Patent ID: 7812793

Claim:
An active matrix electroluminescent display device comprising an array of display pixels, each pixel comprising: an electroluminescent display element; a drive transistor for driving a current through the display element, a drive voltage being provided to the gate of the drive transistor; and a storage capacitor for storing a pixel voltage, said storage capacitor being connected between an input to the pixel and the gate of the drive transistor, wherein a driver circuitry provides a stepped voltage waveform to the input of the pixel, the stepped voltage waveform being voltage-shifted by the storage capacitor before application to the gate of the drive transistor, and wherein a height of steps in the stepped voltage waveform is greater than a voltage width of a linear operating region of the drive transistor so that the linear operating region of the drive transistor is avoided, the pixel voltage being selected so that a voltage range of the linear operating region corresponds to voltage levels between a transition of two steps of the stepped voltage waveform.