Patents by Inventor Munehiro Azami

Munehiro Azami has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20020104995
    Abstract: A light emitting device is provided which can prevent a change in gate voltage due to leakage or other causes and at the same time can prevent the aperture ratio from lowering. A capacitor storage is formed from a connection wiring line, an insulating film, and a capacitance wiring line. The connection wiring line is formed over a gate electrode and an active layer of a TFT of a pixel, and is connected to the active layer. The insulating film is formed on the connection wiring line. The capacitance wiring tine is formed on the insulating film. This structure enables the capacitor storage to overlap the TFT, thereby increasing the capacity of the capacitor storage while keeping the aperture ratio from lowering. Accordingly, a change in gate voltage due to leakage or other causes can be avoided to prevent a change in luminance of an OLED and flickering of screen in analog driving.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 15, 2002
    Publication date: August 8, 2002
    Inventors: Shunpei Yamazaki, Jun Koyama, Tatsuya Arao, Munehiro Azami
  • Publication number: 20020093443
    Abstract: A D/A converter circuit capable of handling a high bit number digital signal, having good linearity, and having a small occupied surface area is provided. The D/A converter circuit has n−m+1 capacitors (where m is a natural number, and smaller than n), and the supply and discharge of electric charge to one of the capacitors from among the n−m+1 capacitors are controlled by the lower m bits of a digital video signal. The supply and discharge of electric charge to the remaining n−m capacitors, from among the n−m+1 capacitors, are controlled by the upper n−m bits, from among the n bits, of the digital video signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 21, 2001
    Publication date: July 18, 2002
    Applicant: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yukio Tanaka, Munehiro Azami
  • Patent number: 6420988
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a D/A converter circuit which is capable of independently controlling the output voltage amplitude VOUT and the reference voltage. The D/A converter circuit converts “n” bit digital data (“n”: natural number) to analog signals, wherein the respective bits of said “n” bit digital data control a switch, control charge and discharge of electric charges in the capacitance connected to said switch, and output analog signals with the offset potential used as a reference potential.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2002
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Munehiro Azami, Mitsuaki Osame, Yutaka Shionoiri, Shou Nagao
  • Patent number: 6384808
    Abstract: A compact level shifter is provided, which has a low consumption power and speedy operation, capable of easily performing a level conversion of voltage levels having a large difference. A voltage regulating circuit (10a), a P channel MOS electric field effect transistor (hereinafter referred to as PMOST), a PMOST (103), and an N channel MOS electric field effect transistor (hereinafter referred to as NMOST) (105) are connected in series between 2 power sources. Similarly, a voltage regulating circuit (10b), a PMOST (102), a PMOST (104), and an NMOST (106) are connected in series between 2 power sources. During the flow of a penetrating current in a transient period of a level conversion operation, a power source voltage is effectively reduced by the above-mentioned voltage regulating circuit, whereby the level conversion of the voltage level having a large difference is made easy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2002
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., LTD
    Inventor: Munehiro Azami
  • Publication number: 20020021235
    Abstract: A D/A conversion circuit with a small area is provided. In the D/A conversion circuit, according to a digital signal transmitted from address lines of an address decoder, one of four gradation voltage lines is selected. A circuit including two N-channel TFTs is connected in series to a circuit including two P-channel TFT, and a circuit including the circuits connected in series to each other is connected in parallel to each of the gradation voltage lines. Further, an arrangement of the circuit including the two N-channel TFTs and the circuit including the two P-channel TFTs is reversed for every gradation voltage line. By this, the crossings of wiring lines in the D/A conversion circuit becomes small and the area can be made small.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 23, 1998
    Publication date: February 21, 2002
    Inventors: JUN KOYAMA, MITSUAKI OSAME, YUKIO TANAKA, MUNEHIRO AZAMI, NAOKO YANO, SHOU NAGAO
  • Publication number: 20020008689
    Abstract: A level shifter that accommodates lower driving voltage of a driver circuit and has a sufficient capability of converting the amplitude of an input signal even when the voltage amplitude of the input signal is low is provided. A level shifter utilizing a current mirror circuit 150 and a differential circuit 160 is used in a portion for converting the voltage amplitude of the signal. Since the potential difference of a signal input through transistors 105 and 106 to the differential circuit 120 is amplified and outputted, the voltage amplitude can be normally converted without influence of the threshold of a transistor even when the voltage amplitude of the input signal is low.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 26, 2001
    Publication date: January 24, 2002
    Applicant: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Jun Koyama, Munehiro Azami, Yutaka Shionoiri, Tomoaki Atsumi
  • Publication number: 20010054999
    Abstract: A compact level shifter is provided, which has a low consumption power and speedy operation, capable of easily performing a level conversion of voltage levels having a large difference. A voltage regulating circuit (10a), a P channel MOS electric field effect transistor (hereinafter referred to as PMOST), a PMOST (103), and an N channel MOS electric field effect transistor (hereinafter referred to as NMOST) (105) are connected in series between 2 power sources. Similarly, a voltage regulating circuit (10b), a PMOST (102), a PMOST (104), and an NMOST (106) are connected in series between 2 power sources. During the flow of a penetrating current in a transient period of a level conversion operation, a power source voltage is effectively reduced by the above-mentioned voltage regulating circuit, whereby the level conversion of the voltage level having a large difference is made easy.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 5, 2001
    Publication date: December 27, 2001
    Inventor: Munehiro Azami
  • Publication number: 20010048408
    Abstract: There is provided an image display device operating in response to the input of digital picture signals, in which the occupied area of a signal line driver circuit thereof is reduced, and the parasitic capacitance and resistance of input transmission lines of the digital picture signals are reduced. The device includes both a unit for directly inputting the digital picture signals to shift registers and for performing series parallel conversion, and a unit for causing n (n is a natural number not less than 2) signal lines to jointly own storage circuits and D/A converter circuits in the signal line driver circuit. One horizontal scan period is divided into n periods, and the storage circuits and the D/A converter circuits perform a processing to signal lines different in each of the divided periods.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2001
    Publication date: December 6, 2001
    Inventors: Jun Koyama, Munehiro Azami
  • Publication number: 20010022581
    Abstract: The surface area occupied by a digital type signal line driver circuit in an image display device is large, and this is an impediment to reducing the size of the display device. A memory circuit within a signal line driver circuit is made common among n signal lines (where n is a natural number greater than or equal to 2). One horizontal scan period is divided into n divisions, and all signal lines can be driven by performing processing with respect to signal lines differing by memory circuit and D/A converter circuit, respectively, during the period of each division. It thus becomes possible to make 1/n as many memory circuits and D/A conversion circuits within the signal line driver circuit as in a conventional example.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 14, 2001
    Publication date: September 20, 2001
    Inventors: Jun Koyama, Munehiro Azami, Yasushi Kubota, Hajime Washio
  • Publication number: 20010017618
    Abstract: A novel driving method is provided in which source line inverting drive or dot inverting drive is performed for a case of driving a plurality of source lines by one D/A converter circuit in a source signal line driver circuit of an active matrix image display drive that corresponds to digital image signal input. In a first driving method of the present invention, two systems of grey-scale electric power supply lines are supplied to a source signal line driver circuit in order to obtain output having differing polarities from a D/A converter circuit, switches for connecting to the two systems of grey-scale electric power supply lines are prepared in each D/A converter circuit, the grey-scale electric power supply lines connected to each D/A converter circuit are switched in accordance with a control signal input to the switches, and source line inverting drive or dot inverting drive are performed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 22, 2000
    Publication date: August 30, 2001
    Inventor: Munehiro Azami
  • Publication number: 20010010512
    Abstract: A gray-scale power supply line supplied to a source signal line driving circuit is made only one system, and each of D/A conversion circuits drives source signal lines in which three source signal lines corresponding to RGB are made a unit and the number of which is a multiple of 3. The periods in which respective source line selecting circuits select source signal lines corresponding to respective colors of the RGB are made synchronous with each other, and the power supply voltage applied to the gray-scale power supply line is changed in one horizontal writing period, so that power supply voltages corresponding to R, G and B are respectively applied to the gray-scale power supply line in periods while the source signal lines of R, G and B are respectively selected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 30, 2001
    Publication date: August 2, 2001
    Inventor: Munehiro Azami