1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a light driving apparatus and, in particular, to a digital controlled multi-light driving apparatus for a large size flat panel display or an illumination device.
2. Related Art
Flat panel displays have become increasingly popular in recent years, with liquid crystal displays (LCDs) garnering the most widespread acceptance. Conventional LCDs are typically employed as personal computer monitors and have a screen size of 15″ or less. As manufacturing technology has developed, a variety of display sizes have come to be employed for different purposes, including use as TV displays. When employed for this purpose, a flat panel LCD with a screen size of 30″ or larger is desirable. Accordingly, all LCD of this size requires a greater number of lights to provide adequate brightness. For example, an LCD with a screen size of 40″ may require up to 30 lights.
When the number of lights is increased, however, an accompanying problem of poor brightness uniformity between lights arises. In addition, the number of light driving apparatuses for driving the lights is also increased. For example, regarding the conventional light driving apparatus, usually only two cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) can be driven at the same time by one transformer. Thus, for an LCD with a large screen size requiring increased number of lights, the number of required light driving apparatuses is also increased, and manufacturing costs thereof increase as a result.
As previously mentioned, the conventional LCD typically employs CCFLs as backlights thereof. To induce the CCFL or CCFLs to emit light, a light driving apparatus with an inverter is typically used. Referring to
The current adjusting circuit 81 is controlled by the feedback control circuit 84 and properly adjusts an external DC source, which is then input to the oscillation step-up circuit 82. The oscillation step-up circuit 82 converts the input DC source into an AC signal and amplifies the AC signal. The amplified AC signal is then provided to the CCFL 9, which serves as the light, so that the CCFL 9 can then emit light. Furthermore, the detecting circuit 83 detects a feedback signal, such as a current signal or a voltage signal, from one end of the CCFL 9. The feedback signal is then transmitted to the feedback control circuit 84. The feedback control circuit 84 controls the current adjusting circuit 81 according to the feedback signal, so that the current adjusting circuit 81 can output a suitable current level. It should be noted that the conventional feedback control circuit 84 is an analog feedback control circuit.
When the number of lights is increased, the number of required light driving apparatuses 8 is increased accordingly. In an LCD with a large screen size, a plurality of circuits, each of which includes the current adjusting circuit 81, oscillation step-up circuit 82, detecting circuit 83 and feedback control circuit 84, are necessary at the same time. Since the lights are driven by different driving apparatuses 8, which are independent from one another, the brightness uniformity adjustment or phase matching between lights cannot be efficiently achieved, resulting in poor display quality.
Therefore, it is an important subjective to prevent the above-mentioned problems, so as to improve the quality of an LCD with a large screen size and reduce manufacturing costs. In addition, it is also an important subjective to improve the illumination efficiency.
In view of the above-mentioned problems, an objective of the invention is to provide a digital controlled multi-light driving apparatus, which is easily manufactured and can control the phases and brightness of numerous lights.
To achieve the above-mentioned objective, a digital controlled multi-light driving apparatus of the invention is for driving and controlling at least one AC-driven light and at least one DC-driven light. The digital controlled multi-light driving apparatus includes at least one first oscillation step-up circuit for driving the AC-driven light at least one second oscillation step-up circuit for driving the DC-driven light; and a digital control circuit. The digital control circuit has a digital switching signal generating circuit and a multiplex feedback-control calculating circuit. The digital switching signal generating circuit connects to each of the first oscillation step-up circuit and the second oscillation step-up circuit and generates a first set of digital switching signals and a second digital switching signal respectively to the first oscillation step-up circuit and the second oscillation step-up circuit. The multiplex feedback-control calculating circuit has a control-calculating unit and an A/D converting unit. The control-calculating unit controls the digital switching signal generating circuit, and controls a phase and a duty cycle of one of the first set of the digital switching signals and the second digital switching signal generated by the digital switching signal generating circuit according to digital feedback signals from the A/D converting unit. The A/D converting unit converts feedback signals from the AC-driven light and the DC-driven light into the digital feedback signals, respectively. The first oscillation step-up circuit and the second oscillation step-up circuit are controlled according to the first set of digital switching signals and the second digital switching signal, respectively.
To achieve the above-mentioned objective, a digital controlled multi-light driving apparatus of the invention is for driving and controlling a plurality of DC-driven lights. The digital controlled multi-light driving apparatus includes a plurality of at of oscillation step-up circuits for driving the DC-driven lights; and a digital control circuit. The digital control circuit has a digital switching signal generating circuit and a multiplex feedback-control calculating circuit. The digital switching signal generating circuit connects to each of the oscillation step-up circuits, and generates digital switching signals respectively to the DC oscillation step-up circuits. The multiplex feedback-control calculating circuit has a control-calculating unit and an A/D converting unit. The control-calculating unit controls the digital switching signal generating circuit, and controls a phase and a duty cycle of each digital switching signals generated by the digital switching signal generating circuit according to digital feedback signals from the A/D converting unit. The A/D converting unit converts feedback signals from the DC-driven light into the digital feedback signals, respectively. The oscillation step-up circuits are controlled according to the digital switching signals, respectively.
To achieve the above-mentioned objective, a digital control circuit of the invention is for controlling a plurality of light loads. The light loads have at least one AC-driven light, at least one DC-driven light, at least one first oscillation step-up circuit for driving the AC-driven light, and at least one second oscillation step-up circuit for driving the DC-driven light. The digital control circuit includes a digital switching signal generating circuit and a multiplex feedback-control calculating circuit. The digital switching signal generating circuit connects to each of the first oscillation step-up circuit and the second oscillation step-up circuit, and generates a first set of digital switching signals and a second digital switching signal respectively to the first oscillation step-up circuit and the second oscillation step-up circuit. The multiplex feedback-control calculating circuit has a control-calculating unit and an A/D converting unit. The control-calculating unit controls the digital switching signal generating circuit, and controls a phase and a duty cycle of one of the first set of the digital switching signals and the second digital switching signal generated by the digital switching signal generating circuit according to digital feedback signals from the A/D converting unit. The A/D converting unit converts feedback signals from the AC-driven light and the DC-driven light into the digital feedback signals, respectively. The first oscillation step-up circuit and the second oscillation step-up circuit are controlled according to the first set of digital switching signals and the second digital switching signal, respectively.
To achieve the above-mentioned objective, a digital control circuit of the invention is for controlling a plurality of light loads having a plurality of DC-driven lights and a plurality of at of oscillation step-up circuits for driving the DC-driven lights. The digital control circuit includes a digital switching signal generating circuit and a multiplex feedback-control calculating circuit. The digital switching signal generating circuit connects to each of the oscillation step-up circuits, and generates digital switching signals respectively to the oscillation step-up circuits. The multiplex feedback-control calculating circuit has a control-calculating unit and an A/D converting unit. The control-calculating unit controls the digital switching signal generating circuit, and controls a phase and a duty cycle of each digital switching signal generated by the digital switching signal generating circuit according to digital feedback signals from the A/D converting unit. The A/D converting unit converts feedback signals from the DC-driven light into the digital feedback signals, respectively. The oscillation step-up circuits are controlled according to the digital switching signals, respectively.
Since the digital controlled multi-light driving apparatus of the invention employs just one digital control circuit to control a plurality of oscillation step-up circuits, the conventional current adjusting circuit 81 is omitted and it is not necessary to use the feedback control circuit 84 repeatedly. In other words, the digital controlled multi-light driving apparatus of the invention has a simple structure, resulting in reduced manufacturing cost. Furthermore, the digital controlled multi-light driving apparatus has a digital control circuit for generating sets of digital switching signals, which are phase controllable and duty cycle controllable. The oscillation step-up circuits can be controlled according to the sets of digital switching signals, so that the phases and brightness of different lights can be respectively controlled so as to improve display quality or illumination efficiency.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the subsequent detailed description and accompanying drawings, which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:
The digital controlled multi-light driving apparatus according to the preferred embodiments of the invention will be described herein below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Referring to
The digital control circuit 3 electrically connects to the oscillation step-up circuits 2, respectively. The digital control circuit 3 further generates sets of digital switching signals S1 and S2 (as shown in
With reference to
With reference to
The digital switching signal generating circuit 31 electrically connects to each of the oscillation step-up circuits 2, and generates sets of digital switching signals S1 and S2, wherein the sets of the digital switching signals S1 and S2 are transmitted to the oscillation step-up circuits 2, respectively. The multiplex feedback-control calculating circuit 32 controls the digital switching signal generating circuit 31. The multiplex feedback-control calculating circuit 32 further controls the duty cycles of the sets of digital switching signals S1 and S2 according to the feedback signals of the CCFLs 9. In the current embodiment, the feedback signal of each CCFL 9 can be a current signal or a voltage signal.
Referring to
In an additional embodiment of the invention, the multiplex feedback-control calculating circuit may be implemented as shown in the block diagram of
Referring to
The digital switching signal generating circuit 35 connects to each of the first oscillation step-up circuit 5 and the second oscillation step-up circuit 6, and generates a first set K1 of digital switching signals S1, S2 and a second digital switching signal K2 respectively to the first oscillation step-up circuit 5 and the second oscillation step-up circuit 6.
The multiplex feedback-control calculating circuit 36 has a control-calculating unit 361 and an A/D converting unit 362. The control-calculating unit 361 controls the digital switching signal generating circuit 35, and controls a phase and a duty cycle of one of the first set K1 of the digital switching signals S1, S2 and the second digital switching signal K2 generated by the digital switching signal generating circuit 35 according to digital feedback signals from the A/D converting unit 362. The A/D converting unit 362 converts feedback signals from the AC-driven light 91 and the DC-driven light 92 into the digital feedback signals, respectively.
In the embodiment, the AC-driven light 91 has a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL), and the DC-driven light 92 has a light-emitting diode (LED). In addition, the AC-driven light 91 may have a light-emitting diode (LED) or other illumination device driven by AC power. The DC-driven light 92 may have other illumination device driven by DC power.
Referring to
Referring to
The second resonance step-up unit 62 has an inductor 621, a diode 622 and a capacitor 623. The second switching unit 61 has a transistor 611 electrically connected to the inductor 621. Two end of the diode 622 electrically connect to the transistor 611 and the capacitor 623. The transistor 611 is turned on/off according to the second digital switching signal K2.
In the embodiments, the digital control circuit 3A controls a plurality of light loads. These light loads have at least one AC-driven light 91, at least one DC-driven light 92, at least one first oscillation step-up circuit 5 for driving the AC-driven light 91, and at least one second oscillation step-up circuit 6 for driving the DC-driven light 92. The digital control circuit 3A can controls both of the DC-driven light and the AC-driven light.
Referring to
Referring to
In the embodiment, the digital control circuit 3C controls a plurality of light loads having a plurality of DC-driven lights and a plurality of at of oscillation step-up circuits for driving the DC-driven lights.
In summary, since the digital controlled multi-light driving apparatus of the invention only employs one digital control circuit to control a plurality of oscillation step-up circuits, the conventional current adjusting circuit 81 is unnecessary and omitted. Furthermore, the conventional feedback control circuit 84 is not repeatedly used. In other words, the digital controlled multi-light driving apparatus of the invention has a simple structure, and therefore is less costly to manufacture. Moreover, the digital controlled multi-light driving apparatus has a digital control circuit for generating sets of digital switching signals, which are phase controllable and duty cycle controllable. The oscillation step-up circuits can be controlled according to the sets of digital switching signals, so that the phases and brightness of different lights can be respectively controlled to improve the display quality of an LCD or illumination efficiency.
Although the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, this description is not meant to be construed in a limiting sense. Various modifications of the disclosed embodiments, as well as alternative embodiments, will be apparent to persons skilled in the art. It is, therefore, contemplated that the appended claims will cover all modifications that fall within the true scope of the invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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91218715 A | Nov 2002 | TW | national |
This Non-provisional application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application number Ser. No. 10/715,414, filed on Nov. 19, 2003, which claims the priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) on Patent Application No(s). 091218715 filed in Taiwan, Republic of China on Nov. 20, 2002.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 10715414 | Nov 2003 | US |
Child | 12116112 | US |