DISPLAY APPARATUS AND DISPLAY PANEL DRIVER

• US 20140313115A1
• Filed: 03/28/2014
• Published: 10/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Synaptics Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Renesas SP Drivers Inc. (Synaptics Incorporated)
• Inventors: Saito, Satoshi, Tanabe, Hajime, Kitamura, Kota
• Granted Patent: US 9,607,566 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/94
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3648 using an active matrix G09G3/367 - G09G3/3696 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3677 suitable for active matrices only

Abstract

A liquid crystal display apparatus includes a liquid crystal display panel having gate lines and source lines, a GIP circuit which drives the gate lines and a source driver IC3 which drives the source lines. The source driver IC3 includes a gate control signal generator which generates gate control signals SOUT1-SOUTn which control the GIP circuit. The gate control signal generator is configured so that it is possible to control the waveforms of the gate control signals SOUT1-SOUTn in software.

Claims

1. A display apparatus comprising:

a display panel comprising gate lines and source lines;

a gate driver configured to drive each of the gate lines; and

a source driver configured to drive each of the source lines,

wherein said source driver comprises a gate control signal generator configured to generate a gate control signal to control said gate driver, and

wherein said gate control signal generator is configured to allow a waveform of the gate control signal to be controlled in software.

2. The display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said gate control signal generator comprises a register, and

wherein the waveform of the gate control signal is controlled in response to a register value retained in said register.

3. The display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said gate control signal generator comprises:

a waveform control register;

an internal digital signal generator configured to generate a plurality of internal digital signals, whose waveforms are different from each other, in response to a first register value held by said waveform control register;

a pulse swap circuit configured to output an internal gate control signal generated from the plurality of internal digital signals; and

a level shifter configured to perform a level shift on the internal gate control signal to generate the gate control signal, and

wherein said pulse swap circuit outputs a signal selected from the plurality of internal digital signals as the internal gate control signal, and outputs the internal gate control signal generated by performing a logical operation on a plurality of signals among the plurality of internal digital signals, in response to a second register value held by said waveform control register.

4. The display apparatus according to claim 3, wherein a period and phase of each of the plurality of internal digital signals are adjusted based on the first register value held by said waveform control register.

5. The display apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said gate control signal generator further comprises an internal digital signal generator configured to generate a plurality of multi-internal level digital signals different in waveform from each other in response to a third register value held by said waveform control register,

wherein each of the plurality of multi-level internal digital signals is a 3-valued or more digital signal, and

wherein said pulse swap circuit is configured to output a signal selected from the plurality of internal digital signals and the plurality of multi-level internal digital signals as the internal gate control signal, or to output the internal gate control signal generated by performing a logic operation on a plurality of signal of the plurality of internal digital signals and the plurality of multi-level internal digital signals, in response to the second register value held by said waveform control register.

6. The display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said source driver has a built-in type MPU (micro processing unit), and

wherein the waveform of the gate control signal is controlled by said MPU in software.

7. The display apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a touch panel,

wherein said source driver comprises:

a touch panel controller configured to generate data showing an electronic state of said touch panel;

a MPU (micro processing unit) configured to detect a manner of a contact to said touch panel from the data received from said touch panel controller,

wherein the waveform of the gate control signal is controlled by said MPU in software.

8. The display apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said source driver comprises a level shifter,

wherein said MPU generates the internal digital signal based on the waveform data stored non-volatilely, and

wherein said level shifter performs a level shift on the internal digital signal to generate the gate control signal.

9. A display panel driver comprising:

a source driver circuit section configured to drive source lines of a display panel; and

a gate control signal generating section configured to generate a gate control signal to control a gate driver which drives a gate line of said display panel,

wherein said gate control signal generating section is configured to be able to control a waveform of the gate control signal in software.

10. The display panel driver according to claim 9, wherein said gate control signal generator comprises a register,

wherein the waveform of the gate control signal is controlled in response to the register value held by said register.

11. The display panel driver according to claim 9, wherein said gate control signal generator comprises:

a waveform control register;

an internal digital signal generator configured to generate a plurality of internal digital signals different in waveform from each other in response to a first register value held by said waveform control register;

a pulse swap circuit configured to output an internal gate control signal generated from the plurality of internal digital signals; and

a level shifter configured to perform a level shift on internal gate control signal to generate the gate control signal,

wherein said pulse swap circuit is configured to output a signal selected from the plurality of internal digital signals as the internal gate control signal, or, output the internal gate control signal generated through a logic operation of a plurality of signals of the plurality of internal digital signals in response to a second register value held by said waveform control register.

12. The display panel driver according to claim 11, wherein a period and a phase of each of the plurality of internal digital signals are controlled based on the first register value held by said waveform control register.

13. The display panel driver according to claim 11, wherein said gate control signal generator further comprises an internal digital signal generator configured to generate a plurality of multi-level internal digital signals different in waveform from each other in response to a third register value held by said waveform control register,

wherein the multi-level internal digital signal is a 3-valued or more digital signal,

wherein said pulse swap circuit outputs the signal selected from the plurality of internal digital signals and the plurality of multi-level internal digital signals as an internal gate control signal, or, output the internal gate control signal generated by a logic operation of a plurality of signals of the plurality of internal digital signals and the plurality of multi-level internal digital signals, in response to a second register value held by said waveform control register.

14. The display panel driver according to claim 9, further comprising a MPU (micro processing unit),

wherein the waveform of the gate control signal is controlled in software by said MPU.

15. The display panel driver according to claim 9, further comprising:

a touch panel controller configured to generate data showing an electronic state of a touch panel; and

a MPU (micro processing unit) configured to detect a manner of a contact to said touch panel from the data received from said touch panel controller,

wherein the waveform of the gate control signal is controlled in software by said MPU.

16. The display panel driver according to claim 14, further comprising a level shifter,

wherein said MPU generates an internal digital signal based on waveform data stored non-volatilely, and

wherein the level shifter performs a level shift on the internal digital signal to generate the gate control signal.