DISPLAY HAVING A PLURALITY OF DRIVER INTEGRATED CIRCUITS

• US 20100073332A1
• Filed: 09/23/2008
• Published: 03/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Vieri, Carlin J., Gettemy, Shawn R., Lee, Yongman, Yao, Wei H.
• Granted Patent: US 8,325,309 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/204
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/13452 Conductors connecting driver circuitry and terminals of panels
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/136277 formed on a semiconductor substrate, e.g. of silicon
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 2202/103 a-Si
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2300/0417 Special arrangements specific to the use of low carrier mobility technology
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2300/0426 Layout of electrodes and connections
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0223 Compensation for problems related to R-C delay and attenuation in electrodes of matrix panels, e.g. in gate electrodes or on-substrate video signal electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3666 with the matrix divided into sections

Abstract

An electronic device is disclosed. In some embodiments, the electronic device includes a liquid-crystal display (LCD) and a plurality of driver integrated circuits (ICs) coupled to the LCD. The driver ICs may be disposed near non-central locations along a side of the LCD, and in some embodiments, one of the driver ICs may be a master driver IC and the other driver IC or driver ICs may be slave driver ICs.

Claims

1. A device, comprising:

a liquid-crystal display (LCD);

a first driver integrated circuit (IC) coupled to the LCD and disposed near a side of the LCD and near a non-central portion of the side.

2. The device of claim 1, comprising a second driver IC coupled to the LCD and dispose at a second non-central location along the side of the LCD.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein a distance between the first driver IC and the second driver IC is between about 10 mm and about 14 mm.

4. The device of claim 2, comprising a button, a speaker, a microphone, or a camera disposed between the first driver IC and the second driver IC.

5. The device of claim 2, wherein the first driver IC and the second driver IC are generally symmetrically disposed about a longitudinal central axis of the LCD.

6. The device of claim 2, wherein the first driver IC and the second driver IC are mounted directly to the LCD without an intervening flex tape.

7. The device of claim 2, wherein the first driver IC is a master driver IC and the second driver IC is a slave driver IC.

8. The device of claim 2, when the first driver IC is electrically connected to the second driver IC by a plurality of inter-driver bus traces.

9. The device of claim 8, wherein the plurality of inter-driver bus traces are formed on the LCD.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the LCD comprises an amorphous silicon LCD.

11. The device of claim 1, comprising:

a processor coupled to the LCD;

memory coupled to the processor;

a power source coupled to the processor; and

a network device coupled to the processor.

12. The device of claim 1, comprising a second driver IC and a third driver IC both coupled to the first driver IC through an inter-driver bus.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein the first driver IC, the second driver IC, and the third driver IC are disposed near the same side of the LCD.

14. A device, comprising:

an LCD;

a master driver IC mounted to the LCD; and

a slave driver IC mounted to the LCD, wherein the slave driver IC is in communication with the master driver IC through an inter-driver bus.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the master driver IC and slave driver IC are disposed near a side of the LCD and near non-central portions of the side.

16. The device of claim 15, comprising a button, a speaker, a microphone, or a camera disposed between the master driver IC and the slave driver IC.

17. The device of claim 14, wherein the master driver IC is coupled to a flex cable and the slave driver IC is in communication with the flex cable via the master driver IC.

18. A method, comprising:

receiving image data in a master driver IC;

determining whether the image data is addressed to a first portion of a pixel array controlled by the master driver IC or a second portion of the pixel array controlled by a slave driver IC; and

in response to a determination that the image data is addressed to the second portion of the pixel array, transmitting the image data to the slave driver IC.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein receiving image data in a master driver IC comprises receiving image data via a flex cable coupled to the master driver IC.

20. The method of claim 18, comprising:

determining whether the image data is addressed to a third portion of the pixel array controlled by another slave driver IC; and

in response to a determination that the image data is addressed to the third portion of the pixel array, transmitting the image data to the other slave driver IC.

21. The method of claim 18, comprising changing the transmissive state of a sub-pixel on an amorphous silicon LCD based on the image data.

22. The method of claim 18, comprising forming the image data based on data received over a cellular network.

23. The method of claim 18, comprising forming the image data based on data received from a server over the Internet.

24. A system, comprising:

a hand-held electronic device comprising;

a multi-touch touch screen sensor;

a display disposed adjacent the multi-touch touchscreen sensor, wherein the display comprises a plurality of driver ICs.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the display comprises an amorphous silicon LCD.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein each of the plurality of driver ICs are disposed on different sides of a central longitudinal axis of the display.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein the plurality of driver ICs comprise a master driver IC and a slave driver IC.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the master driver IC is spaced away from the slave driver IC by a distance between about 10 mm and about 20 mm.