Quantitative evaluation of image sticking on displays with different gradual luminous variation

— To comparatively evaluate various driving methods of an electronic display in respect to image sticking, a consistent and reliable quantification method is required. For proper evaluation, the entire area of a display is often monitored by using a chessboard pattern, and long-range gradual luminous variation in the background is eliminated. Estimation in terms of a single number is also preferred for simple comparison of image sticking. However, the prior method that uses the initial luminance for normalization and estimates the range-to-maximum ratio is not well-suited for the driving methods that relieve image sticking by restoring luminance uniformity. We have developed a method of extracting reference values for normalization and introduced the relative standard deviation (RSD) into our estimation. The resulting method is insensitive to the temporal change in the long-range gradual luminous variation and sufficiently indicative to allow driving methods to be compared effectively. The reference extraction method and the indicative capability of the RSD have been assessed by experiments using a real active-matrix organic light-emitting-diode (AMOLED) display cell.