The present disclosure is related to a display device, and more particularly to a display device including a plurality of illumination portions.
Presently, passive matrix (PM) and active matrix (AM) driving methods have been adopted as two primary methods for driving light-emitting components. Despite the complicated process for fabricating an active matrix, each pixel in the active matrix can be driven continuously and independently, and driving signal of each pixel can be recorded without using a high pulse current for a long time to drive each pixel. Therefore, the active matrix is able to provide higher efficiency and extending a service life of a light-emitting component in comparison to the passive matrix driving method.
In the prior art, the active matrix driving method mainly drives the light emitting components through currents of different sizes, so that the light emitting component can emit light of different brightness. For example, the display panel can continuously drive the light emitting component with a corresponding current in a present frame, and drive the light emitting component with the updated current in the next frame period. Therefore, the light emitting component can present the brightness required for each frame. In this case, if it is desired to increase the number of luminance grey levels presented by the light-emitting components, it would be necessary to drive the light-emitting components with a small current to present the grey level of low brightness. However, when the light-emitting component is driven by a small current, the light emitted from the light-emitting component easily undergoes a significant color shift, resulting in poor picture quality.
One embodiment of the present disclosure discloses a method for expressing a grey level of a sub-pixel in a display device.
The method includes providing at least one light emitting unit in the sub-pixel, and the light emitting unit includes a plurality of illumination portions. Each illumination portion is illuminated independently. The method further includes illuminating at least one of the plurality of illumination portions to express the grey level of the sub-pixel according to a data signal.
Another embodiment of the present disclosure discloses a display device. The display device includes a plurality of sub-pixels.
One of the plurality of sub-pixels includes at least one light emitting unit and a plurality of driving units. The at least one light emitting unit includes a plurality of illumination portions. Each of the driving units is coupled to a corresponding illumination portion of the plurality of illumination portions, and drives the corresponding illumination portion to express a plurality of grey levels in different frames.
These and other objectives of the present disclosure will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
In
In some embodiments, the sub-pixels 100(1,1) to 100(M,N) have the same structure. For example, the sub-pixel 100(1,1) includes a light emitting unit 110, and a plurality of driving units 120A, 120B, 120C, 120D, and 120E. The light emitting unit 110 includes a plurality of illumination regions 110A, 110B, 110C, 110D, and 110E, and the illumination portions 110A, 110B, 110C, 110D, and 110E can have different sizes and/or different shape. In one embodiment, the shape of the illumination portion may be, for example but not limited to, a circle, a rectangular, a square, or a free shape. In some embodiments, each of the illumination portions 110A, 110B, 110C, 110D, and 110E may include a light emitting diode (LED), the LED could be an organic LED or inorganic LED (such as quantum-dot LED, Mini-LED, or Micro-LED), and the sizes of the LEDs in the illumination portions 110A, 110B, 110C, 110D, and 110E are different. That is, the maximal brightness of the illumination portions 110A, 110B, 110C, 110D, and 110E are different, and the sub-pixels 100(1,1) to 100(M,N) can present different grey levels with modulated illumination portions.
Also, each of the driving units 120A, 120B, 120C, 120D, and 120E is coupled to a corresponding illumination portion of the plurality of illumination portions 110A, 110B, 110C, 110D, and 110E, and can be used to drive the corresponding illumination portion to express a plurality of grey levels according to the data signal received in different frames. For example, the driving unit 120A can be coupled to the illumination portion 110A for driving the illumination portion 110A, and the driving unit 120E can be coupled to the illumination portion 110E for driving the illumination portion 110E.
That is, in
For example, the area of the illumination portion 110B can be N times the area of the illumination portion 110A, the driving unit 120A can drive the illumination portion 110A to emit light at N grey levels, the driving unit 120B can drive the illumination portion 110B to emit light at N grey levels. In this case, the illumination portions 110A and 110B are able to present a total of N2 grey levels, where N is an integer greater than 1.
The driving units 120A, 120B, 120C, 120D, and 120E can have the same structure. For example, the driving unit 120A includes a scan transistor 122, a capacitor 124, and a driving transistor 126. The scan transistor 122 has a first terminal coupled to a data line DLA, a second terminal, and a control terminal coupled to a scan line SCL1. The capacitor 124 has a first terminal coupled to the second terminal of the scan transistor 122, and a second terminal for receiving the voltage V1. The driving transistor 126 has a first terminal for receiving a voltage V2, a second terminal coupled to the LED of the illumination portion 110A, and a control terminal coupled to the second terminal of the scan transistor 122.
In this case, when the scan transistor 122 is turned on, the driving transistor 126 can adjust the current according to the data signal SIGDA. That is, by adjusting the voltage of the data signal SIGDA transmitted on the data line DLA, the driving transistor 126 can generate the current with the desired intensity so as to drive the illumination portion 110A to emit light at the corresponding grey level. In some embodiments, the capacitor 124 can keep the voltage of the data signal SIGDA to stabilize the current generated by the driving transistor 126.
In
Furthermore, in some embodiments, the anode of at least one of illumination portions 110A, 110B, 110C, 110D, and 110E may be coupled to the P-type doped layer through the region of the first ohmic contact.
In this case, the area of the region RA1 of the first ohmic contact OC1 contacting with the P-type doped layer PL1 will affect the actual current density received by the illumination portion. Therefore, the areas of regions RA1 (or RA2) of the ohmic contacts OC1 (or 0C2) contacting to the P-type doped layer PL1 (or the N-type doped layer NL1) of the illumination portions 110A, 110B, 110C, 110D, and 110E can also be different and can correspond to the area ratio of the illumination portions 110A, 110B, 110C, 110D, and 110E so as to adjust the amplitude of the current density. For example, the area of the region RA1 of the ohmic contact OC1 contacting the P-type doped layer in the first illumination portion 210A can be different from the area of the region RA1 of the ohmic contact OC1 contacting the P-type doped layer in the second illumination portion 210B.
Also, the area of the region RA2 of the second ohmic contact OC2 contacting with the N-type doped layer NL1 may also affect the actual current density received by the LED. Therefore, in some other embodiments, the area of the region RA2 of the second ohmic contact OC2 contacting the N-type doped layer NL1 in the first illumination portion 210A may also be different from the area of the region RA2 of the another ohmic contact OC2 contacting the N-type doped layer NL1 in the second illumination portion 210B.
In addition, in some embodiments, since sizes of the illumination portions 110A and 110E may be quite different, the display device 10 may further include a diffuser for diffusing the light emitted from the sub-pixels 100(1,1) to 100(M,N) so as to mitigate the issue of mura caused by the repeated patterns of the illumination portions of the sub-pixels 100(1,1) to 100(M,N).
In
The driving units 220A, 220B, 220C, 220D, and 220E can have the same structure. For example, the driving unit 220A can include a pulse width modulation circuit 222 and a driving circuit 224. The pulse width modulation circuit 222 can receive the data signal SIGDA and generate a pulse signal SIGPA with a duty ratio determined by the data signal SIGDA. The driving circuit 224 is coupled to the pulse width modulation circuit 222 and the LED of the corresponding illumination portion. The driving circuit 224 can generate a constant current with the duty ratio according to the pulse signal SIGPA.
In
In this case, the driving unit 220A can control the illumination portion 210A to express four different grey levels by adjusting the duty ratio of the constant current ID. Therefore, the amplitude of the current ID can be predetermined properly, preventing the color shift issue caused by small currents.
Also, in
In
In
The driving units 320A, 320B, 320C, and 320D can have the same structure. For example, the driving unit 320A can include a pulse width modulation circuit 322 and a driving circuit 324. The pulse width modulation 322 can receive a first data signal SIGDA1 and generate a pulse signal SIGPA with a duty ratio determined by the first data signal SIGDA1. Also, the driving circuit 324 can be coupled to the pulse width modulation circuit 322 and the LED of the corresponding illumination portion 310A. The driving circuit 324 can generate the current ID according to a second data signal SIGDA2, and output the current with the duty ratio determined by the pulse signal SIGPA. That is, the driving units 320A, 320B, 320C, and 320D can drive the illumination portions 310A, 310B, 310C, and 310D to express different grey levels by adjusting both the duty ratio and the amplitude of the current.
Furthermore, in some embodiments, the area ratio of the illumination portions 310A, 310B, 310C and 310D can be 1:8:64:512. Also, each of the driving units 320A, 320B, 320C, and 320D can drive the corresponding illumination portion to express eight grey levels. For example, the driving unit 320A coupled to the illumination portion 310A can drive the illumination portion 310A to express eight grey levels, and the driving unit 320B coupled to the illumination portion 310B can drive the illumination portion 310B to express eight grey levels. In this case, the illumination portions 310A and 310B will be able to present 64 grey levels, and the illumination portions 310A, 310B, 310C, and 310D will be able to present 4096 grey levels in total.
Table 1 shows the amplitude and the duty ratio of the current generated by the driving unit 320A for presenting the eight grey levels.
That is, to present the brightest grey level, the driving unit 320A can drive the illumination portion 310A by providing the current with the first amplitude (1) and a 100% duty ratio. Also, the driving unit 320A can drive the illumination portion 310A to express a second grey level by providing the current with the second amplitude (6/7) and a 100% duty ratio, the driving unit 320A can drive the illumination portion 310A to express a third grey level by providing the current with the third amplitude (5/7) and a 100% duty ratio, and the driving unit 320A can drive the illumination portion 310A to express a fourth grey level by providing the current with the fourth amplitude (4/7) and a 100% duty ratio. Also, the driving unit 320A can drive the illumination portion 310A to express a fifth grey level by generating the current with the second amplitude (6/7) and a 50% duty ratio, the driving unit 320A can drive the illumination portion 310A to express a sixth grey level by providing the current with the fourth amplitude (4/7) and a 50% duty ratio, and the driving unit 320A can drive the illumination portion 310A to express a seventh grey level by providing the current with the third amplitude (5/7) and a 20% duty ratio.
In this case, by adjusting the duty ratio, the driving unit 320A can drive the illumination portion 310A to present eight grey levels with currents having amplitude of 4 different levels without using low current, thereby preventing the color shift issue caused by small currents.
Furthermore, in table 1, to present the least grey level, the driving unit 320A can control the illumination portion 310A by providing the current with the first amplitude (1) and a 0% duty ratio. However, in some other embodiments, the driving unit 320 may also simply not drive the illumination portion 310A by not providing the current.
In some embodiments, the driving units 320B, 320C, and 320D can use similar approaches to drive the illumination portions 310B, 310C, and 310D. In this case, the 8 different grey levels presented by each illumination portion 310A, 310B, 310C, and 310D can be generated by 3 bits, then the grey level presented by the illumination portions 310A, 310B, 310C, and 310D can be determined by 12 bits. In this case, the illumination portion 310A can be controlled by the 3 least significant bits of the 12 bits, and the illumination portion 310D can be controlled by the 3 most significant bits of the 12 bits. Therefore, the sub-pixel 300 would be able to present 212 (4096) grey levels in total.
S410: providing at least one light emitting unit in the sub-pixel; and
S420: illuminating at least one of the plurality of illumination portions to express the grey level of the sub-pixel.
In some embodiments, the light emitting unit 110 can be provided in the sub-pixel 100(1,1) in step S410, and the illumination portions 110A, 110B, 110C, 110D and 110E can be illuminated in step S420. In some embodiments, step S420 can be performed adjusting the amplitudes of the currents provided to the illumination portions 110A, 110B, 110C, 110D and 110E. For example, the illumination portion 110A can be driven to express different grey levels with currents of different amplitude as shown in
Furthermore, the illumination portions 110A, 110B, 110C, 110D and 110E can be illuminated independently. For example, the current provided to the illumination portion 110A and the current provided to the illumination portion 110B may have different amplitude. In some other embodiments, if the method 400 is used to operate the sub-pixel 200 in
Also, the illumination portions 210A, 210B, 210C, 210D and 210E can be illuminated independently. For example, the current provided to the illumination portion 210A and the current provided to the illumination portion 210B may have different duty ratios.
In some other embodiments, if the method 400 is used to operate the sub-pixel 300 in
Also, the illumination portions 310A, 310B, 310C, and 310D can be illuminated independently. For example, the current provided to the illumination portion 310A and the current provided to the illumination portion 310B may have different amplitudes and different duty ratios.
In summary, the sub-pixels and the methods for expressing a grey level of a sub-pixel in a display device provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure can present different grey levels by controlling the brightness presented by a plurality of illumination portions. Therefore, the sub-pixels and the display device are able to present much more grey levels in different frames with a flexible design compared with prior art. Furthermore, by controlling the grey level of each illumination portion with the current having proper amplitude and a proper duty ratio, the color shift issue caused by small currents can be prevented.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the disclosure. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.
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