A liquid crystal display (LCD) modulates light flow by rotating the alignment of liquid crystal molecules to control the amount of light which enters a polarizing filter film with a vertical (or horizontal) axis and passes through another polarizing filter film with a horizontal (or vertical) axis. The liquid crystal molecules are aligned between the two polarizing filter films and the axis of the filters may be perpendicular or parallel from each other. Here, the rotation of the liquid crystal molecules is modulated by the electrical setting because each liquid crystal molecule is aligned along with an electric field which can be made by the electrical setting for an individual pixel. Various kinds of the electrical settings have been developed, but generally, the rotation angle and speed are decided by the voltage level of the electric field. Thus, the voltage decides the gray scale level of each LCD pixel.
Generally, the voltage for the gray scale level is called a driving or data driving voltage.
One of the key issues with LCDs is that the rotation speed of liquid crystal molecules is relatively slow, below the image refresh rate (frame rate). For example, in the case of Amorphous Silicon (a-Si) TFT-LCD, the mobility of a-Si is approximately 0.3-0.5 (cm/Vs), which is not sufficient when a scene is changing fast or there is a fast moving objects on the scene (the scene is blurred or the object can be disappeared from the scene). Usually, each LCD pixel is modeled as a capacitor where the full rotation time of liquid crystal molecules is considered as a full charging time of the capacitor model. Thus, the above issue is generally known as a “short charge time” or “short response time” of a pixel. Also, sometimes, the voltage which is charged in the capacitor model is called as a potential.
Various solutions have been developed to solve the short charge time problem. One of the solutions is compensating the charge time of the pixel by overdriving the pixel with initial high pre-charge voltage. Here, the initial high voltage should be higher than the real data voltage of the target gray scale level. After the initial high pre-charge voltage, the voltage should be modulated as the gray scale of the pixel approaches the target level. The initial high voltage enables the rotation of liquid crystals to be faster, and then the voltage should be eased off as it reaches the target gray scale level.
However, this conventional initial high pre-charge voltage has some disadvantages. First, the conventional initial high pre-charge voltage requires relatively high voltage. Further, in the conventional initial high pre-charge voltage, too much high voltage may cause the pixel to display a wrong target gray scale level and the voltage needs to be reduced before this happens. Also, a data driver with double speed is required because the horizontal period (1H) should be divided into a pre-charge period and a real data period for a pixel.
Also, as shown in
Therefore, exemplary objects of the present disclosure involve solving the above problems by compensating the pixel charge time with half driving speed of the conventional driving method without the initial high charging voltage. Also, an additional object of the present disclosure is to solve the after image problem.
According to at least one exemplary embodiment, a liquid crystal display (LCD) device and a method for driving an LCD may be shown described. Such a device and method may enable each LCD pixel to be selectively and concurrently charged up to an intended gray scale level at the end of horizontal period without initial high pre-charging voltage. Also, the device and method may enable each LCD pixel to avoid side effects, such as an after image.
Such a LCD device may include a plurality of LCD pixels in a matrix; a driver that inputs a drive signal to each LCD pixel of the plurality of LCD pixels; a controller that controls a level and a polarity of the drive signal; and a memory storing a plurality of corrected charge voltage values. Further, each LCD pixel in the plurality of LCD pixels is provided with the drive signal based on the corrected charge voltage values for the corresponding LCD pixel during the entirety of a horizontal period, and wherein the corrected charge voltage value has a predetermined value corresponding to a charge for an intended gray scale level of the LCD pixel at the end of the horizontal period. Also, in the display device, the corrected charge voltage value has the predetermined value that of the LCD pixel to be charged up to the intended gray scale level at the end of the horizontal period without an over shooting of the drive signal. Further, in the display device, the driver inputs the drive signal to each LCD pixel in the plurality of LCD pixels selectively. Additionally, in the display device, an absolute value of the corrected charge voltage value is less for a predetermined gray scale level when the polarity of the drive signal is a negative than the absolute value of the corrected charge when the polarity of the drive signal is a positive for the predetermined gray scale level.
In another exemplary embodiment, the memory may further include a plurality of look up tables having positive corrected charge voltage values and negative corrected charge voltage values of the corrected charge voltage values based on a polarity of a driving voltage, a pixel location, and a temperature of the display, wherein the controller controls the level of the drive signal depending on an absolute value of the corrected charge voltage values.
Also, the memory may further include at least one of a positive and negative lookup table pair having a plurality of positive and negative corrected charge voltage values, a plurality of starting gray scale levels from a minimum level to a maximum level, and a plurality of target gray scale levels from a minimum level to a maximum level. In this exemplary embodiment, the starting gray scale level is a gray scale level of the LCD pixel on a previous horizontal period and the target gray scale is a gray scale level of the LCD pixel on a current horizontal period, the controller controls the driver to input a corrected charge voltage value as the drive signal to the LCD pixel through use of the positive lookup table when the polarity of the driving signal has a positive charge and the negative lookup table when the polarity of the driving signal has a negative charge, at least one of the positive and negative corrected charge voltage values in the lookup table are determined by each starting gray scale level and each target gray scale level, and, when the target gray scale level of the negative lookup table is at the brightest level, the corrected charge voltage value is a predetermined negative corrected charge voltage value that is sufficient to avoid an after image.
In still another exemplary embodiment, when a target gray scale of a first pixel and a second pixel is at the brightest level, the controller may control the driver to input a first corrected charge voltage as the drive signal to the first pixel and to input a second corrected charge voltage as the drive signal to the second pixel, wherein the polarity of the drive signal is a positive for the first pixel and the polarity of the drive signal is a negative for the second pixel, and wherein the first pixel displays a predetermined luminescence with the first corrected charge voltage and the second pixel displays the predetermined luminescence with the second corrected charge voltage.
In another exemplary embodiment, a method for driving LCD may be described. Such a method may include storing a plurality of corrected charge voltage values for pixels in a memory; determining a pixel location; determining the corrected charge voltage value for the pixel from the memory; and applying one of a positive or a negative corrected charge voltage to the pixel during a horizontal period based on the pixel location and the corrected charge voltage value. In the method the plurality of corrected charge voltage values can include a plurality of positive corrected charge voltage values and a plurality of negative corrected charge voltage values, and the negative corrected charge voltage value and the positive corrected charge voltage value each have a predetermined value of the pixel to be charged up to an intended gray scale level at the end of the horizontal period, the negative corrected charge voltage value has an absolute value less than or equal to the positive corrected charge voltage value for a same gray scale level, and, when applying one of the positive or the negative corrected charge voltage, the pixel is charged during the entirety of the horizontal period without an over shooting of the positive or the negative corrected charge voltage, wherein the starting gray scale level is a gray scale level of the LCD pixel on a previous horizontal period and the target gray scale is the gray scale level of the LCD pixel on a current horizontal period, wherein, when the target gray scale is at the brightest level, the corrected charge voltage value is a predetermined negative corrected charge voltage value that is sufficient to avoid an after image, and wherein a plurality of the pixel locations are determined concurrently and a plurality of the pre-charge values are determined concurrently, and a plurality of positive or negative pre-charge voltages are applied concurrently depending on an external image source.
Also, the method may further include checking whether a first pixel and a second pixel are to be charged to the brightest gray scale level; determining a first corrected charge voltage value for the first pixel and a second corrected charge voltage value for the second pixel; and applying a first corrected charge voltage to the first pixel according to the first corrected charge voltage value and a second corrected charge voltage to the second pixel according to the first second charge voltage value, wherein the polarity of the first corrected charge voltage is a positive and the polarity of the second corrected charge voltage is a negative, and wherein the first pixel displays a predetermined luminescence with the first corrected charge voltage and the second pixel displays the predetermined luminescence with the second corrected charge voltage.
Advantages of embodiments of the present application will be apparent from the following detailed description of the exemplary embodiments thereof, which description should be considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like numerals indicate like elements, in which:
Aspects of the invention are disclosed in the following description and related drawings directed to specific embodiments of the application. Alternate embodiments may be devised without departing from the spirit or the scope of the invention. Additionally, well-known elements of exemplary embodiments of the application will not be described in detail or will be omitted so as not to obscure the relevant details of the embodiments. Further, to facilitate an understanding of the description discussion of several terms used herein follows.
As used herein, the word “exemplary” means “serving as an example, instance or illustration.” The embodiments described herein are not limiting, but rather are exemplary only. It should be understood that the described embodiments are not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments. Moreover, the terms “embodiments of the invention”, “embodiments” or “invention” do not require that all embodiments of the invention include the discussed feature, advantage or mode of operation.
Further, many of the embodiments described herein are described in terms of sequences of actions to be performed by, for example, elements of a computing device. It should be recognized by those skilled in the art that the various sequences of actions described herein can be performed by specific circuits (e.g. application specific integrated circuits (ASICs)) and/or by program instructions executed by at least one processor. Additionally, the sequence of actions described herein can be embodied entirely within any form of computer-readable storage medium such that execution of the sequence of actions enables the at least one processor to perform the functionality described herein. Furthermore, the sequence of actions described herein can be embodied in a combination of hardware and software. Thus, the various aspects of the present application may be embodied in a number of different forms, all of which have been contemplated to be within the scope of the claimed subject matter. In addition, for each of the embodiments described herein, the corresponding form of any such embodiment may be described herein as, for example, “a computer configured to” perform the described action.
According to an exemplary embodiment, and referring to the Figures generally, a liquid crystal display (LCD) device and a method for driving an LCD may be provided. According to one exemplary embodiment, the device and the method may enable each display pixel to be selectively and concurrently charged up to an intended gray scale level at the end of horizontal period without initial high pre-charging voltage. Also, the device and the method may enable each display pixel to avoid side effects such as an after image. The device and the method may save the pixel charging time in half compared to the conventional initial high pre-charge voltage driving and may reduce the number of drivers in half.
Turning now to exemplary
In an exemplary embodiment, the horizontal period is the period for the pixel to be charged. Referring to exemplary
Referring back to
Turning now to
Also, in an exemplary embodiment, if the polarity 502 of the driving signal voltage is positive, the polarity of the corrected charge voltage value is positive, and if the voltage is negative, the corrected charge voltage value is negative. In another exemplary embodiment, the corrected charge voltage value may be expressed as the corrected charge voltage data which are actually gray scale level values. Then, the corrected charge voltage data is included in different kinds of look up tables depending on the voltages polarities.
In an exemplary embodiment, all data may be stored in the memory as a set of look up tables 505. As described above, the corrected charge voltage value may be stored as a positive value or a negative value depending the polarity 502 of the driving voltage. When the controller controls the drive signal considering the corrected charge voltage values of the memory, the controller may control the level of the drive signal depending on an absolute value of the corrected charge voltage value and may control the polarity 502 of the drive signal depending on the polarity of the corrected charge voltage value or the polarity of the corrected charge voltage data.
Turning now to
As shown on the left waveform 601, to charge a pixel up to the target gray scale level (Vn), the target voltage is supplemented to be the corrected charge voltage. Here, the negative supplemental voltage 604 is less than the positive supplemental voltage 603 because the negative driving voltage may charge the pixel faster than the positive voltage. In other words, the negative voltage is less than the positive voltage in achieving the same target gray scale (Vn), so the negative voltage can be better written in a pixel than a positive voltage. Thus, the absolute value of the corrected charge voltage value is relatively small if the polarity of the drive signal is a negative compared to a case that the polarity of the drive signal is a positive in achieving the same gray scale. Referring to
Referring back to exemplary
Referring back to exemplary
Referring back to exemplary
Referring now to exemplary
Referring to exemplary
Turning now to exemplary
As shown in
Both the positive and negative look up tables may have starting gray scale levels and target gray scale levels with a range from minimum level to maximum level. In the lookup tables, each supplement data for the corrected charge voltage or each corrected charge voltage value is determined depending on, from which level of the start gray scale to which level of the target gray scale, the gray scale is transited. According to an exemplary embodiment, the starting gray scale level may be a gray scale level of an LCD pixel on a current horizontal period and the target gray scale is a gray scale level of an LCD pixel on a next horizontal period. Also, in another exemplary embodiment, the starting gray scale level may be a gray scale level of an LCD pixel on a previous horizontal period and the target gray scale is a gray scale level of an LCD pixel on a current horizontal period.
Exemplary
To avoid the after image problem, as shown at the negative look up table of
The foregoing description and accompanying figures illustrate the principles, preferred embodiments and modes of operation of the application. However, the invention should not be construed as being limited to the particular embodiments discussed above. Additional variations of the embodiments discussed above will be appreciated by those skilled in the art (for example, features associated with certain configurations of the application may instead be associated with any other configurations of the application, as desired).
Therefore, the above-described embodiments should be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive. Accordingly, it should be appreciated that variations to those embodiments can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.
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