1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method for wavelength stabilization of a liquid crystal display (LCD). More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for stabilizing wavelength of LED (light emitting diode) radiation in backlight module of the LCD.
2. Description of Related Art
An LCD includes a controllable transmissive display panel that faces users, and a backlight module that provides the controllable transmissive display panel with illumination from its rear side. The backlight module may employ LED or cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) as a light source. The LED backlight module has at least two advantages over CCFL backlight module; one is full color reproduction and the other is no contamination of mercury (Hg). During the period of manufacturing the CCFL backlight module, operators may be endangered if mercury contained in the CCFL is released. As such, the LED backlight module not only provides users with better color quality but also prevents the operators from being poisoned by mercury. Hence, the LED backlight module is promising to be a main stream of next generation of displays.
In the LED backlight module, a plurality of LEDs are arranged in a matrix form that illumines pixels of the controllable transmissive display panel. Since any color light is a combination of three prime colors; i.e. red (R), green (G) and blue (B) colors, every red LED, green LED and blue LED are grouped in order to illumine each pixel. For example, with a certain combination of R, G and B colors, there produces “white” light. However, the LED backlight module has some drawbacks. That is, aging of the LED backlight module and variation of environment temperature respectively incur light intensity attenuation and wavelength drift, degree of which are varied for the different LEDs with the same color. As shown in
Additionally, as there exists parameter discrepancy in growth of epitaxy layer when manufacturing the LED, there are wavelength discrepancies among a batch LEDs with the same colour. To avoid higher cost for batching LEDs with a wavelength range (hereinafter referred to as bin), nowadays the bin employs 5 nm as a minima bin range. However, the 5 nm bin incurs colour shift perceived by human eyes. Thus, to overcome this colour shift, a smaller bin is necessitated, which in turn increases the cost for batching LEDs. Moreover, as mentioned above, stability of the chromaticity coordinate of the LED backlight module is affected by the environment temperature.
There are some approaches to overcome aforementioned problems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,220,959 discloses a differential colour sensor 200 without filters. As shown in
U.S. Pat. No. 6,678,293 discloses a wavelength sensitive device for wavelength stabilization. This wavelength sensitive device (i.e. photodiode) comprises a plurality of layers jointly defining two opposite diodes generating opposite photocurrents. Amount of the opposite photocurrents is determined in accordance with fabricating parameters of the two opposite diodes. That is, by using a certain doping ratio for the two opposite diodes, an output current of the photodiode is zero under the conditions of specific wavelength and a fixed bias voltage. If there is wavelength variation in incident light, the output current is not zero because the two photocurrents generated by these two respective diodes cannot be offset each other. Thus, the wavelength shift can be detected by implementing the output current. However, U.S. Pat. No. 6,678,293 needs specific fabricating parameters, which in turn significantly increases manufacturing cost. Thus, this approach cannot be applied to the LED backlight module. Another prior art is U.S. Pat. No. 7,133,136 that discloses a method for stabilizing wavelength and intensity of laser radiation. This method is achieved by implementing two photodiodes; one is responsible for measuring light intensity and the other is responsible for measuring wavelength. U.S. Pat. No. 7,133,136 has a drawback in that since directivity of LED radiation is not so high as the laser, wavelength variation of LED radiation cannot be sensed by implementing operations at different incident angles of photodiode radiation. All aforementioned prior arts intend to detect the wavelength shift of the laser radiation. Even these prior art are applied to the LED backlight module, they only are capable of identifying colour. However, in the LED backlight module, the wavelength variation of the LED radiation is only 1-2 nm, which cannot cause colour shift in chromaticity coordinate so that these prior arts cannot be applied to detect this colour shift. Moreover, these prior arts cannot be applied to detect every wavelength variation of individual LED in the LED backlight module, and then compensate the wavelength variation for each LED. Accordingly, there exists a need for stabilizing wavelength (or referred to as “stabilizing chromaticity coordinate”) of LED radiation for each LED in backlight module, by using different compensation coefficients for different wavelengths.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a system for detecting wavelength of LED (light emitting diode) radiation and stabilizes the chromaticity coordinate in backlight module of an LCD (liquid crystal display), which comprises two photodiodes, a plurality of LEDs, a microprocessor unit (MCU) and a driver circuit, wherein the two photodiodes have different photo sensitivities in response to different wavelengths. A target value is associated with a ration of photo sensitivities of the two photodiodes under two different wavelength radiations, and then stored to the MCU as a referred value. Thus, another wavelength (or wavelength variation) of LED radiation is derived by comparing another target value with the referred value. The MCU determines a correction constant based on a colour match function of the derived wavelength, and outputs a compensation signal to compensate the LED, wherein the compensation signal is equal to multiplication of the correction constant and an original light intensity compensation signal for compensating light intensity loss of the LED.
The present invention is directed to a method for stabilizing wavelength of LED radiation in backlight module of the LCD. The method comprises the following steps: (a) storing target value of each wavelength to the MCU; (b) determining a judge range of each wavelength according to statistic analyses; (c) detecting light intensity and wavelength of an LED in a plurality of LEDs; (d) judging if light intensity is varied; if answer is no, the step returns to step (c) to detect next LED; (e) if answer is yes, determining a first compensate value according to variation of light intensity; (f) judging if the detected wavelength is within its judge range, and if answer is yes, the LED is compensated with the first compensate value; (g) if answer is no, determining a correction constant according to the detected wavelength and its corresponding colour match function, and compensating the LED with a second compensate value that is equal to multiplication of the correction constant and first compensate value; (h) judging if all LEDs are completely detected, and if answer is no, repeating the steps (c)-(g) and if answer is yes, stabilizing wavelength of LED radiation for all LEDs in the LED backlight module is finished.
The objectives, other features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent and easily understood from the following detailed description of the invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the present invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Reference will now be made in detail to an inverter circuit of a present preferred embodiment of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. For purpose of clarifying description, throughout the disclosure, the term of “photodiode” is also used to represent a “photo sensor” because it is well known that a “photo sensor” can be a phototransistor, a colour sensor or a photo sensitive resistor, which is easily used to replace “photodiode” by the artisan.
Prior to illustrating the preferred embodiment, a chromaticity coordinate is first introduced. The chromaticity coordinate represents all colour perceived by human eyes, and obtained by multiplication of light intensity and colour match function for each wavelength. To describe colour, every colour is defined by chromaticity coordinate, wherein abscissa is x and vertical coordinate is y. Each wavelength is expressed by their respective match function. For example, table 1 shows colour match functions of red light wavelength from 600 nm to 630 nm.
It can be seen from table 1 that if there is 5 nm wavelength variation, for example, from 625 nm to 630 nm, x value of colour match function corresponding to wavelength 625 nm is reduced 14.5% from 0.7514 to 0.6424. Accordingly, to compensate such 5 nm wavelength variation of wavelength 625 nm, a correction constant, i.e. 0.7514/0.6424, is used to multiply x value of colour match function of wavelength 630 nm in order to restore x value of colour match function of wavelength 625 nm.
As shown in
Concurrently referring
The target value is defined as a ratio of photocurrent of PD1 to that of PD2, which is independent of radiated areas of the two photodiodes and light intensities of an LED1 and an LED2. First, to eliminate a light intensity factor, the photocurrent of PD1 is divided by that of PD2 to obtain (A1×k1)/(A2×k2), a ratio of the photocurrent of PD1 to that of PD2 at the LED1 radiation. Likewise, another ratio of photocurrent of PD1 to that of PD2 at the LED2 radiation is (A1×k3)/(A2×k4). Then, to eliminate a factor of radiated area of two photodiodes, aforementioned ratios of photocurrent of PD1 to that of PD2 at the LED1 radiation and at the LED2 radiation are divided each other in order to obtain the target value (k1/k2)/(k3/k4) for wavelength λ1. Another approach for obtaining the target value is described as follows: using the ratio of the photocurrent of PD1 to that of PD2 obtained at the LED1 radiation as a reference value and setting wavelength of the LED2 radiation unknown; obtaining a target value for the LED2 radiation by dividing the obtained ratio of the photocurrent of PD1 to that of PD2 at the LED2 radiation with the reference value.
Alternatively, the target value can be defined as a ratio of photo-voltage of PD1 to that of PD2. As shown in
The invention can be applied to initialize an LED backlight module because same-colour LEDs within a same production batch usually have uniform wavelengths. Moreover, initialization of LED backlight module cannot take only light intensity into account because the wavelength variation causes a shift of its corresponding chromaticity coordinates, i.e. instable colour.
Then, light intensity and wavelength of an LED in new LED backlight module with N LEDs are detected, as shown in step 802. The process proceeds to judge if there is any variation in light intensity of an LED in the new LED backlight module when compared with its corresponding LED disposed in the same position in the reference LED backlight module, as shown in step 803. If answer is no, the process returns to step 802 to detect next LED in the new LED backlight module. If answer is yes, the process proceed to step 804 to determine a first compensate value according to the variation of light intensity. Next, the process proceeds to judge if there is any variation in wavelength of the LED in the new LED backlight module when compared with its corresponding LED disposed in the same position in the reference LED backlight module through comparing a calculated target value of the LED with its corresponding pre-stored target value, as shown in step 805. If answer is no, the process proceeds to step 806 to compensate the LED of the new LED backlight module with the first compensate value. If answer is yes, the process proceeds to step 807 to determine a correction constant according to the detected wavelength and its colour match function, and compensate the LED of the new LED backlight module with a second compensate value that is equal to multiplication of the correction constant and the first compensate value. Next, in step 808, it is determined if all N LEDs of the new LED backlight module are completely detected. If answer is no, the steps 802-807 are repeated. If answer is yes, initialization of the LED backlight module is finished.
The invention has the following advantages over prior art:
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.