Patent ID: 8077189

Claim:
A drive circuit for outputting a drive waveform so as to drive a display element in accordance with grayscale information, the drive waveform being controlled by (i) a plural-stepped voltage amplitude modulation including only one single voltage value data latching section that latches maximum amplitude data from the grayscale information and only one single PWM data latching section that latches pulse width data of the maximum voltage amplitude and (ii) a pulse width modulation which is settable for each voltage amplitude of the plural-stepped voltage amplitude modulation, wherein among the plural-stepped voltage amplitudes, a smaller voltage amplitude is wider in maximum pulse width; said drive circuit comprising an output control circuit that controls the drive waveform, at a time of modulating arbitrary grayscale information, said output control circuit (A) latching a signal indicating a pulse width corresponding to a maximum voltage amplitude to be outputted so as to control a pulse width of the maximum voltage amplitude, and (B) outputting a maximum pulse width for a voltage amplitude smaller than the maximum voltage amplitude.