This Application claims priority of Taiwan Patent Application No. 101125969, filed on Jul. 19, 2012, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to panel displays, and in particular to pixel driving circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a pixel of an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, charges are stored in a storage capacitor for controlling the luminance of an OLED via a thin-film transistor (TFT). Referring to
However, when the above-mentioned TFT 102 is operating, a shift of the threshold voltage occurs on the TFT 102. The amount of voltage shift is related to the manufacturing process, operation time, and the current of the TFT 102. Therefore, in terms of all pixels on the display panel, due to the difference of the pixels in the operation time, conductive current, and manufacturing process, the amount of shift of the threshold voltage of each pixel is different, which in turn causes the luminance and the received pixel voltage of each pixel to have a different corresponding relationship. Therefore, the issue of non-uniform frame luminance occurs.
In addition, the OLED 106 has an increasing voltage drop, which is an increasing VOLED, along with the usage time. Referring to
There is therefore a need for a pixel driving circuit and a pixel driving method thereof to solve the variation of the thin-film transistors (TFT) and the aging of the OLED 106.
In light of the problems described above, the invention provides an embodiment of a pixel driving circuit, including first, second, third, fourth, and fifth switching devices and first and second capacitors. The first switching device has a first terminal coupled to a first power source voltage, and a control terminal coupled to a first scan signal line. The second switching device has a first terminal coupled to a second terminal of the first switching device, a second terminal coupled to a first node and an emitting device, and a control terminal coupled to a second node. The third switching device has a first terminal coupled between the first terminal of the second switching device and a second terminal of the first switching device, a second terminal coupled to the second node, and a control terminal coupled to a second scan signal line. The fourth switching device has a first terminal coupled to a data signal line, a second terminal coupled to the first node, and a control terminal coupled to a third scan signal line. The first and second capacitors are coupled in series between the first and second nodes. The fifth switching device has a first terminal coupled between the first and second capacitors, a second terminal coupled to a second power source voltage, and a control terminal coupled to the third scan signal line.
The disclosure also provides a pixel driving method applied to the pixel driving circuit. The pixel driving method includes the steps of: respectively discharging the first and second nodes to a reference voltage and a compensation voltage through the second, third and fourth switching devices in a compensation stage, wherein the compensation voltage is the sum of the reference voltage and a threshold voltage of the second switching device; loading a data signal into the first node through the fourth switching device according to a third scan signal output from the third scan signal line in a data input stage later than the compensation stage, wherein the data signal is a negative voltage; and delivering the data signal to the second node by the first and second capacitors in an emission stage later than the data input stage, such that the second switching device generates a driving current to the emitting device according to the voltage level of the second node.
The disclosure also provides a display panel including a pixel driving circuit. The pixel driving circuit includes first, second, third, fourth, and fifth switching devices and first and second capacitors as described above.
The disclosure also provides an electronic device having the display panel described above and a power supply. The power supply provides power to the display panel.
A detailed description is given in the following embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The present invention can be more fully understood by reading the subsequent detailed description and examples with references made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The following description is of the best-contemplated mode of carrying out the invention. This description is made for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the invention and should not be taken in a limiting sense. The scope of the invention is best determined by reference to the appended claims.
In detail, the switching device T4 has a first terminal D4 coupled to a power source voltage VDD, and a control terminal G4 coupled to a scan signal line SCAN3. The switching device T1 has a first terminal D1 coupled to the second terminal S4 of the switching device T4, a second terminal S1 coupled to a node N1 and the emitting device ED, and a control terminal G1 coupled to a node N2. The switching device T2 has a first terminal D2 coupled between the first terminal D1 of the switching device T1 and the second terminal S4 of the switching device T4, a second terminal S2 coupled to the node N2, and the control terminal G2 coupled to a scan signal line SCAN1. The switching device T3 has a first terminal D3 coupled to a data signal line DL, a second terminal S3 coupled to the node N1, and a control terminal G3 coupled to a scan signal line SCAN2. The capacitors C1 and C2 are coupled in series between the nodes N1 and N2. The switching device T5 has a first terminal D5 coupled between the capacitors C1 and C2, a second terminal S5 coupled to a power source voltage Vrst, and a control terminal G5 coupled to the scan signal line SCAN2. The power source voltage Vrst can be any level.
In the compensation stage P2 later than the reset stage P1, the switching devices T2, T3, and T5 operate in the on-state according to the scan signals SS1 and SS2, and the switching device T4 operates in the off-state according to the scan signal SS3, such that the switching device T1 operates in a diode connection state, and the nodes N1 and N2 are respectively discharged to a reference voltage Vref and a compensation voltage Vcp by switching devices T2 and T3, in which the compensation voltage Vcp is the sum of the reference voltage Vref and a threshold voltage Vth of the switching device T1 (Vcp=Vref+Vth). In addition, the reference voltage Vref is larger than the maximum gray scale voltage, and Vref<Vss+VOLED0, in which VOLED0 represents the threshold voltage of the emitting device ED, and Vss represents the level of the ground terminal.
In the data input stage P3 later than the compensation stage P2, the switching devices T3 and T5 operate in the on-state according to the scan signals SS2, and the switching devices T4, T1, and T2 operate in the off-state according to the scan signals SS3 and SS1, such that the switching device T3 loads the data signal Vdata into the node N1. Note that the data signal Vdata is a negative voltage, such that the emitting device ED can not be turned on since the node N1 feeds a negative bias to the emitting device ED.
In the emitting stage P4 later than the data input stage P3, the switching devices T2, T3, and T5 operate in the off-state according to the scan signals SS1 and SS2, and the switching device T4 operates in the on-state according to the scan signal SS3, such that the data signal Vdata is delivered to the node N2 by the capacitors C1 and C2. Therefore, the switching device T1 operates in a saturation state and generates the driving current Id to the emitting device ED according to the voltage level of the node N2.
In detail, when the emitting device ED operates in the on-state, the voltage level of the node N1 is changed from the data signal Vdata to the threshold voltage VOLED1, and the voltage level of the node N2 is changed from the compensation voltage Vcp to a first level V1 due to the voltage continuity of a capacitor at both ends, in which V1=Vref+Vth+VOLED1-Vdata. Therefore, the gate-source voltage of the switching device T1 can be described as follows:
Vgs=V1−VOLED1=(Vref+Vth+VOLED1−Vdata)−VOLED1=Vref−Vdata+Vth.
Since Vgs (the gate-source voltage of the switching device T1)>Vth and Vds (the drain-source voltage of the switching device T1)>(Vgs−Vth), the switching device T1 operates in the saturation state, and the driving current Id is only dependent on the gate voltage of the switching device T1. The description of the driving current Id is shown in the following:
K represents the gain coefficient of the transistors. Obviously, when the emitting device ED operates in the on-state, the driving current Id is independent of the threshold voltage Vth of the switching device T1 and the open circuit threshold voltage VOLED1 of the emitting device ED. Therefore, the brightness uniformity of the pixel driving circuits 300 can not be generated by variations in the threshold voltage of the transistors and the emitting device.
The gate driver 520 provides scan signals (e.g. the scan signals SS1˜SS3) to the pixel array 510 such that scan lines are asserted or de-asserted. The source driver 530 provides the data signals to the pixel driving circuits in the pixel array 510. The reference signal generator 540 provides the reference signals to the pixel driving circuits 300 in the pixel array 510, and can be integrated into the gate driver 520. Notably, the display panel 500 can be an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panel; however, various other technologies can be used in other embodiments.
Generally, the electronic device 600 includes a housing 610, a display panel 500, and a power supply 620, although it is to be understood that various other components can be included; however, such other components are not shown or described here for ease of illustration and description. In operation, the power supply 620 powers the display panel 500 so that the display panel 500 can display images.
The procedure enters step S74 in the emission stage P4 later than the data input stage P3, and the data signal Vdata is delivered to the node N2 by the capacitors C1 and C2, such that the switching device T1 generates the driving current Id to the emitting device ED according to the current voltage level of the node N2. Note that the whole pixels in the display panel 500 are reset and compensated for together by the pixel driving procedure of the disclosure. In other words, the pixel driving circuit 300 is a synchronous-compensation-type pixel driving circuit.
In conclusion, since the display panel 500 and the pixel driving circuit 300 are synchronous-emission-type pixel driving circuits, the emission period of the display panel 500 or the pixel driving circuit 300 is longer than the emission period of the progressive-emission-type pixel driving circuit. In addition, since the display panel 500 synchronously compensates for the threshold voltage variations of the whole pixels, the full screen blacking period of the display panel 500 is longer than the full screen blacking period of the progressive-emission-type pixel driving circuit, such that the shutter-glasses-type stereoscopic display device has enough time to switch the shutters in the black frame periods. Since any kinds of the N-type thin-film transistors can be adapted in the disclosure, the switching devices T1˜T5 can be the InGaZnO thin-film transistors having high resolution, low power consumption, and high color saturation to drive the emission device ED. In addition, no matter how diverse the threshold voltage Vth shift of the switching device T1 in each pixel is, and no matter what the decay extent of the emission device ED in each pixel is, the display can maintain the best image quality for a long usage time.
The foregoing has outlined features of several embodiments so that those skilled in the art may better understand the detailed description that follows. Those skilled in the art should appreciate that they may readily use the present disclosure as a basis for designing or modifying other processes and structures for carrying out the same purposes and/or achieving the same advantages of the embodiments introduced herein. Those skilled in the art should also realize that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure, and that they may make various changes, substitutions and alterations herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.
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Chinese language office action dated Mar. 2, 2015, issued in application No. 201210251232.5. |
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