State of the art thin-film transistor technologies continue to fuel new areas of researches and applications in flat-panel display. However, this does not come without new issues related to device-circuit stability and uniformity over large areas, placing an even greater need for new backplane designs, driving algorithms and compensation techniques in pixel architectures. In this thesis, we accomplished the challenge of developing empirical model for various kinds of current TFT technologies and in-house developed Bridged-Grain (BG) TFT processes for circuit simulation. Based on these models, we established simulations and explained design considerations for different kinds of active matrix backplane. We further proposed new pixel architectures for both active-matrix organic light emitt...[ Read more ]

State of the art thin-film transistor technologies continue to fuel new areas of researches and applications in flat-panel display. However, this does not come without new issues related to device-circuit stability and uniformity over large areas, placing an even greater need for new backplane designs, driving algorithms and compensation techniques in pixel architectures. In this thesis, we accomplished the challenge of developing empirical model for various kinds of current TFT technologies and in-house developed Bridged-Grain (BG) TFT processes for circuit simulation. Based on these models, we established simulations and explained design considerations for different kinds of active matrix backplane. We further proposed new pixel architectures for both active-matrix organic light emitting diode (OLED) display and liquid crystal display (LCD).

For AMOLED, a new pixel configuration using 6T1C is proposed, it achieved impressive compensation ability against threshold voltage variation of transistors without much additional control and driving difficulty. This proposed pixel is capable of compensating for both positively and negatively shifted VTH. For AMLCD, we also proposed novel pixel design incorporating electrically suppressed helix (ESH) ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) mode using in-house device technologies, the proposed architecture successfully demonstrated AMFLC display possessing uniform and continuous grayscale while preserving FLC's fast switching property.