decreases with use. In order to achieve a desired luminance for a given pixel at a given time in the course of the display's lifetime, the OLED luminance versus current characteristics for a particular manufacturing process are well characterized as a function of aging. For a given total integrated charge, the device current needed to achieve a specific luminance is therefore known.
A matrix display comprises many individually addressable pixels. For a particular type of emissive display comprising OLEDs, each pixel comprises OLED devices addressed by rows and columns. Colors are typically implemented in an OLED display by incorporating in each pixel, individually addressable “sub-pixels” of red, green, and blue.
The primary colors in a linear physical intensity color space, such as the Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE) xy (1931), form a color gamut which, in some cases, inscribe the vertices of a triangle. Any coordinate inscribed by the gamut identifies a color that can be represented by the scaling of the intensity of each primary color. Embodiments of the present invention are applicable to color spaces that include three or more colors.
The human eye is sensitive to color differences. The perceptible difference between two colors can be described within the well known CIE “color space” which is represented as a plane diagram in units of )-C*, where one )-C* is the just noticeable difference (the color difference in units of x-y which is just noticeable varies depending on the x-y coordinates of the color).
In the course of aging, the luminance for a given drive current decreases non-linearly. Moreover, the nature of the change of luminance over lifetime is more complex than even the non-linear relationship between luminance and drive current. In addition, individual colors change differently in the course of display lifetime. Thus, simply changing the drive current to achieve a desired characteristic luminance may be insufficient. For example, color variations between the many pixels may become perceptible, creating the distracting artifact known as fixed pattern noise. Thus, if, initially or at any time thereafter, sub-pixels of a given color are not exactly the same, fixed pattern noise may arise.
In addition, in the course of aging, the individual sub-pixels may change color differently as a result of aging. If the OLED colors change during aging and all the sub-pixels do not age in substantially the same way, a color difference may become perceptible. This may be especially problematic in an application where static images are displayed including displays utilized for signs.
Thus, there is a need for a better way to compensate for static and dynamic changes in color from sub-pixel to sub-pixel in OLED displays.
In one embodiment of the present invention, an organic light emitting device (OLED) display may include a pixel formed of three distinct color emitting layers. Colors may be produced, in one embodiment, by operating more than one of the layers to provide a “mixed” color or different colors may be produced in a time sequenced pattern so that one pixel may be provided with three color planes using a single compound polymer element. A display of the type shown in
Referring to
On top of the electrode layer 8, a conductive layer 10 is arranged to overlie the layer 8 so that the layers 8 and 10 overlap the layer 4. Again, the layer 10 may be defined using evaporation through a mask. In some embodiments, the organic layer 6 may be made up of a sequence of more than one material, each providing a unique functionality to the OLED structure. The particular choice of the combination of organic layers will determine the color output of the pixel. The overall OLED structure may be covered by a coating 1 to protect the diode from the effects of the ambient.
In the same manner as shown in
As shown in
The various control electrodes 10, 4a, 4b, and 4c, may be coupled to a drive circuit 22 as shown in
Referring to
A problem arises that individual sub-pixels which should have been initially of the same color are not and variations in color within sub-pixels designated the same color may result in a degraded display appearance. Moreover, given sub-pixels may age at different rates and thus the color shift between various sub-pixels designated to be the same color may change over their lifetime. For a given display, the color of each sub-pixel is characterized in the factory as part of the final test before shipping. The expressed color of each sub-pixel is set to the smallest color gamut for the population of sub-pixels. In other words, the emitted color from each sub-pixel is limited to the smallest color gamut which all of the sub-pixels of that color in the display can achieve.
While this approach sacrifices the potential color gamut possible with a given display, it assumes substantial uniformity. In some embodiments, some color variation may be tolerated. In such case, instead of using the smallest gamut that is achievable by all of the pixels, a slightly larger gamut may be utilized. For example, a gamut having an area of 10%–20% larger than the smallest gamut may be utilized in some embodiments where some color variation is tolerable.
The color aging behavior of a given OLED technology manufacturing process may be statistically well characterized. For processes where there is significant color aging, the color triangle may be set at any time during the lifetime of the display at either the smallest color set that can be achieved by all or substantially all of the sub-pixels at any time during the expected display lifetime. In this way, even if the colors for a particular set of sub-pixels age differentially, and those sub-pixels are used faster than other sub-pixels, the display still appears to be relatively uniform in color.
Fractional components of the other sub-pixel colors may be utilized to bring the color of the expressed sub-pixel to a relatively small color gamut that all or substantially all of the sub-pixels can achieve. Thus, for example, red and/or blue may be utilized to alter the expressed color of the green sub-pixel. The same may be done to the red and blue sub-pixels. As a result, the sub-pixels of a tricolor space such as red, green, and blue color space may each generate a three component vector resulting in a three by three matrix for each pixel that calibrates the initial color of the smallest color gamut. If the colors of the sub-pixels change with age, compensation for that aging may involve taking each of nine components of the three by three matrix and treating each as time dependent, with that time being a function of the measure of aging of each sub-pixel.
The components of the matrix may be color mixing ratios. These components may be calculated through techniques well known in the art. The ratios may be based on the characterized color aging behavior of each sub-pixel. However, algorithmically, the aging of the pixels is then tracked. The color correction fraction is the sub-pixel colors needed to maintain a given expressed pixel color relatively constant at the smallest or at least a relatively small color gamut.
Throughout the display's lifetime, to achieve a specific color, the drive current to each sub-pixel within a given pixel may be multiplied by the mixing matrix. In addition, other possible adjustment factors related to the transfer function between drive current and color as a function of aging may be applied as well.
Referring to
The storage 216 may store the software 50 that is responsible for achieving the color compensation algorithm described previously. Thus, the processor 220 in one embodiment may execute software to implement the color compensation. In other embodiments, hardware compensation may be utilized.
Referring to
In some embodiments, the actions set forth in blocks 52 and 54 can be done during manufacturing. In blocks 56 and 58 may be done in the field. In such embodiments, the flow may loop back from block 58 to block 56.
Thus, referring to
While the present invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate numerous modifications and variations therefrom. It is intended that the appended claims cover all such modifications and variations as fall within the true spirit and scope of this present invention.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20030043088 A1 | Mar 2003 | US |