This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 95140407, filed Nov. 1, 2006. All disclosure of the Taiwan application is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a driving circuit, and more particularly, to a light source driving circuit for driving light emitting components.
2. Description of Related Art
Light source driving circuits have a wide application, which are used as the backlight driving circuits of liquid crystal displays or light emitting diode (LED) driving circuits of handheld mobile devices. In addition, light source driving circuits have a high potential for development. The light source driving circuit has many advantages that can be continuously improved or enhanced, such as enhancing power energy conversion efficiency and improving stability.
The power supply voltage converter 101 provides a DC power supply voltage to the LED string 106, and stabilizes the output voltage through the feedback signal fed back from the output voltage feedback circuit 102. The timing control circuit 104 determines the width of the output pulse width signal PWM according to the brightness set by a user. The dimming circuit 105 is turned on when the pulse width signal PWM is at a high level, and is turned off when the pulse width signal PWM is at a low level. Through adjusting the width of the pulse width signal PWM, the on/off state of the dimming circuit 105 is controlled, and further the LED string 106 is controlled to allow current passing through or not. As such, when the brightness is set higher, the time of the pulse width signal PWM being at the high level is longer, the time of the dimming circuit 105 being at the on-state is long, and the brightness of the LED string 106 is brighter. On the contrary, when the brightness is set lower, the time of the pulse width signal PWM being at the high level is shorter, the time of the dimming circuit 105 being at the on-state is shorter, and the brightness of the LED string 106 is dimmer.
However, when the pulse width signal PWM is at a low level, the dimming circuit 105 is not turned on, and at this time, all the voltage drop of the output voltage supplied by the power supply voltage converter 101 falls on the dimming circuit 105. When the LED string 106 has more LEDs connected in series, the output voltage supplied by the power supply voltage converter 101 becomes extremely high. When the withstand voltage of the dimming circuit 105 is insufficient, the dimming circuit 105 may be damaged by the output voltage supplied by the power supply voltage converter 101. Further, a dimming circuit 105 with higher withstand voltage must be employed, and the dimming circuit 105 with higher withstand voltage has a larger volume and is more expensive, which causes an increase in the volume and the cost of the integrated circuit, and thus reducing competitiveness of the product in the market.
An objective of the present invention is to provide a light source driving circuit for adaptively adjusting the output voltage, so as to avoid damaging the internal components of the light source driving circuit, thus prolonging the service life of the light source driving circuit.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a light source driving circuit for reducing the cost of the internal components of the light source driving circuit, thus raising the competitiveness of the product.
The present invention provides a light source driving circuit, suitable for driving a first light emitting component. The light source driving circuit comprises a power supply circuit, a first dimming circuit, and a feedback circuit. The output terminal of the power supply circuit is coupled to one terminal of the first light emitting component and determines the value of the power supply voltage supplied to the output terminal according to a feedback signal received by the feedback terminal. The first terminal of the first dimming circuit is coupled to another terminal of the first light emitting component, and the second terminal of the first dimming circuit is coupled to a common level. The first dimming circuit determines the on/off state of the first terminal and the second terminal thereof according to the logic states of a pulse width signal. The feedback circuit is coupled between the first terminal of the first dimming circuit and the feedback terminal of the power supply circuit and determines the feedback signal according to the on/off state of the first dimming circuit.
According to the light source driving circuit in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the above feedback circuit further comprises an output terminal coupled to a power supply voltage supplier and determines the feedback signal according to the value of the power supply voltage. The feedback circuit of an embodiment comprises an impedance detection circuit and a feedback voltage control circuit. The first terminal of the impedance detection circuit is coupled to the first terminal of the first dimming circuit, and the second terminal of the impedance detection circuit is coupled to the common level. The level output by the detection terminal of the impedance detection circuit is determined according to the impedance between the first terminal and the second terminal. The input terminal of the feedback voltage control circuit is coupled to the detection terminal of the impedance detection circuit and controls the voltage value of the feedback signal output by the output terminal according to the level output by the detection terminal of the impedance detection circuit.
According to the light source driving circuit in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the above impedance detection circuit comprises a first impedance component and a second impedance component. One terminal of the first impedance component is the first terminal of the impedance detection circuit, and another terminal of the first impedance component is the detection terminal of the impedance detection circuit. One terminal of the second impedance component is coupled to another terminal of the first impedance component, and another terminal of the second impedance component is coupled to the common level.
According to the light source driving circuit in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the above feedback voltage control circuit comprises an operational amplifier having a first input terminal, a second input terminal, and an output terminal, wherein the output terminal is coupled to the feedback terminal of the power supply voltage supplier, the first input terminal is coupled to the detection terminal of the impedance detection circuit, and the second input terminal is coupled to a reference voltage. In the embodiment, the feedback voltage control circuit further comprises a first diode and a second diode. The cathode of the first diode is coupled to the output terminal of the operational amplifier, and the anode of the first diode is coupled to the feedback terminal of the power supply voltage supplier. The cathode of the second diode is coupled to the anode of the first diode, and the anode of the second diode is coupled to the feedback terminal of the power supply voltage supplier.
According to the light source driving circuit in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the above feedback voltage control circuit further comprises a third impedance component and an output voltage feedback circuit. One terminal of the third impedance component is coupled to the anode of the first diode, and another terminal of the third impedance component is coupled to the output terminal of the power supply voltage supplier. The output voltage feedback circuit is coupled between the output terminal of the power supply voltage supplier and the feedback terminal of the power supply voltage supplier for determining the value of the feedback voltage according to the output voltage of the power supply voltage supplier. In the embodiment, the output voltage feedback circuit comprises a fourth impedance component and a fifth impedance component. One terminal of the fourth impedance component is coupled to the output terminal of the power supply voltage supplier, and another terminal of the fourth impedance component is coupled to the feedback terminal of the power supply voltage supplier. One terminal of the fifth impedance component is coupled to another terminal of the fourth impedance component, and another terminal of the fifth impedance component is coupled to the common level.
According to the light source driving circuit in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a timing control circuit coupled to the first dimming circuit is further comprised for converting the brightness setting input by the user to the pulse width signal. In the embodiment of the light source driving circuit, the first light emitting component is at least a light emitting diode and has the anode coupled to the output terminal of the power supply voltage supplier.
The present invention adopts the feedback circuit to determine the feedback signal according to the on/off state of the dimming circuit, thus adaptively adjusting the output voltage in the manner of changing the feedback signal, and further avoiding damaging the dimming circuit components in the light source driving circuit and prolonging the service life of the light source driving circuit. Moreover, since the output voltage is adaptively adjusted, the dimming circuit with high price and high withstand voltage is not required, thus reducing the cost of the internal components of the light source driving circuit and accordingly raising the competitiveness of the product.
In order to make the aforementioned and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention comprehensible, preferred embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below.
The output terminal of the power supply circuit 201 is coupled to one terminal of the light emitting component for supplying a power supply voltage Vpp to the light emitting component 204 and determining the value of the supplied power supply voltage according to the feedback signal FB received by the feedback terminal. The dimming circuit 202 is coupled between another terminal of the light emitting component 204 and a common level GND and determines the on/off state between the light emitting component 204 and the common level GND according to the logic states of a pulse width signal PWM. When the brightness is set higher, the time of the pulse width signal PWM being at a logic high level is longer, the time of the dimming circuit 202 being at the on-state is longer, thus the light emitting component 204 is brighter.
The feedback circuit 203 is coupled between the dimming circuit 202 and the feedback terminal of the power supply circuit 201 and determines the feedback signal according to the on/off state of the dimming circuit 202. For example, when the dimming circuit 202 is turned off, the power supply circuit 201 is substantially in a no-load state, and thus the power supply voltage Vpp outputted by the power supply circuit 201 will be continuously rising. Therefore, the voltage Vn loaded on the dimming circuit 202 will be simultaneously rising. When detecting that the dimming circuit 202 is turned off, the feedback circuit 203 controls the feedback signal FB received by the feedback terminal of the power supply circuit 201, and further controls the power supply voltage Vpp to decrease. Therefore, the voltage Vn loaded on the dimming circuit 202 will be simultaneously decreasing into a safety range. The service life of the light source driving circuit is thus prolonged.
It should be noted that the above embodiment has described a possible form of the light source driving circuit of the embodiment of the present invention. However, it is known to those skilled in the art that various manufacturers have different designs of the feedback circuit and dimming circuit, thus the application of the present invention is not limited to this possible form. In other words, as long as the feedback circuit 203 is coupled between the dimming circuit 202 and the power supply circuit 201 and controls the feedback signal FB according to the on/off state of the dimming circuit 202, it falls in the spirit of the present invention.
The present embodiment is illustrated in two parts by using the logic levels of the pulse width signal PWM output by the timing control circuit T301.
First, when the output of the timing control circuit T301 is at a logic high level, the dimming circuit 202 is turned on, and thus the voltage drop between the dimming circuit 202 and the common level GND is low. The resistors R301 and R302 are used to detect the impedance of the dimming circuit 202 through voltage division. For example, when the dimming circuit 202 is not turned on, i.e. the dimming circuit 202 is at a high impedance state, the divided voltage obtained at the terminal of the resistor R301 coupled to the resistor R302 is a high level. And when the dimming circuit 202 is turned on, i.e. the dimming circuit 202 is at a low impedance state, the divided voltage obtained at the terminal of the resistor R301 coupled to the resistor R302 is a low level.
The negative input terminal of the operational amplifier A301 is coupled to the resistors R301 and R302, and the positive input terminal of the operational amplifier A301 is coupled to a reference voltage VREF. In the present embodiment, the operational amplifier A301 is generally designed to have a large gain, and the reference voltage VREF is a fixed voltage. When the dimming circuit 202 is turned on, the voltage received by the negative input terminal of the operational amplifier A301 is lower than the reference voltage VREF. Since the gain of the operational amplifier A301 is large enough, the level output by the output terminal of the operational amplifier A301 is a positive saturation level (high level). Since the level output by the output terminal of the operational amplifier A301 is a positive saturation level (high level), the diodes D301 and D302 are not turned on. The value of the feedback signal FB is determined by the output voltage feedback circuit formed by the resistors R303 and R304. The power supply voltage Vpp output by the power supply circuit 201 is stabilized through the feedback signal FB.
When the output of the timing control circuit T301 is at a logic low level, the dimming circuit 202 is not turned, and thus the voltage drop between the dimming circuit 202 and the common level GND is high, and the divided voltage obtained at the terminal of the resistor R301 coupled to the resistor R302 is a high level. The voltage received by the negative input terminal of the operational amplifier A301 is larger than the reference voltage VREF. Since the gain of the operational amplifier A301 is large enough, the level output by the output terminal of the operational amplifier A301 is a negative saturation level (low level). Since the level output by the output terminal of the operational amplifier A301 is a negative saturation level (low level), the diodes D301 and D302 are turned on. The feedback signal FB is pulled down by the diodes D301 and D302, and the power supply circuit 201 accordingly pulls down the output power supply voltage Vpp after receiving the pulled-down feedback signal FB.
It can be seen from the above embodiments that when the dimming circuit 202 is not turned on, the feedback circuit implemented according to the above embodiment controls the feedback signal FB, thus achieving the effect of reducing the output voltage and further avoiding damaging the dimming circuit 202, and thus prolonging the service life of the circuit. Moreover, when the dimming circuit 202 is not turned on, the power supply voltage Vpp is adjusted down, and thus a dimming circuit 202 with lower price and lower withstand voltage can be used to replace the original dimming circuit 202 having higher withstand voltage, which further reduces the cost of the internal components of the light source driving circuit and raises the competitiveness of the product.
To sum up, in the present invention, the feedback circuit is used to determine the feedback signal according to the on/off state of the dimming circuit, thus achieving the adaptive adjustment for the output voltage by changing the feedback signal and further avoiding damaging the dimming circuit components in the light source driving circuit, and thus prolonging the service life of the light source driving circuit. Furthermore, since the output voltage is adaptively adjusted, the dimming circuit with high price and high withstand voltage is not required, thus further reducing the cost of the internal components of the light source driving circuit and raising the competitiveness of the product.
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 and their equivalents.
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