This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2013-172094, filed on Aug. 22 2013, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention is related to a display device. In particular the present invention is related to a technology effective for low consumption power driving.
In recent years, the demand for flat panel display (FPD) devices has been increasing. In particular, organic EL display devices which use an organic EL (Electro Luminescence) element (OLED; Organic Light Emitting Diode) are excellent in terms of power consumption, lightness, thinness, video properties and viewing angle, and the development and practical use of such devices is progressing. Since the high definition of organic display panels in organic EL display devices used in smartphones is progressing, the increase in power consumption that accompanies this trend is becoming a problem. However, a high definition display is not necessary in various situations and It is sometimes sufficient to display only basic data such as time and date, the state of the device (signal strength, remaining battery), or communication data (call history, mail inbox). However, sub-screens such as those mounted in conventional mobile phones are not mounted in organic EL displays, in smartphones, it is necessary to operate a large screen organic EL display panel even when displaying a small amount of data. And, that leads to an increase in power consumption.
While partial driving for reducing power consumption has been proposed in liquid crystal display devices for mobile phones, the power consumption of illumination devices which act as a light source in liquid crystal devices is overwhelmingly large and power reduction effects are few. When partial driving is applied to a display device in which power consumption increases according to display gradation and the number of display pixels as in organic EL display panels, the reduction effects of power consumption are considerable. However, in organic EL display panels, when partial display is performed using partial driving, organic EL elements which are continuously displayed deteriorate and screen burn-in occurs. In order to avoid these problems, when an image is input as a usual operation from the host side in order to change the position of the image, there is a problem that power consumption on the host side increases. Furthermore, although “a method for preventing screen burn-in by performing display in a different position to a previous display position stored in advance at the time of initializing power” has been proposed in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Laid Open Patent 2006-211044), the prevention effects of screen burn-in are limited since the power initialization cycle cannot be controlled.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a display device includes a driving circuit operated in a normal drive mode and a low power consumption drive mode, the driving circuit configured to display a fixed display pattern on a display panel in the case of the low power consumption drive mode, wherein a display position of the fixed display pattern to be displayed on the display panel is changed for each frame in the case of the low power consumption drive mode.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a display device includes a driving circuit operated in a normal drive mode and a low power consumption drive mode, the driving circuit configured to display a fixed display pattern on a display panel in the case of the low power consumption drive mode, the display panel including an image line configured to input an image voltage for each pixel, wherein the driving circuit includes an internal control signal generation circuit configured to generate a control signal in the case of the low power consumption drive mode, a memory configured to store image data of the fixed display pattern to be displayed on the display panel in the case of the low power consumption drive mode, an image signal output circuit configured to convert image data read from the memory to an image voltage and supply the image voltage to the image line, and a display control circuit configured to change a read timing of the image data read from the memory, wherein a read timing of the image data read from the memory and a display position of the fixed display pattern to be displayed on the display panel are changed for each frame in the case of the low power consumption drive mode.
The display position of the fixed display pattern may be changed in a certain sequence or randomly for each of the frames.
The present invention was performed in order to solve the problems of the conventional technology and aims to provide a technology capable of preventing the occurrence of screen burn-in in the case of driving at low power consumption of images containing a small amount of data. The aim of the present invention, other aims and new characteristics will be clarified using the descriptions in the present specification and the attached drawings.
The embodiments of the present invention are explained below with reference to the drawings. In all the drawings for explaining the embodiments, parts having identical functions are given the same reference numerals, and description thereof is not repeated. Further, the embodiments described below are merely an example of an embodiment of the present invention and the present invention is not limited to these embodiments.
In normal driving mode, a control signal output from the image output circuit 221 of the external image processing circuit 2 and input via the interface circuit 11 is input to the display control circuit 12. The display control circuit 12 generates a drive signal based on the control signal and sends the drive signal to the scanning line control circuit 13 and image signal output circuit 16. The scanning line control circuit 13 controls the scanning line drive circuit 21 based on the driving signal output from the display control circuit 12. The scanning line drive circuit 21 supplies in sequence a selection voltage for writing an image voltage to each pixel to a scanning line within the organic EL display panel 20 within one frame period based on a scanning scan start signal input from the scanning line control circuit 13. Image data output from the image output circuit 221 of the external image processing circuit 2 is input to the image control circuit 15 which carries out processing of y correction etc. The image control circuit 15 outputs image data to the image signal output circuit 16. After converting image data to an analog image voltage, the image signal output circuit 16 outputs the analog image voltage to an image line within the organic EL display panel 20 based on an image voltage timing signal input from the display control circuit 12. In this way, an image is displayed in a display region AR of the organic EL display panel 20.
On the other hand, unlike a normal driving mode, in the case of the low power consumption driving mode, it is sometimes sufficient to display only basic data such as time and date, the state of the device (signal strength, remaining battery), or communication data (call history, mail inbox). In this case, the display control circuit 12 generates a drive signal for driving the scanning line control circuit 13 and the image signal output circuit 16 using a control signal generated in the internal control signal generation circuit 121 instead of a control signal (timing signal or control command) output from the image output circuit 221 of the external image processing circuit 2 and input via the interface circuit 11, and generates a read timing signal for reading image data from the frame memory 14. In the case of a low power consumption driving mode, R (red), G (green), B (blue) image data for displaying a fixed image pattern is stored in the frame memory 14. Each image data is read using the read timing signal generated in the internal control signal generation circuit 121 of the display control circuit 12 until rewrite is performed and input to the image control circuit 16 which carries out processing of y correction etc. The image control circuit 15 outputs the input data to the image signal output circuit 16. Here, the frame memory 14 may be small with respect to the level of definition and display gradation of the organic EL display panel 20 when in low power consumption mode, since the aim to use the frame memory 14 is to display a fixed display pattern (that is, partial display) in the organic EL display panel 20. Furthermore, although image data from all pixels of the display region (AR) is output at a refresh frequency from the image output circuit 221 of the image processing circuit 2 during normal operation, by installing the frame memory 14, it is possible to reduce to a necessary minimum the power consumption required for the output.
As explained above, in the present embodiment, when in low power consumption drive mode, the display position of basic data (fixed display pattern) such as time and date, display of the state of the device (signal strength, remaining battery), or communication data (call history, mail inbox) can be changed, and it is possible to reduce deterioration of that organic EL element and the occurrence of the screen burn-in phenomenon. Furthermore, by shifting an amount of basic data more than the capacity proportion of the frame memory 14 with respect to each pixel of the organic EL display panel, fixed display patterns never overlap at the time of shifting, however, performing this data shift for several pixels also has an effect on the reduction of the screen burn-in phenomenon due to the display of a fixed display pattern. In addition, when in low power consumption drive mode of the present embodiment, it is possible to realize further low power consumption by combining processes such as reduction in gradation and reduction in refresh frequency of a display. In this way, according to the organic EL display device of the present invention, in the case of the low power consumption drive mode displaying an image containing a small amount of data, it is possible to reduce both the power supplied to an organic EL display device and the power for sending an image without generating screen burn-in.
The invention carried out by the present inventors was explained in detail based on the embodiment, however, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment and various modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2013-172094 | Aug 2013 | JP | national |