Patent Issued for Gate Driving Circuit, Display Apparatus Having the Same, and Method

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Electronics Newsweekly -- Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (KR) has been issued patent number 8228282, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by VerticalNews editors.

The patent's inventors are Na, Byoung-Sun (Hwaseong-si, KR); Ki, Dong-Hyeon (Seoul, KR); Lee, Min-Cheol (Seoul, KR); Ahn, Soon-Il (Cheonan-si, KR).

This patent was filed on October 30, 2007 and was cleared and issued on July 24, 2012.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: "The present invention relates to a gate driving circuit, a display apparatus having the gate driving circuit, and a method thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a gate driving circuit capable of improving temperature characteristics, a display apparatus having the gate driving circuit, and a method of improving temperature characteristics in a display apparatus.

"In general, a liquid crystal display ('LCD') includes an LCD panel having a lower substrate, an upper substrate facing the lower substrate and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the lower substrate and the upper substrate in order to display an image.

"The LCD panel includes a plurality of gate lines, a plurality of data lines and a plurality of pixels connected to the gate lines and the data lines. The LCD further includes a gate driving circuit directly formed thereonto through a thin film process in order to sequentially output a gate signal to the gate lines.

"Generally, a gate driving circuit includes a shift register in which plural stages are connected one after another to each other. Each of the stages includes a plurality of driving transistors to apply the gate signal to a corresponding gate line of the gate lines. Each of the stages includes a pull-up transistor connected to a gate line and outputs a gate voltage to the gate line.

"Control electrodes of the pull-up transistor are commonly connected to a Q-node in each stage. The electric potential at the Q-node is maintained in a turn-on voltage that is higher than a threshold voltage during a 1H period where a gate signal is maintained at high state, but the electric potential at the Q-node is maintained in a turn-off voltage that is lower than the threshold voltage during a remained time except the 1H period of one frame where the gate signal is maintained at low state."

Supplementing the background information on this patent, VerticalNews reporters also obtained the inventors' summary information for this patent: "In a conventional liquid crystal display ('LCD'), since a ripple voltage at the Q-node increases when the gate driving circuit is operated under conditions of high temperature, a pull-up transistor is turned on during a remained time except the 1H period of the one frame, so that a malfunction occurs in the gate driving circuit. Also, since a current driving ability of the pull-up transistor decrease when the LCD is operated under conditions of low temperature, a rising time for which the gate line is changed from a low stage to a high state and a falling time for which the gate line is changed from the high stage to the low stage increase. That is, high and low temperature reliabilities for the gate driving circuit are deteriorated.

"The present invention provides a gate driving circuit capable of preventing a malfunction under condition of high and low temperatures.

"The present invention also provides a display apparatus having the gate driving circuit.

"The present invention also provides a method of improving temperature characteristics of a display apparatus.

"In exemplary embodiments of the present invention, a gate driving circuit includes plural stages that are connected one after another to each other to sequentially output a gate signal. A present stage among the stages of the gate driving circuit includes a pull-up transistor, a buffer transistor, a discharge transistor and a pull-down transistor.

"The pull-up transistor pulls up a present gate signal output through an output terminal to a gate-on voltage, a control electrode of the pull-up transistor connected to an output node Q-node, and the buffer transistor is connected to the Q-node and receives a previous output signal from a previous stage to turn on the pull-up transistor. The buffer transistor has a chargeability that is about two times or greater than a chargeability of the pull-up transistor. The discharge transistor is connected to the Q-node and receives a next output signal from a next stage to turn off the pull-up transistor. The pull-down transistor is connected to the output terminal and receives the next output signal from the next stages to pull down the present gate signal to a gate-off voltage.

"In other exemplary embodiments of the present invention, a display apparatus includes a display panel displaying images in response to a gate signal and a data signal, a data driving circuit applying the data signal to the display panel, and a gate driving circuit having plural stages that are connected one after another to each other to sequentially output the gate signal to the display panel. A present stage among the stages of the gate driving circuit includes a pull-up transistor, a buffer transistor, a discharge transistor and a pull-down transistor.

"The pull-up transistor pulls up a present gate signal output through an output terminal to a gate-on voltage, a control electrode of the pull-up transistor is connected to an output node Q-node, and the buffer transistor is connected to the Q-node and receives a previous output signal from a previous stage to turn on the pull-up transistor. The buffer transistor has a chargeability that is about two times or greater than a chargeability of the pull-up transistor. The discharge transistor is connected to the Q-node and receives a next output signal from a next stage to turn off the pull-up transistor. The pull-down transistor is connected to the output terminal and receives the next output signal from the next stage to pull down the present gate signal to a gate-off voltage.

"In still other exemplary embodiments of the present invention, a method of improving temperature characteristics of a display apparatus having a gate driving circuit includes pulling up a present gate signal output through an output terminal to a gate-on voltage by a pull-up transistor, a control electrode of the pull-up transistor connected to an output node Q-node, receiving a previous output signal from a previous stage to turn on the pull-up transistor by a buffer transistor, the buffer transistor connected to the Q-node, receiving a next output signal from a next stage to turn off the pull-up transistor by a discharge transistor, the discharge transistor connected to the Q-node, receiving the next output signal from the next stage to pull down the present gate signal to a gate-off voltage by a pull-down transistor, the pull-down transistor connected to the output terminal, and providing a ratio of a driving current of the buffer transistor to a capacitance connected to the Q-node to be about two times or greater than a ratio of a driving current of the pull-up transistor to a capacitance connected to an output electrode of the pull-up transistor.

"According to the above, since the buffer transistor has the chargeability that is about two times or greater than the chargeability of the pull-up transistor, the size of the pull-up transistor may be reduced, thereby preventing a malfunction of the gate driving circuit when the gate driving circuit is operated under conditions of high temperature or low temperature."

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Na, Byoung-Sun; Ki, Dong-Hyeon; Lee, Min-Cheol; Ahn, Soon-Il. Gate Driving Circuit, Display Apparatus Having the Same, and Method. U.S. Patent Number 8228282, filed October 30, 2007, and issued July 24, 2012. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=54&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=2688&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=20120724.PD.&OS=ISD/20120724&RS=ISD/20120724

Keywords for this news article include: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

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