ELECTROLUMINESCENT DISPLAY USING BIPOLAR COLUMN DRIVERS

1 . A driver apparatus for an electroluminescent display comprising a plurality of rows to be scanned and a plurality of columns which intersect said rows to form a plurality of pixels, said driver apparatus comprising:

addressable row drivers applying an output voltage to the rows, the value of which is greater than the threshold voltage for the electroluminescent display and less than that required to provide the maximum desired luminance for a pixel; and

bipolar column drivers supplying an output voltage to the columns, the output voltage being either a positive or negative voltage depending on the desired luminance of the pixels.

2 . A driver apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the positive and negative voltages are defined by voltage ramps.

3 . A driver apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the positive and negative voltage ramps differ.

4 . A driver apparatus according to claim 3 wherein the positive and negative voltage ramps are non-linear.

5 . A driver apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the ends of the voltage ramps are timed such that they are spaced substantially over the duration of the period during which a row is addressed.

6 . A driver apparatus according to claim 2 further comprising a sensor generating a signal proportional to the luminance for a particular driver voltage, said signal being used to adjust the shape of the voltage ramps.

7 . A driver apparatus according to claim 6 wherein said sensor is a calibration pixel on said electroluminescent display.

8 . A driver apparatus for an electroluminescent display comprising a plurality of rows to be scanned and a plurality of columns which intersect said rows to form a plurality of pixels, said driver apparatus comprising:

addressable row drivers, each row driver applying an output voltage to its associated row when addressed, the value of which is approximately equal to the numerical average of the threshold voltage for the electroluminescent display and the voltage required to provide the maximum desired pixel luminance for the electroluminescent display; and

bipolar column drivers, each supplying an output voltage to its associated column, the output voltage being either positive or negative depending on the desired luminance of the pixels, wherein the range of both positive and negative column output voltages is from zero volts to about one half of the difference between the threshold voltage and the voltage required to provide the desired maximum pixel luminance for the electroluminescent display.

9 . A driver apparatus according to claim 8 wherein the positive and negative column output voltages are defined by voltage ramps.

10 . A driver apparatus according to claim 9 wherein the positive and negative column output voltage ramps differ.

11 . A driver apparatus according to claim 8 wherein the positive and negative voltage ramps are non-linear.

12 . A driver apparatus according to claim 9 further comprising a sensor generating a signal proportional to the luminance for a particular driver voltage, said signal being used to adjust its shape of the voltage ramps.

13 . A driver apparatus according to claim 12 wherein said sensor is a calibration pixel on said electroluminescent display.

14 . An electroluminescent display comprising:

a plurality of rows to be scanned;

a plurality of columns which intersect said rows to form a plurality of pixels;

addressable row drivers each applying an output voltage to its associated row when addressed; and

bipolar column drivers each supplying an output voltage to its associated column, wherein during row addressing the output voltage of each column driver is split into positive and negative portions and the row voltage is adjusted commensurately, so that the electroluminescent display threshold voltage is the difference between the absolute value of the row voltage and the maximum absolute value of the negative column voltage and so that the voltage for maximum pixel luminance is the sum of the absolute value of the row voltage and the absolute value of the column voltage.

15 . An electroluminescent display according to claim 14 wherein the positive and negative portions are voltage ramps.

16 . An electroluminescent display according to claim 15 wherein the positive and negative voltage ramps differ.

17 . An electroluminescent display according to claim 16 positive and negative voltage ramps are non-linear.

18 . An electroluminescent display according to claim 15 further comprising a sensor generating a signal proportional to the luminance for a particular driver voltage, said signal being used to adjust its shape of the voltage ramps.

19 . An electroluminescent display according to claim 18 wherein said sensor is a calibration pixel on said electroluminescent display.

20 . A driver apparatus for an electroluminescent display comprising a plurality of rows to be scanned and a plurality of columns which intersect said rows to form a plurality of pixels, said driver apparatus comprising:

addressable row drivers each applying an output voltage to its associated row, the value of which corresponds to a gray level near the middle level for an electroluminescent display pixel; and

bipolar column drivers having a voltage modulation type gray scale capability, the column drivers supplying an output voltage to the pixels on an addressed row, the output voltage being either positive or negative depending on the desired gray level of the pixels, the range of column voltage when negative being from zero volts to the difference between the threshold voltage and the voltage corresponding to a gray level near the middle level for the electroluminescent display pixel and when positive being from zero volts to the difference between the voltage corresponding to the highest (brightest) gray level and the voltage corresponding to the gray level near the middle level for the electroluminescent display pixel.

21 . A driver apparatus according to claim 20 wherein the positive and negative voltages are defined by voltage ramps.

22 . A driver apparatus according to claim 21 wherein the ends of the voltage ramps are timed such that they are spaced substantially over the duration of the period during which a row is addressed.

23 . A bipolar column driver output stage comprising:

positive and negative ramp control circuits receiving gray scale information and being responsive to frame polarity input so that only one of said ramp control circuits is enabled at a time, said ramp control circuits also receiving end point and voltage ramp signals;

a charge store coupled to the ramp control circuits and receiving the voltage ramp output by the enabled ramp control circuit; and

an output buffer responsive to said charge store to modulate a voltage supply thereby to generate output column voltage pulses.

24 . A method of driving a row of pixels of an electroluminescent display comprising a plurality of rows and a plurality of pixels intersecting said rows to define a plurality of pixels, said method comprising:

addressing the pixel row by applying an output voltage thereto; and

applying either a positive or a negative voltage to the columns intersecting the addressed row depending on the desired gray level of the pixels in the addressed row.