This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 112148960, filed on Dec. 15, 2023. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
The disclosure relates to a technology for inspecting the functionality of elements on a panel, and particularly to a driver of a light emitting diode (LED) and a light emitting device.
Displays have consistently held a prominent position in the consumer market. Apart from a liquid crystal panel, a liquid crystal display (LCD) necessitates a backlight module for light emission. Relevant elements are soldered onto a substrate (such as a plastic substrate, a glass substrate, a tape substrate, and so forth) utilized by the backlight module, and the elements include external passive elements, LED lamps, driving chips, and other elements.
Determining the presence of issues of abnormal circuit connections, such as false soldering, empty soldering, short circuits, open circuits, in the elements affixed to the substrate is challenging through visual appearance or alternative methods. Consequently, post-soldering inspection remains imperative to verify the normal functionality of these elements. Besides, the LED lamp or the driving chip on the backlight module commonly transmit display data according to a serial communication protocol. In instances where a driving chip exhibits circuit connection abnormalities, not only is the affected driving chip unable to display, but subsequent elements serially connected to the driving chip are also affected. In cases where a significant number of elements are connected in series to the faulty driving chip, ascertaining the integrity of these elements becomes unfeasible. Therefore, after the replacement of the faulty driving chip, the panel should be illuminated again, and a repeated inspection methodology is employed to ensure the normal functioning of subsequently serially connected driving chips.
The disclosure provides a driver of a light emitting diode (LED) and a light emitting device to assess potential connection abnormalities in relevant signal circuits across multiple stages of drivers at once by adopting a signal path structure corresponding to a test mode of the driver.
According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a driver of an LED includes a first receiver, a second receiver, a data controller, a transmitter, and a check controller. The first receiver receives a parallel data signal. The second receiver receives a serial data signal. The data controller is coupled to the first receiver. The transmitter is coupled to the data controller. The data controller obtains the parallel data signal through the first receiver and transmits the parallel data signal to a serial data output terminal through the transmitter to transmit the parallel data signal to a next-stage driver. The check controller is coupled to the first receiver and the second receiver, detects whether the parallel data signal is received through the first receiver and whether the serial data signal is received through the second receiver, and generates a driving signal of the LED based on the received parallel data signal and the received serial data signal to illuminate the LED.
According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a light emitting device includes a driving device. The driving device includes a first driver and a second driver. The first driver drives a first LED module and includes a first serial data input terminal, a first parallel data input terminal, and a first serial data output terminal. The first serial data input terminal is configured to receive serial data. The first parallel data input terminal is configured to receive parallel data. The second driver is coupled to the first driver and configured to drive a second LED module, and the second driver includes a second serial data input terminal, a second parallel data input terminal, and a second serial data output terminal. The second serial data input terminal is coupled to the first serial data output terminal of the first driver. The second parallel data input terminal is configured to receive the parallel. When the driving device operates in a first mode, the first serial data output terminal of the first driver outputs the serial data, and when the driving device operates in a second mode, the first serial data output terminal of the first driver outputs the parallel data.
As such, in the driver of the LED and the light emitting device provided in one or more embodiments of the disclosure, each driver is equipped with a signal path structure corresponding to the test mode. This configuration involves transmitting the parallel data signal from a preceding-stage driver to the serial data input terminal of the next-stage driver, effectively converting the parallel data signal into the serial data signal for the next-stage driver. This mitigates the challenge of being unable to examine the driver at the end of a series of multiple stages of serially connected drivers due to potential circuit connection abnormalities in the serial-type data path. Accordingly, in one or more embodiments of the disclosure, the connection abnormalities in the relevant signal circuits across the multiple stages of drivers may be checked simultaneously by utilizing the signal path structure corresponding to the test mode of the driver, whereby the repetitive work hours required by operating staff during the inspection process may be reduced.
Several exemplary embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below to further describe the disclosure in details.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate exemplary embodiments of the disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.
The drivers 110-1˜110-4 depicted in
During the manufacture of the light emitting device 100, the path of the parallel data PDIS, the path of the serial data SDIS, and connection paths between the drivers 110-1˜110-4 are arranged on a substrate, and each of the drivers 110-1˜110-4 is soldered to corresponding positions on the substrate. Soldering elements onto the substrate may cause abnormal circuit connections; however, it is difficult to quickly and accurately determine where the circuit connection abnormality occurs when checking whether the drivers 110-1˜110-4 operate normally.
For instance, according to this embodiment, a pattern signal is provided to the parallel data PDIS and the serial data SDIS to check whether the drivers 110-1˜110-4 operate normally. Given that there are abnormal circuit connections at regions 150-1 and 150-2 in
If one intends to learn whether the driver 110-4 operates normally, it is necessary to first repair the abnormal circuit connections at the regions 150-1 and 150-2 in
Therefore, according to an embodiment of the disclosure, a signal path structure corresponding to a test mode is provided, and the signal path structure may allow an effective detection on whether the driver has abnormal circuit connections in no need of repeated checks as shown in
The driver 210-1 includes a first receiver 211, a second receiver 212, a data controller 213, a transmitter 214, and a check controller 215. The first receiver 211 receives the parallel data signal PDIS through a parallel data input terminal PDI of the driver 210-1. The second receiver 212 receives the serial data signal SDIS through a serial data input terminal SDI of the driver 210-1. The data controller 213 is coupled to the first receiver 211. The transmitter 214 is coupled to the data controller 213. The driver 210-1 further includes a display controller 216. The display controller 216 is coupled to the data controller 213. In this embodiment, the first receiver 211 and the second receiver 212 are first-in-first-out (FIFO) receivers. The transmitter 214 in this embodiment is a first-in-first-out (FIFO) transmitter.
In this embodiment, the driver 210-1 has a first mode (e.g., a work mode) and a second mode (e.g., the test mode). These two modes may be switched by the data controller 213 after receiving the parallel data signal PDIS with a specific data arrangement. In another embodiment, the data controller 213 transmits the data from the first receiver 211 or the second receiver 212 to the next-stage driver 210-2 via the transmitter 207 according to a mode signal. In one embodiment, the data controller 213 transmits the received serial data signal SDIS to the serial data input terminal SDI of the next-stage driver 210-2 in the first mode, and the data controller 213 transmits the received parallel data signal PDIS to the serial data input terminal SDI of the next-stage driver 210-2 in the second mode.
In the test mode, the check controller 215 is enabled, and the display controller 216 is disabled; in the work mode, the check controller 215 is disabled, and the display controller 216 is enabled. In the work mode, the second receiver 212 is coupled to the data controller 213. In the work mode, the data controller 213 receives the serial data SDIS through the second receiver 212 and transmits display data in the serial data SDIS to the display controller 216. The display controller 216 generates a driving signal SDRV of the LED based on the display data to illuminate the LED module ChN 205. In other words, in the work mode, the serial data SDIS received by the second receiver 212 are transmitted to the data controller 213 but not transmitted to the disabled check controller 215.
In this embodiment, the test mode of the driver 210-1 has a corresponding signal path structure which allows a one-time inspection on whether there is a connection abnormality in the relevant signal circuits of multiple stages of drivers. Specifically, in the test mode, the data controller 213 obtains the parallel data PDIS through the first receiver 211 and transmits the parallel data PDIS to the serial data output terminal SDO of the driver 210-1 through the transmitter 214 to transmit the parallel data PDIS to the next-stage driver 210-2. The data path is as shown by an arrow 207. The next-stage driver 210-2 receives the signal provided by the driver 210-1 (the preceding-stage driver) as the serial data in the next-stage driver 210-2 through the serial data input terminal of the next-stage driver 210-2. In other words, in the test mode, the serial data in the next-stage driver are the same as the parallel data in the preceding-stage driver. The parallel data PDIS in this embodiment have a check pattern signal (e.g., a preset disturbance signal and a check code for performing the inspection).
The check controller 215 detects whether the parallel data PDIS are received through the first receiver 211 (as shown by an arrow 208 in
When the check controller 215 detects and receives both the parallel data PDIS and the serial data SDIS, it indicates that there is no abnormality in the connection between the relevant pins or circuits of the driver 210-1 (e.g., the connection between the arrows 208 and 209). Therefore, the check controller 215 generates the driving signal SDRV of the LED based on the parallel data PDIS and the serial data SDIS to illuminate the LED module ChN 205, which is coupled to and controlled by the check controller 215, so as to allow the inspector to visually ascertain the state of the driver 210-1.
By contrast, if the check controller 215 does not detect either or both of the parallel data PDIS and the serial data SDIS, the check controller 215 does not illuminate the LED module ChN 205. The inspector may then ascertain that there is an issue occurring in the corresponding driver of the non-illuminated LED module ChN 205, and the issue requires further processing.
For a more detailed explanation, the signal path structure corresponding to the test mode configured in each driver may be applied to perform a one-time inspection on whether there is a connection abnormality in the relevant signal circuits of multiple stages of drivers.
With reference to
The driver 310-3 cannot receive the parallel data PDIS from the next-stage driver 310-2 due to the damaged regions 350-1 and 350-2, and thus the check controller in the driver 310-2 does not illuminate the LED modules ch1˜ch4 corresponding to the driver 310-3. However, the circuit connection abnormalities at the regions 350-1 and 350-2 do not affect the data path marked by the arrow 307-3 in the driver 310-3. That is, the data path marked by the arrow 307-3 in the driver 310-3 allows normal passage, and thus the check pattern signal in the parallel data PDIS (e.g., a preset disturbance signal and a check code for performing the inspection) is normally transmitted to the driver 310-4. Accordingly, the driver 310-4 normally receives the parallel data PDIS and the serial data SDIS and operates normally, and the circuit connection abnormality at the region 350-2 does not affect the receipt of the check pattern signal.
In step S420, in the test mode, the data controller 213 in the driver 210-1 depicted in
To sum up, in the driver of the LED, the driving method, and the light emitting device provided in one or more embodiments of the disclosure, each driver is equipped with the signal path structure corresponding to the test mode. This configuration involves transmitting the parallel data signal from the preceding-stage driver to the serial data input terminal of the next-stage driver, effectively converting the parallel data signal into the serial data signal for the next-stage driver. This mitigates the challenge of being unable to examine the driver at the end of a series of multiple stages of serially connected drivers due to potential circuit connection abnormalities in the serial-type data path. Accordingly, in one or more embodiments of the disclosure, the connection abnormalities in the relevant signal circuits across the multiple stages of drivers may be checked simultaneously by utilizing the signal path structure corresponding to the test mode of the driver, whereby the repetitive work hours required by the operating staff during the inspection process may be reduced.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the disclosed embodiments without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the disclosure covers modifications and variations provided that they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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112148960 | Dec 2023 | TW | national |