METHOD OF DRIVING DISPLAY PANEL AND DISPLAY APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING THE SAME

1 . A method of driving a display panel, the display panel comprising a plurality of color pixels, each of the color pixels comprising a cholesteric liquid crystal layer, the method comprising:

generating a plurality of color sub-data from color data using a spatial division grayscale algorithm; and

converting the color sub-data into a data voltages to be provided to the color pixels.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the data voltage comprises a reference voltage which drives the cholesteric liquid crystal layer to have a homeotropic alignment and a color voltage which drives the cholesteric liquid crystal layer to have a planar alignment.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the data voltage is inverted with respect to the reference voltage in a frame by frame manner.

4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the color pixel comprises a first sub-area and a second sub-area which is larger than the first sub-area.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein generating the color sub-data comprises:

generating first color sub-data and second color sub-data to display black in the first sub-area and the second sub-area of the color pixel when the color data are within a first grayscale range;

generating the first color sub-data and the second color sub-data to display a color in the first sub-area of the color pixel and to display black in the second sub-area of the color pixel when the color data are within a second grayscale range;

generating the first color sub-data and the second color sub-data to display black in the first sub-area of the color pixel and to display a color in the second sub-area of the color pixel when the color data are within a third grayscale range; and

generating the first color sub-data and the second color sub-data to display a color in the first sub-area and the second sub-area of the color pixel when the color data are within a fourth grayscale range,

wherein the first grayscale range, the second grayscale range, the third grayscale range and the fourth grayscale range are different.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein converting the color sub-data into the data voltage comprises:

converting the first color sub-data into a first data voltage to be provided to the color pixel during a first interval of a horizontal period; and

converting the second color sub-data into a second data voltage to be provided to the color pixel during a second interval of the horizontal period.

7 . The method of claim 5 , wherein converting the color sub-data into the data voltage comprises:

converting the first and second color sub-data into the data voltages to be provided to the color pixel at a same time during a horizontal period.

8 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the color pixels comprise a red pixel, a green pixel and a blue pixel,

a first sub-area of the green pixel is adjacent to a second sub-area of the red pixel and a second sub-area of the blue pixel, and

a second sub-area of the green pixel is adjacent to a first sub-area of the red pixel and a first sub-area of the blue pixel.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the color voltage comprises a red color voltage, a green color voltage and a blue color voltage,

the red color voltage drives the cholesteric liquid crystal layer of the red pixel to have the planar alignment and has a first voltage level difference with respect to the reference voltage,

the green color voltage drives the cholesteric liquid crystal layer of the green pixel to have the planar alignment and has a second voltage level difference with respect to the reference voltage, and

the blue color voltage drives the cholesteric liquid crystal layer of the blue pixel to have the planar alignment and has a third voltage level difference with respect to the reference voltage.

10 . A display apparatus comprising:

a display panel comprising a plurality of color pixels, each of the plurality of color pixels comprising a cholesteric liquid crystal layer; and

a panel driver which generates a plurality of color sub-data from color data using a spatial division grayscale algorithm and which converts the color sub-data into a data voltage to be provided to the color pixels.

11 . The display apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the display panel has a plurality of cell gaps which differ from each other according to colors of the color pixels.

12 . The display apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the panel driver generates a reference voltage which drives the cholesteric liquid crystal layer to have a homeotropic alignment and a color voltage which drives the cholesteric liquid crystal layer to have a planar alignment.

13 . The display apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the panel driver inverts the data voltage with respect to the reference voltage in a frame by frame manner to provide the inverted data voltage to the color pixels.

14 . The display apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the color pixel comprises a first sub-area and a second sub-area which is larger than the first sub-area, and

the panel driver generates:

first color sub-data and second color sub-data to display black in the first sub-area and the second sub-area of the color pixel when the color data are within a first grayscale range,

the first color sub-data and the second color sub-data to display a color in the first sub-area of the color pixel and to display the black in the second sub-area of the color pixel when the color data are within a second grayscale range,

the first color sub-data and the second color sub-data to display black in the first sub-area of the color pixel and to display a color in the second sub-area of the color pixel when the color data are within a third grayscale range, and

the first color sub-data and the second color sub-data to display a color in the first sub-area and the second sub-area of the color pixel when the color data are within a fourth grayscale range,

wherein the first grayscale range, the second grayscale range, the third grayscale range and the fourth grayscale range are different.

15 . The display apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the color pixel comprises a first sub-electrode and a second sub-electrode, the first sub-electrode is electrically connected to a data line and a first gate line and is disposed in the first sub-area, and the second sub-electrode is electrically connected to the data line and a second gate line and is disposed in the second sub-area.

16 . The display apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the panel driver outputs:

a first gate signal having a high voltage level to the first gate line and a first data voltage corresponding to the first color sub-data to the data line during a first interval of a horizontal period, and

a second gate signal having a high voltage level to the second gate line and a second data voltage corresponding to the second color sub-data to the data line during a second interval of the horizontal period,

wherein the high voltage level is sufficient to turn on a transistor connected to the data line

17 . The display apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the color pixel comprises a first sub-electrode and a second sub-electrode, the first sub-electrode is electrically connected to a first data line and a gate line and is disposed in the first sub-area, and the second sub-electrode is electrically connected to a second data line and the gate line and is disposed in the second sub-area.

18 . The display apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the panel driver outputs a gate signal having a high voltage level to the gate line and respectively outputs the data voltages corresponding to the first color sub-data and the second color sub-data to the first data line and the second data line, during a horizontal period.

19 . The display apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the color pixels comprise a red pixel, a green pixel and a blue pixel,

the first sub-area of the green pixel is adjacent to the second sub-area of the red pixel and the second sub-area of the blue pixel, and

the second sub-area of the green pixel is adjacent to the first sub-area of the red pixel and the blue pixel.

20 . The display apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the color voltage comprises a red color voltage, a green color voltage and a blue color voltage,

the red color voltage drives the cholesteric liquid crystal layer of the red pixel to have the planar alignment and has a first voltage level difference with respect to the reference voltage,

the green color voltage drives the cholesteric liquid crystal layer of the green pixel to have the planar alignment and has a second voltage level difference with respect to the reference voltage, and

the blue color voltage drives the cholesteric liquid crystal layer of the blue pixel to have the planar alignment and has a third voltage level difference with respect to the reference voltage.