Patent Publication Number: US-2011063273-A1

Title: Electrophoresis Display Apparatus and Display Circuit Thereof

Description:
This application claims priority to Taiwan Patent Application No. 098130680 filed on Sep. 11, 2009. 
     CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     Not applicable. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to an electrophoresis display apparatus and a display circuit thereof. More specifically, the present invention relates to an electrophoresis display apparatus having a common voltage line which is orthogonal to a gate line and the display circuit thereof. 
     2. Descriptions of the Related Art 
     Advancement of electronic display technologies has led to wide application of various electronic display apparatuses in people&#39;s daily life, and the displaying quality of these display apparatuses are satisfying people&#39;s demands to an ever greater extent. As one of these display apparatuses, electrophoresis display apparatuses adopting the electrophoresis display technology combines advantages of the conventional paper and electronic display apparatuses together. That is, the electrophoresis display apparatuses can not only provide superior displaying quality, but also features light weight, a slim profile and good portability just like the conventional paper, so electrophoresis display apparatuses such as electronic books have become more and more popular in recent years. 
     To illustrate how a conventional electrophoresis display apparatus works,  FIG. 1  shows a schematic view of a circuit  1  included in the conventional electrophoresis apparatus. The circuit  1  comprises a data line  11 , a gate line  13 , a common voltage line  15  and a display unit  17 . The data line  11  provides a data voltage  110 , the gate line  13  provides a gate voltage  130 , the common voltage line  15  provides a common voltage  150 , the display unit  17  is coupled to the data line  11 , the gate line  13  and the common voltage line  15  for receiving the data voltage  110 , the gate voltage  130  and the common voltage  150  thus to work according to the data voltage  110 , gate voltage  130  and the common voltage  150 . 
     It can be seen from  FIG. 1 , since the common voltage line  15  is substantially parallel to the gate line  13  and substantially orthogonal to the data line  11 , an electric capacity is generated between the common data line  15  and the data line  11 , which would be charged and discharged by the data line  11 . The data voltage  110  has a higher frequency than that of the gate voltage  130 , so the electric capacity is charged and discharged by the data line  11  at the high frequency as the same as the data voltage  110 . Consequently, the display circuit  1  consumes much electric energy during operation, leading to higher power consumption of the conventional electrophoresis display apparatus. Additionally, charging and discharging of the capacitance by the data line  11  also lead to the so-called cross-talk phenomenon, which would cause interference with the display unit  17  and consequently degrade the product yield. 
     In view of the above, it is highly desirable in the art to improve power consumption for the electrophoresis display device and reduce signal interference between adjacent lines, thereby to improve the product yield. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The primarily objective of this invention is to provide a circuit display for use in an electrophoresis display apparatus. The electrophoresis comprises a voltage source which is electrically connected to the display circuit. The voltage source is configured to drive the display circuit. The display circuit comprises a gate line, a data line, a common voltage line and a display unit. The gate line is configured to provide a gate voltage. The common voltage line is substantially orthogonal to the gate line and is configured to provide a common voltage. The data line is configured to provide a data voltage. The display unit is coupled to the gate line, the common voltage line and the data line to receive the gate voltage, the common voltage and the data voltage, and works according to the gate voltage, the common voltage and the data voltage. 
     Another objective of this invention is to provide an electrophoresis display apparatus. The electrophoresis display apparatus comprises a voltage source and a display circuit. The voltage source, which is electrically connected to the display circuit, is configured to drive the display circuit. The display circuit comprises a gate line, a data line, a common voltage line and a display unit. The gate line is configured to provide a gate voltage to the common voltage line which is substantially orthogonal to the gate line and is configured to provide a common voltage. The data line is configured to provide a data voltage. The display unit is coupled to the gate line, the common voltage line and the data line to receive the gate voltage, the common voltage and the data voltage, and works according to the gate voltage, the common voltage and the data voltage. 
     To sum up above all descriptions, the electrophoresis display apparatus of the present invention utilizes the circuit design which is orthogonal across by the common voltage line and the gate line of the display circuit to remove the electric capacity between the common voltage line and the data line to mitigate signal interference between adjacent lines, reduce the power consumption of electricity of the display circuit and improve the display quality and the product yield. Therefore, the electrophoresis display apparatus of the present invention can eliminate the shortcomings of the prior art. 
     The detailed technology and preferred embodiments implemented for the subject invention are described in the following paragraphs accompanying the appended drawings for people skilled in this field to well appreciate the features of the claimed invention. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic view of the display circuit of the conventional electrophoresis display apparatus; 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic view of an embodiment of the electrophoresis display apparatus of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic view of an embodiment of the display circuit; 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     The present invention provides an electrophoresis display apparatus and a display circuit thereof. In the following descriptions, this invention will be explained with reference to embodiments thereof. However, descriptions of these embodiments are only for illustration rather than limitation. It should be appreciated that in the following embodiments and the attached drawings, elements indirectly related to this invention are omitted from depiction, and dimensional relationships among individual elements depicted in the drawings are only for facilitating the understanding of the invention rather than limiting the actual dimension. 
     An embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in  FIG. 2  which is a schematic view of an electrophoresis display apparatus  2  thereof. The electrophoresis display apparatus  2  comprises a display circuit  21  and a voltage source  23 . The voltage source  23  is electrically connected to the display circuit  21  which is configured to provide a working voltage  230  to the display circuit  21  for driving the display circuit  21  so that the display circuit  21  may work normally. Driving the display circuit  21  by the voltage source  23  may be accomplished by a conventional technology, and will not be further described herein. 
     To describe the display circuit  21  of the present invention in more detail,  FIG. 2  shows a schematic view of the display circuit  21 . It should be noted that although this embodiment is describe with reference to a single display circuit  21 , the electrophoresis display apparatus  2  may comprises a plurality of display circuits  21 , and how the electrophoresis display apparatus  2  comprising a plurality of display circuits operates will be readily appreciated by people skilled in this filed, thus will not be further described herein. 
     The display circuit  21  comprises a data line  31 , a gate line  33 , a common voltage line  35  and a display unit  37 . The common voltage line  35  is substantially orthogonal to the gate line  33 . The data line  31  provides a data voltage  310 , the gate line  33  provides a gate voltage  330 , and the common voltage line  35  provides a common voltage  350 . The display unit  37  is coupled to the data line  31 , the gate line  35  and the common data line  37  for receiving the gate voltage  330 , the common voltage  350  and the data voltage  310 . Thus, the display unit  37  works according to the gate voltage  330 , common voltage  350  and the data voltage  310 . It should be noted that in order to make the display unit  37  working normally, a fixed voltage difference exists between the common voltage  350  and the data voltage  310 , which can be one of the DC voltage and the AC voltage in practical application. 
     In more detail, referring next to  FIG. 3 , the display unit  37  comprises a switch circuit and a pixel circuit  373 . In this embodiment, the switch circuit may be a thin-film transistor  371 , however, in other embodiments, the switch circuit may be other circuits or electronic elements which have switch function. The thin-film transistor  371  is coupled to the data line  31  and the gate line  33  for receiving the data voltage  310  and the gate voltage  330 . The thin-film transistor  371  is further coupled to the pixel circuit  373 . When the thin-film transistor  371  is turned on according to gate voltage  330 , it transfers data voltage  310  to the pixel circuit  373 . The pixel circuit  373  is coupled to the common voltage line  35  and is configured to receive the common voltage  350 . Thus, the pixel circuit  373  works with the common voltage  350  according to the data voltage  310  when the data voltage  310  is transferred to the pixel circuit  373 . 
     More specifically, the thin-film transistor  371  comprises a gate  371   a , a source  371   b  and a drain  371   c . As shown in  FIG. 3 , the gate  371   a  is electrically connected to the gate line  33  to receive the gate voltage  330 , and the source voltage  371   b  are electrically connected to the data line  31  to receive the data voltage  310 . The drain  371   c  is electrically connected to the pixel circuit  373 . The thin-film transistor  371  is turned on or off according to the gate voltage  330  received by the gate  371   a . The data voltage  310  may be transferred from the source  371   b  to the pixel circuit  373  through the drain  371   c  so that the pixel circuit  373  works according to the data voltage  310  and the common voltage  350 . 
     To sum up above all descriptions, the electrophoresis display apparatus of the present invention utilizes the circuit design in which the common voltage line is orthogonal to the gate line of the display circuit to remove the electric capacity between the common voltage line and the data line to mitigate signal interference between adjacent lines, reduce the power consumption of the display circuit and improve the display quality and the product yield. Therefore, the electrophoresis display apparatus of the present invention can eliminate the shortcoming of the prior art. 
     The above disclosure is related to the detailed technical contents and inventive features thereof. People skilled in this field may proceed with a variety of modifications and replacements based on the disclosures and suggestions of the invention as described without departing from the characteristics thereof. Nevertheless, although such modifications and replacements are not fully disclosed in the above descriptions, they have substantially been covered in the following claims as appended.