Displays with adjustable direct-lit backlight units

• US 10,504,453 B1
• Filed: 04/18/2019
• Issued: 12/10/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2019
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Jung, Tobias, Albrecht, Marc, Petrovich, Duane M., Chang, Sean C., Zalatimo, David S., Emelie, Pierre-Yves, Luthra, Manev, Le, Chengrui, Hong, Lingyu, Yao, Wei H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pervan, Michael
• Application Number:
  US16/388,427
• Time in Patent Office: 236 Days
• Field of Search: 345102, 345691
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0233 Improving the luminance or brightness uniformity across the screen
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0247 Flicker reduction other than flicker reduction circuits used for single beam cathode-ray tubes
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/041 Temperature compensation
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0646 Modulation of illumination source brightness and image signal correlated to each other
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0653 Controlling or limiting the speed of brightness adjustment of the illumination source
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/144 the light being ambient light
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/16 Calculation or use of calculated indices related to luminance levels in display data
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3406 Control of illumination source illumination devices structurally associated with liquid crystal cells G02F1/1336
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3426 the different display panel areas being distributed in two dimensions, e.g. matrix
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/36 using liquid crystals
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3648 using an active matrix G09G3/367 - G09G3/3696 take precedence

Abstract

A display may have a pixel array such as a liquid crystal pixel array. The pixel array may be illuminated by a backlight unit that includes an array of light-emitting diodes. A backlight brightness selection circuit may select brightness values for the light-emitting diodes. The backlight brightness selection circuit may select the brightness values based on image data, based on brightness values used in previous image frames, based on device information, and/or based on sensor information. The backlight brightness selection circuit may select the backlight brightness levels to mitigate visible artifacts such as flickering and halo. The backlight levels selected by the backlight brightness selection may be modified by a power consumption compensation circuit. The power consumption compensation circuit may estimate the amount of power consumption required to operate the backlight using the target brightness levels and may modify the target brightness levels to meet maximum power consumption requirements.

Claims

1. An electronic device comprising:

a plurality of pixels;

a backlight having a plurality of light-emitting diodes that are configured to produce backlight illumination for the plurality of pixels; and

control circuitry configured to;

during a first frame, determine brightness values for the plurality of light-emitting diodes based on a first set of image data;

during a second frame that is subsequent to the first frame, display images using a second set of image data while the plurality of light-emitting diodes produces backlight illumination using the brightness values determined during the first frame; and

during the second frame, generate a simulated backlight reconstruction based on the brightness values determined during the first frame.

2. The electronic device defined in claim 1, wherein generating the simulated backlight reconstruction comprises using one or more point spread functions to simulate an actual backlight brightness value associated with each pixel of the plurality of pixels.

3. The electronic device defined in claim 2, wherein the control circuitry is configured to:

compensate the second set of image data based on the simulated backlight reconstruction.

4. The electronic device defined in claim 3, wherein the control circuitry is configured to:

during the second frame, generate a plurality of tone maps based on the compensated second set of image data.

5. The electronic device defined in claim 4, wherein the control circuitry is configured to:

during a third frame that is subsequent to the second frame, adjust a third set of image data using the tone maps generated during the second frame; and

during the third frame, display images using the adjusted third set of image data.

6. An electronic device comprising:

a plurality of pixels;

a backlight having a plurality of light-emitting diodes that are configured to produce backlight illumination for the plurality of pixels; and

control circuitry configured to;

during a first frame, determine brightness values for the plurality of light-emitting diodes based on a first set of image data; and

during a second frame that is subsequent to the first frame, display images using a second set of image data while the plurality of light-emitting diodes produces backlight illumination using the brightness values determined during the first frame, wherein determining the brightness values for the plurality of light-emitting diodes based on the first set of image data comprises determining initial target brightness values based on content of the first set of image data.

7. The electronic device defined in claim 6, wherein determining the brightness values for the plurality of light-emitting diodes based on the first set of image data comprises modifying the initial target brightness values based at least on additional brightness values used in an additional frame prior to the first frame.

8. The electronic device defined in claim 7, wherein modifying the initial target brightness values based at least on the additional brightness values used in the additional frame comprises modifying the initial target brightness values in response to a comparison between the additional brightness values used in the additional frame and the initial target brightness values indicating a scene change.

9. The electronic device defined in claim 7, wherein modifying the initial target brightness values based at least on the additional brightness values used in the additional frame comprises applying a temporal filter to the initial target brightness values and the additional brightness values.

10. An electronic device comprising:

a plurality of pixels;

a backlight having a plurality of light-emitting diodes, wherein each one of the plurality of light-emitting diodes is configured to produce backlight illumination for a respective subset of the plurality of pixels; and

control circuitry configured to generate a brightness value for each one of the plurality of light-emitting diodes based on image data for the respective subset of the plurality of pixels associated with that light-emitting diode, wherein the control circuitry is configured to use a temporal filter and backlight brightness values from a previous frame to generate the brightness values for the plurality of light-emitting diodes.