1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to active thin film transistor circuit structure with current scaling function and, more particularly, to active thin film transistor structure applied for active light emitting device or the pixel circuit for an array of a display panel.
2. Description of Related Art
Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) attract people's attention recently since they are capable of illuminating without backlight modules to display images. In addition, OLEDs also have other advantages such as high contrast ratio, high brightness, wide viewing angle, high color saturation, and short response time. Moreover, OLEDs are light, thin, and low power consuming. Hence, OLEDs are possible to be widely used for displaying images.
The common transistor circuit for driving display devices can be a voltage-driven transistor circuit. However, this voltage-driven circuit and the method cannot compensate the characteristics variance caused by time-dependent decay of thin film transistor, the variation of the threshold voltage, and the variation of the field effect mobility. Therefore, the distribution of the brightness of the display devices is not uniform.
Another current driven circuit is shown in
Another known current driven circuit by accompanying current mirror is shown in
According to the description illustrated above, the display industry has a demand for an active current-scaling transistor circuit to improve the time delaying as low gray level is provided for displaying.
The current-scaling active thin film transistor circuit structure for a pixel of a display device of the present invention can shorten the delaying time of the response of the light-emitting device of the display device in the prior art.
The current-scaling active thin film transistor circuit structure for a pixel of a display device of the present invention can compensate the variation of the time decaying characteristic of the driving transistors.
The current-scaling active thin film transistor circuit structure for a pixel of a display device of the present invention can remain the aperture ratio of the pixel unchanged.
The display devices of the current-scaling active thin film transistor circuit structure with the same advantages illustrated above are also provided in the present invention.
As shone in
Among them, the gate of the first switching transistor 307 is electrically connected to the gate of the second switching transistor 304, and a scanning line 309. The first terminal of the first switching transistor 307 and the first terminal of the switching transistor 304 are electrically connected to a data line 310. The third switching transistor 308 is electrically connected to a direct current voltage signal line 312 and the first terminal of the fourth driving transistor 306 respectively. Furthermore, the second terminal of the fourth driving transistor 306 is electrically connected to a light-emitting unit 302. In addition, one terminal of the first storage capacitor 303 is grounded. The other terminal of the first storage capacitor 303 is electrically connected to the gate of the fourth driving transistor 306. One terminal of the second storage capacitor 305 is electrically connected to the gate of the first switching transistor 307, and the gate of the second switching transistor 304. Moreover, the other terminal of the second storage capacitor 305 is electrically connected to one terminal of the first storage capacitor 303 and the gate of the fourth driving transistor 306 respectively.
As the pixel circuit of the display of the present invention is in ON-state, the two switching transistor 304, 307 is switched into ON-state according to the voltage provided by the scanning line 309. After the two switching transistor 304, 307 is switched into ON-state, the data current passes through the fourth driving transistor 306 and the light emitting unit 302. As the pixel circuit of the display of the present invention is turned from ON-state to OFF-state, a negative feed-through effect generated in the second storage capacitor 305 results in decreasing of the voltage between the first storage capacitor 303 and the second capacitor 305. This decreasing of the voltage further reduces the current passing through the light-emitting unit 302. Hence, the pixel circuit of the display of the present invention can fill the storage capacitor 303, 305 by large driving current, and further reduce the response time in the time period of ON-state. On the other hand, the pixel circuit of the display of the present invention can display gray level by small driving current in the time period of OFF-state.
The variation of the characteristic time decay of the driving transistor 306, i.e. the variation of the current passing through the light-emitting unit, can be expressed by formula (I)
I=(μCOXW/2L)(VGS−VTH)2 (I)
wherein μ is the field effect mobility, COX is the capacitance per unit area of driving transistor 306, W is the width of the driving transistor 306, L is the length of the driving transistor 306, VGS is the voltage difference between the gate of the driving transistor 306 and the anode of the light-emitting unit, VTH is the threshold voltage of the driving transistor 306. When the threshold of the driving transistor 306 changes, the data signal line 310 will modulate the charge of first storage capacitor 303 and that of the second storage capacitor 305 Moreover, the voltage of the gate of the driving transistor 306 is increased to remain (VGS−VTH) and the current passing light-emitting unit unchanged. Therefore, the driving current can be stabilized.
In addition, if the capacitance of the storage capacitors are constant, and the size of the switching transistor 304, 307, 308 and that of the driving transistor 306 does not change, the aperture ratio can keep constant by adjusting the ratio of the capacitance of the first storage capacitor to the capacitance of the second capacitor within a range complied with a predetermined scaling ratio.
Other objects, advantages, and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
a is a diagram of a circuit for driving a pixel of the second embodiment of the present invention.
b is a diagram of a circuit for driving a pixel of the third embodiment of the present invention.
a is a diagram of an equivalent circuit of the circuit for driving a pixel in ON-state in the first embodiment of the present invention.
b is a diagram of an equivalent circuit of the circuit for driving a pixel in OFF-state in the first embodiment of the present invention.
a is a circuit diagram of one embodiment of the current-scaling active thin film transistor circuit of the present invention. The related elements are listed and illustrated in table 3.
In the present embodiment, the transistors 304, 306, and 308 are N-type thin film transistors (TFTs). The connection of these transistors is shown in
In addition, please notice that a dotted line in
The circuit of the present invention is operated in two states, i.e. the ON state, and the OFF state. The details are listed in table 4 and table 5.
As the threshold voltage of transistor 306 changes in step 3, the voltage of the gate of transistor 306 will be adjusted to an adequate voltage by the control signal IDATA to allow the control signal IDATA to pass.
As the threshold voltage of transistor 306 changes, the voltage of the gate will be adjusted to allow the control signal IDATA to pass through the transistor 306 to the light-emitting unit 302. The current passing through the light-emitting unit 302 is IOLED
In addition, the voltage VB
As the voltage VSCAN of the control line is switched from high to 0 in step 1, the gate voltage of the transistor 306 is reduced from VB
Wherein COV-T2 is the parasitic capacitance between the gate and the drain/source of the transistor 304. The VB
Since the drain of the transistor 308 is electrically connected to the direct current voltage line 312, the transistor is operated in the saturation region, and the current IOLED
As it is switched from ON-state to OFF-state in step 2, the gate voltage of the transistor 306 is reduced, and the driving current of the light-emitting unit reduced from IOLED
RSCALE=IOLED-ON/IOLED-OFF (3)
According to the formula (2) and (3), the greater capacitance of the storage capacitor 305 can produce higher RSCALE to reduce the driving time of the pixel in ON state. In addition, the greater capacitance of the storage capacitor can also generate low driving current accurately to display low gray level.
Moreover, the elements, and the parameters of the signals can be seen in
In addition,
The comparison result of the current IDATA and the average driving current for driving the light-emitting unit is shown in
wherein tON and tOFF is the On state time 0.33 ms and the OFF time 33 ms individually.
The comparison result can also be seen in table 8.
As the circuit of the present invention is operated for low gray level, a large current scaling ratio can be obtained. In other words, when low gray level frame is displayed, a maximum control signal IDATA can be used for charge to reduce the repose time delay. In addition, the average driving current is in maximum average driving current range.
The elements and the parameters second embodiment of the present invention are shown in
In the present embodiment, the time chart is shown in
The third preferred embodiment of the circuit of the present invention is shown in
According to the description illustrated above, the circuit of the present invention uses storage capacitors in series and can achieve the scaling of the current. The change of the voltage of the scanning line generates a negative feed-through effect toward one of the capacitor, further reduces the voltage of the gate of the transistor, and reduces the current for driving the light-emitting unit. Hence, the ratio of current-scaling can be adjusted through adjusting the voltage difference of the data line or the capacitance of the storage capacitance. Moreover, the time-delaying of the pixel for displaying frames of low gray level can be reduced, and the variance of the characteristics of the transistor can be compensated.
Although the present invention has been explained in relation to its preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that many other possible modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
94131193 A | Sep 2005 | TW | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
6943564 | Yoshida et al. | Sep 2005 | B2 |
20040196275 | Hattori | Oct 2004 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20070057294 A1 | Mar 2007 | US |