Display panel

A display panel is disclosed. The display units with the same position at odd rows and even rows are electrically coupled to different data lines, such that most of the time each of the data lines on the display panel is maintained on a single polarity, respectively. Accordingly, the swing voltage of the data lines on the display panel is reduced when scanning an image, such that the power consumption of the display panel is further reduced in order to achieve the object of saving power.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 94119773, filed on Jun. 15, 2005. All disclosure of the Taiwan application is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a display apparatus, and more particularly, to a display panel for reducing the polarity inversion frequency of the data lines.

2. Description of the Related Art

In recent years, the image display technology has been significantly improved, and a great amount of the conventional CRT display apparatus has been replaced by the flat panel displays. A typical flat panel display includes TFT-LCD (Thin-Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display), LTPS (Low Temperature Poly Silicon) LCD and OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode). Recently, the LTPS LCD and a-Si TFT-LCD have become the mainstream of the flat panel display in the market. Different types of LCDs are commonly used in the electronic apparatus such as a laptop computer (a.k.a. notebook computer), a monitor, an AV device, a TV, and a mobile phone (a.k.a. cellular phone).

FIG. 1schematically shows a conventional liquid crystal display (LCD) panel. Referring toFIG. 1, the display panel100of the panel display apparatus is composed of a display unit array. Wherein, the display unit array is typically an m×n matrix (e.g. the matrix formed by the display units130shown in the diagram), and each of the display units130is controlled by a plurality of drivers (not shown) via the data lines111,112and the scan lines120, respectively. In addition, each of the display units130comprises a switch131(e.g. a Thin-Film Transistor (TFT)), a liquid crystal capacitor132and a storage capacitor133. Wherein, the switch131transmits the data of the corresponding data line to the liquid crystal capacitor132and the storage capacitor133in response to a signal on the corresponding scan line120. The liquid crystal capacitor132and the storage capacitor133store the data on the data line111in response to a common voltage Vcom and a storage voltage Vst, respectively. The plurality of drivers drive the corresponding display units130based on the rasterized pixel data. In response to the control from the drivers, each of the display units130displays a desired color at a desired time point.

However, along with the trend of large-size panel and the increase of resolution as well as the fact that higher voltage is required to drive the wide view angle technique such as In-plane Switching (IPS) or Multi-domain Vertically Alignment (MVA), the power consumption on the conventional panel display apparatus has been greatly increased. In the consideration of environmental protection, how to reduce the power consumption of the panel display apparatus has become an important subject.

In addition, since the liquid crystal is used by the display panel of the TFT-LCD to control the display, in order to avoid the liquid crystal from polarization, the liquid crystal should be driven in an alternating current way. Accordingly, various polarity inversion driving methods such as Line Inversion, Dot Inversion and Column Inversion driving methods have been developed.FIG. 2schematically shows a diagram illustrating a conventional dot inversion method for driving the display panel. As shown in the diagram, in the nthframe210, the polarity of the adjacent display units is opposite with each other. When the (N+1)thframe220is displayed on the display panel100, the polarity of each display unit is inversed.

FIG. 3schematically shows a signal timing diagram of the data lines111and112. Since the large-size panel is typically designed to use the DC common voltage Vcom, the data lines111and112of the display panel100have a positive voltage higher than the common voltage Vcom and a negative voltage lower than the common voltage Vcom. Accordingly, the source drivers have to provide a swing voltage SW that is about two times amount of the common voltage Vcom. The power consumption of the display panel will be influenced by the swing voltage SW.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a display panel for reducing the swing voltage on the data lines when scanning an image. Most of the time, each of the data lines on the display panel is maintained on a single polarity, respectively, such that only half amount of the swing voltage is output from the data lines. Accordingly, the power consumption of the display panel is reduced and the object of power saving is achieved.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a display panel for achieving the objects mentioned above and improving the aperture ratio of the display panel.

In order to achieve the object mentioned above and others, the present invention provides a display panel. The display panel comprises X data lines DLi, Y scan lines SLj, and a plurality of display units SPi,j. Wherein, X and Y are positive integers; DLirepresents the jthdata line; SLjrepresents the jthscan line; and SPi,jrepresents the display unit of the jthcolumn and the jthrow. Here, i is an integer greater than or equal to 0 but less than X, and j is an integer greater than or equal to 0 but less than Y. In addition, the display unit SP2s,2tis electrically coupled to the scan line SL2tand the data line DL2s+1; the display unit SP2s+1,2tis electrically coupled to the scan line SL2tand the data line DL2s+1; the display unit SP2s,2t+1is electrically coupled to the scan line SL2t+1and the data line DL2s+1; and the display unit SP2s+1,2t+1is electrically coupled to the scan line SL2t+1and the data line DL2s. Wherein, s is an integer greater than or equal to 0 but less than X/2, and t is an integer greater than or equal to 0 but less than Y/2.

In the display panel according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the data line DL2sand the data line DL2s+1mentioned above are interleavedly arranged on the display panel.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a display panel is provided by the present invention. The display panel comprises X+1 data lines DLi, Y scanning lines SLjand a plurality of display units SPn,j. Wherein, X and Y are positive integers; DLirepresents the ithdata line; SLjrepresents the jthscan line; and SPn,jrepresents the display unit of the nthcolumn and the jthrow. Here, i is an integer greater than or equal to 0 but less than X+1, and j is an integer greater than or equal to 0 but less than Y. In addition, the display unit SPn,2tis electrically coupled to the scan line SL2tand the data line DLn; the display unit SPn,2t+1is electrically coupled to the scan line SL2t+1and the data line DLn+1; where n is an integer greater than or equal to 0 but less than X, and t is an integer greater than or equal to 0 but less than Y/2.

In the present invention, the display units with the same position at odd rows and even rows are electrically coupled to different data lines, such that most of the time each of the data lines on the display panel is maintained on a single polarity, respectively. Accordingly, the swing voltage of the data lines on the display panel is reduced when scanning an image. As such, the power consumption of the display panel is further reduced so the object of saving power is achieved.

DESCRIPTION PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The LCD display panel is exemplified hereinafter for describing the present invention in greater detail. However, other types of display panels should be easily inferred by one of the ordinary skill in the art based on the spirit of the present invention and the description of the following embodiments.FIG. 4schematically shows a display panel according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Referring toFIG. 4, for describing the present embodiment in greater detail, the peripheral circuit (e.g. the source drivers and the gate drivers) electrically coupled to the display panel400is not shown in the diagram. It is assumed that the display panel400has X data lines DL0˜DLX−1, Y scan lines SL0˜SLY−1, and X*Y display units SP0,0˜SPX−1,Y−1, where SPi,jrepresents the display unit of the ithcolumn and the jthrow. The gate drivers turn on the corresponding display units via the scan lines SL0˜SLYin a manner of line by line. In response to a timing of the gate driver, the source drivers transmit the display data to the corresponding display units via the data lines DL0˜DLX.

The display unit SP0,0is exemplified for describing the embodiment of each of the display units hereinafter. The display unit SP0,0comprises a switch410, a liquid crystal capacitor420and a storage capacitor430. The switch may be a Thin-Film Transistor (TFT). A first terminal of the switch410is electrically coupled to the corresponding scan line (i.e. the scan line SL0), a second terminal is electrically coupled to the corresponding data line (i.e. the data line DL0), and a third terminal is electrically coupled to the liquid crystal capacitor420and the storage capacitor430. Wherein, whether the second terminal and the third terminal are electrically coupled or not is determined by the switch410in response to the control from the first terminal. In other words, the switch410transmits the data on the data line DL0to the liquid crystal capacitor420and the storage capacitor430in response to the control timing of the scan line SL0. The liquid crystal capacitor420and the storage capacitor430store the data of the data line DL0in response to the common voltage Vcom and the storage voltage Vst.

In the present embodiment, the adjacent even data lines DL2sand the odd data lines DL2s+1(where s is an integer greater than or equal to 0 but less than X/2) are interleavedly arranged on the display panel400. As shown inFIG. 4, the data lines DL0and DL1are interleavedly arranged on the display panel400. Therefore, SP2s,2tis electrically coupled to SL2tand DL2s; SP2s+1,2tis electrically coupled to SL2tand DL2s+1; SP2s,2t+1is electrically coupled to SL2t+1and DL2s+1; and SP2s+1,2t+1is electrically coupled to SL2t+1and DL2s. Wherein, t is an integer greater than or equal to 0 but less than Y/2 as shown in the diagram.

The even data lines DL2sand the odd data lines DL2s+1may be arranged by one of the ordinary skill in the art in different way. For example, the data lines may be arranged in a layout of straight lines.FIG. 5schematically shows a layout diagram of the adjacent even data lines DL2sand the odd data lines DL2s+1on the display panel500according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6schematically shows a signal timing diagram of the data lines DL0and DL1according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown inFIG. 6, most of the time, each of the data lines on the display panel400(or the display panel500) is maintained on a single polarity, respectively. Accordingly, the swing voltage SW of the data line on the display panel is reduced when scanning an image (it is reduced to about 50% compared with the conventional technique), such that the power consumption of the display panel is further reduced for achieving the object of saving power.

Although the adjacent even data lines DL2, (e.g. DL0) and the odd data lines DL2s+1(e.g. DL1) on the display panel400(or the display panel500) inFIG. 6are maintained on the positive polarity and the negative polarity, respectively. The polarity of the data lines may be inversed by the one of the ordinary skill in the art at the appropriate time point based on the real requirement. For example, after a full frame data has been transmitted by each of the data lines, the polarity of the even data lines DL2s(e.g. DL0) is switched from positive to negative, and the polarity of the odd data lines DL2s+1(e.g. DL1) is switched from negative to positive, and others can be deduced by applying the same. Alternatively, the polarity of the even data line DL2S(e.g. DL0) and the polarity of the odd data line DL2S+1(e.g. DL1) are exchanged after the accumulated time amount has reached a randomly determined time.

In order to increase the aperture ratio of the display panel, another embodiment of the present invention is described with referring toFIG. 7hereinafter. The display panel700may be an LCD display panel. The display panel700has X+1 data lines DL0˜DLX, Y scan lines SL0˜SLY−1and X*Y display units SP0,0˜SPX−1,Y−1. Wherein, DLirepresents the ithdata line, SLjrepresents the jthscan line, and SPn,jrepresents the display unit of the nthcolumn and the jthrow. Here, i is an integer greater than or equal to 0 but less than X+1, j is an integer greater than or equal to 0 but less than Y, and n is an integer greater than or equal to 0 but less than X. In addition, the display unit SPn,2tis electrically coupled to the scan line SL2tand the data line DLn; and the display unit SPn,2t+1is electrically coupled to the scan line SL2t+1and the data line DLn+1, where t is an integer greater than or equal to 0 but less than Y/2.

Each of the display units SP0,0˜SPX−1,Y−1inFIG. 7may be implemented with referring to the display unit SP0,0inFIG. 4or with other conventional technique, and its detailed description is omitted herein.FIG. 8schematically shows a signal timing diagram of the data lines DL0˜DLX. Referring toFIG. 7andFIG. 8, although it is assumed that the column number X of the display unit array is an even number herein, other number can be easily inferred by the one of the ordinary skill in the art based on the principle of the present embodiment. Comparing with the previous embodiment, one more data line is required in the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, the display units with the same position at odd rows and even rows (e.g. the display units SP1,0and SP1,1) in the display panel700are electrically coupled to different data lines respectively, such that most of the time each of the data lines DL0˜DLXon the display panel is maintained on a single polarity. Accordingly, the swing voltage of the data lines on the display panel is reduced when scanning an image, such that the power consumption of the display panel is further reduced in order to achieve the object of saving power.

In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the polarity of the even data line DL2S(e.g. DL0) and the polarity of the odd data line DL2S+1(e.g. DL1) are switched over after a full frame data has been transmitted by each of the data lines. Therefore, each of the data lines DL0˜DLXon the display panel700is maintained on a single polarity during the same period of frame, respectively, such that the dot inversion driving effect as shown inFIG. 2is achieved. The polarity of each data line may be inversed by the one of the ordinary skill in the art at any appropriate time point based on the real requirement. For example, the polarity of the even data line DL2S(e.g. DL0) and the polarity of the odd data line DL2S+1(e.g. DL1) may be inversed after the accumulated time amount has reached a randomly determined time.