CN101561984B - flat display panel - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a flat display panel, which comprises a substrate, a first driving wire, a second driving wire and an electrostatic protection circuit. The electrostatic protection circuit is arranged around the substrate and comprises a first crossover circuit, a second crossover circuit and a first electrostatic discharge protection element. The first crossover line crosses over the first drive line at the first crossover. The second crossover line crosses over the second drive line at the second crossover. The first electrostatic discharge protection element is electrically connected with the first cross-connection line and the second cross-connection line. Therefore, the flat display panel can avoid the leakage current caused by the damage of the first or the second bridging parts.

Description

flat display panel

technical field

The present invention relates to a flat display, and in particular to a flat display panel with an electrostatic discharge (Electronic Static Discharge, ESD for short) protection circuit.

Background technique

In daily life environment, the phenomenon of ESD can be seen everywhere. Basically, due to the different affinity of electrons for various objects, any two objects that are in contact and then separated will easily produce the phenomenon of charge transfer between objects, resulting in the accumulation of static electricity. Once the static electricity in the object accumulates to a certain extent, when the object with static electricity touches or approaches another object with a different potential, the phenomenon of instantaneous charge transfer will occur, which is the so-called ESD.

Specifically, electronic products have a high possibility of being damaged by ESD during the process of manufacturing, production, assembly, transportation, and even use after purchase by consumers. Therefore, electronic products must have ESD protection design in order to effectively prolong their service life. Especially for products made by advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes, such as integrated circuits (ICs), flat-panel displays, etc., due to the small size of their constituent components, when the components are subjected to instantaneous high-voltage ESD, the internal components of the integrated circuit or flat-panel display Wiring can easily be permanently damaged and result in component failure.

In current flat-panel displays, the ESD phenomenon will cause dot defects (DotDefect) or line defects (Line Defect) to occur on the flat-panel displays. In the manufacturing process of the flat panel display, since the ESD phenomenon cannot be completely avoided, the prior art often utilizes an ESD protection circuit in the flat panel display to avoid damage caused by the ESD phenomenon. In current flat panel displays, a common ESD protection circuit is an inner ESD protection ring (Inner Short Ring, ISR for short).

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an existing ESD protection circuit. Referring to FIG. 1 , the flat display panel 10 includes a substrate 70 , a plurality of pixel units (represented by a pixel unit 60 ), driving lines 40 , 42 , an ESD protection device 20 and an electrostatic protection circuit 30 . The driving lines 40, 42 are coupled to the driving circuit 80. The driving lines 40, 42 are, for example, data driving lines or scanning driving lines for supplying driving signals to the pixel units 60 of the flat display panel 10, and the driving circuit 80 is, for example, a data driving line. The circuit or the scanning driving circuit is used to provide the driving signal. The pixel unit 60 is disposed in the display area 72 of the substrate 70 to present a video image. It should be noted that only one driving line to which each pixel unit 60 is coupled is shown in FIG. 1 , but actually the pixel unit 60 should be coupled to two driving lines, namely a data driving line and a scanning driving line.

Based on the above, the ESD protection element 20 and the static electricity protection circuit 30 are disposed on the non-display area 71 of the substrate 70 . When the driving line 40 received a voltage greater than the threshold voltage (or called the initial voltage) (Threshold voltage) Vth, the ESD protection element 20 was in a conduction state, and the static electricity was dissipated through the static protection circuit 30, wherein the static protection circuit 30 was in turn Can be called the electrostatic discharge ring (Short Ring). When the driving line 40 generates high-voltage static electricity, it may cause permanent damage to the pixel unit 60 coupled to the driving line 40 . The ESD protection element 20 guides the high-voltage static electricity to the static electricity protection circuit 30 . In this way, the pixel unit 60 will not be damaged by static electricity.

However, the above method has another serious disadvantage, that is, the junction 50 between the driving line 40 and the ESD protection circuit 30 is easily damaged by static electricity, thereby causing the driving line 40 and the ESD protection circuit 30 to conduct with each other. Once the driving line 40 and the ESD protection circuit 30 are connected to each other, a leakage current will occur in the flat display panel 10 . In this case, the pixel unit 60 coupled to the driving line 40 cannot display normal color scale and brightness.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of leakage current in an existing ESD protection circuit. Referring to FIG. 2 , it is assumed that the driving circuit 80 provides a driving signal (current I ₁ ) through the driving line 40 to drive the pixel unit 60 . However, the jumper 50 makes the driving line 40 and the electrostatic protection circuit 30 conduct with each other due to electrostatic damage. Therefore, part of the current ΔI ₁ of the current I ₁ leaks to the ESD protection circuit 30 , causing the driving line 40 to supply only the current I ₁ -ΔI ₁ to the pixel unit 60 . From the perspective of voltage, it is assumed that a driving signal (voltage V ₁ ) is provided through the driving line 40 to drive the pixel unit 60 . However, the jumper 50 makes the driving line 40 and the static protection circuit 30 conduct with each other due to electrostatic damage. Therefore, the voltage V ₁ will be reduced by the influence of the ESD protection circuit 30 . Of course, the pixel unit 60 cannot display normal color scale and brightness. Furthermore, since the leakage current ΔI ₁ is usually quite large, it will cause the flat display panel 10 to have line defects. As a result, the value of flat-panel displays will be seriously affected.

Contents of the invention

The invention provides a flat display panel to avoid line defects.

The present invention provides a flat display panel, including a substrate, a first driving line, a second driving line, and an electrostatic protection circuit. The substrate is configured with a plurality of pixel units. The first driving line is configured on the substrate and coupled to part of the pixel units. The second driving line is configured on the substrate and coupled to part of the pixel units. The static protection circuit is arranged around the substrate, and the static protection circuit includes a first jumper circuit, a second jumper circuit and a first electrostatic discharge protection element. The first jumper line crosses the first driving line. The second jumper line crosses the second driving line. The first electrostatic discharge protection element is electrically connected to the first jumper circuit and the second jumper circuit.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the first driving line is coupled to the driving circuit, and the first driving line includes a first transmission line and a second transmission line. The first end of the first transmission line is coupled to the driving circuit, the second end of the first transmission line is coupled to a node, and the node is coupled to some of the pixel units, so as to transmit the driving signal provided by the driving circuit to some of the pixel units. The second transmission line is connected in parallel with the first transmission line.

In an embodiment of the invention, the first driving line is parallel to the second driving line. In another embodiment, the first and second driving lines are arranged on the first plane, the static electricity protection circuit is arranged on the second plane, and the first plane and the second plane are different planes. In addition, the ESD protection circuit may further include a second ESD protection element, the first end of the second ESD protection element is coupled to the first driving line, and the second end of the second ESD protection element is coupled to the ESD protection circuit.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the first ESD protection element may include a diode, a thin film transistor, a capacitor, or a resistor.

The present invention adopts an electrostatic protection circuit, which includes a first jumper circuit, a second jumper circuit and a first electrostatic discharge protection element. The first jumper line and the second jumper line cross the first driving line and the second driving line respectively. The first electrostatic discharge protection element is electrically connected to the first jumper circuit and the second jumper circuit. In this way, the leakage current can be avoided.

Description of drawings

In order to make the above-mentioned purposes, features and advantages of the present invention more obvious and understandable, the specific embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an existing ESD protection circuit.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of leakage current in an existing ESD protection circuit.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a flat display panel with an ESD protection circuit according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an ESD protection circuit preventing leakage current according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a flat display panel with an ESD protection circuit according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a flat display panel with an ESD protection circuit according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

Description of main component symbols:

10, 11, 12, 13: flat display panel

20, 24: ESD protection components

21, 22: jumper line

30, 31: Electrostatic protection circuit

40, 42: drive line

50, 52: Crossover

60: pixel unit

70: Substrate

71: Non-display area

72: display area

80: drive circuit

90, 91: Node

401, 402, 421, 422: transmission lines

I ₁ , ΔI ₁ : Current

V ₁ : Voltage

Detailed ways

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a flat display panel with an ESD protection circuit according to a first embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 3 , the flat display panel 11 is described by taking a thin film transistor liquid crystal display panel as an example. In another embodiment, the flat display panel 11 may also be an OLED display panel. The flat display panel 11 includes a substrate 70 , driving lines 40 , 42 and an ESD protection circuit 31 . The display area 72 of the substrate 70 is configured with a plurality of pixel units (represented by the pixel unit 60 ). The driving lines 40 and 42 are disposed on the substrate 70 and coupled to the driving circuit 80 and the pixel unit 60.

Based on the above, the driving circuit 80 is described by taking the data driving circuit as an example, and the driving lines 40 and 42 are described by taking the data driving lines as an example. In another embodiment, the driving circuit 80 may also be a scanning driving circuit, and the driving lines 40 and 42 may also be scanning driving lines.

On the other hand, the electrostatic protection circuit 31 is arranged around the substrate 70 , for example, in the non-display area 71 of the substrate 70 . The ESD protection circuit 31 includes the ESD protection element 20 and jumper circuits 21 , 22 . The jumper lines 21 and 22 respectively cross the driving lines 40 and 42 at the jumper points 50 and 52 , wherein the jumper lines 21 and 22 are good conductors. The ESD protection element 20 is electrically connected to the jumper lines 21 , 22 . In addition, in this embodiment, the driving lines 40 and 42 can be arranged on the same plane, while the ESD protection circuit 31 can be arranged on another plane.

In this embodiment, the static electricity protection circuit 31 is used to discharge static electricity. When one end of the ESD protection element 20 receives a voltage greater than the threshold voltage Vth, the ESD protection element 20 is turned on, so as to discharge static electricity. The ESD protection circuit 31 may be in a floating state.

In order to allow those skilled in the art to understand the spirit of the present invention and cooperate with the flat display panel 11 exemplified above, the ESD protection device 20 of this embodiment is specifically described by taking a thin film transistor as an example to illustrate this embodiment. There are many different implementations of the ESD protection element 20, such as diodes, capacitors, resistors, or a combination of the above elements and other elements, etc., so the present invention should not be limited to this specific embodiment.

Following the above, FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an ESD protection circuit preventing leakage current according to the first embodiment of the present invention. Please refer to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 together. In FIG. 4 , it is assumed that the jumper 50 of the flat display panel 11 in FIG. 3 is damaged by ESD, so that the driving line 40 and the jumper line 21 are conducted with each other. At this time, if the driving line 40 provides a driving signal (voltage V ₁ ) to the pixel unit 60 again. Since the voltage V ₁ is a common voltage, even if the voltage V ₁ is greater than the threshold voltage Vth of the ESD protection device 20 , the leakage current will not be too large. Therefore, the driving signal (voltage V ₁ ) will not be affected by the electrostatic protection circuit 31 and be reduced. In other words, although the driving line 40 and the jumper line 21 are connected to each other, the pixel unit 60 can still exhibit normal color scale and brightness. In this way, the flat display panel 11 can be prevented from being damaged by ESD and causing line defects. Not only that, when ESD occurs again, the ESD protection element 20 will be turned on, and then dissipate the ESD to the full-flat display panel 11, so as to prevent the pixel unit 60 coupled to the driving line 40 from being damaged by ESD.

Those skilled in the art can also change the implementation according to the spirit of the present invention and the teachings of the foregoing embodiments according to their needs. For example, FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a flat display panel with an ESD protection circuit according to a second embodiment of the present invention. Please refer to FIG. 5 , those whose numbers are the same as those of the above-mentioned embodiments can refer to the implementation manners that can refer to the above-mentioned embodiments, and will not be repeated here. It should be noted that the flat display panel 12 in this embodiment has an ESD protection element 24 , the first end of which is coupled to the driving line 40 , and the second end thereof is coupled to the ESD protection circuit 31 . The advantage of this approach is that the ESD protection device 24 can prevent the pixel unit 60 coupled to the driving lines 40 and 42 from being damaged by ESD. Not only that, the present embodiment utilizes the ESD protection element 20 to simultaneously avoid the occurrence of leakage current caused by ESD damage to the cross-connections 50 and 52 .

Those skilled in the art can also change the implementation according to the spirit of the present invention and the teachings of the foregoing embodiments according to their needs. For example, FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a flat display panel with an ESD protection circuit according to a third embodiment of the present invention. Please refer to FIG. 6 , those whose numbers are the same as those of the above-mentioned embodiments can refer to the implementation manners that can refer to the above-mentioned embodiments, and will not be repeated here. It is worth mentioning that the driving lines 40 of the flat display panel 13 include transmission lines 401 and 402 . The first end and the second end of the transmission line 401 are respectively coupled to the driving circuit 80 and the node 90 for transmitting the driving signal provided by the driving circuit 80 to the node 90 . The transmission line 402 is connected in parallel with the transmission line 401 . The node 90 is coupled to the pixel unit 60 for collecting the driving signal to drive the pixel unit 60 .

Based on the above, in this embodiment, the advantage of the drive line 40 including the transmission lines 401 and 402 is that when one of the transmission lines 401 and 402 is disconnected, the drive line 40 can still transmit the driving signal of the drive circuit 80 to the drive line 40 The coupled pixel unit 60 . Similarly, it can be deduced that the driving line 42 may also include the transmission lines 421 , 422 and the node 91 , and the rest will not be described here. In this way, not only the risk of disconnection of the driving lines can be dispersed, but also the leakage current caused by ESD damage to the jumpers 50 and 52 can be avoided. In addition, the driving lines can also be divided into more transmission lines, so as to further disperse the risk of disconnection of the driving lines.

To sum up, the present invention can avoid the occurrence of leakage current due to the use of the electrostatic protection circuit. In addition, embodiments of the present invention have at least the following advantages:

1. The electrostatic protection circuit includes a first jumper circuit, a second jumper circuit and a first electrostatic discharge protection component. The first jumper line and the second jumper line cross the first driving line and the second driving line respectively. The first electrostatic discharge protection element is electrically connected to the first jumper circuit and the second jumper circuit. In this way, it is possible to avoid the occurrence of leakage current caused by static electricity damage to the jumper line between the driving line and the electrostatic protection line.

2. Using an ESD protection element coupled between the driving line and the ESD protection circuit can prevent ESD from damaging the pixel units in the flat display panel.

3. Using a drive line that includes multiple parallel transmission lines, and each transmission line is collected at the same node, can avoid the error that the drive signal cannot be transmitted due to the disconnection of some transmission lines.

4. Configure multiple electrostatic discharge protection components on the electrostatic protection circuit to avoid leakage current from more drive lines.

Although the present invention has been disclosed above with preferred embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Any person skilled in the art may make some modifications and improvements without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the present invention The scope of protection should be defined by the claims.

Claims (5)

1. two-d display panel comprises:

One substrate disposes a plurality of pixel cells;

One first drive wire is disposed on this substrate, and those pixel cells of coupling;

One second drive wire is disposed on this substrate, and those pixel cells of coupling; And

One electrostatic defending circuit, be disposed at this substrate around, this electrostatic defending circuit comprises:

One first acrossing the line across this first drive wire, and does not directly electrically connect this first drive wire;

One second acrossing the line across this second drive wire, and does not directly electrically connect this second drive wire; And

One first electric static discharge protector electrically connects this first acrossing the line and this second acrossing the line.

2. two-d display panel as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that, this first drive wire couples one drive circuit, and this first drive wire comprises:

One first transmission line, first end of this first transmission line couples this driving circuit, second end of this first transmission line couples a node, and these those pixel cells of node coupling are so as to transferring to the drive signal that this driving circuit provided those pixel cells of part; And

One second transmission line is parallel to this first transmission line.

3. two-d display panel as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that, this first, second drive wire is disposed at one first plane, and this electrostatic defending line configuring is in one second plane, and this first plane is different planes with this second plane.

4. two-d display panel as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that also comprising:

One second electric static discharge protector, first end of this second electric static discharge protector couples this first drive wire, and second end of this second electric static discharge protector couples this electrostatic defending circuit.

5. described two-d display panel as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that, this first electric static discharge protector comprises diode, thin film transistor (TFT), electric capacity or resistance.

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