Drivers for electroluminescent displays

Until the early 1980s, driving a thin-film electroluminescent (TFEL) display required thousands of discrete transistors. The resulting configuration looked impressive on a lab bench, but was far too bulky, unreliable, and costly to be a commercial product. Fortunately, integrated circuits (ICs) came to the rescue, enabling system designers to develop the first commercial TFEL products. Those early products have matured, responding to customer demands for increased reliability, lower power, and reduced cost. The driver ICs have followed suit with symmetric row drivers, low-power column drivers, and innovative packaging.