KR20030056351A - Apparatus and method of driving electro luminescence panel - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An apparatus and a method for driving an electro-luminescence display panel are provided to control the brightness of a screen by changing a value of a digital data signal. CONSTITUTION: An apparatus for driving an electro-luminescence panel includes an electro-luminescence display panel(20), a data driver(24), a gate driver(22), a controller(28), and a brightness control portion(26). The electro-luminescence display panel includes pixel elements of mxn number formed at intersection portions of gate lines of m number and data lines of n number. The data driver is used for driving the data lines. The gate driver is used for driving the gate lines. The controller is used for supplying data signals and data control signals to the data driver or gate control signals including start pulses and clock signals and select signals to the data driver. The brightness control portion controls the data signals of the controller according to the data control signals in order to modulate the brightness of an image.

Description

Apparatus and method for driving electroluminescent panel {APPARATUS AND METHOD OF DRIVING ELECTRO LUMINESCENCE PANEL}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electro luminescence panel, and more particularly, to an apparatus and a method for driving an electro luminescence panel to adjust brightness of a screen by varying input data.

Recently, various flat panel displays have been developed to reduce weight and volume, which are disadvantages of cathode ray tubes. Such flat panel displays include liquid crystal displays (hereinafter referred to as "LCDs"), field emission displays, plasma display panels (hereinafter referred to as "PDPs"), and electro lumines. And an electro luminescence (EL) display device.

In order to improve the display quality of such a flat panel display device and to attempt to make a large screen, there are active researches. Among them, the EL element is a self-luminous element that emits light by itself.

The EL display device displays an image or an image by exciting a fluorescent material using carriers such as electrons and holes. The EL display device can be driven at a DC low voltage and has a fast response speed.

The EL panel includes gate lines GL1 to GLm and data lines DL1 to DLn, gate lines GL1 to GLm, and data line DL1 arranged on the glass substrate 10 to cross each other as shown in FIG. 1. To pixel elements PE arranged at each of the intersection portions of the first through second portions DLn.

Each of the pixel elements PE is driven when the gate signals of the gate lines GL1 to GLn are enabled to generate light corresponding to the magnitude of the pixel signal on the data line DL.

In order to drive such an EL panel, the gate driver 12 is connected to the gate lines GL1 to GLm, and the data driver 14 is connected to the data lines DL1 to DLn. The gate driver 12 sequentially drives the gate lines GL1 to GLm. The data driver 14 supplies a data signal to the pixels PE through the data lines DL1 to DLn.

However, in the electroluminescent panel according to the related art, the data signal supplied from the outside is driven when the gate signals of the gate line GL are enabled and output as it is through the data line DL. As a result, there is no method of controlling the brightness by adjusting the data signal supplied from the data line.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and a method for driving an electroluminescent panel which can adjust the brightness of an electroluminescent panel by varying an input digital data signal of a data driver.

1 is a schematic illustration of a typical electro luminescence panel.

2 shows an electroluminescent panel drive device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a view for explaining a brightness control method of an electroluminescent panel using the driving device shown in FIG. 2;

4 is a diagram illustrating a modified gradation level according to the brightness adjustment of FIG. 3.

<Brief description of symbols for main parts of the drawings>

10,20: electroluminescent panel 12,22: gate driver

14,24: data driver 26: brightness adjustment unit

28: timing controller

In order to achieve the above objects, an electroluminescent panel driving apparatus according to the present invention is an electroluminescence device having m * n electro-luminescence pixel elements formed at each intersection of m gate lines and n data lines. A luminescence display panel; A data driver for driving the data lines; A gate driver for driving the gate lines; A controller for supplying data control signals along with rearranged data signals according to the driving order of the gate lines to the data driver, and supplying gate control signals including a start pulse and a clock signal and a select signal to the gate driver. Wow; And a brightness adjusting unit configured to control the data signal output from the controller to be controlled by the data control signal so that the brightness of the image is modulated.

And memory means for storing the brightness information controlled by the brightness adjustment unit of the present invention.

In the present invention, the data signal has a digital data signal value having a plurality of bits, and the brightness adjusting unit has a subtraction means for adding or subtracting the data signal value by "1".

The method of driving an electroluminescence panel according to the present invention includes the step of inputting a data signal of an n-th gate line and controlling the brightness of the input data signal to be added or decreased in response to a control signal. It is done.

The present invention is characterized in that it further comprises the step of storing / outputting brightness information of the controlled data signal to the memory means.

In the present invention, the step of controlling the brightness of the data signal to be added or decreased includes recognizing the degree of brightness of the image and allowing the digital data signal to be decremented by one or more times at least once according to the recognized brightness. Characterized in that it comprises a step.

Other objects and features of the present invention in addition to the above object will become apparent from the description of the accompanying examples.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4.

2 is a view showing a driving device of an electroluminescent panel according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, an electroluminescent panel driving device includes an EL display panel 20 including pixels PE arranged at respective intersections of gate lines GL1 to GLm and data lines DL1 to DLn. ), A gate driver 22 for driving the gate lines GL of the EL display panel 20, a data driver 24 for driving the data lines DL of the EL display panel 20, and a gate. A timing controller 28 for controlling the driver 22 and the data driver 24 is provided. In addition, a brightness controller 26 connected between the timing controller 28 and the data driver 24 to control the brightness of a data signal input from the outside, and a memory 30 for storing the brightness information data signal.

The EL panel 20 includes the gate lines GL1 to GLm and the data lines DL1 to DLn, which are arranged to cross each other on a glass substrate, and the gate lines GL1 to GLm and the data lines DL1 to DLn. The pixel elements PE are arranged at each of the intersections.

Each of the pixel elements PE is driven when the gate signals of the gate lines GL1 to GLn are enabled to generate light corresponding to the magnitude of the pixel signal on the data line DL.

The timing controller 28 supplies the gate control signals GCS to the gate driver 22 as well as the control signals along with the data to the data driver 24. In this case, the control signals include a signal for controlling the brightness adjusting unit 26.

The gate driver 22 supplies the gate control signals GCS from the timing controller 28, that is, a scan pulse SP that sequentially enables the gate lines GL in response to the start pulse and the clock signal. do. To this end, the gate driver 22 transmits a plurality of shifter registers (not shown) for shifting the start pulse from the timing controller 28 and a scan signal output from each of the shifter registers. And a plurality of level shifters for level shifting to a voltage suitable for driving the gate lines GL. The shifter registers and the level shifters are connected in a one-to-one correspondence, and an output terminal of each of the level shifters is connected to each of the gate lines GL of the EL display panel 20. The shifter registers are supplied to the gate lines GL via the level shifters while sequentially shifting start pulses to the first shifter register using clock signals commonly input from the timing controller 30. Accordingly, when m gate lines GL are disposed on the EL display panel 20, the gate driver 22 has m shifter registers to be connected to each of the m gate lines GL, and m Level shifters are needed.

The data driver 24 supplies the data signal of the timing controller 28 to the pixels PE through the data lines DL in response to control signals supplied from the timing controller 28. In this case, the data driver 24 supplies the data lines DL with one horizontal line for each scan period in which the gate driver 22 drives each of the gate lines GL. The data driver 24 also supplies the digitally modulated data signal to the pixels PE through the data lines DL by the brightness adjusting unit 26 connected between the timing controller 28 and the data driver 24. Thus, light corresponding to the magnitude of the pixel signal and whose brightness is controlled is generated.

The brightness controller 26 adds or subtracts a digital data signal value of the data signal RGB by using a supply signal controlled by the timing controller 28 to output the data through the data lines DL. The digital data signal has any one bit value of 2n bits. At this time, the brightness adjusting section 26 has an adjusting means for adding or decreasing the digital data signal value. In addition, the brightness adjusting unit 26 is configured in the timing controller 28 to adjust the data signal input from the external driver so that the brightness is controlled to be output through the data line DL.

The memory 30 stores the brightness information controlled by the brightness adjusting unit 26.

3 is a view for explaining a brightness control method of an electroluminescent panel using the driving device shown in FIG. 2.

Referring to FIG. 3, in the method of controlling brightness of an electroluminescent panel, first, a digital data signal input from an external driver is input to the brightness adjusting unit 26 through the timing controller 28, and the brightness signal is initialized. The digital data signal input at this time has a plurality of bits.

The input digital data signal is judged to adjust brightness (S12). At this time, it is determined whether the input digital data signal has light brightness of a pixel to be displayed through the data line DL. Thus, in the case of having a digital data signal having a normal brightness level, the data driver 24 outputs the data signal input from the timing controller 28 as it is (S16).

When the brightness level is lower than the desired brightness level, the digital data signal value is controlled to be increased (S14a). B = B + 1) While increasing, the digital data signal value is controlled to have the desired degree of brightness. This operation is repeatedly controlled until it has the desired degree of brightness. The repeatedly controlled brightness B information is stored in the memory 30. The data signal having the modulated digital data signal value is input to the data driver 24.

If the brightness level is higher than the desired brightness level, the digital data signal value is controlled to be reduced (S14b). In this case, the brightness adjusting unit 26 adjusts the digital data signal value having a high brightness level by -1 ( B = B-1) while controlling the digital data signal value to have the desired degree of brightness. This operation is controlled repeatedly until it has the desired degree of brightness. The repeatedly controlled brightness B information is stored in the memory 30. The data signal having the modulated digital data signal value is input to the data driver 24.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a modified gradation level according to the brightness control of FIG. 3, wherein the data signal is changed in the brightness controller when the 6-bit data signal and the 6-bit data driver are used.

Referring to FIG. 3, when the digital data signal having 0 to 63 gray levels has a lower brightness than the desired brightness, the digital data signal value is increased by 1 as in B1 (B = B). +1) If it does not have the desired brightness even though it increases by 1, increase it by 1 again (B = B + 1) to increase the brightness.

At this time, when the previous data signal value is the desired brightness in B1, the brightness of the data signal is determined by decreasing the value by 1 again as in C2 (B = B-1).

In addition, when the brightness of the digital data signal is higher than the desired brightness, the digital data signal value is decreased by one (B = B-1) as in B2. If it decreases by 1, but does not have the desired brightness, decrease it by 1 again (B = B-1) to reduce the brightness as in C3. At this time, if the previous data signal value is the desired brightness in B2, the brightness is determined by decreasing the data signal value by one again (B = B-1).

In this case, the minimum and maximum gray may be variable as shown in FIG. 4, and the minimum or maximum gray may be fixed even if the value of another gray is variable.

As described above, the driving apparatus of the electroluminescence panel according to the present invention can adjust the brightness of the screen by varying the digital data signal value displayed on the data line through the data driver to display an image. It is also possible to reduce the power consumption by displaying an image of a desired screen brightness on the electro luminescence panel.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention. Therefore, the technical scope of the present invention should not be limited to the contents described in the detailed description of the specification but should be defined by the claims.

Claims (11)

an electro-luminescence display panel having m * n electro-luminescence pixel elements formed at each intersection of m gate lines and n data lines; A data driver for driving the data lines; A gate driver for driving the gate lines; A controller for supplying data control signals along with rearranged data signals according to the driving order of the gate lines to the data driver, and supplying gate control signals including a start pulse and a clock signal and a select signal to the gate driver. Wow; And a brightness adjusting unit configured to control the data signal output from the controller to be controlled by the data control signal so that the brightness of an image is modulated. The method of claim 1, And a memory means for storing the brightness information controlled by the brightness adjuster. The method of claim 1, The data signal has a digital data signal value having a plurality of bits, And the brightness adjusting unit has an adjusting means for adding or subtracting the data signal value by " 1 ". The method of claim 3, wherein And said plurality of bits is any one of 2n bits. The method of claim 1, And the brightness controller is formed in the controller. The method of claim 2, And the memory means is formed inside and outside the brightness adjusting unit. inputting a data signal of an nth gate line; And controlling the brightness of the input data signal to be added or decreased in response to a control signal. The method of claim 7, wherein And storing / outputting the brightness information of the controlled data signal to a memory means. The method of claim 7, wherein The controlling of the brightness level of the data signal may be performed by recognizing the brightness level of the image; And controlling the digital data signal to be decremented by one or more times at least once according to the recognized brightness level. The method of claim 7, wherein And driving the gate signals when the gate signals are enabled to generate light corresponding to the magnitude of the data signal having the controlled brightness degree. The method of claim 9, The method of driving an electro luminescence panel, wherein the level of brightness is controlled by controlling the gray level of the data signal.