A Driving Scheme for Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode Displays Based on Current Feedback

This paper presents a method of driving active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays with amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin-film transistors (TFTs). By using current feedback, the method effectively compensates for the effect of shift in the threshold voltage $(V_{T})$ of a-Si TFTs on the OLED current. A CMOS transresistance amplifier is used as the column driver to cancel the effect of large parasitic capacitance of data lines. An accelerating pulse is used at the start of the programming cycle to improve the settling at low currents. A detailed analysis has been done to investigate the effect of circuit components on the sensitivity of the OLED current to $V_{T}$ shift and the settling behavior of the circuit. Prototypes of pixel circuits and the transresistance amplifier were fabricated in an a-Si TFT process and a 0.8- $mu{hbox{m}}$ 20-V CMOS technology, respectively. Measurements show less than 5% change in the OLED current for 2.5-V shift in $V_{T}$ of TFTs. Settling times smaller than 50 $mu{hbox{s}}$ were achieved for parasitic capacitances of 50–200 pF and programming currents as small as 200 nA.      

A new a-Si:H TFT pixel circuit compensating the threshold voltage shift of a-Si:H TFT and OLED for active matrix OLED

We propose a new hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin-film transistor (a-Si:H TFT) pixel circuit for an active matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) employing a voltage programming. The proposed a-Si:H TFT pixel circuit, which consists of five switching TFTs, one driving TFT, and one capacitor, successfully minimizes a decrease of OLED current caused by threshold voltage degradation of a-Si:H TFT and OLED. Our experimental results, based on the bias-temperature stress, exhibit that the output current for OLED is decreased by 7% in the proposed pixel, while it is decreased by 28% in the conventional 2-TFT pixel.     

AMOLED Pixel Circuit With Electronic Compensation of Luminance Degradation

A new voltage-programmed pixel circuit using hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin-film transistors (TFTs) for active-matrix organic light-emitting diodes (AMOLEDs) is presented. In addition to compensating for the shift in threshold voltage of TFTs, the circuit is capable of compensating for OLED luminance degradation by employing the shift in OLED voltage as a feedback of OLED degradation     

A Novel Voltage Driving Method Using 3-TFT Pixel Circuit for AMOLED

A novel voltage driving method using three thin-film transistors (TFTs) for active-matrix organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) is presented and verified by automatic integrated circuit modeling SPICE simulation. The proposed novel 3-TFT pixel circuit, which successfully compensates for the threshold voltage variations, uses few TFTs with simplified control signals, and the current nonuniformity of the proposed circuit is 0.19% to 1.99% throughout the entire data range. To compensate for variations in OLED current, the proposed circuit utilizes a novel driving scheme that uses a diode connection current source with a biased voltage.     

High-speed low-power voltage-programmed driving scheme for AMOLED displays

A new voltage-programmed driving scheme named the mixed parallel addressing scheme is presented for AMOLED displays, in which one compensation interval can be divided into the first compensation frame and the consequent N-1 post-compensation frames without periods of initialization and threshold voltage detection. The proposed driving scheme has the advantages of both high speed and low driving power due to the mixture of the pipeline technology and the threshold voltage one-time detection technology. Corresponding to the proposed driving scheme, we also propose a new voltage-programmed compensation pixel circuit, which consists of five TFTs and two capacitors(5T2C). In-Zn-O thin-film transistors(IZO TFTs) are used to build the proposed 5T2C pixel circuit. It is shown that the non-uniformity of the proposed pixel circuit is considerably reduced compared with that of the conventional 2T1C pixel circuit. The number of frames(N) preserved in the proposed driving scheme are measured and can be up to 35 with the variation of the OLED current remaining in an acceptable range. Moreover, the proposed voltage-programmed driving scheme can be more valuable for an AMOLED display with high resolution, and may also be applied to other compensation pixel circuits.     

具有顶部发光结构的AMOLED交流驱动电路

A new voltage programmed pixel circuit with top emission design for active-matrix organic lightemitting diode(AMOLED) displays is presented and verified by HSPICE simulations.The proposed pixel circuit consists of five poly-Si TFTs,and can effectively compensate for the threshold voltage variation of the driving TFT.Meanwhile,the proposed pixel circuit offers an AC driving mode for the OLED by the two adjacent pulse voltage sources,which can suppress the degradation of the OLED.Moreover,a high contrast ratio can be achieved by the proposed pixel circuit since the OLED does not emit any light except for the emission period.     

基于低温多晶硅薄膜晶体管的AMOLED交流像素电路

This work presents a new voltage programmed pixel circuit for an active-matrix organic light-emitting diode(AMOLED) display.The proposed pixel circuit consists of six low temperature polycrystalline silicon thinfilm transistors(LTPS TFTs),one storage capacitor,and one OLED,and is verified by simulation work using HSPICE software.Besides effectively compensating for the threshold voltage variation of the driving TFT and OLED,the proposed pixel circuit offers an AC driving mode for the OLED,which can suppress the degradation of the OLED.Moreover,a high contrast ratio can be achieved by the proposed pixel circuit since the OLED does not emit any light except for the emission period.     

A new current scaling pixel circuit for AMOLED

A new active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) pixel design, composed of four polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistor (poly-Si TFT) and one capacitor, is proposed by employing a novel current scaling scheme. The simulation results, based on the measured characteristics of an OLED and poly-Si TFTs, show that the proposed pixel design would scale down the data current more effectively, so as to guarantee a lower charging time compared with the conventional current mirror structure, as well as successfully compensate the variation of the electrical characteristics of the poly-Si TFTs, such as the threshold voltage and mobility.     

A new voltage-modulated AMOLED pixel design compensating for threshold voltage variation in poly-Si TFTs

A new voltage-modulated active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) pixel design, which successfully compensates for the threshold voltage variations in poly-Si thin-film transitors (TFTs), is proposed, and verified by SPICE simulation and experiments. In order to compensate for variations in OLED current, the proposed pixel design employs a new voltage modulation scheme using diode connections.     

一种基于低温多晶硅薄膜晶体管的交流AMOLED像素补偿电路

This paper presents a new poly-Si pixel circuit employing AC driving mode for active matrix organic light-emitting diode （AMOLED） displays. The proposed pixel circuit, which consists of one driving thin-film tran- sistor （TFT）, three switching TFTs, and one storage capacitor, can effectively compensate for the threshold voltage variation in poly-Si and the OLED degradation. As there is no light emission, except for during the emitting period, and a small number of devices used in the proposed pixel circuit, a high contrast ratio and a high pixel aperture ratio can be easily achieved. Simulation results by SMART-SPICE software show that the non-uniformity of the OLED current for the proposed pixel circuit is significantly decreased （〈 10%） with an average value of 2.63%, while that of the conventional 2T1C is 103%. Thus the brightness uniformity of AMOLED displays can be improved by using the proposed pixel circuit.     

有源矩阵有机电致发光像素电路的研究进展

有源驱动方式的有机发光二极管（AMOLED）较之无源驱动方式易于实现高亮度和高分辨率、功耗更小,更适合大屏幕显示。但传统的两管驱动电路会出现驱动管阈值电压在整个屏幕上分布不均匀,或长时间加偏压后驱动管的阂值电压发生漂移。本文在两管驱动电路的基础上介绍了几种最近提出的补偿电路并描述了它们的改善效果及各自存在的问题。     

A New Poly-Si TFT Current-Mirror Pixel for Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode

A new poly-Si thin-film-transistor (TFT) current-mirror-active-matrix-organic-light-emitting-diode (AMOLED) pixel, which successfully compensates for the variation of the threshold voltage as well as mobility in the excimer laser annealed poly-Si TFT pixel, is designed and fabricated. The OLED current$(I_ OLED)$of the proposed pixel does not depend on the operating temperature. When the temperature of pixel is increased from 27$^circhboxC$to 60$^circhboxC$, the$I_ OLED$of the new pixel circuit composed of four TFTs and one capacitor increases only about 1.5%, while that of a conventional pixel composed of two TFTs and one capacitor increases about 37%. At room temperature, nonuniformity of the$I_ OLED$in the proposed circuit was also considerably suppressed at around 9%. We have successfully fabricated a 1.2-in AMOLED panel$(hbox96 times hbox96 times hboxred green blue)$to evaluate the performance of the proposed pixel. A troublesome residual image caused by the hysteresis phenomenon of the poly-Si TFT was almost eliminated in the proposed AMOLED panel as a result of current programming.     

A Novel Voltage-Feedback Pixel Circuit for AMOLED Displays

This study presents a novel voltage-modulated pixel circuit for active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) consisting of five n-type thin-film transistors (TFTs), one additional control signal, and one storage capacitor. The proposed circuit, which can be implemented in all-n-type and all-p-type low temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) TFT technologies, successfully compensates for threshold voltage deviation of TFTs and facilitates correction of OLED degradation using a voltage feedback method. Simulation and experimental results for all-n-type TFTs indicate that the proposed pixel circuit reduced the nonuniformity brightness problem effectively by compensating for threshold voltage variation in TFTs and reduced the degradation of emission efficiency in OLEDs.     

A new a-Si:H thin-film transistor pixel circuit for active-matrix organic light-emitting diodes

We propose a new pixel circuit using hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin-film transistors (TFTs), composed of three switching and one driving TFT, for active-matrix organic light-emitting diodes (AMOLEDs) with a voltage source method. The circuit simulation results based on the measured threshold voltage shift of a-Si:H TFTs by gate-bias stress indicate that this circuit compensates for the threshold voltage shifts over 10000 h of operation.     

A novel a-Si:H AMOLED pixel circuit based on short-term stress stability of a-Si:H TFTs

This letter presents a novel pixel circuit for hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) active matrix organic light-emitting diode displays employing the short-term stress stability characteristics of a-Si:H thin film transistors (TFTs). The pixel circuit uses a programming TFT that is under stress during the programming cycle and unstressed during the drive cycle. The threshold voltage shift (V/sub T/-shift) of the TFT under these conditions is negligible. The programming TFT in turn regulates the current of the drive TFT, and the pixel current therefore becomes independent of the threshold voltage of the drive TFT.     

一种驱动MOS管工作在饱和区的硅基OLED微显示像素电路

硅基OLED微显示中为了在极小的像素面积内实现微小的OLED工作电流,其像素驱动电路的驱动MOS管一般工作在亚阈值区,存在OLED电流对驱动MOS管的阈值电压和栅源电压失配敏感、外围电路复杂等问题,如果驱动MOS管工作在饱和区则可避免这些问题,但为了获得微小的驱动电流,必须采用尺寸大的倒比MOS管,这又与极小的像素面积冲突。本文提出了一种采用脉宽调制(PWM)技术、驱动MOS管工作在饱和区的OLED微显示像素驱动电路,PWM信号减少了一帧内OLED的实际工作时间,OLED的脉冲电流变大,使驱动MOS倒比管的尺寸减小;由于PWM信号占空比小,同时实现了OLED微小的平均像素驱动电流和亮度。结果表明PWM信号占空比为3%时,实现的OLED驱动电流和像素亮度范围分别为27pA~2.635nA、2.19~225.1cd/m~2,同时采用双像素版图共用技术,在15μm×15μm的像素面积内实现了像素驱动电路的版图设计。     

External Compensation of Nonuniform Electrical Characteristics of Thin-Film Transistors and Degradation of OLED Devices in AMOLED Displays

The variation of electrical characteristics of polycrystalline-silicon thin-film transistor (TFT) and degradation of organic light-emitting-diode (OLED) device cause nonuniform intensity of luminance and image sticking in active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) displays. An external compensation method that senses and compensates variations of threshold voltage and mobility of TFTs and degradation of OLED device is proposed. The effect of the external compensation method on AMOLED pixel is experimentally verified by measuring the luminance of OLEDs and the electrical characteristics of TFTs in AMOLED pixels.      

VT Compensation Circuit for AM OLED Displays Composed of Two TFTs and One Capacitor

In this paper, we propose the threshold-voltage compensation pixel circuit that is composed of two thin-film transistors (TFTs) and one capacitor (2T1C). It not only compensates the deviation of the threshold voltage of the driver TFT but also actualizes the large aperture ratio for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) devices as well as the traditional 2T1C circuit. We show the result of SPICE simulation for the pixel circuit; it indicates that the circuit can allocate the relatively large aperture ratio for OLED devices     

Parallel Addressing Scheme for Voltage-Programmed Active-Matrix OLED Displays

This paper presents a novel parallel addressing scheme for voltage-programmed active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays which provides high precision recovery of the threshold voltage shift. As a result, the uniformity over the panel is significantly improved. In addition, a new pixel circuit is presented that is capable of providing a predictably higher current as the pixel ages, so as to compensate for the OLED luminance degradation     

A Stable Voltage-Programmed Pixel Circuit for a-Si:H AMOLED Displays

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) active matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays are attractive given the potentially low manufacturing cost and ultimately low-temperature fabrication enabling using flexible substrates. Although the conventional two thin-film transistor (2-TFT) AMOLED voltage-programmed pixel circuit (VPPC) can provide high resolution and high yield, the 2-TFT VPPC is prone to image retention over time due to shift in the threshold voltage (V_T-shift) of a-Si:H TFTs. This paper presents a new driving scheme that not only preserves the simplicity of the 2-TFT VPPC, but also demonstrates high uniformity. Experimental results indicate that the current drop in the new driving scheme is less than 11% after 15 days of operation whereas it is over 50% for the conventional driving scheme. Moreover, the new driving scheme is less sensitive to temperature variations due to an internal feedback mechanism. After a 70% change in the temperature, the current in the conventional driving scheme increases by as much as 300%. However, the current in the driving scheme presented here is approximately constant