KR20060000752A - Pixel structure for flat panel display and method of driving the same - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention is a flat panel display device in which a delta pixel structure is formed by scan lines and data lines arranged in a matrix form, and each unit pixel sequentially connected to one scan line is connected to every other data line one by one. Disclosed is a pixel structure. According to the present invention, it is possible to improve the display efficiency by improving the scan period necessary for scanning the scan line, and there is an effect that the configuration of the data line driving circuit can be simplified.

Flat panel display, electron emission display, pixel structure, driving circuit

Description

Pixel structure for flat panel display and driving method thereof {PIXEL STRUCTURE FOR FLAT PANEL DISPLAY AND METHOD OF DRIVING THE SAME}

1 is a schematic diagram of a part of a pixel structure for an electron emission display device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a schematic perspective view of a portion of an electron emission display device employing a pixel structure according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a block diagram for driving a display panel including the pixel structure of FIG. 1.

4 is a conceptual diagram schematically illustrating the pixel structure of FIG. 1, and FIGS. 5 and 6 are timing diagrams of a scan signal and a data signal applied to the pixel structure of FIG. 4.

7 is a schematic diagram of a part of a pixel structure for an electron emission display device according to a modification of the present invention.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pixel structure for a flat panel display device and a driving method thereof, and more specifically, a delta type pixel structure is formed by scan lines and data lines arranged in a matrix form, and sequentially on one scan line. Each unit pixel connected to each other provides a pixel structure in which every other data line is connected one by one.

The display device, which is a main medium for transmitting information to humans, has been mainly used as a monitor and a TV of a personal computer, but recently, its application field has been widely created. In general, when the display device is classified, the display device can be roughly divided into a CRT and a flat panel display. The flat panel display includes a liquid crystal display, a plasma display, a fluorescent display, and an electron beam display.

A representative example of a flat panel display device is an electron emission display device. In general, an electron emission display device includes an electron emission device using a hot cathode and a cold cathode as an electron source. The electron-emitting devices using the cold cathode are FEA (Field Emitter Array) type, SCE (Surface Conduction Emitter) type, MIM (Metal-Insulator-Metal) type, MIS (Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor) type, BSE (Ballistic) electron surface emitting) and the like are known.

An electron emission display device is provided with an electron emission element and includes an electron emission region for emitting electrons, and an image expression region for emitting the emitted electrons by colliding with a fluorescent layer. In general, an electron emission display device includes a plurality of electron emission devices and driving electrodes for controlling their electron emission on a first substrate, and electrons emitted from the first substrate are efficiently directed toward a fluorescent layer formed on the second substrate. A fluorescent layer and an electrode connected thereto are provided to be accelerated.

A large number of pixel structures and driving methods thereof used in an electron emission display device are known. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-342636 discloses an example thereof. In the electron emission display device, a plurality of surface conduction electron emitting devices are arranged in a matrix by a plurality of scan lines and a plurality of data lines. A select signal is applied to one scan line and a data signal is applied to each of the plurality of data lines. In this way, when one line is displayed, an image display of one frame is realized by sequentially switching scan lines to be selected at predetermined frequencies and scanning them in the vertical direction.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-212944 discloses another driving method. In this method, a display panel composed of unit pixels defined by scan lines and data lines arranged in a matrix shape is divided into two parts, an upper part and a lower part, and each of the upper and lower regions is driven independently. .

Such a flat panel display device, in particular, an electron emission display device according to the related art has a limit in improving display efficiency since the maximum value of the scan period required for scanning one scan line is limited.

In addition, as the flat panel display becomes larger, particularly, the configuration of the data line driving circuit becomes complicated, and design difficulties are a problem.

In addition, in the case of the electron emission display device according to the related art, the unit pixels driven by one scan line are operated at a time, and thus are interfered by adjacent unit pixels. Such interference has a problem of reducing the emission amount of the effective electrons.

In addition, all of the above-mentioned prior arts have a pixel structure in the form of a stripe, which limits the representation of a moving image.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a pixel structure for a flat panel display device and a driving method thereof.

Another object of the present invention is to make the structure of the driving circuit portion delta type to facilitate the implementation of moving pictures.

It is another object of the present invention to simplify the data driving circuit.

As a technical means for solving the above problems, a first aspect of the present invention is a plurality of scan lines and data lines formed in a structure that is insulated and intersected with each other; And a plurality of unit pixels defined by them, wherein the pixel structure is delta type, and each of the unit pixels connected to a k-th scan line (k is a natural number of 1 or more) every other data line one by one Each unit pixel connected to the (k + 1) th scan line is provided with a pixel structure for a display device in which lines not connected to the kth scan line of the entire data lines are sequentially connected.

Preferably, the scan lines have a structure penetrating a central portion of the unit pixel, and more preferably, the unit pixels have a structure divided into two regions based on the scan line. Preferably, each unit pixel connected to the k-th scan line and a unit pixel adjacent to the scan direction are connected to different data lines. Preferably, the flat panel display is an electron emission display.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there are provided M scan lines and N data lines which are formed to be insulated and intersected with each other; And unit pixels of MXN defined by the respective scan lines and the data lines, wherein the pixel structure is delta type, and the unit pixels connected to the x-th scan line of the M scan lines are scanned in the scan direction. Adjacent unit pixels provide a pixel structure for a flat panel display device having a structure connected to the x th scan line and an adjacent scan line ((x-1) or (x + 1) th). (M, N, x are two or more natural numbers)

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of driving a recovery structure for a display device, the method comprising: applying a selection signal to the u-th scan line; And applying a data signal to the unit pixels selected by the u-th scan line, and applying the corresponding data signals to half of the data lines of the entire data lines. To provide. (u is 1 or more natural number)

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of driving a recovery structure for a display device, the method comprising: simultaneously applying a selection signal to the w th and (w + 1) th scan lines; And applying a data signal to unit pixels selected by the w-th and (w + 1) -th scan lines, and applying the corresponding data signals to all the data lines. It provides a driving method. (w is 1 or more natural number)

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art can easily implement the technical idea of the present invention. In particular, the embodiment of the present invention has been described in the case where the pixel structure for a flat panel display device of the present invention is applied to an electron emission display device as an example, but the pixel structure for the flat panel display device of the present invention is not particularly limited and various flat panel display devices are described. Available to

1 is a schematic diagram of a part of a pixel structure for an electron emission display device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

The pixel structure for the flat panel display device includes a plurality of scan lines (..., S _p , S _{p + 1} , S _{p + 2} , ...) and data lines (. ..., D _q , D _{q + 1} , D _{p + 2} , ...), and a plurality of unit pixels defined by them. The unit pixels mean parts indicated by reference numerals 10, 20, and 30. Such a pixel structure is delta type, and the unit pixel 10 and the other unit pixels 20 adjacent to each other are formed to face each other with only a part of the surface thereof being staggered. The shape of each unit pixel is not particularly limited, and various modifications are possible, for example, a rectangle, a square, a hexagon, or the like. An electron emission unit (not shown) is provided inside the unit pixel, and is connected to each data line (..., D _q , D _{q + 1} , D _{p + 2} , ...) to scan lines ( ..., S _p , S _{p + 1} , S _{p + 2} , ...) and data lines (... ,, D _q , D _{q + 1} , D _{p + 2} , ...) The electron beam is emitted by the voltage.

According to the present exemplary embodiment, since the unit pixels 10 and 30 are connected to one scan line S _p , every other data line (..., D _q , D _{q + 2} , ..) are sequentially connected to each unit pixel (10,30). Accordingly, the remaining data lines (..., D _{q + 1} , ..) are connected to the other scan line S _{p + 1} . That is, the unit pixels 20 adjacent to each of the unit pixels 10 and 30 connected to one scan line S _p among the scan lines in the scan line direction are adjacent to the scan line S _p and the scan line S _{p +. 1} ) has a structure connected to.

Preferably, the scan lines S _p and S _{p + 1} have a structure penetrating the central portion of the unit pixels 10, 20 and 30, and the unit pixels 10, 20 and 30 refer to the corresponding scan line. It has a structure divided into two regions.

2 is a schematic perspective view of a portion of an electron emission display device employing a pixel structure according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

The electron emission display device includes a first substrate 50 and a second substrate 60 which are disposed to face each other at predetermined intervals and are sealed to form a vacuum container. At least one scan line S ₁ , S ₂ ,... And at least one data lines D ₁ , D ₂ , ..., formed on the substrate 52 are arranged in a matrix form, for example. Define unit pixels. Referring to FIG. 2, the scan lines S1, S2,... And the data lines D ₁ , D ₂ ,... Form a pixel structure consisting of an array of unit pixels, and signals from the outside. It serves to deliver to each unit pixel. As described above, the pixel structure is connected to one data line sequentially every other unit pixel connected to one scan line.

Meanwhile, a plurality of openings are provided in the unit pixel, and each of the openings is provided in the insulating layer 54, and the electron emission part (not shown) connected to the data lines D ₁ , D ₂ ,,,, is second. It is exposed to face the phosphor 66 of the substrate 60. The second substrate 60 includes at least one anode electrode 68 on the substrate 62, and at least one surface of the anode electrode 68 includes a fluorescent film 66 having a stripe shape, for example. The anode electrode 68 may use a transparent electrode such as indium tin oxide (ITO) or the like, or may form a thin metal layer. In addition, the anode electrode 68 may be any one having an integrated electrode, a stripe shape, or a split electrode. The fluorescent film 66 may have a stripe shape or a dot shape, and a light shielding film 64 may be additionally formed between the fluorescent films 66.

On the other hand, the first substrate 50 and the second substrate 60 are supported at a constant distance by a known means, for example, by a support means such as a spacer. On the other hand, the number of electron-emitting portions that can correspond to one fluorescent film 66 of R, G, or B as the unit pixel is not particularly limited.

As an example of the voltage applicable to the electron emission display device, a voltage of approximately 5 to 120 V is applied to a selected scan line, a voltage of 0 V to -20 V is applied to an unselected scan line, and a voltage of approximately -120 to 0 V is applied to a data line electrode. Is authorized. In addition, a voltage of 1 to several kV may be applied to the anode electrode so that electrons emitted from the electron emission unit may be accelerated.

The pixel structure of the electron emission display device has a delta type structure which is advantageous for the representation of a moving image. In addition, since the number of data lines connected to one scan line corresponds to half of the total number of data lines, when the selection potential is sequentially applied to the scan lines, data signals may be applied to every other data line one by one. This can prevent the phenomenon that the focusing effect is degraded by adjacent pixels when the image is implemented in each unit pixel. That is, when the same scan voltage is applied to each unit pixel and the unit pixel adjacent to the pixel, the electron beam emitted from the electron emission unit causes interference by the scan voltage for the image implementation of the adjacent pixel, thereby reducing the focusing force and reducing the color. There was a problem of poor reproducibility. According to the present invention, it is possible to fundamentally solve this problem.

3 is a block diagram for driving a display panel including the pixel structure of FIG. 1.

The display panel 100 includes M scan lines and N data lines that are formed to be insulated and intersected with each other, and the unit pixels of MXN defined by the scan lines and the data lines. It has the pixel structure of FIG. 1 mentioned above. (M and N are two or more natural numbers)

First, when an image signal is input to the controller 120 through a known means such as a buffer (not shown), the controller 120 stores the image data for each RGB in the RAM 170 in units of one frame, and separately stores the RAM ( The image data stored in 170 is read and transmitted to the data driving circuit 110. The data driving circuit 110 receives a power supply voltage from the power supply unit 160 and outputs a data signal (pulse) to the display panel 100 in which a pulse width is modulated according to the gray level of RGB image data transmitted from the control unit 120. Is authorized.

The power supply unit 160 supplies a data driving power supply voltage to the data driving circuit 110, and supplies a scan driving power supply voltage to the scan driving circuit 150. The anode power supply / control circuit 130 is controlled by the controller 120 and receives an anode driving power supply voltage from the power supply unit 160 to supply the anode potential to the anode electrode of the display panel 100. The scan voltage control circuit 140 sets the scan order and timing of the scan terminals, receives a scan driving power supply voltage from the power supply 160, and applies a predetermined pulse to the scan driving circuit 150. The scan driving circuit 150 receives a selection signal (scanning signal) for scanning the scan terminals of the display panel 100 by the control of the control unit 120 and receives the selection signal (scan signal) by the scan voltage control circuit 140. Accordingly, the pixels are driven by selecting a scan terminal of the display panel 100.

Next, a method of driving the flat panel display device having the pixel structure of FIG. 1 will be described in detail. 4 is a conceptual diagram schematically illustrating the pixel structure of FIG. 1, and FIGS. 5 and 6 are timing diagrams of a scan signal and a data signal applied to the pixel structure of FIG. 4. Referring to FIG. 4, scan lines are shown as S ₁ , S ₂ ,... And data lines are shown as D ₁ , D ₂ , D ₃ .

Referring to FIG. 5, the first driving method is a method of sequentially applying selection signals by one scan line. In this case, if the total number of scan lines is 1024, for example, 1024 selection signals are sequentially applied. When the p-th scan line is selected, the data signal is applied only to the data lines D ₁ , D ₃ ,..., Or D ₂ , D ₄ .. Of course, it is also possible to apply the corresponding data signal to the entire data line for other reasons such as design. However, even though the data signal is applied to the unit pixel to which the selection signal is not applied by the scan line, the electron beam is not emitted and thus the image is not realized. According to the first driving method, the electron beam focusing power of the unit pixel as described above can be improved, and the data driving circuit can reduce the number of data signals applied, thereby simplifying the structure of the overall data circuit.

The second driving method is a method of simultaneously applying a selection signal to each of two scan lines. In this case, if the total number of scan lines is 1024, for example, two scan lines are selected at a time and 1024/2 selection signals are applied. When the p-th scan line is selected, the corresponding data signal is applied to all data lines D ₁ , D ₂ , D ₃ ,... According to this method, it is possible to increase the time for selecting one scan line, thereby improving electron emission efficiency, and by selecting two scan lines simultaneously, the selected unit pixels and adjacent pixels in the scan line direction are selected together. The interference phenomenon that occurs is also reduced. This is because of the delta structure, the adjacent portion is reduced compared to the stripe shape (see Fig. 5).

Next, a modification of the pixel structure for an electron emission display device will be described. 7 is a schematic diagram of a part of a modification of a pixel structure for an electron emission display device. The pixel structure for the flat panel display device includes a plurality of scan lines (..., S _p , S _{p + 1} , S _{p + 2} , ...) and data lines (. ..., D _q , D _{q + 1} , D _{p + 2} , ...), and a plurality of unit pixels defined by them. For convenience of explanation, the difference from the pixel structure of FIG. 1 will be mainly described. The unit pixels 10, 20, and 30 have a structure divided into two regions based on the corresponding scan line, and the two regions and the scan line. The connecting portion for connecting the wires has a narrow line width. This structure is particularly effective when a short circuit occurs due to a defect between the electron emission section and the scan line. That is, in general, when a short circuit occurs between the electron emission unit and the scan line, excessive current is generated, and when the excessive current is applied to the narrow connection part and the connection part is destroyed, the corresponding scan line and disconnection are generated. Therefore, excessive current can prevent the problem that the entire scan line becomes defective. Preferably, the connection is made of a metal having a relatively low melting point such as a fuse.

Although the technical spirit of the present invention has been described in detail according to the above-described preferred embodiment, it should be noted that the above-described embodiment is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. In addition, those skilled in the art will understand that various embodiments are possible within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to improve the display efficiency by improving the scan period required to scan one scan line, and the configuration of the data line driver circuit can be simplified.

In addition, in the electron emission display device according to the related art, since the unit pixels driven by one scan line are operated at once, the phenomenon of interference by adjacent unit pixels may be eliminated, thereby increasing the amount of effective electrons emitted. . In addition to these effects, there is an effect that can provide a delta type pixel structure that can display a video more effectively.

Claims (13)

A plurality of scan lines and data lines formed to cross each other by being insulated from each other; And A plurality of unit pixels defined by them; The pixel structure is delta type, and each unit pixel connected to the kth scan line (k is a natural number greater than or equal to 1) is sequentially connected every other data line one by one, and each unit pixel connected to the (k + 1) th scan line is provided. And a line which is not connected to the k-th scan line among the entire data lines is sequentially connected. The method of claim 1, And the scan lines have a structure penetrating through a central portion of the unit pixel. The method of claim 2, And the unit pixel has a structure divided into two regions based on the corresponding scan line. The method of claim 1, And each unit pixel connected to the k scan line and a unit pixel adjacent to the scan direction are connected to different data lines. The method of claim 1, And the flat panel display device is an electron emission display device. In the driving method of a pixel structure for a flat panel display device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, Applying a selection signal to the u-th scan line; And Applying a data signal to the unit pixels selected by the u-th scan line, and applying the corresponding data signals to half of the data lines of the entire data lines; Driving method. (Where u is one or more natural numbers) In the driving method of a pixel structure for a flat panel display device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, Simultaneously applying a selection signal to the w th and (w + 1) th scan lines; And And applying a data signal to unit pixels selected by the w-th and (w + 1) -th scan lines, and applying the corresponding data signals to all the data lines. Method of driving pixel structure. Where w is one or more natural numbers M scan lines and N data lines formed to be insulated from each other and cross each other; And Including unit pixels of M X N defined by the respective scan lines and data lines, The pixel structure is delta type, and the unit pixels adjacent to each unit pixel connected to the x th scan line among the M scan lines in the scan direction are the scan lines adjacent to the x th scan line ((x-1) or (x +). 1) a pixel structure for a flat panel display device, characterized in that it has a structure connected to the second). Where M, N, and x are two or more natural numbers The method of claim 8, And each unit pixel connected to the x scan line and a unit pixel adjacent to the scan direction are connected to different data lines. The method of claim 9, And the scan lines have a structure penetrating through a central portion of the unit pixel. The method of claim 8, And the unit pixel has a structure divided into two regions based on the corresponding scan line. The method of claim 8, And each unit pixel connected to the x-th scan line and a unit pixel adjacent to the scan direction are connected to different data lines. The method of claim 8, And the flat panel display device is an electron emission display device.

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