Device and circuit level optimization for high performance a-Si:H TFT-based AMOLED displays

• Published in: Journal of display technology Vol. 2; no. 1; pp. 52 - 59
• Main Authors: Sambandan, S., Striakhilev, D., Nathan, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.03.2006; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Active matrix display; Active matrix organic light emitting diodes; Active matrix technology; Amorphous materials; Backplanes; Brightness; Circuits; Devices; Displays; Driver circuits; Flat panel displays; Instability; optimization; organic light-emitting diode (OLED); Pixels; Semiconductor devices; Silicon; Thin film transistors; thin-film transistor (TFT)
• ISSN: 1551-319X; 1558-9323
• DOI: 10.1109/JDT.2005.863600

Active matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays with amorphous hydrogenated silicon (a-Si:H) thin-film transistor (TFT) backplanes are becoming the state of art in display technology. Though a-Si:H TFTs suffer from an intrinsic device instability, which inturn leads to an instability in pixel brightness, there have been many pixel driving methods that have been introduced to counter this. However, there are issues with these circuits which limit their applicability in terms of speed and resolution. This paper highlights these issues and provides detailed design considerations for the choice of pixel driver circuits in general. In particular, we discuss the circuit and device level optimization of the pixel driver circuit in a-Si:H TFT AMOLED, displays for high gray scale accuracy, subject to constraints of power consumption, and temporal and spatial resolution.