Multi-display driving circuit and method of driving display panels

• US 20060214873A1
• Filed: 02/28/2006
• Published: 09/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Song, Min-Seok, Kwon, Hyeok-Chul, Park, Sang-Yong
• Granted Patent: US 7,830,332 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/1.100
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/0221 with use of split matrices G09G3/3644 and G09G3/3666 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/06 Handling electromagnetic interferences [EMI], covering emitted as well as received electromagnetic radiation
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/006 Details of the interface to the display terminal specific for a display terminal using a CRT G09G1/167; using a flat panel G09G3/2096; circuits for interfacing with colour displays G09G5/04

Abstract

A multi-display (e.g., dual-display) driving circuit includes a first display driving circuit configured to receive a first display signal and a second display signal from an external source (e.g., CPU) through a first interface, and to drive a first display panel in response to the first display signal and to output the second display signal through a second interface of the first display driving circuit. The second display signal is transmitted via the second interface to a second driving circuit configured to drive a second display panel. Therefore, the complexity of the wiring (e.g., through a hinge of a folding phone, and between a CPU and first and second displays) of the multi-display device may be reduced, and the electromagnetic interference (EMI) characteristics of the multi-display device may be enhanced.

Claims

1. A display driving circuit comprising:

a first display driving circuit configured to receive a first display signal and a second display signal through a first interface, and configured to drive a first display panel in response to the first display signal and to output the second display signal through a second interface.

2. The display driving circuit of claim 1, wherein the first interface is a serial differential interface.

3. The display driving circuit of claim 1, wherein the first interface is a packet interface, and the first and the second display signals are inputted in a form of encoded packet data to the first display driver circuit from an external source.

4. The display driving circuit of claim 1, wherein the second interface is a parallel interface.

5. The display driving circuit of claim 1, wherein the first display signal includes first pixel data and a first control signal for driving the first display panel, and the second display signal includes second pixel data and a second control signal for driving a second display panel.

6. The display driving circuit of claim 1, wherein the first display driving circuit includes:

a first interface unit configured to receive the first display signal and the second display signal through the first interface;

a signal discriminating circuit configured to discriminate the received first display signal from the received second display signal;

a signal distributing circuit configured to output the first display signal and the second display signal based on a discriminating result of the signal discriminating circuit;

a driver logic circuit configured to drive the first display panel based on the first display signal; and

a second interface unit configured to convert the second display signal outputted from the signal distributing circuit into a signal conforming to the second interface to output the signal conforming to the second interface.

7. The display driving circuit of claim 6, wherein the signal discriminating circuit generates a panel select signal for selecting one of the first display panel and the second display panel based on at least one of the first and the second display signals.

8. The display driving circuit of claim 7, wherein the signal distributing circuit divides signals outputted from the first interface unit into the first display signal and the second display signal in response to the panel select signal to output the first display signal and the second display signal.

9. The display driving circuit of claim 8, wherein the signal distributing circuit includes at least one demultiplexer unit respectively having at least one demultiplexer, the at least one demultiplexer is configured to perform a demultiplexing operation in response to the panel select signal.

10. The display driving circuit of claim 6, wherein the second interface is an 80-mode parallel interface, and the second interface unit includes:

a signal receiver configured to receive the second display signal outputted from the signal distributing circuit;

a first counter and a second counter configured to count a clock signal to determine a time point for toggling a signal conforming to the 80-mode parallel interface;

a signal generating unit configured to generate the signal conforming to the 80-mode parallel interface based on the second display signal, a first count value of the first counter and a second count value of the second counter; and

a latching unit having a plurality of latches configured to transfer the signal conforming to the 80-mode parallel interface in response to the clock signal.

11. The display driving circuit of claim 1, further comprising:

a second display driving circuit configured to drive a second display panel in response to the second display signal outputted through the second interface.

12. A display driving circuit comprising:

a first interface unit configured to receive a first display signal and a second display signal through a first interface;

a signal discriminating circuit configured to discriminate the received first display signal from the received second display signal;

a signal distributing circuit configured to output a selected one of the first display signal and the second display signal based on a discriminating result output by the signal discriminating circuit;

a driver logic circuit configured to drive a first display panel based on the first display signal; and

a second interface unit configured to convert the second display signal outputted from the signal distributing circuit into a signal conforming to the second interface and to output the signal conforming to the second interface.

13. The display driving circuit of claim 12, wherein the signal discriminating circuit generates a panel select signal for selecting one of the first display panel and a second display panel based on at least one of the first and the second display signals.

14. The display driving circuit of claim 13, wherein the signal distributing circuit divides signals outputted from the first interface unit into the first display signal and the second display signal in response to the panel select signal for separately outputting the first display signal and the second display signal.

15. The display driving circuit of claim 14, wherein the signal distributing circuit includes at least one demultiplexer unit respectively having at least one demultiplexer, the at least one demultiplexer configured to perform a demultiplexing operation in response to the panel select signal.

16. The display driving circuit of claim 12, wherein the second interface is an 80-mode parallel interface, and the second interface unit includes:

a signal receiver configured to receive the second display signal outputted from the signal distributing circuit;

a first counter and a second counter configured to count a clock signal to determine a time point for toggling a signal conforming to the 80-mode parallel interface;

a signal generating unit configured to generate the signal conforming to the 80-mode parallel interface based on the second display signal, a first count value of the first counter and a second count value of the second counter; and

a latching unit having a plurality of latches configured to transfer the signal conforming to the 80-mode parallel interface in response to the clock signal.

17. A method of driving a plurality of display panels, comprising:

receiving a first display signal and a second display signal through a first interface of a first display driving circuit;

discriminating the received first display signal from the received second display signal to separately output the first display signal and the second display signal;

converting the second display signal into a signal conforming to a second interface to transfer the signal conforming to the second interface to a second display driving circuit.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first interface is a serial differential interface.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the first interface is a packet interface, the first and the second display signals are encoded into packet data, and the packet data are inputted to the first display driver circuit from an external source.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the second interface is a parallel interface.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the first display signal includes first pixel data and a first control signal for driving the first display panel, and the second display signal includes second pixel data and a second control signal for driving the second display panel.

22. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

driving a first display panel based on the first display signal; and

driving a second display panel based on the signal conforming to the second interface.