Abstract:
A method of saving power in a color organic electroluminescent display of the type having color emitting elements with different light emitting efficiencies, includes the steps of: determining the color of the elements having the highest efficiency; converting a color digital image to be displayed on the display to a monochrome image; and displaying the monochrome image using the determined color elements.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    This invention relates generally to organic electroluminescent displays, and more particularly, to a method for reducing the power consumed by an organic electroluminescent display panel.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    Full color organic electroluminescent flat panel displays such as organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) consist of two dimensional arrays of discrete light emitting elements. A common configuration for such a device includes columns of alternating red, green and blue emitting elements. Another configuration includes closely placed triplets of light emitting elements, each triplet consisting of one each of a red, green and blue light emitting diode. Color organic electroluminescent flat panel displays are presently planned for wide use in battery powered portable electronic devices such as personal computers, digital assistants and cellular telephones. A common problem with such apparatus is the limited time of operation before the battery must be replaced or recharged. One approach to saving power is to automatically put the device into a minimum power usage sleep mode if there has been no active use of the device for a predetermined time. This approach however is not very useful if the device is continually in use. There is a need therefore for an improved method of conserving power  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0003]    The need is met according to the present invention by providing a method of saving power in a color organic electroluminescent display of the type having color emitting elements with different light emitting efficiencies, that includes the steps of: determining the color of the elements having the highest efficiency; converting a color digital image to be displayed on the display to a monochrome image, and displaying the monochrome image using the determined color elements.  
         ADVANTAGES  
         [0004]    The present invention has the advantage that power can be saved while continuing to use the display device. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0005]    [0005]FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the normal full color operation of an organic electroluminescent display;  
         [0006]    [0006]FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating the power saving mode of operation of an organic electroluminescent display according to the present invention; and  
         [0007]    [0007]FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of a battery powered cell phone having an organic electroluminescent display capable of being operated in a power saving mode according to the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0008]    The present invention is directed to a method of conserving power in a portable OLED device. OLEDs create a color image by emitting colored light at each individual pixel site. The OLED has a useful property in that the only light emitting elements that consume power are the light emitting elements that are turned on. In other words, the power consumed by the OLED device can be reduced by turning individual light emitting elements off. It is known that the various colors of OLED materials do not create light with the same efficiencies. The present invention takes advantage of this property to provide a method for displaying an image using the most efficient light emitting channel of the OLED device. This display mode saves power by turning off the less efficient color channels, and using the most efficient channel for displaying the image.  
         [0009]    A typical active matrix OLED display has red, green and blue light emitting elements. When all of the light emitting elements are off, the display consumes a minimum of power, and the display appears black. When all of the light emitting elements are turned on, the red, green and blue light mixes, and the display appears white. The materials used to produce the different colors of light do not have the same light emitting efficiencies. Some of the materials will produce more light output than others, for a given amount of input current. For example, the green light emitting materials are often the most efficient, and may be as much as four or five times as efficient as the blue material, which is the least efficient.  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 1 shows the normal mode of operation of a full color OLED display  10 , the data from each color channel ( 12 ,  14 ,  16 ) is used to drive the corresponding colored light emitting elements ( 18 ,  20 ,  22 ) in the OLED display  10 .  
         [0011]    It is known that the luminance content of a colored image can be represented by adding together a weighted portion of each of the intensities of the red, green and blue components of the image. For example in one known technique for converting a color image to a monochrome image, the relative weighted amounts of red, green and blue used to produce a gray scale luminance value are: 
         Luminance=({fraction (5/16)})*red+({fraction (9/16)})*green+({fraction (2/16)})*blue  (1) 
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 2 shows how the image data can be processed by multiplying the data in each channel by a fraction ( 24 ,  26 , and  28 ) and summing ( 30 ) the processed channels to produce a weighted luminance sum, and that sum is used to drive one of the channels (e.g. the green channel) on the OLED display.  
         [0013]    Referring to FIG. 3, in certain portable applications, such as a cellular telephone  32 , it may be acceptable to switch from a full power, full color mode to a low power monochrome mode. The cell phone  32  includes a full color OLED display  10 . A transceiver  34  is connected to an antenna  36  and a controller  38 . The cell phone is operated by a keypad  40  connected to the controller. The controller sends signals to a digital image processor  42  that in turn sends  30  processed digital image signals to a display driver  44  that drives the display. A power supply, such as a battery pack  46  supplies power to the components of the cell phone, including the display  10 . A power supply monitor  48  is connected to the power supply  46  and signals the controller as to state of charge of the batteries in the power supply.  
         [0014]    When the battery  46  is low on stored power, it may be more important to use the remaining power to receive and transmit, than to display full color on the OLED display  10 . This low power monochrome mode can be achieved by converting the full color RGB color image to a luminance only gray scale image as described above in the digital image processor  42 , and displaying that monochrome image on the green light emitting elements (only) of the OLED display  10 . The inefficient red and blue light emitting elements would all be turned off, and the image would be displayed on the efficient green light emitting elements. The low power mode of operation can be selected manually, for example by a code that is input into the keypad  40 , or automatically by the controller in response to the signal provided by the power supply monitor  48 .  
         [0015]    The present invention is also useful in devices such as laptop computers and personal digital assistants, for example, by providing the option to switch to a power saving mode when doing tasks such as word processing that don&#39;t necessarily require full color.  
         [0016]    The invention has been described in detail with particular reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof but it will be understood that variations and modifications can be effected within the spirit and scope of the invention.  
       Parts List  
       [0017]    [0017] 10  OLED display  
         [0018]    [0018] 12  red color channel  
         [0019]    [0019] 14  green color channel  
         [0020]    [0020] 16  blue color channel  
         [0021]    [0021] 18  red pixel element  
         [0022]    [0022] 20  green pixel element  
         [0023]    [0023] 22  blue pixel element  
         [0024]    [0024] 24  multiply red channel data  
         [0025]    [0025] 26  multiply green channel data  
         [0026]    [0026] 28  multiply blue channel data  
         [0027]    [0027] 30  sum multiplied channel data  
         [0028]    [0028] 32  cell phone  
         [0029]    [0029] 34  transceiver  
         [0030]    [0030] 36  antenna  
         [0031]    [0031] 38  controller  
         [0032]    [0032] 40  keypad  
         [0033]    [0033] 42  image processor  
         [0034]    [0034] 44  display driver  
         [0035]    [0035] 46  battery pack  
         [0036]    [0036] 48  power supply monitor