Patent ID: 7212194

Claim:
A drive apparatus for driving a display panel in response to an input image signal, the display panel having a plurality of row electrodes, a plurality of column electrodes crossing the plurality of row electrodes, and a plurality of capacitive light-emitting elements at crossing portions of the plurality of row and column electrodes, the drive apparatus comprising: a column electrode driver for applying a pixel data pulse to each of the plurality of column electrodes, the pixel data pulse having a pulse voltage corresponding to pixel data derived from the input image signal, the column electrode driver including: a power source circuit for generating a resonance pulse power source voltage having a predetermined resonance amplitude, and for applying the resonance pulse power source voltage to a power source line, a pixel data pulse generator circuit for selectively connecting the column electrodes with the power source line based on the pixel data, to apply the pixel data pulse to the column electrodes, and a DC drive prevention circuit for forcibly grounding the power source line while the resonance pulse power source voltage is dropping, when an intermediate value of the resonance amplitude is greater than a predetermined reference voltage.