Integrated a-Si:H Source Drivers For Electrophoretic Displays on Flexible Plastic Substrates

Active matrix displays have been demonstrated on flexible stainless and plastic substrates and typically use external complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) drivers. We have previously demonstrated integrated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) source drivers on an electrophoretic display on flexible stainless steel substrate. In this paper, we present an improved version of our a-Si:H source driver design on a flexible plastic substrate (polyethylene naphthalate or PEN). The new design uses fewer TFTs, provides an extended dynamic range, is faster and uses lower power. A single column of the source driver is fabricated on PEN and successfully tested at 10, 20 and 30 Hz frame rates. By using this architecture, the number of source interconnects for a 320times240 display can be reduced by 3x. These integrated a-Si:H column drivers are demonstrated driving an 16times8 pixel electrophoretic display.