JP2006047668A - Electroluminescence display device and driving method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a technique capable of suppressing an increase in cost and extending the lifetime of an electroluminescent element in an electroluminescent display device.
An electroluminescence display device comprising a plurality of electroluminescence elements and a drive circuit for driving the plurality of electroluminescence elements based on a video signal, Voltage detecting means for detecting a voltage between terminals of at least one electroluminescent element, and control means for controlling the luminance of the plurality of electroluminescent elements based on the voltage detected by the voltage detecting means.
[Selection] Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to an electroluminescence display device using an organic electroluminescence (EL) element (hereinafter referred to as an EL element) and a driving method thereof, in particular, to detect a decrease in luminous efficiency of the EL element, The present invention relates to a technique for compensating for a decrease in luminance.

An active matrix drive electroluminescent display device (hereinafter referred to as EL display device) is expected as a next-generation flat panel display of a conventional liquid crystal display device.
In a typical EL display device, a plurality of pixels are arranged in a matrix. Each pixel includes an EL element, a drive transistor connected in series to the EL element, and a capacitor that holds a gate voltage of the drive transistor.
An EL element has a structure in which a light-emitting layer, which is a thin film containing a fluorescent organic compound of red, green, or blue, is sandwiched between a cathode electrode and an anode electrode, and electrons and holes are injected into the light-emitting layer to recycle them. Excitons are generated by bonding, and light is emitted by light emission generated when the excitons are deactivated.
The light emission efficiency of the EL element decreases depending on the light emission time (energization time) or the light emission amount. Conventional EL elements have a short lifetime until the luminance is reduced to half due to the decrease in luminous efficiency, and it has been difficult to continue using the display device for a long period of time.
In order to solve this problem, a dummy pixel is provided in an area outside the display area, and a voltage between terminals applied to both terminals of the EL element of the dummy pixel is detected. There is known an EL display device that grasps and compensates for a decrease in luminance. (See Patent Document 1 below.)

As prior art documents related to the invention of the present application, there are the following.
JP 2002-351403 A

However, in the EL display device described in Patent Document 1, it is necessary to provide dummy pixels in a region outside the display region, which causes an increase in cost.
The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to suppress an increase in cost and reduce the lifetime of an electroluminescent element in an electroluminescent display device and a driving method thereof. It is to provide a technique capable of making the length longer.
The above and other objects and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the description of this specification and the accompanying drawings.

Of the inventions disclosed in this application, the outline of typical ones will be briefly described as follows.
In order to achieve the above-described object, in the present invention, for example, a voltage between terminals of at least one electroluminescent element among a plurality of electroluminescent elements arranged in a matrix is detected and detected. The luminance of the plurality of electroluminescent elements is controlled based on the voltage between the terminals.
According to the present invention, luminance degradation and color shift compensation can be performed using pixels for displaying an actual image, so that an increase in cost can be suppressed.

The effects obtained by the representative ones of the inventions disclosed in the present application will be briefly described as follows.
According to the electroluminescent display device and the driving method thereof of the present invention, it is possible to suppress an increase in cost and to prolong the lifetime of the electroluminescent element.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
In all the drawings for explaining the embodiments, parts having the same functions are given the same reference numerals, and repeated explanation thereof is omitted.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an EL display device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The EL display device of this embodiment includes an organic EL pixel array 10 in which pixels having EL elements are arranged in a matrix.
FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram showing an example of the organic EL pixel array 10 shown in FIG.
In FIG. 2, switching thin film transistors (TFTs) are n-type thin film transistors, with their gates connected to the scanning lines 11, sources connected to the video lines 12, and drains connected to the gates of the driving thin film transistors (TFTq). .
The driving thin film transistor (TFTq) is a p-type thin film transistor, and has a source connected to the power supply line 13 and a drain connected to the anode of the EL element (OLED).
The charge storage capacitor (Cst) is connected between the gate of the driving thin film transistor (TFTq) and the power supply line 13.

The scanning line 11 shown in FIG. 2 is connected to the scanning line driving circuit 21 shown in FIG. 1, and the video line 12 shown in FIG. 2 is connected to the data driver 22 shown in FIG. The data driver 22 supplies an analog video signal to the video line 12.
The scanning line driving circuit 21 sequentially supplies scanning line selection signals to the scanning lines 11 in each frame period.
The thin film transistors (TFTs) for switching in each row are turned on for one horizontal scanning period by the scanning line selection signal supplied from the corresponding scanning line 11 and are not turned on until the scanning line selection signal is supplied again after one frame period. Become.
An analog video signal supplied from the video line 12 by the conduction of the switching thin film transistors (TFTs) is written in the charge storage capacitor (Cst) and updated every frame period (1F) which is an update cycle.
The driving thin film transistor (TFTq) for one row supplies a driving current (Id) corresponding to an analog video signal written in the charge storage capacitor (Cst) to the EL element (OLED). Thereby, the EL element (OLED) emits light.

An EL element (OLED) has a structure in which a light emitting layer, which is a thin film containing a fluorescent organic compound, is sandwiched between a cathode electrode and an anode electrode, and by injecting electrons and holes into the light emitting layer and recombining them. Exciton is generated, and light is emitted by light emission generated when the exciton is deactivated.
In addition, the switching thin film transistors (TFTs) and the driving thin film transistors (TFTq) are formed of thin film transistors using a polycrystalline silicon film as a semiconductor layer, for example.
The scanning line driving circuit 21 and the data driver 22 are formed in the same process as the switching thin film transistors (TFTs) and the driving thin film transistors (TFTq), and are N-channel thin film transistors or Ps using a polycrystalline silicon film as a semiconductor layer. It is composed of channel thin film transistors and is integrally formed on the same insulating substrate.
Here, the scanning line driving circuit 21 and the data driver 22 are controlled and driven by the controller 20. The scanning line driving circuit 21 and the data driver 22 are supplied with a power supply voltage from the power supply circuit 24 or a driving voltage for driving an EL element (OLED) (for example, gradation voltage, scanning line selection voltage, scanning line non-selection voltage, etc.). Is supplied.
The controller 20 has a memory 23, and a video signal is input to the controller 20.

The EL display device of this embodiment includes a voltage detection circuit 25. The voltage detection circuit 25 detects a voltage between terminals applied between the anode and the cathode of the EL element (OLED).
As shown in FIG. 2, the voltage detection circuit 25 is composed of a buffer circuit (BA) connected to the anode of the EL element (OLED). The output of the voltage detection circuit 25 is input to the controller 20.
FIG. 3 is a graph showing temporal changes in the luminous efficiency of the EL element (OLED) and the voltage between terminals. As shown in FIG. 3, the light emission efficiency of the EL element (OLED) decreases with the elapse of the light emission time (energization time), and the voltage between the terminals of the EL element (OLED) increases as the light emission efficiency decreases.
In this embodiment, the voltage detection circuit 25 detects the voltage between the terminals of the EL element (OLED), and the controller 20 controls the light emission luminance of the EL element (OLED) to increase when the light emission efficiency decreases. To do.
That is, when the voltage between the terminals of the EL element (OLED) increases as shown in FIG. 3 as the light emission efficiency decreases, the controller 20 increases the drive current (Id) of the EL element (OLED). Correct the tone value of the video signal. Thereby, the luminance of the EL element (OLED) is increased so as to compensate for the decrease in the light emission efficiency.

As described above, in this embodiment, the controller 20 performs arithmetic processing based on the voltage between the terminals detected by the voltage detection circuit 25, and the application is applied to the power supply line 13 according to the degree of deterioration of the EL element (OLED). The voltage or the gain of the video signal of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) is changed.
In this embodiment, as described in the above-mentioned Patent Document 1, dummy pixels are not provided, and pixels that are actually used for display are used to compensate for luminance degradation and color misregistration. Can be compensated.
In the present embodiment, the voltage detection circuit 25 detects the voltage between the terminals of the EL element (OLED), for example, in a normal video signal display, the pixel having the buffer circuit (BA) has a predetermined gradation. When a display color (for example, white) is displayed or when the power is turned on, the buffer circuit (BA) is displayed by a method of displaying a display color (for example, white) of a predetermined gradation on the entire surface of the organic EL pixel array. This is performed when a display color of a predetermined gradation (for example, white) is displayed on a pixel provided with.
FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram showing a circuit configuration of the buffer circuit (BA) shown in FIG.
The buffer circuit (BA) shown in FIG. 4A is a source follower composed of an n-type thin film transistor (nTFT) and a p-type thin film transistor (pTFT).
In FIG. 4B, the buffer (BA) is a source follower composed of an n-type thin film transistor (nTFT) and a resistance element (R).

In the EL display device of this example, the voltage between the terminals of the EL elements (OLEDs) in the pixels in the effective display region is determined by the voltage detection circuit 25 without providing a dummy pixel as described in Patent Document 1 described above. Detect with.
That is, the voltage between the terminals of the EL element (OLED) of the pixel actually used for display is detected. For this reason, in consideration of ease of manufacture, the pixel to which the above-described buffer circuit (BA) is connected to the anode is preferably the outermost pixel in the effective display area.
Hereinafter, in this embodiment, an arrangement pattern of pixels in which the buffer circuit (BA) is connected to the anode of the EL element (OLED) will be described.
The arrangement pattern shown in FIG. 5 is obtained by connecting a buffer circuit (BA) to the anode of the EL element (OLED) of each pixel of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) in the upper left of the effective display area. It is.
In the case of this arrangement pattern, the wiring can be shortened when the controller 20 is arranged at the upper left of the screen. Further, since only the voltage between the terminals of the EL elements (OLEDs) of the red (R), green (G), and blue (B) pixels in the same row is detected, the memory 23 need only be a line memory.
The arrangement pattern shown in FIG. 6 is obtained by connecting a buffer circuit (BA) to the anode of the EL element (OLED) of each pixel of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) at the center of the screen. .

The arrangement pattern shown in FIG. 7 is obtained by connecting a buffer circuit (BA) to the anode of the EL element (OLED) in each of the red (R), green (G), and blue (B) pixels at the upper right of the screen. .
In the case of this arrangement pattern, the wiring can be shortened when the controller 20 is arranged at the upper right of the screen.
The arrangement pattern shown in FIG. 8 is obtained by connecting a buffer circuit (BA) to the anode of the EL element (OLED) of each pixel of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) at the center left of the screen. .
In the case of this arrangement pattern, there is a probability that a white video signal is displayed when a normal video is displayed, compared to the case where a buffer circuit (BA) is connected to the anode of the upper left, center, and upper right pixels of the screen. Higher and more accurate compensation.
The arrangement pattern shown in FIG. 9 is obtained by connecting a buffer circuit (BA) to the anode of the EL element (OLED) of each pixel of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) at the center right of the screen. .
In the case of this arrangement pattern, there is a probability that a white video signal is displayed when a normal video is displayed, compared to the case where a buffer circuit (BA) is connected to the anode of the upper left, center, and upper right pixels of the screen. Higher and more accurate compensation.

In the arrangement pattern shown in FIG. 10, a buffer circuit (BA) is connected to the anode of the EL element (OLED) of each pixel of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) at the lower left of the screen.
In the case of this arrangement pattern, the wiring can be shortened when the controller 20 is arranged at the lower left of the screen.
In the arrangement pattern shown in FIG. 11, a buffer circuit (BA) is connected to the anode of the EL element (OLED) of each pixel of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) in the lower center of the screen. .
The arrangement pattern shown in FIG. 12 is obtained by connecting a buffer circuit (BA) to the anode of the EL element (OLED) of each pixel of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) at the lower right of the screen. .
In the case of this arrangement pattern, the wiring can be shortened when the controller 20 is arranged at the lower right of the screen.
The arrangement pattern shown in FIG. 13 is obtained by connecting a buffer circuit (BA) to the anode of the EL element (OLED) of each of the red (R), green (G), and blue (B) pixels at eight locations on the screen. .
In the case of this arrangement pattern, the average voltage between terminals of EL elements (OLED) of eight red (R), green (G), and blue (B) pixels, or red (R) having the highest voltage between terminals. ), Green (G), and blue (B) pixels can be compensated.

FIG. 14 is a graph showing temporal changes in the relative luminance of each EL element (OLED) of red (R), green (G), and blue (B).
The luminous efficiency of the EL element (OLED) decreases with the lapse of the light emission time (energization time), but the decrease rate is for each EL element (OLED) of red (R), green (G), and blue (B). Is different.
Therefore, as shown in FIG. 14, in the initial state, the relative luminance of the red (R), green (G), and blue (B) EL elements (OLED) is 1: 1: 1, and the color balance is balanced. Even if the time elapses, the light emission luminance of each of the red (R), green (G), and blue (B) EL elements (OLED) decreases, and red (R) in the color balance after the luminance deterioration. If the relative luminance ratio of green (G) and blue (B) deviates from 1: 1: 1 and no correction is made, the chromaticity is shifted from the initial state.
FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing a video signal processing circuit for compensating for color misregistration in the controller 20 in the EL display device of this embodiment.
In the circuit shown in FIG. 15, the inter-terminal voltages of the red (R), green (G), and blue (B) EL elements (OLED) stored in the initial applied voltage reference table 33 at the time of factory shipment are calculated. The comparison circuit 34 compares the voltages between the terminals of the red (R), green (G), and blue (B) EL elements (OLED) detected by the voltage detection circuit 25.
Based on the comparison result, the gain adjustment circuit 31 adjusts the gain of each video signal of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) output from the preprocessing circuit 30. The red (R), green (G), and blue (B) video signals are output to the data driver 22 via the post-processing circuit 32.

16 and 17 are circuit diagrams showing other examples of one pixel of the organic EL pixel array 10 shown in FIG.
The pixel shown in FIG. 2 includes two switching thin film transistors and a driving thin film transistor, whereas the pixels shown in FIGS. 16 and 17 include a switching thin film transistor and a driving thin film transistor. The pixel shown in FIGS. 16 and 17 is different from the pixel shown in FIG. 2 in that the number of thin film transistors is four.
Needless to say, the present invention is also applicable to the case where one pixel of the organic EL pixel array 10 shown in FIG. 1 is the pixel shown in FIGS.
Since the pixels shown in FIGS. 16 and 17 are conventionally known, detailed description thereof is omitted.
As described above, in this embodiment, it is possible to compensate for luminance degradation and color misregistration by using pixels actually used for display without providing dummy pixels, which increases costs. Optimum compensation can be performed while holding down.
As mentioned above, the invention made by the present inventor has been specifically described based on the above embodiments. However, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. Of course.

It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of the EL display apparatus of the Example of this invention. It is a circuit diagram which shows an example of 1 pixel of the organic EL pixel array shown in FIG. It is a graph which shows the time change of the luminous efficiency of an EL element, and the voltage between terminals. FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing a circuit configuration of a buffer circuit shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of an arrangement pattern of pixels in which a buffer circuit is connected to an anode of an EL element in an EL display device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another example of an arrangement pattern of pixels in which a buffer circuit is connected to an anode of an EL element in an EL display device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another example of an arrangement pattern of pixels in which a buffer circuit is connected to an anode of an EL element in an EL display device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another example of an arrangement pattern of pixels in which a buffer circuit is connected to an anode of an EL element in an EL display device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another example of an arrangement pattern of pixels in which a buffer circuit is connected to an anode of an EL element in an EL display device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another example of an arrangement pattern of pixels in which a buffer circuit is connected to an anode of an EL element in an EL display device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another example of an arrangement pattern of pixels in which a buffer circuit is connected to an anode of an EL element in an EL display device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another example of an arrangement pattern of pixels in which a buffer circuit is connected to an anode of an EL element in an EL display device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another example of an arrangement pattern of pixels in which a buffer circuit is connected to an anode of an EL element in an EL display device according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a graph which shows the time change of the relative luminance of each EL element of red (R), green (G), and blue (B). FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a video signal processing circuit for compensating for color misregistration in a controller in an EL display device according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a circuit diagram which shows the other example of 1 pixel of the organic EL pixel array shown in FIG. It is a circuit diagram which shows the other example of 1 pixel of the organic EL pixel array shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Organic EL pixel array 11 Scan line 12 Video line 13 Power supply line 20 Controller 21 Scan line drive circuit 22 Data driver 23 Memory 24 Power supply circuit 25 Voltage detection circuit 30 Pre-processing circuit 31 Gain adjustment circuit 32 Post-processing circuit 33 Reference of initial applied voltage Table 34 Comparison circuit
OLED EL element
Thin film transistor for TFTs switch
Thin film transistor for TFTq drive
Cst charge storage capacity
BA buffer circuit
nTFT n-type thin film transistor
pTFT p-type thin film transistor
R resistance element

Claims (26)

A plurality of electroluminescent elements;
An electroluminescence display device comprising a drive circuit for driving the plurality of electroluminescence elements based on a video signal,
Voltage detecting means for detecting a voltage across terminals of at least one of the plurality of electroluminescent elements;
An electroluminescence display device comprising: control means for controlling brightness of the plurality of electroluminescence elements based on the voltage detected by the voltage detection means. The plurality of electroluminescent elements are arranged in a matrix,
The voltage detection means detects a voltage between terminals of at least one of the electroluminescence elements outside the plurality of electroluminescence elements arranged in the matrix. Item 2. The electroluminescent display device according to Item 1. The voltage detection means detects a voltage between terminals of the plurality of electroluminescent elements,
The said control means controls the brightness | luminance of these electroluminescent elements based on the average value of the voltage between terminals detected by the said voltage detection means, The Claim 1 or Claim 2 characterized by the above-mentioned. Electroluminescence display device.   4. The electroluminescent display device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit corrects a gain of the video signal based on a detection result of the voltage detection unit. 5. .   The said control means correct | amends the voltage applied to each said electroluminescent element based on the detection result in the said voltage detection means, The any one of Claim 1 thru | or 3 characterized by the above-mentioned. Electroluminescence display device. The plurality of electroluminescent elements are divided into a plurality of groups,
The voltage detecting means detects a voltage between terminals of at least one of the electroluminescent elements belonging to each group for each group,
3. The electroluminescence according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls the luminance of the electroluminescence elements of each group based on a voltage between terminals detected by the voltage detection unit. Sense display device. The voltage detection means detects a voltage between terminals of a plurality of electroluminescent elements for each group,
7. The electroluminescence according to claim 6, wherein the control unit controls the luminance of the electroluminescence elements of each group based on an average value of the voltage between terminals detected by the voltage detection unit. Display device.   8. The electroluminescence display device according to claim 6, wherein the plurality of electroluminescence elements are divided into three groups of red, green, and blue.   9. The control unit according to claim 8, wherein the control unit keeps a relative luminance ratio of the electroluminescent elements of the red, green, and blue groups constant based on a detection result of the voltage detection unit. Electroluminescence display device.   9. The electroluminescent display device according to claim 8, wherein the control unit corrects gains of the red, green, and blue video signals based on a detection result of the voltage detection unit.   9. The electro according to claim 8, wherein the control unit corrects a voltage applied to the red, green, and blue groups of electroluminescent elements based on a detection result of the voltage detection unit. Luminescence display device.   13. The electroluminescent device according to claim 1, wherein the voltage detecting unit includes a buffer circuit connected to a first electrode of the at least one electroluminescent element. Sense display device. A plurality of electroluminescent elements;
A driving method of an electroluminescence display device comprising a driving circuit for driving the plurality of electroluminescence elements based on a video signal,
Detecting a voltage across terminals of at least one of the plurality of electroluminescent elements; and
And a step (2) for controlling the luminance of the plurality of electroluminescent elements based on the voltage detected by the voltage detection means in the step (1). The plurality of electroluminescent elements are arranged in a matrix,
The voltage between terminals of at least one electroluminescent element among the electroluminescent elements outside the plurality of electroluminescent elements arranged in the matrix is detected in the step 1. 14. The driving method according to 13. In step 1, the voltage between the terminals of the plurality of electroluminescent elements is detected,
The drive according to claim 13 or 14, wherein, in the step 2, brightness of the plurality of electroluminescent elements is controlled based on an average value of the inter-terminal voltage detected in the step 1. Method.   The driving method according to any one of claims 13 to 15, wherein in the step 2, the gain of the video signal is corrected based on the detection result in the step 1.   The driving method according to any one of claims 13 to 15, wherein, in the step 2, the voltage applied to each of the electroluminescent elements is corrected based on the detection result in the step 1. . The plurality of electroluminescent elements are divided into a plurality of groups,
In step 1, for each of the groups, a voltage between terminals of at least one of the electroluminescent elements belonging to each group is detected,
15. The driving method according to claim 13, wherein in step 2, the luminance of the electroluminescent elements of each group is controlled based on the voltage between terminals detected in step 1. In the step 1, for each of the groups, a voltage between terminals of a plurality of electroluminescent elements is detected,
19. The driving method according to claim 18, wherein in step 2, the luminance of the electroluminescent elements of each group is controlled based on the average value of the voltage between terminals detected in step 1.   20. The driving method according to claim 18, wherein the plurality of electroluminescent elements are divided into three groups of red, green, and blue.   21. The driving according to claim 20, wherein, in step 2, the relative luminance ratio of the electroluminescent elements of each group of red, green, and blue is kept constant based on the detection result in step 1. Method.   21. The driving method according to claim 20, wherein, in step 2, gains of the red, green, and blue video signals are corrected based on a detection result in step 1.   21. The driving according to claim 20, wherein in step 2, the voltage applied to the electroluminescent elements of the red, green, and blue groups is corrected based on the detection result in step 1. Method.   In the step 1, in the normal display state, when at least one electroluminescent element of the plurality of electroluminescent elements displays a display color of a predetermined gradation, the at least one electroluminescent element. The driving method according to any one of claims 13 to 23, which is a step of detecting a voltage between terminals of the element.   The step 1 is a step of displaying a display color of a predetermined gradation on the plurality of electroluminescent elements and detecting a voltage between terminals of the at least one electroluminescent element at power-on. The driving method according to any one of claims 13 to 23. 26. The driving method according to claim 24, wherein the display color of the predetermined gradation is white.

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