A High-Performance Current-Mode Source Driver IC for Mobile Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode Displays

Abstract

In this paper, we describe two types of 8-bit current-mode driver ICs with a small area and good performance for applications high accuracy current-mode digital-to-analog converters (DACs), and improved channel-to-channel uniformity for active matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays. One uses the proposed current steering DAC (type A), which is an improved architecture of a binary-weighted DAC, and the other uses a DAC that is a combination of a thermometer-decoded of the DAC and a binary-weighted type. The measured results show that the peak integral nonlinearity (INL) is within ±0.5 the least significant bit (LSB), the peak differential nonlinearity (DNL) is within ±0.5 LSB, and the nonuniformity of output current among channels and chips is within ±0.5 LSB. The size of the driver IC is 15,820 ×1,500 µm2 and the total power consumption of the current-mode driver IC is less than 9 mW when the display has full-white pattern with a luminance of 150 cd/m2. The chip area and power consumption with the proposed current DAC are reduced by 26 and 10%, respectively, compared with those of conventional driver ICs with a fully binary-weighted DAC.