JPH05313128A - Display device and driving method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily make a multicolored display without decreasing the resolution of a monochromatic optical modulating element by combining >=2 specific display units and controlling the light emission colors of a back light source for each display unit. CONSTITUTION:Lights from light emitting tubes 21-23 are mixed by a diffusion plate 24 and also made uniform in quality, and the quantity of light transmitted through a specific part of an optical modulating element 10 is varied to display a specific pattern. Here, only the red fluorescent tube 21 illuminates to display a red pattern and the red fluorescent tube 21 and green fluorescent lamp 22 illuminate to display a yellow pattern. Namely, a seven-color display can be made by the illumination and nonillumination combination of the fluorescent tubes 21-23 of the three colors. Further, display units 100-300 which each 7-order displays are combined and fluorescent tube turning-on devices 50 and optical modulating element driving devices 60 are independently controlled to make a specific multicolored display.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a display device and a driving method thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, as a display device of this type, there have been a combination of multicolor light emitting diodes and a combination of an optical modulator such as a liquid crystal display panel with a color filter (for example, Mitsuharu Okano). , Shunsuke Kobayashi; "Liquid Crystal"
Application, p. 243).

[0003]

However, in such a conventional display device, since the display color depends on the elements and filters, not only is there a limit to the types of colors that can be displayed, but also the resolution of the display pattern is limited. There was a problem that it could not be raised.

In view of the above points, it is an object of the present invention to provide a multicolor display device having a high display resolution.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention combines two or more display units each including a back light source capable of emitting two or more colors and an optical modulation element, and each display unit. It is to have a means for controlling the emission color of the back light source for each.

[0006]

With the above-described structure, the present invention makes it possible to easily display a multi-color display device with high resolution.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS (FIG. 1) and (FIG. 2) are configuration diagrams of a display unit used in a display device according to an embodiment of the present invention and a display device including the display unit.
In FIG. 1, 10 is an optical modulator, and 20 is a back light source, which is composed of fluorescent tubes 21, 22, 23 and a diffusion plate 24. In FIG. 2, 100, 200 and 300 are the display units shown in FIG.

The operation of the display device of this embodiment constructed as above will be described below.

The lights from the fluorescent tubes 21, 22, and 23 of FIG. 1 are mixed with a diffusion plate to make the light amount uniform, and the amount of light transmitted through a predetermined portion of the optical modulation element 10 is varied to thereby obtain a predetermined pattern. Is displayed. Here, if only the red fluorescent tube 21 is turned on, a red pattern can be displayed,
A yellow pattern can be displayed by turning on the red fluorescent tube 21 and the green fluorescent tube 22. In other words, the lighting of three color fluorescent tubes,
The combination of non-lighting enables display of 7 colors.

As shown in FIG. 2, by combining the display units 100, 200, and 300 capable of displaying seven colors, respectively, and independently controlling the fluorescent tube lighting device 50 and the optical modulator driving device 60, ( Multicolor display as shown in FIG. 2) is possible.

As described above, according to this embodiment, two or more display units each including a rear light source capable of emitting two or more colors and an optical modulation element are combined, and the rear light source emits light for each display unit. By controlling the color,
It is possible to easily realize high-resolution multicolor display.

In this embodiment, the rear light source has a fluorescent tube individually arranged for each unit, and the emission color is controlled by turning on or off the fluorescent tube. However, the emission color is independently set for each unit. Any controllable structure may be used, for example, a fluorescent tube may be arranged in common in a predetermined unit, an optical shutter may be arranged between the fluorescent tube and a diffusion plate in each unit, and the optical shutter may be controlled in each unit. You may. Also,
As a light emitting element, a fluorescent tube of three colors of red, green, and blue was used, and a combination of two states of lighting or non-lighting was used, but the colors are not limited to these three colors, and the lighting state is also two states. It is needless to say that the type of color and the lighting state can be freely set according to a desired display color without limitation.

FIG. 3 is a timing chart of the driving method of the display device according to the embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, each display unit 1 is updated by updating the optical modulation element or the back light source for each display change frame.
Individual display patterns and display colors can be set for 00, 200, and 300.

[0014]

As described above, according to the present invention,
A single color optical modulation element by combining two or more display units each including a back light source capable of emitting two or more colors and an optical modulation element and having a unit for controlling the emission color of the back light source for each display unit. It is possible to easily perform multicolor display without lowering the resolution, and its practically suitable effect is great.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a display unit used in a display device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a display device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a timing diagram of a driving method of a display device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Optical Modulation Element 20 Back Light Source 21 Red Fluorescent Tube 22 Green Fluorescent Tube 23 Blue Fluorescent Tube 24 Diffusion Plate 50 Fluorescent Tube Lighting Device 60 Optical Modulation Element Driving Device 100, 200, 300 Display Unit

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A combination of two or more display units each comprising a rear light source capable of emitting two or more colors and an optical modulation element by a predetermined control means, and means for controlling the emission color of the rear light source for each display unit. A display device having. 2. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the optical modulation element is a liquid crystal panel. 3. The display device according to claim 2, wherein the liquid crystal panel is a ferroelectric liquid crystal panel. 4. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the back light source is composed of at least two different types of light emitting elements. 5. The display device according to claim 4, wherein the light emitting element is a fluorescent tube. 6. The display device according to claim 4, wherein the light emitting element is a light emitting diode. 7. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the back light source comprises light emitting elements of two or more colors and optical shutters corresponding to the respective light emitting elements. 8. A means for controlling the emission color of the back light source for each display unit while combining two or more display units each comprising a back light source capable of emitting two or more colors by a predetermined control means and an optical modulation element. In the display device having the above-mentioned, the driving method of the display device, characterized in that the driving of the optical modulator and the control of the back light source are synchronized. 9. The method of driving a display device according to claim 8, wherein the update frame of the optical modulator and the emission color control of the light source are synchronized. 10. An optical modulation element controls the emission color of a light source only during a period of a predetermined state.
A method for driving the described display device.