Patent Grant
8026873
Reference is made to commonly-assigned, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/626,563 entitled “OLED Display with Aging and Efficiency Compensation” to Leon et al, dated Jan. 24, 2007, incorporated by reference herein.
The present invention relates to control of an analog signal applied to a drive transistor for supplying current through an electroluminescent device.
Flat-panel displays are of great interest as information displays for computing, entertainment, and communications. Electroluminescent (EL) flat-panel display technologies, such as organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology provides benefits in color gamut, luminance, and power consumption over other technologies such as liquid-crystal display (LCD) and plasma display panel (PDP). However, EL displays suffer from performance degradation over time. In order to provide a high-quality image over the life of the display, this degradation must be compensated for.
EL displays typically comprise an array of identical subpixels. Each subpixel comprises a drive transistor (typically thin-film, a TFT) and an EL device, the organic diode that actually emits light. The light output of an EL device is roughly proportional to the current through the device, so the drive transistor is typically configured as a voltage-controlled current source responsive to a gate-to-source voltage Vgs. Source drivers similar to those used in LCD displays provide the control voltages to the drive transistors. Source drivers convert a desired code value step 74 into an analog voltage step 75 to control a drive transistor. The relationship between code value and voltage is typically non-linear, although linear source drivers with higher bit depths are becoming available. Although the nonlinear code value-to-voltage relationship has a different shape for OLEDs than the characteristic LCD S-shape (shown in e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 4,896,947), the source driver electronics required are very similar between the two technologies. In addition to the similarity between LCD and EL source drivers, LCD displays and EL displays are typically manufactured on the same substrate: amorphous silicon (a-Si), as taught e.g. by Tanaka et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,034,340. Amorphous Si is inexpensive and easy to process into large displays.
Degradation Modes
Amorphous silicon, however, is metastable: over time, as voltage bias is applied to the gate of an a-Si TFT, its threshold voltage (Vth) shifts, thus shifting its I-V curve (Kagan & Andry, ed. Thin-film Transistors. New York: Marcel Dekker, 2003. Sec. 3.5, pp. 121-131). Vth typically increases over time under forward bias, so over time, Vth shift will, on average, cause a display to dim.
In addition to a-Si TFT instability, modern EL devices have their own instabilities. For example, in OLED devices, over time, as current passes through an OLED device, its forward voltage (Voled) increases and its efficiency (typically measured in cd/A) decreases (Shinar, ed. Organic Light-Emitting Devices: a survey. New York: Springer-Verlag, 2004. Sec. 3.4, pp. 95-97). The loss of efficiency causes a display to dim on average over time, even when driven with a constant current. Additionally, in typical OLED display configurations, the OLED is attached to the source of the drive transistor. In this configuration, increases in Voled will increase the source voltage of the transistor, lowering Vgs and thus, the current through the OLED device (Ioled), and therefore causing dimming over time.
These three effects (Vth shift, OLED efficiency loss, and Voled rise) cause each individual OLED subpixel to lose luminance over time at a rate proportional to the current passing through that OLED device. (Vth shift is the primary effect, Voled shift the secondary effect, and OLED efficiency loss the tertiary effect.) Therefore, as the display dims over time, those subpixels that are driven with more current will fade faster. This differential aging causes objectionable visible burn-in on displays. Differential aging is an increasing problem today as, for example, more and more broadcasters continuously superimpose their logos over their content in a fixed location. Typically, a logo is brighter than content around it, so the pixels in the logo age faster than the surrounding content, making a negative copy of the logo visible when watching content not containing the logo. Since logos typically contain high-spatial-frequency content (e.g. the AT&T globe), one subpixel can be heavily aged while an adjacent subpixel is only lightly aged. Therefore, each subpixel must be independently compensated for aging to eliminate objectionable visible burn-in.
Prior Art
It has been known to compensate for one or more of these three effects. Considering Vth shift, the primary effect and one which is reversible with applied bias (Mohan et al., “Stability issues in digital circuits in amorphous silicon technology,” Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2001, Vol. 1, pp. 583-588), compensation schemes are generally divided into four groups: in-pixel compensation, in-pixel measurement, in-panel measurement, and reverse bias.
In-pixel Vth compensation schemes add additional circuitry to each subpixel to compensate for the Vth shift as it happens. For example, Lee et al., in “A New a-Si:H TFT Pixel Design Compensating Threshold Voltage Degradation of TFT and OLED”, SID 2004 Digest, pp. 264-274, teach a seven-transistor, one-capacitor (7T1C) subpixel circuit which compensates for Vth shift by storing the Vth of each subpixel on that subpixel's storage capacitor before applying the desired data voltage. Methods such as this compensate for Vth shift, but they cannot compensate for Voled rise or OLED efficiency loss. These methods require increased subpixel complexity and increased subpixel electronics size compared to the conventional 2T1C voltage-drive subpixel circuit. Increased subpixel complexity reduces yield, because the finer features required are more vulnerable to fabrication errors. Particularly in typical bottom-emitting configurations, increased total size of the subpixel electronics increases power consumption because it reduces the aperture ratio, the percentage of each subpixel which emits light. Light emission of an OLED is proportional to area at a fixed current, so an OLED device with a smaller aperture ratio requires more current to produce the same luminance as an OLED with a larger aperture ratio. Additionally, higher currents in smaller areas increase current density in the OLED device, which accelerates Voled rise and OLED efficiency loss.
In-pixel measurement Vth compensation schemes add additional circuitry to each subpixel to allow values representative of Vth shift to be measured. Off-panel circuitry then processes the measurements and adjusts the drive of each subpixel to compensate for Vth shift. For example, Nathan et al., in US 2006/0273997(A1), teach a four-transistor pixel circuit which allows TFT degradation data to be measured as either current under given voltage conditions or voltage under given current conditions. Nara et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 7,199,602, teach adding an inspection interconnect to a display, and adding a switching transistor to each pixel of the display to connect it to the inspection interconnect. Kimura et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 6,518,962, teach adding correction TFTs to each pixel of a display to compensate for EL degradation. These methods share the disadvantages of in-pixel Vth compensation schemes, but some can additionally compensate for Voled shift or OLED efficiency loss.
Reverse-bias Vth compensation schemes use some form of reverse voltage bias to shift Vth back to some starting point. These methods cannot compensate for Voled rise or OLED efficiency loss. For example, Lo et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 7,116,058, teach modulating the reference voltage of the storage capacitor in an active-matrix pixel circuit to reverse-bias the drive transistor between each frame. Applying reverse-bias within or between frames prevents visible artifacts, but reduces duty cycle and thus peak brightness. Reverse-bias methods can compensate for the average Vth shift of the panel with less increase in power consumption than in-pixel compensation methods, but they require more complicated external power supplies, can require additional pixel circuitry or signal lines, and may not compensate individual subpixels that are more heavily faded than others.
Considering Voled shift and OLED efficiency loss, U.S. Pat. No. 6,995,519 by Arnold et al. is one example of a method that compensates for aging of an OLED device. This method assumes that the entire change in device luminance is caused by changes in the OLED emitter. However, when the drive transistors in the circuit are formed from a-Si, this assumption is not valid, as the threshold voltage of the transistors also changes with use. The method of Arnold will thus not provide complete compensation for subpixel aging in circuits wherein transistors show aging effects. Additionally, when methods such as reverse bias are used to mitigate a-Si transistor threshold voltage shifts, compensation of OLED efficiency loss can become unreliable without appropriate tracking/prediction of reverse bias effects, or a direct measurement of the OLED voltage change or transistor threshold voltage change.
Alternative methods for compensation measure the light output of each subpixel directly, as taught e.g. by Young et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,489,631. Such methods can compensate for changes in all three aging factors, but require either a very high-precision external light sensor, or integrated light sensors in each subpixel. An external light sensor adds to the cost and complexity of a device, while integrated light sensors increase subpixel complexity and electronics size, with attendant performance reductions.
Existing Vth compensation schemes are not without drawbacks, and few of them compensate for Voled rise or OLED efficiency loss. Those that compensate each subpixel for Vth shift do so at the cost of panel complexity and lower yield. There is a continuing need, therefore, for improving compensation to overcome these objections to compensate for EL panel degradation and prevent objectionable visible burn-in over the entire lifetime of an EL display panel.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided apparatus for providing an analog drive transistor control signal to the gate electrode of a drive transistor in a drive circuit that applies current to an EL device, the drive circuit including a voltage supply electrically connected to a first supply electrode of the drive transistor and the EL device electrically connected to a second supply electrode of the drive transistor, comprising:
There is also provided a method for providing an analog drive transistor control signal to the gate electrode of a drive transistor in a drive circuit that applies current to an EL device, the drive circuit including a voltage supply electrically connected to a first supply electrode of the drive transistor and the EL device electrically connected to a second supply electrode of the drive transistor, comprising:
There is further provided, an apparatus for providing analog drive transistor control signals to the gate electrodes of drive transistors in a plurality of EL subpixels in an EL panel, including a first voltage supply, a second voltage supply, and a plurality of EL subpixels in the EL panel; an EL device in a drive circuit for applying current to the EL device in each EL subpixel; each drive circuit including a drive transistor with a first supply electrode electrically connected to the first voltage supply and a second supply electrode electrically connected to a first electrode of the EL device; and each EL device including a second electrode electrically connected to the second voltage supply, the improvement comprising:
The present invention provides an effective way of providing the analog drive transistor control signal. It requires only one measurement to perform compensation. It can be applied to any active-matrix backplane. The compensation of the control signal has been simplified by using a look-up table (LUT) to change signals from nonlinear to linear so compensation can be in linear voltage domain. It compensates for Vth shift, Voled shift, and OLED efficiency loss without requiring complex pixel circuitry or external measurement devices. It does not decrease the aperture ratio of a subpixel. It has no effect on the normal operation of the panel.
The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent when taken in conjunction with the following description and drawings wherein identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical features that are common to the figures, and wherein:
a is a timing diagram for operating the measurement circuit of
b is a timing diagram for operating the measurement circuit of
a is a representative I-V characteristic curve of un-aged and aged subpixels, showing Vth shift;
b is a representative I-V characteristic curve of un-aged and aged subpixels, showing Vth and Voled shift;
a is a high-level dataflow diagram of the compensator of
b is part one (of two) of a detailed dataflow diagram of the compensator;
c is part two (of two) of a detailed dataflow diagram of the compensator;
The present invention compensates for degradation in the drive transistors and EL devices on an active-matrix EL display panel. In one embodiment, it compensates for Vth shift, Voled shift, and OLED efficiency loss of all subixels on an active-matrix OLED panel. A panel comprises a plurality of pixels, each of which comprises one or more subpixels. For example, each pixel might comprise a red, a green, and a blue subpixel. Each subpixel comprises an EL device, which emits light, and surrounding electronics. A subpixel is the smallest addressable element of a panel. The EL device can be an OLED device.
The discussion to follow first considers the system as a whole. It then proceeds to the electrical details of a subpixel, followed by the electrical details for measuring one subpixel and the timing for measuring multiple subpixels. It next covers how the compensator uses measurements. Finally, it describes how this system is implemented in one embodiment, e.g. in a consumer product, from the factory to end-of-life.
Overview
The compensator 13 takes in the linear code value, which can correspond to the particular light intensity commanded from the EL subpixel. Variations in the drive transistor and EL device caused by operation of the drive transistor and EL device in the EL subpixel over time mean that the EL subpixel will generally not produce the commanded light intensity in response to the linear code value. The compensator 13 outputs a changed linear code value that will cause the EL subpixel to produce the commanded intensity. The operation of the compensator will be discussed further in “Implementation,” below.
The changed linear code value from the compensator 13 is passed to a linear source driver 14 which can be a digital-to-analog converter. The linear source driver 14 produces an analog drive transistor control signal, which can be a voltage, in response to the changed linear code value. The linear source driver 14 can be a source driver designed to be linear, or a conventional LCD or OLED source driver with its gamma voltages set to produce an approximately linear output. In the latter case, any deviations from linearity will affect the quality of the results. The linear source driver 14 can also be a time-division (digital-drive) source driver, as taught e.g. in commonly assigned WO 2005/116971 A1 by Kawabe. In this case, the analog voltage from the source driver is set at a predetermined level commanding light output for an amount of time dependent on the output signal from the compensator. A conventional linear source driver, by contrast, provides an analog voltage at a level dependent on the output signal from the compensator for a fixed amount of time (generally the entire frame). A linear source driver can output one or more analog drive transistor control signals simultaneously. In one embodiment of the present invention, an EL panel can have a linear source driver including one or more microchips and each microchip can output one or more analog drive transistor control signals, so that there are simultaneously produced a number of analog drive transistor control signals equal to the number of columns of EL subpixels in the EL panel.
The analog drive transistor control signal produced by the linear source driver 14 is provided to an EL drive circuit 15, which can be an EL subpixel. This circuit comprises a drive transistor and an EL device, as will be discussed in “Display element description,” below. When the analog voltage is provided to the gate electrode of the drive transistor, current flows through the drive transistor and EL device, causing the EL device to emit light. There is generally a linear relationship between current through the EL device and luminance of the output device, and a nonlinear relationship between voltage applied to the drive transistor and current through the EL device. The total amount of light emitted by an EL device during a frame can thus be a nonlinear function of the voltage from the linear source driver 14.
The current flowing through the EL drive circuit is measured under specific drive conditions by a current-measurement circuit 16, as will be discussed further in “Data collection,” below. The measured current for the EL subpixel provides the compensator with the information it needs to adjust the commanded drive signal. This will be discussed further in “Algorithm,” below.
This system can compensate for variations in drive transistors and EL devices in an EL panel over the operational lifetime of the EL panel, as will be discussed further in “Sequence of operations,” below.
Display Element Description
In one embodiment of the present invention, first supply electrode 204 is electrically connected to first voltage supply 211 through PVDD bus line 1011, second electrode 208 is electrically connected to second voltage supply 206 through sheet cathode 1012, and the analog drive transistor control signal for is provided to gate electrode 203 by linear source driver 14.
The present invention provides an analog drive transistor control signal to the gate electrode of the drive transistor. In order to provide a control signal, which compensates for variations in the characteristics of the drive transistor and EL device caused by operation of the drive transistor and EL device over time, that variation must be known. The variation is determined by measuring the current passing through the first and second supply electrodes of the drive transistor at different times to provide an aging signal representing the variations. This will be described in detail below, in “Algorithm.” The aging signal can be digital or analog. It can be a representation of a voltage or a current.
The behavior of the drive transistor 201, which is generally a FET, and EL device 202 is such that essentially the same current passes from first voltage supply 211, through the first supply electrode 204 and the second supply electrode 205, through the EL device electrodes 207 and 208, to the second voltage supply 206. Therefore, current can be measured at any point in that chain. Current can be measured off the EL panel at the first voltage supply 211 to reduce the complexity of the EL subpixel. In one embodiment, the present invention uses a current mirror unit 210, a correlated double-sampling unit 220, and an analog-to-digital converter 230. These will be described in detail below, in “Data collection.”
The drive circuit 15 shown in
Data Collection
Hardware
Still referring to
The current mirror unit 210 is attached to voltage supply 211, although it can be attached to supply 211, supply 206, or anywhere else in the current path passing through the EL device and the first and second supply electrodes of the drive transistor. This is the path of the drive current, which causes the EL device to emit light. First current mirror 212 supplies drive current to the EL drive circuit 15 through switch 200, and produces a mirrored current on its output 213. The mirrored current can be equal to the drive current. In general, it can be a function of the drive current. For example, the mirrored current can be a multiple of the drive current to provide additional measurement-system gain. Second current mirror 214 and bias supply 215 apply a bias current to the first current mirror 212 to reduce voltage variations in the first current mirror, so that measurements are not affected by parasitic impedances in the circuit. This circuit also reduces changes in the current through the EL subpixels being measured due to voltage changes in the current mirror resulting from current draw of the measurement circuit. This advantageously improves signal-to-noise ratio over other current-measurement options, such as a simple sense resistor, which can change voltages at the drive transistor terminals depending on current. Finally, current-to-voltage (I-to-V) converter 216 converts the mirrored current from the first current mirror into a voltage signal for further processing. I-to-V converter 216 can comprise a transimpedance amplifier or a low-pass filter. For a single EL subpixel, the output of the I-to-V converter can be the aging signal for that subpixel. For measurements of multiple subpixels, as will be discussed below, the measurement circuitry can include further circuitry responsive to the voltage signal for producing an aging signal. As the characteristics of the drive transistor and EL device vary due to operation of the drive transistor and EL device over time, Vth and Voled will vary, as described above. Consequently, the measured current, and thus the aging signal, will change in response to these variations. This will be discussed further in “Algorithm”, below.
In one embodiment, first voltage supply 211 can have a potential of +15VDC, second power supply 206 −5VDC, and bias supply 215 −16VDC. The potential of the bias supply 215 can be selected based on the potential of the first voltage supply 211 to provide a stable bias current at all measurement current levels.
When EL subpixels are not being measured, the current mirror can be electrically disconnected from the panel by switch 200, which can be a relay or FET. The switch can selectively electrically connect the measuring circuit to the drive current flow through the first and second electrodes of the drive transistor 201. During measurement, the switch 200 can electrically connect first voltage supply 211 to first current mirror 212 to allow measurements. During normal operation, the switch 200 can electrically connect first voltage supply 211 directly to first supply electrode 204 rather than to first current mirror 212, thus removing the measuring circuit from the drive current flow. This causes the measurement circuitry to have no effect on normal operation of the panel. It also advantageously allows the measurement circuit's components, such as the transistors in the current mirrors 212 and 214, to be sized only for measurement currents and not for operational currents. As normal operation generally draws much more current than measurement, this allows substantial reduction in the size and cost of the measurement circuit.
Sampling
The current mirror unit 210 allows measurement of the current for one EL subpixel. To measure the current for multiple subpixels, in one embodiment the present invention uses correlated double-sampling, with a timing scheme usable with standard OLED source drivers.
Referring to
The EL panel also includes first voltage supply 211 and second voltage supply 206. Referring to
As shown on
In typical operation of this panel, the source driver 31 drives appropriate analog drive transistor control signals on the column lines 32. The gate driver 33 then activates the first row line 34a, causing the appropriate control signals to pass through the select transistors 36 to the gate electrodes of the appropriate drive transistors 201 to cause those transistors to apply current to their attached EL devices 202. The gate driver then deactivates the first row line 34a, preventing control signals for other rows from corrupting the values passed through the select transistors. The source driver drives control signals for the next row on the column lines, and the gate driver activates the next row 34b. This process repeats for all rows. In this way all subpixels on the panel receive appropriate control signals, one row at a time. The row time is the time between activating one row line (e.g. 34a) and activating the next (e.g. 34b). This time is generally constant for all rows.
According to the present invention, this row stepping is used advantageously to activate only one subpixel at a time, working down a column. Referring to
Correlated double-sampling unit 220 samples the measured currents to produce aging signals. In hardware, currents are measured by latching their corresponding voltage signals from current mirror unit 210 into the sample-and-hold units 221 and 222 of
Sources of Noise
In practice, the current waveform can be other than a clean step, so measurements can be taken only after waiting for the waveform to settle. Multiple measurements of each subpixel can also be taken and averaged together. Such measurements can be taken consecutively before advancing to the next subpixel. Such measurements can also be taken in separate measurement passes, in which each subpixel on the panel is measured in each pass. Capacitance between voltage supplies 206 and 211 can add to the settling time. This capacitance can be intrinsic to the panel or provided by external capacitors, as is common in normal operation. It can be advantageous to provide a switch that can be used to electrically disconnect the external capacitors while taking measurements. This will reduce settling time.
All power supplies should be kept as clean as possible. Noise on any power supply will affect the current measurement. For example, noise on the power supply which the gate driver uses to deactivate rows (often called VGL or Voff, and typically around −8VDC) can capacitively couple across the select transistor into the drive transistor and affect the current, thus making current measurements noisier. If a panel has multiple power-supply regions, for example a split supply plane, those regions can be measured in parallel. Such measurement can isolate noise between regions and reduce measurement time.
One major source of noise can be the source driver itself. Whenever the source driver switches, its noise transients can couple into the power supply planes and the individual subpixels, causing measurement noise. To reduce this noise, the control signals out of the source driver can be held constant while stepping down a column. For example, when measuring a column of red subpixels on an RGB stripe panel, the red code value supplied to the source driver for that column can be constant for the entire column. This will eliminate source-driver transient noise.
Source driver transients can be unavoidable at the beginning and ends of columns, as the source driver has to change from activating the present column (e.g. 32a) to activating the next column (e.g. 32b). Consequently, measurements for the first and last one or more subpixels in any column can be subject to noise due to transients. In one embodiment, the EL panel can have extra rows, not visible to the user, above and below the visible rows. There can be enough extra rows that the source driver transients occur only in those extra rows, so measurements of visible subpixels do not suffer. In another embodiment, a delay can be inserted between the source driver transient at the beginning of a column and the measurement of the first row in that column, and between the measurement of the last row in that column and the source driver transient at the end of a column.
The panel can draw some current even when all subpixels are turned off. This “dark current” can be due to drive transistor leakage in cutoff. Dark current adds DC bias noise to the measured currents. It can be removed by taking a measurement with all subpixels off before activating the first subpixel, as shown by point 49 on
Current Stability
This discussion so far assumes that once a subpixel is turned on and settles to some current, it remains at that current for the remainder of the column. Two effects that can violate that assumption are storage-capacitor leaking and within-subpixel effects.
A storage capacitor, as known in the art, can be part of every subpixel, and can be electrically connected between the drive transistor gate and a reference voltage. Leakage current of the select transistor in a subpixel can gradually bleed off charge on the storage capacitor, changing the gate voltage of the drive transistor and thus the current drawn. Additionally, if the column line attached to a subpixel is changing value over time, it has an AC component, and therefore can couple through the parasitic capacitances of the select transistor onto the storage capacitor, changing the storage capacitor's value and thus the current drawn by the subpixel.
Even when the storage capacitor's value is stable, within-subpixel effects can corrupt measurements. A common within-subpixel effect is self-heating of the subpixel, which can change the current drawn by the subpixel over time. The drift mobility of an a-Si TFT is a function of temperature; increasing temperature increases mobility (Kagan & Andry, op. cit., sec. 2.2.2, pp. 42-43). As current flows through the drive transistor, power dissipation in the drive transistor and in the EL device will heat the subpixel, increasing the temperature of the transistor and thus its mobility. Additionally, heat lowers Voled; in cases where the OLED is attached to the source terminal of the drive transistor, this can increase Vgs of the drive transistor. These effects increase the amount of current flowing through the transistor. Under normal operation, self-heating can be a minor effect, as the panel can stabilize to an average temperature based on the average contents of the image it is displaying. However, when measuring subpixel currents, self-heating can corrupt measurements. Referring to
To correct for self-heating effects and any other within-subpixel effects producing similar noise signatures, the self-heating can be characterized and subtracted off the known self-heating component of each subpixel. Each subpixel generally increases current by the same amount during each row time, so with each succeeding subpixel the self-heating for all active subpixels can be subtracted off. For example, to get subpixel 3's current 424, measurement 423 can be reduced by self-heating component 422, which is twice component 421: component 421 per subpixel, times two subpixels already active. The self-heating can be characterized by turning on one subpixel for tens or hundreds of row times and measuring its current periodically while it is on. The average slope of the current with respect to time can be multiplied by one row time to calculate the rise per subpixel per row time 421.
Error due to self-heating, and power dissipation, can be reduced by selecting a lower measurement reference gate voltage (
Algorithm
Referring to
In the example of
In general, the current of an aged subpixel could be higher or lower than that of an un-aged subpixel. For example, higher temperatures cause more current to flow, so a lightly-aged subpixel in a hot environment could draw more current than an unaged subpixel in a cold environment. The compensation algorithm of the present invention can handle either case; ΔVth 514 can be positive or negative (or zero, for unaged pixels). Similarly, percent current can be greater or less than 100% (or exactly 100%, for unaged pixels).
Since the voltage difference due to Vth shift is the same at all currents, any single point on the I-V curve can be measured to determine that difference. In one embodiment, measurements are taken at high gate voltages, advantageously increasing signal-to-noise ratio of the measurements, but any gate voltage on the curve can be used.
Voled shift is the secondary aging effect. As the EL device is operated, Voled shifts, causing the aged I-V curve to no longer be a simple shift of the un-aged curve. This is because Voled rises nonlinearly with current, so Voled shift will affect high currents differently than low currents. This effect causes the I-V curve to stretch horizontally as well as shifting. To compensate for Voled shift, two measurements at different drive levels can be taken to determine how much the curve has stretched, or the typical Voled shift of OLEDs under load can be characterized to allow estimation of Voled contribution in an open-loop manner. Both can produce acceptable results. Referring to
OLED efficiency loss is the tertiary aging effect. As an OLED ages, its efficiency decreases, and the same amount of current no longer produces the same amount of light. To compensate for this without requiring optical sensors or additional electronics, OLED efficiency loss as a function of Vth shift can be characterized, allowing estimation of the amount of extra current required to return the light output to its previous level. OLED efficiency loss can be characterized by driving an instrumented OLED subpixel with a typical input signal for a long period of time, and periodically measuring Vth, Voled and Ioled at various drive levels. Efficiency can be calculated as Ioled/Voled, and that calculation can be correlated to Vth or percent current. Note that this characterization achieves most effective results when Vth shift is always forward, since Vth shift is easily reversible but OLED efficiency loss is not. If Vth shift is reversed, correlating OLED efficiency loss with Vth shift can become complicated. For further processing, percent efficiency can be calculated as aged efficiency divided by new efficiency, analogously to the calculation of percent current described above.
Referring to
The characteristics of the drive transistor and EL device, including Vth and Voled, vary over time due to operation of the drive transistor and EL device over time. Percent current can be used as an aging signal representing, and enabling compensation for, these variations.
Although this algorithm has been described in the context of OLED devices, other EL devices can also be compensated for by applying these analyses as will be obvious to those skilled in the art.
Implementation
Referring to
The inputs to compensator 60 are the position of a subpixel 601 and the linear code value of that subpixel 602, which can represent a commanded drive voltage. The compensator changes the linear code value to produce a changed linear code value for a linear source driver, which can be e.g. a compensated voltage out 603. The compensator can include four major blocks: determining a subpixel's age 61, optionally compensating for OLED efficiency 62, determining the compensation based on age 63, and compensating 64. Blocks 61 and 62 are primarily related to OLED efficiency compensation, and blocks 63 and 64 are primarily related to voltage compensation, specifically Vth/Voled compensation.
b is an expanded view of blocks 61 and 62. The subpixel's location 601 is used to retrieve a stored reference aging signal measurement taken at manufacturing i0 611 and a most recent stored aging signal measurement i1 612. The aging signal measurements can be aging signals output by the measuring circuit described in “Data collection,” above. The measurements can be measurements of the aging signal of the subpixel at position 601 at different times. These measurements can be stored in a memory 619, which can include nonvolatile RAM, such as a Flash memory, and ROM, such as EEPROM. The i0 measurements can be stored in NVRAM or ROM; the i1 measurements can be stored in NVRAM. Measurement 612 can be a single measurement, an average of a number of measurements, an exponentially-weighted moving average of measurements over time, or the result of other smoothing methods which will be obvious to those skilled in the art.
Percent current 613 can be calculated, as described above, as i1/i0, and can be 0 (dead pixel), 1 (no change), less than 1 (current loss) or greater than 1 (current gain). Generally it will be between 0 and 1, because the most recent aging signal measurement will be lower than the manufacturing-time measurement. Percent current can itself be an aging signal, as it represents variations in current just as the individual measurements i0 and i1 do, in which case it can be stored in memory 619 directly.
Percent current 613 is sent to the next processing stage 63, and is also input to a model 695 to determine the percent OLED efficiency 614. Model 695 outputs an efficiency 614 which is the amount of light emitted for a given current at the time of the most recent measurement, divided by the amount of light emitted for that current at manufacturing time. Any percent current greater than 1 can yield an efficiency of 1, or no loss, since efficiency loss can be difficult to calculate for pixels which have gained current. Model 695 can also be a function of the linear code value 602, as indicated by the dashed arrow, in cases where OLED efficiency depends on commanded current. Whether to include linear code value 602 as an input to model 695 can be determined by life testing and modeling of a panel design.
In parallel, the compensator receives a linear code value, for example commanded voltage in 602. This linear code value is passed through the original I-V curve 691 of the panel measured at manufacturing time to determine the desired current 621. This is divided by the percent efficiency 614 in operation 628 to return the light output for the desired current to its manufacturing-time value. The resulting, boosted current is then passed through curve 692, the inverse of curve 691, to determine what commanded voltage will produce the amount of light desired in the presence of efficiency loss. The value out of curve 692 is passed to the next stage as efficiency-adjusted voltage 622.
If efficiency compensation is not desired, input voltage 602 is sent unchanged to the next stage as efficiency-adjusted voltage 622, as indicated by optional bypass path 626. In this case the percent current 613 should still be calculated, but the percent efficiency 614 need not be.
c is an expanded view of
Vout=Vin+ΔVth(1+α(Vg,ref−Vin) (Eq. 1)
where Vout is 603, ΔVth is 631, α is alpha value 632, Vg,ref is the measurement reference gate voltage 510, and Vin is the efficiency-adjusted voltage 622. The compensated voltage out can be expressed as a changed linear code value for a linear source driver, and compensates for variations in the characteristics of the drive transistor and EL device.
In the case of straight Vth shift, α will be zero, and operation 633 will reduce to adding the Vth shift amount to the efficiency-adjusted voltage 622. For any particular subpixel, the amount to add is constant until new measurements are taken. Therefore, in this case, the voltage to add in operation 633 can be pre-computed after measurements are taken, allowing blocks 63 and 64 to collapse to looking up the stored value and adding it. This can save considerable logic.
Cross-Domain Processing, and Bit Depth
Image-processing paths known in the art typically produce nonlinear code values (NLCVs), that is, digital values having a nonlinear relationship to luminance (Giorgianni & Madden. Digital Color Management: encoding solutions. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1998. Ch. 13, pp. 283-295). Using nonlinear outputs matches the input domain of a typical source driver, and matches the code value precision range to the human eye's precision range. However, Vth shift is a voltage-domain operation, and thus is most easily implemented in a linear-voltage space. A linear source driver can be used, and domain conversion performed before the source driver, to effectively integrate a nonlinear-domain image-processing path with a linear-domain compensator. Note that while this discussion is in terms of digital processing, analogous processing could be performed in an analog or mixed digital/analog system. Note also that the compensator can operate in linear spaces other than voltage. For example, the compensator can operate in a linear current space.
Referring to
Referring to Quadrant I, Domain-conversion unit 12 receives nonlinear input signals, e.g. NLCVs, and converts them to LCVs. This conversion should be performed with sufficient resolution to avoid objectionable visible artifacts such as contouring and crushed blacks. In digital systems, NLCV axis 701 can be quantized, as indicated on
Transform 711 is an ideal transform for an unaged subpixel. It has no relationship to aging of any subpixel or the panel as a whole. Specifically, transform 711 is not modified due to any Vth, Voled, or OLED efficiency changes. There can be one transform for all colors, or one transform for each color. The domain-conversion unit, through transform 711, advantageously decouples the image-processing path from the compensator, allowing the two to operate together without having to share information. This simplifies the implementation of both.
Referring to Quadrant II, compensator 13 changes LCVs to changed linear code values (CLCVs) on a per-subpixel basis.
Curve 721 represents the compensator's behavior for an unaged subpixel. In this case, the CLCV can be the same as the LCV. Curve 722 represents the compensator's behavior for an aged subpixel. In this case, the CLCV can be the LCV plus an offset representing the Vth shift of the subpixel in question. Consequently, the CLCVs will generally require a large range than the LCVs in order to provide headroom for compensation. For example, if a subpixel requires 256 LCVs when it is new, and the maximum shift over its lifetime is 128 LCVs, the CLCVs will need to be able to represent values up to 384=256+128 to avoid clipping the compensation of heavily-aged subpixels.
In practice, the NLCVs can be code values from an image-processing path, and can have eight bits or more. There can be an NLCV for each subpixel on a panel, for each frame. The LCVs can be linear values representing voltages to be driven by a source driver, and can have more bits than the NLCVs in order to have sufficient resolution, as described above. The CLCVs can also be linear values representing voltages to be driven by the source driver. They can have more bits than the LCVs in order to provide headroom for compensation, also as described above. There can be an LCV and a CLCV for each subpixel, each produced from the input NLCV as described herein.
In one embodiment, the code values (NLCVs), or nonlinear input signals, from the image-processing path are nine bits wide. The linear code values, which can represent voltages, are 11 bits wide. The transformation from nonlinear input signals to linear code values can be performed by a LUT or function. The compensator can take in the 11-bit linear code value representing the desired voltage and produce a 12-bit changed linear code value to send to a linear source driver 14. The linear source driver can then drive the gate electrode of the drive transistor of an attached EL subpixel in response to the changed linear code value. The compensator can have greater bit depth on its output than its input to provide headroom for compensation, that is, to extend the voltage range 78 to voltage range 79 while keeping the same resolution across the new, expanded range, as required for minimum linear code value step 74. The compensator output range can extend below the range of curve 71 as well as above it.
Each panel design can be characterized to determine what the maximum Vth shift 73, Voled rise and efficiency loss will be over the design life of a panel, and the compensator and source drivers can have enough range to compensate. This characterization can proceed from required current to required gate bias and transistor dimensions via the standard transistor saturation-region Ids equation, then to Vth shift over time via various models known in the art for a-Si degradation over time.
Sequence of Operations
Panel Design Characterization
This section is written in the context of mass-production of a particular OLED panel design. Before mass-production begins, the design can be characterized: accelerated life testing can be performed, and I-V curves are measured for various subpixels of various colors on various sample panels aged to various levels. The number and type of measurements required, and of aging levels, depend on the characteristics of the particular panel. With these measurements, a value alpha (α) can be calculated and a measurement reference gate voltage can be selected. Alpha (
The α value can be calculated by optimization. An example is given in Table 1. ΔVth can be measured at a number of gate voltages, under a number of aging conditions. ΔVth differences are then calculated between each ΔVth and the ΔVth at the measurement reference gate voltage 310. Vg differences are calculated between each gate voltage and the measurement reference gate voltage 310. The inner term of Eq. 1, ΔVth·α·(Vg,ref−Vin), can then be computed for each measurement to yield a predicted ΔVth difference, using the appropriate ΔVth at the measurement reference gate voltage 310 as ΔVth in the equation, and using the appropriate calculated gate voltage difference as (Vg,ref−Vin). The α value can then be selected iteratively to reduce, and preferable mathematically minimize, the error between the predicted ΔVth differences and the calculated ΔVth differences. Error can be expressed as the maximum difference or the RMS difference. Alternative methods known in the art, such as least-squares fitting of ΔVth difference as a function of Vg difference, can also be used.
In addition to α and the measurement reference gate voltage, characterization can also determine, as described above, Voled shift as a function of Vth shift, efficiency loss as a function of Vth shift, self-heating component per subpixel, maximum Vth shift, Voled shift and efficiency loss, and resolution required in the nonlinear-to-linear transform and in the compensator. Resolution required can be characterized in conjunction with a panel calibration procedure such as co-pending commonly-assigned U.S. Ser. No. 11/734,934, “Calibrating RGBW Displays” by Alessi et al., dated Apr. 13, 2007, incorporated by reference herein. Characterization also determines, as will be described in “In the field,” below, the conditions for taking characterization measurements in the field. All these determinations can be made by those skilled in the art.
Mass-Production
Once the design has been characterized, mass-production can begin. At manufacturing time, one or more I-V curves are measured for each panel produced. These panel curves can be averages of curves for multiple subpixels. There can be separate curves for different colors, or for different regions of the panel. Current can be measured at enough drive voltages to make a realistic I-V curve; any errors in the I-V curve can affect the results. Also at manufacturing time, the reference current, the current at the measurement reference gate voltage, can be measured for every subpixel on the panel. The I-V curves and reference currents are stored with the panel and it is sent into the field.
In the Field
Once in the field, the subpixels on the panel age at different rates depending on how hard they are driven. After some time one or more pixels have shifted far enough that they need to be compensated; how to determine that time is considered below.
To compensate, compensation measurements are taken and applied. The compensation measurements are of the current of each subpixel at the measurement reference gate voltage. The measurements are applied as described in “Algorithm,” above. The measurements are stored so they can be applied whenever that subpixel is driven, until the next time measurements are taken. The entire panel or any subset thereof can be measured when taking compensation measurements; when driving any subpixel, the most recent measurements for that subpixel can be used in the compensation. This also means a first subset of the subpixels can be measured at one time and second subset at another time, allowing compensation across the panel even if not every subpixel has been measured in the most recent pass. Blocks larger than one subpixel can also be measured, and the same compensation applied to every subpixel in the block, but doing so requires care to avoid introducing block-boundary artifacts. Additionally, measuring blocks larger than one subpixel introduces vulnerability to visible burn-in of high spatial-frequency patterns; such patterns can have features smaller than the block size. This vulnerability can be traded off against the decreased time required to measure multiple-subpixel blocks compared to individual subpixels.
Compensation measurements can be taken as frequently or infrequently as desired; a typical range can be once every eight hours to once every four weeks.
The invention has been described in detail with particular reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, but it will be understood that variations and modifications can be effected within the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, the above embodiments are constructed wherein the transistors in the drive circuits are n-channel transistors. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that embodiments wherein the transistors are p-channel transistors, or some combination of n-channel and p-channel, with appropriate well-known modifications to the circuits, can also be useful in this invention. Additionally, the embodiments described show the OLED in a non-inverted (common-cathode) configuration; this invention also applies to inverted (common-anode) configurations. The above embodiments are further constructed wherein the transistors in the drive circuits are a-Si transistors. The above embodiments can apply to any active matrix backplane that is not stable as a function of time. For instance, transistors formed from organic semiconductor materials and zinc oxide are known to vary as a function of time and therefore this same approach can be applied to these transistors. Furthermore, as the present invention can compensate for EL device aging independently of transistor aging, this invention can also be applied to an active-matrix backplane with transistors that do not age, such as LTPS TETs. This invention also applies to EL devices other than OLEDs. Although the degradation modes of other EL device types can be different than the degradation modes described herein, the measurement, modeling, and compensation techniques of the present invention can still be applied.
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