Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Kazunori Katakura

Yutaka Inaba

Akira Tsuboyama

Shinjiro Okada

Tadashi Mihara

Manabu Iwasaki

Mitsuo Iwayama

Yoshio Hotta

Osamu Taniguchi

Jun Iba

Hiroshi Inoue

Yuko Yokoyama

Atsushi Mizutome

Shuzo Kaneko

Kazuya Ishiwata

Tomoyuki Ohno

Katsuhiro Miyamoto

Aoji Isono

Hirokatsu Miyata

Yuichi Masaki

Hidetoshi Tsuzuki

Katsuhiko Shinjo

Kazuhiko Murayama

Kenji Shino

Tetsuro Saito

Tadashi Aoki

Sunao Mori

Yoshinori Shimamura

Chikako Tsujita

Koichi Sato

Takao Takiguchi

Masahiro Terada

Takashi Enomoto

Takashi Kato

Osamu Ikeda

Hidemasa Mizutani

Hideo Kanno

Hideo Mori

Seishi Miura

Yasufumi Asao

Masaru Kamio

Makoto Kojima

Hiroyuki Tokunaga

Osamu Yuki

Kazumi Suga

Takahiro Hachisu

Takeshi Makita

Masaki Kuribayashi

Haruo Tomono

Yuji Matsuo

Hiroyuki Yokomizo

Hironao Kimura

Yoshinari Yoshino

The present invention discloses an invention about a drive waveform for driving an image display unit. In particular, the present invention discloses the structure of using as a drive waveform a drive waveform signal which is level controlled by a plural of discontinuous levels including a minimum level which is a level corresponding to luminance brightness gradation data which is not 0, at least one non-minimum level which is a level corresponding to larger luminance brightness gradation data, and an intermediate level between the above-described minimum level and the above-described non-minimum level, and is given pulse width control with discontinuous pulse width, and which has a portion, which is controlled with the above-described minimum level, in its trailing edge, and a portion, which is controlled with the above-described intermediate level just before the former portion, when it has the portion controlled by the above-described non-minimum level.

Drive circuit, display device, and driving method

There is provided an electron source substrate capable of, even with occurrence of discharge between an anode and an electron-emitting device, avoiding the negative effect on other electron-emitting devices. The electron source substrate has row-directional wiring laid in a row direction; column-directional wiring laid in a column direction so as to intersect with the row-directional wiring; and an electron-emitting device one end of which is coupled to the row-directional wiring, the other end of which is coupled through a resistor element to the column-directional wiring, and to which a predetermined drive voltage is supplied through the wiring, and is configured so that a wiring resistance of the column-directional wiring is higher than a wiring resistance of the row-directional wiring.

Electron source substrate and display apparatus using it

A drive waveform signal which is level controlled by discontinuous levels including a minimum level corresponding to luminance brightness gradation data which is not 0, at least one non-minimum level corresponding to larger luminance brightness gradation data, and an intermediate level between the minimum and non-minimum level. The signal, which is employed to drive an image display unit, is given pulse width control with discontinuous pulse width, and has a portion, controlled with the minimum level, in its trailing edge, and a portion, controlled with the intermediate level just before the former portion, when it has the portion controlled by the non-minimum level.

A display apparatus has a plurality unit pixels each divided into a least three sub-pixels for displaying a halftone. The at least three sub-pixels have mutually different areas, so that one sub-pixel among the at least three sub-pixels has a maximum area which does not exceed a total area of the remaining sub-pixels. As a result, it is possible to obviate a so-called linear defect occurring in a multi-level gradational display by suppressing the shift of gravity center of light spots and change in sub-pixel arrangement pattern in displaying slightly different gradation levels.

Display apparatus

A liquid crystal device of the type comprising a pair of substrates and a chiral smectic liquid crystal disposed between the substrates so as to form at least one pixel, is driven by a driving method including applying a signal waveform to a selected pixel. The driving method includes the step of applying the signal waveform which includes a clear pulse for placing the liquid crystal in a first state and a writing pulse subsequent to the clear pulse for selectively placing the liquid crystal in a second state depending on input data. The writing pulse includes a higher voltage portion and a pair of lower voltage portions sandwiching the higher voltage portion. The writing pulse is effective in reducing power consumption while ensuring a wider drive margin.

Driving method for liquid crystal device and liquid crystal apparatus

A liquid crystal device, comprising: a pair of substrates each provided with an electrode including one substrate having thereon a color filter and a coating layer, and a liquid crystal layer comprising a chiral smectic liquid crystal disposed together with spacer beads between the pair of substrates, wherein the liquid crystal layer has a thickness smaller than a diameter of the spacer beads and a maximum thickness of the coating layer, the coating layer having a pencil hardness of at most 7 H. The above layer structure between the substrates is effective in improving resistance to external shock and providing a uniform cell gap.

LCD having particular align direction with respect to a light-interrupting layer

A liquid crystal device of the active matrix-type having two-dimensionally arranged pixels along rows and columns is driven frame by frame. In each frame operation, a scanning selection period (T,) for each selected row is divided into a first period (t,) and a second period (t,). In t,of a current frame (T,), a reset pulse is applied to a pixel concerned, and the reset pulse is set to have an absolute value of voltage identical to and a polarity opposite to those of a writing pulse voltage applied to the pixel in the previous frame (T,). Then, in t,of the current frame (T,), the pixel is supplied with a writing pulse depending on a prescribed display state of the pixel for the current frame. As a result, the reset period is shortened to favor a high-speed display and a higher resolution display.

Driving method for liquid crystal device

A liquid crystal device is constituted by a pair of electrode plates and a liquid crystal composition disposed between the electrode plates. At least one of the electrode plates comprises a light-transmissive substrate, a plurality of electrodes including principal electrodes and auxiliary electrodes supported on the light-transmissive substrate, and an insulating layer. Each auxiliary electrode is disposed between an associated principal electrode and the light-transmissive substrate so as to be electrically connected with at least a part of the associated principal electrode, and the auxiliary electrodes being disposed with spacings therebetween which are filled with the insulating layer. The liquid crystal composition comprises at least one species of a fluorine-containing mesomorphic compound comprising a fluorocarbon terminal portion and a hydrocarbon terminal portion, the terminal portions being connected with a central core, and having smectic mesophase or latent smectic mesophase. The combination of the above specific cell structure and the specific liquid crystal composition is effective in improving display quality (e.g., contrast) while minimizing a voltage waveform deformation.

Liquid crystal device and liquid crystal apparatus

Liquid crystal device, process for producing same and liquid crystal

A liquid crystal device is constituted by a pair of oppositely disposed substrates each provided with an alignment control layer, and a liquid crystal layer comprising a liquid crystal material and disposed between the substrates with a spacer member. In the device, the spacer member has an electrical conductivity larger than that of the liquid crystal material. Further, the liquid crystal layer containing the spacer member has a first resistance in a direction of a normal to the substrates in a prescribed temperature range substantially lower than a second resistance of a corresponding liquid crystal layer, in the identical direction, consisting only of the liquid crystal material and having the identical plane area and thickness. The liquid crystal device is effective in providing an improved drive margin in a wide temperature range while suppressing a DC offset voltage component applied to the liquid crystal layer.

Liquid crystal device and liquid crystal apparatus including same

A display apparatus which is not adversely affected by a change in the drive waveform or environmental conditions. The display apparatus include a display device, a temperature detection device for detecting the temperature of the display device, and control means that controls the drive conditions for display device. The control means switches a driving waveform based on data from the temperature detection device. The effective value of a selection pulse is preferable changed simultaneously with the waveform switching. The waveform switching may be performed in during a temperature rise rather then during a temperature fall, and may be forbidden for a prescribed period after a waveform switching. The waveform switching may be also be performed between two types of waveforms including or not including a pause period.

Drive voltages switched depending upon temperature detection of chiral

A display apparatus is constituted to have a multiplicity of pixels each divided into at least two sub-pixels having mutually different areas including a larger sub-pixel having a larger area and a smaller sub-pixel having a smaller area. Each sub-pixel is provided with a transparent electrode and a low-resistivity conductor connected to the transparent electrode, and the low-resistivity conductor for the larger sub-pixel is set to have a lower resistance than the low-resistivity conductor for the smaller sub-pixel. As a result, a pixel switching characteristic can be uniformized over an entire picture area of the display apparatus regardless of different areas (loads) of the sub-pixels and without using different performances of drivers.

Display apparatus capable of gradational display

An information signal to be fed to an information electrode group is formed of a selection pulse having a pulse width .DELTA.T, a first auxiliary pulse having a polarity opposite to that of the selection pulse and having the same width as that of the selection pulse before the selection pulse, a second auxiliary pulse having a polarity opposite to that of the selection pulse and having the pulse width of one third or less of the pulse width .DELTA.T after the selection pulse, and a third auxiliary pulse having the same polarity as that of the selection pulse and having the pulse width of one third or less of the pulse width .DELTA.T before the first auxiliary pulse. Thus, a driving margin is secured, and a flicker phenomenon is reduced.

Liquid-crystal display apparatus

A display apparatus includes a display panel having pixels formed at each intersection of scanning electrodes and data electrodes, and a driver for driving the display panel so that a period of each pixel placed in a prescribed display state is determined within a frame period depending on given gradation data. The driver divides one frame period into a first plurality of equivalent blocks of which a second plurality, smaller in number than the first plurality, of mutually non-neighboring blocks are allotted to a partial rewriting for selecting scanning electrodes corresponding to pixels to change display states. The remaining blocks other than the second plurality of blocks are allotted to an entire picture scanning for selecting all the scanning electrodes. Each scanning electrode is subjected to a plurality of selections during the entire picture scanning and during the partial rewriting so as to allow display of an identical number of gradation levels both in the entire picture scanning and in the partial rewriting.

Display apparatus having fast rewrite operation

A liquid crystal device of the type including a pair of substrates having thereon a group of scanning electrodes and a group of data electrodes, and a chiral smectic liquid crystal disposed between the substrates so as to form a pixel at each intersection of the scanning electrodes and the data electrodes, is driven by a driving method causing less crosstalk. The driving method includes the steps of sequentially applying a scanning selection signal to the scanning electrodes, and applying data signals to the data electrodes in synchronism with the scanning selection signal. The scanning selection signal includes a writing pulse having a pulse width .DELTA.T for determining an optical state of the chiral smectic liquid crystal in cooperation with a data signal. Each data signal includes a data pulse for determining an optical state of the chiral smectic liquid crystal in cooperation with the writing pulse. A plurality of data signals are each designed to have a waveform determined based on a combination of data applied to pixels on at least two consecutively selected scanning electrodes. At least one of said plurality of data signals include an auxiliary pulse having a pulse width shorter than .DELTA.T.

Driving method for liquid crystal devices

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Atsugi, Japan

Kazunori Katakura