This application claims priority to Taiwan Application Serial Number 112150647, filed Dec. 25, 2023, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The present invention relates to a driving method. More particularly, the present invention relates to a driving method capable for driving a display device.
In some display techniques, an illumination for each pixel is controlled based on pulse amplitude modulation techniques and an adjustment of a duty cycle of a global emission control signal to reduce the power consumption.
However, even if a background often shows an image at low grayscale levels, the duty cycle of the global emission control signal is still required to be maintained at a high duty ratio to display few elements which are shown at high grayscale levels, and it may cause that light emitting elements displaying the background continue to operate at low efficiency points.
Take a wearable watch as an example, if a background is at medium to low grayscale levels while a pointer is at high grayscale levels, the duty cycle of the global emission control signal cannot be adjusted to the low duty cycle because of the pointer being at high grayscale levels, causing that the light emitting elements continue to operate at the low efficiency point, leading to a decrease in the overall efficiency, and the power consumption may become less competitive.
Therefore, how to provide a driving method to solve the above problems is an important issue in this field.
The present disclosure provides a driving method. The driving method includes the following steps. An input image is divided into a plurality of image blocks. A plurality of pixel groups corresponding to the image blocks are controlled, respectively. The step of controlling a corresponding one of the pixel groups includes the following steps. A plurality of input grayscale values comprised in the one of the image blocks are mapped to a plurality of duty cycles. One of the duty cycles is determined as a desired duty cycle. A plurality of the input grayscale values is mapped to a plurality of data voltages according to the desired duty cycle. A plurality of pixel circuits included in the corresponding one of the pixel groups are driven according to the desired duty cycle and the data voltages.
The present disclosure provides a display device. The driving method includes a memory, a processing circuit and a display panel. The memory is configured to store data and instructions. The processing circuit is coupled to the memory to access the data and instructions to perform following steps. An input image is divided into a plurality of image blocks. A plurality of pixel groups corresponding to the image blocks are controlled, respectively. The step of controlling a corresponding one of the pixel groups includes the following steps. A plurality of input grayscale values comprised in the one of the image blocks are mapped to a plurality of duty cycles. One of the duty cycles is determined as a desired duty cycle. A plurality of the input grayscale values is mapped to a plurality of data voltages according to the desired duty cycle. The display panel is coupled to the processing circuit, configured to drive a plurality of pixel circuits included in the corresponding one of the pixel groups according to the desired duty cycle and the data voltages.
Summary, the driving method of the present disclosure performing grouping on the pixel circuits, thereby driving the pixel circuits included in the same pixel group based on the same desired duty cycle, where the said desired duty cycle is obtained according to an image block corresponding to the pixel group, in order to achieve the group control for the pixel circuits, as such light emitting elements included in the most of the pixel groups can operate at the better efficiency points.
The present disclosure can be more fully understood by reading the following detailed description of the embodiment, with reference made to the accompanying drawings as follows.
Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the present disclosure, examples of which are described herein and illustrated in the accompanying drawings. While the disclosure will be described in conjunction with embodiments, it will be understood that they are not intended to limit the disclosure to these embodiments. Description of the operation does not intend to limit the operation sequence. Any structures resulting from recombination of elements with equivalent effects are within the scope of the present disclosure. It is noted that, in accordance with the standard practice in the industry, the drawings are only used for understanding and are not drawn to scale. Hence, the drawings are not meant to limit the actual embodiments of the present disclosure. In fact, the dimensions of the various features may be arbitrarily increased or reduced for clarity of discussion. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts for better understanding.
In the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, unless otherwise defined, all terms have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein. In the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the terms “comprise” or “comprising,” “include” or “including,” “have” or “having,” “contain” or “containing” and the like used herein are to be understood to be open-ended, i.e., to mean including but not limited to.
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In some embodiments, the memory 114 is configured to store lookup tables LUT1 and LUT2, which can be accessed by the processing circuit 112. In some embodiments, the input grayscale values for the sub-pixels are mapped through the lookup table LUT1 to the duty cycles. That is, input values of the lookup table LUT1 are grayscale values, and output values of the lookup table LUT1 are duty cycles. In some embodiments, the input grayscale values are mapped through the lookup table LUT2 to data voltages, according to a desired duty cycle. That is, input values of the lookup table LUT2 are grayscale values, and output values of the lookup table LUT2 are data voltages.
In some embodiments, the processing circuit 112 is electrically connected to the memory 114, and the processing circuit 112 is configured to access data and/or instructions stored in the memory 114. In some embodiments, the processing circuit 112 calculates emission control data EMDATA for each pixel group and the data voltages R/G/B for all the pixels according to the input image SIN. In some embodiments, the emission control data EMDATA includes information of desired duty cycles which are used to control pixel groups, and the data voltages R/G/B includes the data voltages which are respectively provided to the pixels in the display panel 130. In some embodiments, the processing circuit 112 is configured to receive an input image SIN, and divide the input image SIN into multiple image blocks, thereby mapping multiple input grayscale values included in an image block through the lookup table LUT1 to multiple duty cycles, in order to determine a desired duty cycle for a corresponding pixel group from the said duty cycles. Further, the lookup table LUT2 is utilized to obtain the data voltages for the corresponding pixels according to the said desired duty cycle. Therefore, the processing circuit 112 utilizes the lookup table LUT2 to obtain the data voltages R/G/B for all of the pixels according to the desired duty cycles of each pixel group.
In some embodiments, the driving circuit 120 includes a timing controller 122, a source driver 124 and a gate driving circuit 126. In some embodiments, the timing controller 122 converts data formats of the emission control data EMDATA and the data voltages R/G/B to comply with the data format of the source driver 124, and transmit the emission control data EMDATA and the data voltages R/G/B to the source driver 124. In some embodiments, the source driver 124 generates data signals PWM_DATA according to the emission control data EMDATA, and the source driver 124 generates data signals PAM_DATA according to the data voltages R/G/B. In some embodiments, the data signals PWM_DATA are to control the pulse widths of the driving currents flowing through the light emitting elements, and the data signals PAM_DATA are to control the pulse amplitudes of the driving currents flowing through the light emitting elements.
In some embodiments, the display panel 130 includes pixels 10 arranged in an array, and emission control circuits 20 disposed in a remaining area between pixel rows. In some embodiments, the emission control circuit 20 id configured to generate and provide emission control signals, according to the data signals PWM_DATA, to the corresponding pixels 10, in order to control duty cycles of the corresponding pixels 10, as such the pixels 10 are able to operate in better efficiency.
In some embodiments, the memory 114 can be implemented by an electrical memory device, a magnetic memory device, an optical memory device or other storage devices that capable for storing instructions or data. In some embodiments, the memory 114 may be implemented by a volatile memory or a non-volatile memory. In some embodiments, the memory 114 can be implemented by a random access memory (RAM), a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a magneto-resistive random access memory (MRAM), a phase-change random access memory (PCRAM) or other storage devices.
In some embodiments, the processing circuit 112 is selected from a group of a central processing unit, a graphics processor, a microprocessor, a field-programmable gate array integrated circuit (FPGA), an application specific integrated circuits (ASIC) and other hardware device suitable for extracting instructions stored in the memory.
In some embodiments, the timing controller 122 controls the scan timing of the gate driving circuit 126. In some embodiments, the timing controller 122, the source driver 124 and the gate driving circuit 126 can be implanted by the integrated circuit. In some other embodiments, the timing controller 122 and the source driver 124 can be implanted by the integrated circuit, and the gate driving circuit 126 can be implemented by a gate driver on array. Therefore, it is not intended to limit the present disclosure.
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In some embodiments, the driving currents provided, by the pixel circuits corresponding to the red, the green and the blue pixels included in the pixel group G1, to the red, the green and the blue light emitting elements have the same pulse width, and the said pulse width of the driving currents correspond to a time length of the emission control signal PEM[1] at the enable voltage. In some embodiments, the driving currents provided, by the pixel circuits corresponding to the red, the green and the blue pixels included in the pixel group G2, to the red, the green and the blue light emitting elements, have the same pulse width, and the said pulse width of the driving currents correspond to a time length of the emission control signal PEM[2] at the enable voltage. In some embodiments, the driving currents provided, by the pixel circuits corresponding to the red, the green and the blue pixels included in the pixel group G3, to the red, the green and the blue light emitting elements, have the same pulse width, and the said pulse width of the driving currents correspond to a time length of the emission control signal PEM[3] at the enable voltage.
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In some embodiments, the emission control circuit 20 and the pixel circuit 11 share the control signals S1[n] and S2[n], thereby the number of the traces can be reduced. To be noted that, since the control signal EM is a global signal, and the emission control circuit 20 outputs the emission control signal PEM[m] based on the control signal EM, the emission control signal PEM[m] can control the pixel circuits included in different pixel rows. Therefore, each pixel group (such as, the pixel groups G1˜G4) in
In some embodiments, the emission control circuit 20 includes transistors T21˜T27. In structure, the transistors T21 and T25˜T27 are electrically connected in series between a system high voltage terminal VGH and a system low voltage terminal VGL. In some embodiments, a first terminal of the transistor T22 is configured to receive a data signal PEM_DATA, and a second terminal of the transistor T22 is electrically connected to the first terminal of the transistor T21. In some embodiments, the function of the transistor T22 can be considered as a data setting transistor. In some embodiments, a first terminal of the transistor T23 is electrically connected to the second terminal of the transistor T21, and a second terminal of the transistor T23 is electrically connected to a gate terminal of the transistor T21. In some embodiments, a function of the transistor T23 can be considered as a compensation transistor. In some embodiments, a first terminal of the transistor T24 is electrically connected to the gate terminal of the transistor T21, and a second terminal of the transistor T24 is electrically connected to s reference voltage terminal Vn. In some embodiments, a function of the transistor T24 can be considered as a reset transistor. In some embodiments, a first terminal of the capacitor C21 is electrically connected to the gate terminal of the transistor T21, and a second terminal of the capacitor C21 is configured to receive a sweep signal. In some embodiments, the capacitor C21 is configured to gradually change a voltage at the gate terminal of the transistor T21 according to the sweep signal Sweep, thereby controlling a point in time for turning on the transistor T21 based on the data voltage of the data signal PWM_data, in order to control a pulse width of the emission control signal Rst_PEM. In some embodiments, the capacitor C22 is electrically connected between an output terminal of the emission control circuit 20 and the system low voltage terminal VGL, in order to stable a voltage at the output terminal of the emission control circuit 20.
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In some embodiments, a falling edge of the emission control signal PEM[m] is determined according to falling edges of the control signals EM and Rst_PEM, and a rising edge of the emission control signal PEM[m] is determined according to the data voltage of the data signal PWM_DATA. As such, by the setting of the data voltage of the data signal PWM_DATA, the pulse width of the emission control signal PEM[m] can be adjusted or controlled. In some embodiments, the data voltages of the data signal PWM_DATA provided by the source driver 124 are selected from 3˜8 voltages, such that there are 3˜8 levels of the duty cycles for each pixel group included in the display panel 130. In the embodiments of
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In step S210, an input image is received. In some embodiments, the input image SIN is received by the processing circuit 112 of the display device 100.
In step S220, the input image is divided into a plurality of image blocks. In some embodiments, the processing circuit 112 of the display device 100 divides the input image into multiple image blocks, and the said image blocks respectively correspond to the pixel group (such as, the pixel groups G1˜G4).
In step S230, a plurality of pixel groups corresponding to the image blocks are respectively controlled. In some embodiments, the display device 100 controls the corresponding to the pixel groups (such as, the pixel groups G1˜G4) according to the image blocks.
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In step S232, a plurality of input grayscale values included in one of the image blocks are mapped to a plurality of duty cycles. In the embodiments of
For another example, the processing circuit 112 maps the input grayscale value (such as, 100) of the red sub-pixel included in pixel values Pi2 through the lookup table LUT1 to the duty cycle D for red data 310. The processing circuit 112 maps the input grayscale value (such as, 100) of the green sub-pixel included in pixel values Pi2 through the lookup table LUT1 to the duty cycle C for green data 320. The processing circuit 112 maps the input grayscale value (such as, 100) of the blue sub-pixel included in pixel values Pi2 through the lookup table LUT1 to the duty cycle D for blue data 330. As such, the output value group Oi2 can be expressed by [D, C, D].
In some embodiments, the image block Bj includes pixel values Pj1 and Pj2 for two pixels; the pixel values Pj1 of (127, 127, 127) refers to input grayscale values of the red, green and the blue sub-pixels. The pixel values Pj2 of (80, 80, 80) refers to input grayscale values of the red, green and the blue sub-pixels. The processing circuit 112 maps the input grayscale values of the red, green and the blue sub-pixels includes in pixel values Pj1 and Pj2 through the lookup table LUT1 to the output value groups Oj1 and Oj2, where each of the output value groups Oj1 and Oj2 includes the duty cycles of the red, green and the blue sub-pixels.
In some embodiments, the image block Bk includes pixel values Pk1 and Pk2 for two pixels; the pixel values Pk1 of (28, 20, 32) refers to input grayscale values of the red, green and the blue sub-pixels. The pixel values Pk2 of (42, 25, 38) refers to input grayscale values of the red, green and the blue sub-pixels. The processing circuit 112 maps the input grayscale values of the red, green and the blue sub-pixels includes in pixel values Pk1 and Pk2 through the lookup table LUT1 to the output value groups Ok1 and Ok2, where each of the output value groups Ok1 and Ok2 includes the duty cycles of the red, green and the blue sub-pixels.
To be noted that, the duty cycles A˜D in each of the red data 310, the green data 320 and the blue data 330 are determined by the luminous efficiencies and the power consumptions of the red light emitting element, the green light emitting element and the blue light emitting element under conditions of different grayscale levels. The small the duty ratio of the driving current is, the more power can be saved for the red light emitting element, and it is unable to meet a best efficiency point. The efficiency and the duty ratio of the green and the blue light emitting diode are not are not positively related, and therefore the best current critic point of the green and blue light emitting diode can be found based on the experiments, in order to create the red data 310, the green data 320 and the blue data 330.
In step S234, one of the duty cycles is determined as a desired duty cycle. In some embodiments, the processing circuit 112 determined a largest one of the duty cycles as the desired duty cycle. For an example, the output value group Oi1 includes the duty cycles A and B, and the output value group Oi2 includes the duty cycles C and D. Since the order from largest to smallest is the duty cycles A to D, the processing circuit 112 selected the duty cycle A from the duty cycles included in the output value groups Oi1 and Oi2 as a desired duty cycle for operating the pixel group Gi corresponding to the image block Bi in the frame.
For another example, the output value group Oj1 includes the duty cycle C, and the output value group Oj2 includes the duty cycles C and D. Since the order from largest to smallest is the duty cycles A to D, the processing circuit 112 selected the duty cycle C from the duty cycles included in the output value groups Oj1 and Oj2 as a desired duty cycle for operating the pixel group Gj corresponding to the image block Bj in the frame. Similarity, the processing circuit 112 selected the duty cycle D from the duty cycles included in the output value groups Ok1 and Ok2 as a desired duty cycle for operating the pixel group Gk corresponding to the image block Bk in the frame.
In step S236, a plurality of the input grayscale values are mapped to a plurality of data voltages according to the desired duty cycle. In some embodiments, the processing circuit 112 maps the input grayscale values through the lookup table LUT2 to data voltages. In some embodiments, the lookup table LUT2 includes correlation relationship between grayscale levels and red data voltages, green data voltages and blue data voltages under conditions of multiple duty cycles (such as, duty cycles A˜D). In some embodiments, the red data voltages in the lookup table LUT2 are given by the following Table 2.
In Table 2, the binding points refer to 26 binding points in the gamma curve of the red sub-pixel with respect to 255 grayscale levels. In other words, based on the Table 2, four gamma curves under conditions of duty cycles A˜D can be created, and the said four gamma curves are the gamma curves of the red sub-pixel under conditions of different duty cycles. As a result, based on the desired duty cycle of the pixel group, the gamma curve of the red sub-pixel included each pixel group can be determined, and substitutes the input grayscale values of the original input image SIN1 for the red sub-pixel included into the corresponding gamma curve, the data voltages for the red sub-pixel in each pixel group can be obtained. For example, based on the desired duty cycle D for operating the pixel group Gk in this frame, a gamma curve for the red sub-pixel is determined, and the red grayscale values of 28 and 42 included in the image block Bk are substituted into the said gamma curve (such as, a gamma curve for the red sub-pixel corresponding to the duty cycle D), as such all data voltages of the red sub-pixels included in the pixel group Gk can be obtained.
In some embodiments, the green data voltages in the lookup table LUT2 are given by the following Table 3.
In Table 3, the binding points refer to 26 binding points in the gamma curve of the green sub-pixel with respect to 255 grayscale levels. In other words, based on the Table 3, four gamma curves under conditions of duty cycles A˜D can be created, and the said four gamma curves are the gamma curves of the green sub-pixel under conditions of different duty cycles. As a result, based on the desired duty cycle of the pixel group, the gamma curve of the green sub-pixel included each pixel group can be determined, and substitutes the input grayscale values of the original input image SIN1 for the green sub-pixel included into the corresponding gamma curve, the data voltages for the green sub-pixel in each pixel group can be obtained. For example, based on the desired duty cycle D for operating the pixel group Gk in this frame, a gamma curve for the green sub-pixel is determined, and the green grayscale values of 20 and 25 included in the image block Bk are substituted into the said gamma curve (such as, a gamma curve for the green sub-pixel corresponding to the duty cycle D), as such all data voltages of the green sub-pixels included in the pixel group Gk can be obtained.
In some embodiments, the blue data voltages in the lookup table LUT2 are given by the following Table 4.
In Table 4, the binding points refer to 26 binding points in the gamma curve of the blue sub-pixel with respect to 255 grayscale levels. In other words, based on the Table 4, four gamma curves under conditions of duty cycles A˜D can be created, and the said four gamma curves are the gamma curves of the blue sub-pixel under conditions of different duty cycles. As a result, based on the desired duty cycle of the pixel group, the gamma curve of the blue sub-pixel included each pixel group can be determined, and substitutes the input grayscale values of the original input image SIN1 for the blue sub-pixel included into the corresponding gamma curve, the data voltages for the blue sub-pixel in each pixel group can be obtained. For example, based on the desired duty cycle D for operating the pixel group Gk in this frame, a gamma curve for the blue sub-pixel is determined, and the blue grayscale values of 32 and 38 included in the image block Bk are substituted into the said gamma curve (such as, a gamma curve for the blue sub-pixel corresponding to the duty cycle D), as such all data voltages of the blue sub-pixels included in the pixel group Gk can be obtained. In step S236, the processing circuit 112 maps the input grayscale values included in the input image SIN to the data voltages R/G/B according to the desired duty cycles of each pixel group, and output the data voltages R/G/B of all the sub-pixels to the driving circuit 120.
In step S238, a plurality of pixel circuits included in the one of the pixel groups are driven according to the desired duty cycle and the data voltages. In some embodiments, the processing circuit 112 outputs the desired duty cycle of each of the pixel group by the emission control data EMDATA, and outputs the data voltage of each of the pixel circuit by the data voltages R/G/B. The data voltages R/G/B includes the red data voltages, the green data voltages and the blue data voltages obtained in step S236.
In some embodiments, the driving circuit 120 locally controls the time length of the emission period of each pixel groups (such as, pixel groups G1˜G4) included in the display panel 130 according to the emission control data EMDATA, as such the light emitting elements included in each pixel group can operate in better efficiency.
In some embodiments, each of the emission control signals PEM[1]˜PEM[4] generated by the emission control circuits 20[1]˜20[4] is a corresponding one of the emission control signals PEM_A˜PEM_D, and the emission control signals PEM_A˜PEM_D respectively correspond to the duty cycles A˜D. For example, the source driver 124 generates the data voltage of the data signal PWM_DATA according to the desired duty cycle (such as, the desired duty cycle A) to the emission control circuit 20[1], as such the emission control circuit 20[1] generates and output the emission control signal PEM_A to every sub-pixels included in the pixel group G1. The sub-pixels included in the pixel group G1 is controlled by the emission control signal PEM_A in this frame. In some embodiments, the processing circuit 112 generates the data voltages of all sub-pixels included in the pixel group G1 according to the duty cycle A, and the source driver 124 drives the red, green and the blue sub-pixels according to the said data voltages, so as to improve the operation efficiency of the red, green and the blue light emitting elements.
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Summary, the driving method of the present disclosure performing grouping on the pixel circuits, thereby driving the pixel circuits included in the same pixel group based on the same desired duty cycle, where the said desired duty cycle is obtained according to an image block corresponding to the pixel group, in order to achieve the group control for the pixel circuits, as such light emitting elements included in the most of the pixel groups can operate at the better efficiency points.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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112150647 | Dec 2023 | TW | national |