Organic electroluminescent light emitting unit driving method for controlling brightness uniformity

1. A light emitting unit driving apparatus comprising:

a writing transistor,

a driving transistor, and

a capacitor unit,

wherein,

said driving transistor has a configuration in which one of a source region and a drain region thereof is connected to a switched power supply unit, the other one of the source region and the drain region of the driving transistor is connected a second node to which are also connected an anode electrode of an organic electroluminescent light emitting unit and an electrode of said capacitor unit, a cathode electrode of the organic electroluminescent light emitting unit being connected to a power supply line configured to maintain the cathode electrode at a constant potential,

the gate electrode of the driving transistor is connected to a first node to which are also connected the other one of the source region and the drain region of said writing transistor and the other electrode of said capacitor unit,

after: (i) a current according to the value of potential difference between the first node and the second node is supplied to the organic electroluminescent light emitting unit from the switched power supply unit to drive the organic electroluminescent light emitting unit, and (ii) a reverse voltage is applied between the anode electrode and the cathode electrode of said organic electroluminescent light emitting unit, the driving transistor executes an auxiliary driving process to apply a forward voltage between the anode electrode and the cathode electrode of said organic electroluminescent light emitting unit over a first period when the writing transistor is in an off state and the switched power supply unit is switched from a low potential to a high potential,

the driving transistor executes a threshold voltage cancellation process in which a potential of said second node is changed toward a potential obtained by subtracting a threshold voltage of said driving transistor from a potential of said first node in a state in which the potential of said first node is maintained, and

a second period between termination of said auxiliary driving process and termination of the threshold voltage cancellation process is suppressed to 1 millisecond or less, the second period comprising at least a third period for executing preprocessing via a process (a) during said second period when the writing transistor is in an on state, wherein the potential of said first node and the potential of said second node are initialized such that the potential difference between said first node and said second node exceeds the threshold voltage of said driving transistor, and also the potential difference between said second node and a cathode electrode provided to said organic electroluminescent light emitting unit does not exceed the threshold voltage of said organic electroluminescent light emitting unit.

2. The light emitting unit driving apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein:

said driving transistor is driven by a driving signal, the driving signal comprising a first emitting period, a non-luminescent period, and a second emitting period; and

said first emitting period is longer than said second emitting period.

3. The light emitting unit driving apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the level of said driving signal of said non-luminescent period is intermediate potential.

4. An organic electroluminescent light emitting unit driving method using a driving circuit, said driving circuit including (a) a writing transistor, (b) a driving transistor, and (c) a capacitor unit, said driving transistor having a configuration in which (1) one of the source/drain regions is connected to a switched power supply unit, (2) the other source/drain region is connected to a second node to which are connected an anode electrode provided to an organic electroluminescent light emitting unit and one of the electrodes of said capacitor unit, a cathode electrode of the organic electroluminescent light emitting unit being connected to a power supply line configured to maintain the cathode electrode at a constant potential, and (3) the gate electrode is connected to a first node to which are also connected the other source/drain of said writing transistor and the other electrode of said capacitor unit, said writing transistor having a configuration in which (1) one of the source/drain regions is connected to a data line, and (2) the gate electrode is connected to a scanning line, said driving method comprising:

executing preprocessing via a process (a), wherein the potential of said first node, and the potential of said second node are initialized such that the potential difference between said first node and said second node exceeds the threshold voltage of said driving transistor, and also the potential difference between said second node and a cathode electrode provided to said organic electroluminescent light emitting unit does not exceed the threshold voltage of said organic electroluminescent light emitting unit;

executing threshold voltage cancellation processing via a process (b), wherein the potential of said second node is changed toward a potential obtained by subtracting the threshold voltage of said driving transistor from the potential of said first node in a state in which the potential of said first node is maintained;

executing writing processing via a process (c), wherein a video signal is applied to said first node from said data line via said writing transistor which has been set to an on state by a signal from said scanning line;

setting said first node to a floating state, via a process (d), by setting said writing transistor to an off state based on a signal from said scanning line; and

executing a series of processes at least once, via a process (e), wherein, after a current according to the value of potential difference between said first node and said second node is applied to said organic electroluminescent light emitting unit from said switched power supply unit via said driving transistor to drive said organic electroluminescent light emitting unit, a reverse voltage is applied between the anode electrode and the cathode electrode of said organic electroluminescent light emitting unit;

wherein,

a series of processes from said processes (a) through (c) are executed repeatedly, and there is further provided an auxiliary driving process between said processes (e) and (a) to apply a forward voltage between the anode electrode and the cathode electrode of said organic electroluminescent light emitting unit over a first period when the writing transistor is in an off state and the switched power supply unit is switched from a low potential to a high potential, and

a second period between the termination of said auxiliary driving process and the termination of the next process (b) is suppressed to 1 millisecond or less, the second period comprising at least a third period for executing preprocessing via the process (a) during said second period when the writing transistor is in an on state.

5. The organic electroluminescent light emitting unit driving method according to claim 4 , wherein the second period between the termination of said auxiliary driving process and the termination of the next process (b) is suppressed to 0.5 milliseconds or less.

6. The organic electroluminescent light emitting unit driving method according to claim 4 , wherein, with said process (a), a first node initializing voltage is applied to said first node from said data line via said writing transistor which has been set to the on state by a signal from said scanning line.

7. The organic electroluminescent light emitting unit driving method according to claim 6 , wherein, with said process (b), the potential of said first node is held by maintaining a state in which said first node initializing voltage is applied to said first node from said data line via said writing transistor which has been set to the on state by a signal from said scanning line.

8. The organic electroluminescent light emitting unit driving method according to claim 4 , wherein, with said process (a), a second node initializing voltage is applied to said second node from said switched power supply unit via said driving transistor.

9. The organic electroluminescent light emitting unit driving method according to claim 8 , wherein, with said process (e), said second node initializing voltage is applied to said second node from said switched power supply unit via said driving transistor, thereby applying the reverse voltage between the anode electrode and the cathode electrode of said organic electroluminescent light emitting unit.

10. The organic electroluminescent light emitting unit driving method according to claim 4 , wherein, with said process (b), a voltage that is higher than a voltage obtained by subtracting the threshold voltage of said driving transistor from the potential of said first node is applied to one of the source/drain regions of said driving transistor from said switched power supply unit, thereby changing said second node toward a potential obtained by subtracting the threshold voltage of said driving transistor from the potential of said first node.