Patent ID: 7148865

Claim:
A display device comprising: a display panel comprising light-emitting elements arranged in matrix fashion; a plurality of data lines that apply anode potential to said light-emitting elements of respective columns; a plurality of scanning lines that apply cathode potential to said light-emitting elements of respective rows; a positive electrode output circuit that has one row of display data input thereto in parallel and supplies high-level potential or low-level potential to said data lines in accordance with said display data; a negative electrode output circuit which supplies low-level potential to one of said scanning lines, and which comprises a switch that changes a connection resistance between a ground line and said one of said scanning lines in accordance with a number of said light-emitting elements that emit light simultaneously; a control circuit which has a counter that counts the number of said light-emitting elements that emit light simultaneously, using said one row of display data; and a signal generating circuit that generates a negative electrode control signal using a count result of said counter, wherein the connection resistance of said switch of said negative electrode output circuit changes in accordance with a value of said negative electrode control signal, wherein said switch comprises a plurality of switching transistors that are connected in parallel between said ground line and said one of said scanning lines, and that have said negative electrode control signal input to control terminals thereof, and wherein ON resistances of said switching transistors are mutually different.