Liquid crystal display having gray voltages with varying magnitudes and driving method thereof

• US 7,737,963 B2
• Filed: 07/17/2006
• Issued: 06/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co. Ltd. (TCL Technology Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Moon, Seung-Hwan
• Primary Examiner(s): Shankar; Vijay
• Application Number:
  US11/487,779
• Publication Number:
  US 20060274006A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,429 Days
• Field of Search: 345 74- 98, 345204-215, 345690-699
• US Class Current: 345/212
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0606 Manual adjustment
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0626 for control of overall brightness
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/066 for control of contrast
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/144 the light being ambient light
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3696 Generation of voltages supplied to electrode drivers

Abstract

A liquid crystal display (“LCD”) having a plurality of gray voltages with varying magnitudes and a driving method thereof. An LCD includes a reference voltage generator changing level of a supply voltage based on a first signal to generate a reference voltage. The first signal varies depending on the surrounding brightness of the LCD, the brightness of the on-screen images of the LCD, and user'"'"'s manipulation. The LCD also includes a gray voltage generator generating a plurality of gray voltages with magnitudes varying dependent on the magnitude of the reference voltage and a predetermined voltage such as a ground voltage. The LCD further includes a plurality of gate lines transmitting a plurality of gate signals, a plurality of data lines transmitting the gray voltages, and a plurality of pixels. Each pixel has a switching element connected to one of the gate lines and one of the data lines and transmitting the gray voltages to the pixels under the control of the gate signal. The LCD includes a gate driver supplying the gate signals to the gate lines and a data driver selecting the gray voltages based on gray data from an external source to supply to the pixels via the data lines.

Claims

1. A liquid crystal display comprising:

a reference voltage generator changing a level of a first predetermined voltage based on a first signal to generate a reference voltage, the first signal varying depending on one of brightness of surroundings of the liquid crystal display, brightness of on-screen images of the liquid crystal display, and a user'"'"'s manipulation;

a gray voltage generator generating a plurality of gray voltages with magnitudes depending on a magnitude of the reference voltage;

a gate driver supplying gate signals to a plurality of gate signal lines;

a data driver selecting the gray voltages based on gray data from an external source to supply to a plurality of data signal lines; and

a signal generator determining the brightness of the on-screen images from the gray data and generating the first signal depending on the brightness or the user'"'"'s manipulation,

wherein the signal generator comprises;

a square wave generator calculating representative value of gray data from an external source and generating a wave signal depending on the representative value of the gray data; and

an analog converter analogue-converting the wave signal from the square wave generator into the first signal and outputting the first signal to the reference voltage generator.

2. The liquid crystal display of claim 1, further comprising a common voltage generator generating a common voltage to be applied to the pixels, based on the reference

3. The liquid crystal display of claim 1, wherein gray voltages among the plurality of gray voltages with respect to low gray levels make transmittance of the liquid crystal display higher than transmittance by standard gray voltages.

4. The liquid crystal display of claim 1, wherein the reference voltage generator further comprises:

a light sensor sensing the brightness of the surroundings of the liquid crystal display and generating the first signal depending on the sensed brightness, and

a first voltage divider dropping a level of the first predetermined voltage based on the first signal.

5. The liquid crystal display of claim 1, wherein the reference voltage generator further comprises:

an amplifier amplifying a difference between the voltage level of the first signal, which represents of the on-screen images, and a predetermined voltage; and

a level controller changing the level of the first predetermined voltage based on the amplified output signal from the amplifier.

6. The liquid crystal display of claim 1, wherein the analogue converter comprises:

a transistor turned on and off in response to the wave signal; and

a capacitor outputting a voltage variation of two terminals thereof as the first signal in response to charging and discharging thereof depending on the turning on and off of the transistor.

7. The liquid crystal display of claim 6, wherein a voltage level of the first signal is determined by a time constant between the capacitor and a resistor connected to the capacitor, and is proportional to duty and pulse count of the wave signal.

8. The liquid crystal display of claim 1, wherein the square wave generator comprises:

a first adder adding gray values of respective red, green and blue image data representing the on-screen images to output first sums;

a second adder adding the first sums for one horizontal period to output as a second sum;

a divider dividing the second sum by three and extracting a most significant bit from the divided second sum to output as first data;

a counter down-counting the first data; and

a wave signal generator generating a square wave having a duty on the basis of the down-counted number of the first data.

9. The liquid crystal display of claim 8, wherein the square wave generator further comprises a pixel data converter providing a weight on at least one of the gray values of respective red, green and blue image data representing the on-screen images to outputting a weighted value to the first adder.

10. The liquid crystal display of claim 1, the square wave generator calculating a representative value of gray data for a horizontal period.

11. The liquid crystal display of claim 1, the representative value of gray data generated by the square wave generator is average value of gray data.

12. A method of driving a liquid crystal display having a plurality of gate lines, a plurality of data lines which are insulated from the plurality of gate lines and cross with the plurality of gate lines, and a plurality of pixels aligned in a matrix shape, located in a region restricted by the plurality of gate lines and the and plurality of data lines and including switching elements connected to the gate lines and the data lines, the method comprising:

receiving a first predetermined voltage from an external source;

receiving a gray data from the external source;

sensing a brightness level of surroundings of the liquid crystal display, or determining a brightness level of on-screen images of the liquid crystal display based on gray data from the external source or sensing a user'"'"'s manipulation, and then outputting a first signal representing a sensed value;

changing a level of the first predetermined voltage to generate a second signal on the basis of the first signal;

generating a plurality of gray voltages with magnitudes varying dependent on the second signal;

converting the gray data into corresponding gray voltages based on the plurality of gray voltages and then providing the corresponding gray voltages to the data lines, and

providing scan signals to the gate lines sequentially,

wherein sensing a brightness level of surroundings of the liquid crystal display, or determining a brightness level of on-screen images of the liquid crystal display or sensing a user'"'"'s manipulation comprises;

calculating a representative value of the gray data and generating a wave signal depending on the representative value of the gray data; and

analogue-converting the wave signal into the first signal, and outputting the converted wave signal.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein a level of the second signal is inversely proportional to a level of the first signal.