The present invention relates to a precharge method and circuit, and more particularly, to a precharge method and circuit capable of fast precharge and mismatch cancellation.
Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are widely used in displays of electronic devices such as television screens, computer monitors, portable systems such as mobile phones, handheld game consoles and personal digital assistants. A LED panel is usually driven by using a pulse width modulation (PWM) technique, to determine the brightness of each pixel according to the turn-on time of the driving channel. With the trends of increasing panel size and resolution, the number of LED pixels to be driven by a driving channel increases and increases, resulting in a heavier load of the display data driver.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a novel precharge method and circuit, in order to solve the abovementioned problems.
An embodiment of the present invention discloses a precharge method for a data driver. The precharge method comprises steps of: outputting a display data to a plurality of output terminals of the data driver; outputting a second precharge voltage to an output terminal among the plurality of output terminals prior to outputting the display data to the output terminal, to precharge the output terminal to a voltage level closer to an output voltage; and outputting a first precharge voltage to the output terminal prior to outputting the second precharge voltage. Wherein, the first precharge voltage provides a faster voltage transition on the output terminal than the second precharge voltage.
Another embodiment of the present invention discloses a precharge circuit of a data driver. The data driver outputs a display data to a plurality of output terminals of the data driver. The precharge circuit comprises a plurality of precharge units, each of which comprises an operational amplifier and a fast precharge circuit. The operational amplifier outputs a second precharge voltage to an output terminal among the plurality of output terminals prior to the data driver outputting the display data to the output terminal. The fast precharge circuit, coupled to the operational amplifier, outputs a first precharge voltage to the output terminal prior to the operational amplifier outputting the second precharge voltage.
Another embodiment of the present invention discloses a precharge circuit of a data driver. The data driver outputs a display data to a plurality of output terminals of the data driver. The precharge circuit comprises a plurality of precharge units, each of which comprises an operational amplifier. The operational amplifier outputs a precharge voltage to an output terminal among the plurality of output terminals in a first configuration and then outputs the precharge voltage to the output terminal in a second configuration, prior to the data driver outputting the display data to the output terminal. Wherein, a driving capability of the operational amplifier in the first configuration is higher than the driving capability of the operational amplifier in the second configuration.
Another embodiment of the present invention discloses a precharge circuit of a data driver. The data driver outputs a display data to a plurality of output terminals of the data driver. The precharge circuit comprises a plurality of precharge units, each of which comprises an operational amplifier and a mismatch cancellation circuit. The operational amplifier outputs a precharge voltage to an output terminal among the plurality of output terminals prior to the data driver outputting the display data to the output terminal. The mismatch cancellation circuit, coupled to the operational amplifier, cancels a mismatch of the operational amplifier between the plurality of precharge units.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
The data lines are coupled to the data driver 102, which is configured to send display data to the display panel 100 through the corresponding data lines. The display data may be in the form of driving currents output with a timing based on pulse width modulation (PWM) control. As shown in
The scan lines are coupled to the scan driver 104, which is configured to sequentially scan the scan lines, allowing the display data to be delivered to the LED pixels on the scan lines, thereby emitting light with desired brightness. As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
However, with the trends of increasing panel size and resolution, the number of LED pixels coupled to the data line increases and increases. In such a situation, the precharge voltage Vpre is requested to charge more and more parasitic capacitors, and this introduces a heavy load to be driven by the data driver 102. Under the heavy-load scenario, the output terminal C[m] may not reach the target precharge voltage Vpre at the end of the precharge phase. Therefore, it needs more time to reach the output voltage Vout in the display phase, such that the LED pixel may be turned on to receive the driving current I_LED later, and the light emission may be delayed abnormally. This results in that the brightness of the corresponding LED pixel cannot reach its target value.
The precharge operation may be realized by using an operational amplifier (op-amp). The op-amp may be connected with a negative feedback configuration, to be implemented as a buffer to output the precharge voltage Vpre to the output terminal C[m]. The op-amp is capable of controlling the output terminal C[m] to reach the precharge voltage Vpre precisely, but may not drive rapidly if the output load is heavy.
In order to solve this problem, the present invention provides a novel precharge method for the data driver with a fast precharge circuit.
As shown in
In an embodiment, the data driver 300 and the precharge units PU_1-PU_M therein are implemented in an integrated circuit (IC) included in a chip. The data driver 300 (and/or the IC) may further include other current sources and switches for performing driving current output and PWM control, and these devices are omitted in
As mentioned above, the op-amp 302 itself may not drive the output terminal C[1]-C[M] to reach the precharge voltage Vpre in time when the load on the display panel is heavier; hence, the fast precharge circuit 304 may output another precharge voltage Vpre0 prior to the op-amp 302 outputting the precharge voltage Vpre. The precharge voltage Vpre0 may provide a faster voltage transition on the output terminal C[1]-C[M] than the precharge voltage Vpre forwarded by the op-amp 302, so that the voltage at the output terminal C[1]-C[M] may reach its target precharge voltage Vpre more rapidly, especially under the heavy-load scenario.
As mentioned above, the heavy load may be generated from the data line on the display panel which is coupled to a great number of LED pixels and thus has a great number of parasitic capacitors. The display data may be output to a corresponding data line to turn on a scanned LED pixel on the data line, and the precharge voltages Vpre0 and Vpre should be output to the same data line to charge the parasitic capacitors on this data line, so that the voltage at the output terminal and the corresponding data line may rapidly reach the target voltage when the parasitic capacitors are fully charged.
As shown in
The fast precharge circuit 304 of the data driver 300 may be implemented in any appropriate manner. In an embodiment, the fast precharge circuit 304 may include a switch 500, as shown in
Note that the implementation shown in
Also note that the fast precharge circuit aims at rapidly charging the parasitic capacitors on the data lines to drive the output terminal of the data driver to reach its target voltage in time. Similar effects may be achieved by enhancing the driving capability of the op-amp.
As shown in
Referring to
The configuration of the op-amp 602 may be controlled in any appropriate manner. In an embodiment, the configuration control signal CONF may provide a bias voltage setting to modify the driving capability of the op-amp 602. Alternatively or additionally, the configuration control signal CONF may modify the size of transistors in the output stage of the op-amp 602, so as to increase the output current magnitude provided by the op-amp 602. In general, the power amount consumed by the op-amp 602 in the first configuration may be adjusted to be greater than the power amount consumed by the op-amp 602 in the second configuration, allowing the op-amp 602 to provide a stronger driving capability and a higher current in the first precharge phase.
In the embodiments of the present invention, the precharge voltage Vpre of the display panel is provided in multiple channels each having a precharge unit. The device/process variations of the op-amp in each precharge unit may generate an inter-channel mismatch. The inter-channel mismatch may cause that the precharge voltages Vpre output to different data lines have slightly different levels, which may generate unwanted vertical lines on the display panel and degrade the visual effect.
In an embodiment, a mismatch cancellation circuit may be applied to solve this problem.
As shown in
The mismatch cancellation circuit 704 may be coupled to the input terminals of the op-amp 702. More specifically, the mismatch cancellation circuit 704 is coupled to the positive input terminal, the negative input terminal and the output terminal of the op-amp 702, and a voltage input terminal which is coupled to the output terminal of the global op-amp 710. Therefore, the input channel of the op-amp 702 for receiving voltage from the front-end device may pass through the mismatch cancellation circuit 704, and the negative feedback channel between the negative input terminal and the output terminal of the op-amp 702 may also pass through the mismatch cancellation circuit 704. With the connection manner, the mismatch cancellation circuit 704 is capable of canceling the offset between the positive input terminal and the negative input terminal of the op-amp 702.
Since the input offset of the op-amp 702 in each precharge unit PU_1-PU_M is canceled, the inter-channel mismatch between different channels may thereby be canceled or mitigated. In such a situation, the visual effect of the display panel may be improved.
The mismatch cancellation circuit 704 of the data driver 700 may be implemented in any appropriate manner. In an embodiment, the mismatch cancellation circuit 704 may include a chopper circuit 800, as shown in
Note that the implementation shown in
In another embodiment, a precharge voltage Vpre from an op-amp may be output to a plurality of output terminals of the data driver. For example, in any of the data drivers 300, 600 and 700, the implementations of fast precharge circuit, driving capability control, and mismatch cancellation circuit may be applied to the global op-amp 310, 610 and/or 710, while the precharge units PU_1-PU_M may be omitted. In such a situation, the precharge method and circuit of the present invention may be applied to a global op-amp which is configured to output the precharge voltage Vpre to multiple output terminals C[1]-C[M].
As shown in
Please note that the present invention aims at providing a novel precharge method and circuit for a display data driver. Those skilled in the art may make modifications and alterations accordingly. For example, the mismatch cancellation circuit and method may be integrated with the fast precharge circuit and method or the driving capability control scheme provided in this disclosure. In fact, the above embodiments may be integrated or combined unless otherwise specified. In addition, the timing of the precharge operations shown in
Further, in the above embodiments, a current driving LED panel is taken as an example for illustrating the implementations and operations of the data driver and the related precharge method. In other embodiments, the precharge method and circuit of the present invention may be applied to various types of display panels, which include, but not limited to, a LED panel, organic LED (OLED) panel, mini-OLED panel, micro-OLED panel, and LCD panel. As long as a display panel needs to receive a precharge voltage prior to the display data, the precharge method and circuit of the present invention are applicable.
The abovementioned precharge operations may be summarized into a precharge process 1000, as shown in
Step 1002: Output, by a fast precharge circuit or an op-amp with a higher driving capability, a first precharge voltage to an output terminal of the data driver.
Step 1004: Output, by the op-amp with a normal driving capability, a second precharge voltage to the output terminal after the first precharge voltage is output.
Step 1006: Output, by the data driver, a display data to the output terminal after the second precharge voltage is output.
The detailed implementations and operations of the precharge process 1000 are described in the above paragraphs, and will not be narrated herein.
To sum up, the present invention provides a novel precharge method and circuit for a display data driver. Prior to the display phase where a display data is output, a first precharge phase and a second precharge phase are allocated. In the first precharge phase, a first precharge voltage is output to provide faster voltage transition. In the second precharge phase, a second precharge voltage is output to precisely drive the output terminal of the data driver and the data line of the display panel to a target level. The first precharge voltage may be provided by a fast precharge circuit or an op-amp with a higher driving capability. In an embodiment, a mismatch cancellation circuit is applied to cancel the inter-channel mismatch of the op-amp. In such a situation, the voltage at the output terminal for driving the display panel may reach its target level before the beginning of the display phase, and the inter-channel mismatch may be removed by using the mismatch cancellation scheme. As a result, the LED pixel may be turned on normally when the display phase starts, and the turn-on behavior of a row of scanned LED pixels may be consistent under the same precharge voltage between different data lines without mismatch, so as to achieve a satisfactory visual effect.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
20010008400 | Moriwaki | Jul 2001 | A1 |
20080122777 | Kuo | May 2008 | A1 |