Enhancement of picture quality on ultra-low brightness by optimizing the electrical potential required for OLED charging in the AMOLED displays

The principal causes of the poor picture quality on active matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays, operating under extremely low brightness and gray-scale conditions, were analyzed and verified by measuring and modelling of the electrical simulations. Through the analysis, it was found that the deteriorated picture quality was induced by a delayed saturation voltage, which means the electric potential difference between the initial voltage applied to the anode of the OLED (V_init) and the OLED saturated voltage (V_sat) for emission. This is because the deviations of pico-ampere-level currents and delayed OLED charging prior to light emission increased the saturation voltage when there were low driving currents. Thus, we optimized the voltage by increasing V_init from −4.5 to −2.7 V, effectively eliminating image deterioration by reducing the OLED charging delay. Thus, the proposed approach opens up advancements of obtaining superior picture quality with ultra-low luminance, even in the dark illuminance environments. We discuss how OLED picture quality may be enhanced under low brightness, including the driving methods, design considerations, and processes involved.