Patent 6924602 was granted and assigned to Sanyo Electric Co Ltd on August, 2005 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A discharge transistor (TFT3) which connects the upper end of an organic EL element (EL) and a negative power source (VEE) and a control transistor (TFT4) which connects the upper end of a storage capacitor (SC) with a power source (PVDD) are provided. These transistors (TFT3, TFT4) are turned on by the upper gate line, so that the capacitor of the organic EL element (EL) is discharged prior to the selection of the line for these transistors.