Light sensing circuit, backlight control apparatus having the same, and liquid crystal display device having the same

• US 8,643,592 B2
• Filed: 05/10/2011
• Issued: 02/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Display Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: LG Display Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Yoon, Jeong-Won, Moon, Su-Hwan
• Primary Examiner(s): Beck, Alexander S
• Assistant Examiner(s): STEINBERG, JEFFREY S
• Application Number:
  US13/104,441
• Publication Number:
  US 20110234559A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,001 Days
• Field of Search: 345/102, 345/207
• US Class Current: 345/102
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0626 for control of overall brightness
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/021 Power management, e.g. power saving
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/144 the light being ambient light
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3406 Control of illumination source illumination devices structurally associated with liquid crystal cells G02F1/1336

Abstract

A light sensing circuit capable of enhancing a reliability by lowering a dependency on a temperature change without using a resistor, a backlight control apparatus having the same, and an LCD device having the same. The light sensing circuit includes a first MOS-transistor; and a second MOS-transistor serially connected to the first MOS-transistor between a first power terminal and a ground terminal, in which a second power terminal is connected to each gate terminal of the first MOS-transistor and the second MOS-transistor, and an optical amount detecting terminal is connected to a common connection point between a drain terminal of the first MOS-transistor and a source terminal of the second MOS-transistor.

Claims

1. A backlight control apparatus for controlling a backlight to irradiate light to a rear side of an LC panel, the apparatus comprising:

a light sensing circuit that detects an amount of external light introduced into the LC panel by a first MOS-transistor and a second MOS-transistor serially connected to each other, and outputs a voltage corresponding to the detected optical amount;

an inverter that supplies an output power to a backlight; and

an inverter driving controller that controls a driving of the inverter according to the voltage output from the light sensing circuit, wherein the first MOS-transistor and the second MOS-transistor are disposed in a second region so that the first MOS-transistor is exposed to external light and the second MOS-transistor is not exposed to external light.

2. The backlight control apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first MOS-transistor and the second MOS-transistor comprise an amorphous-silicon type MOS-transistor.

3. The backlight control apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first MOS-transistor is disposed so as to be exposed to external light, and the second MOS-transistor is disposed so as not to be exposed to external light.

4. The backlight control apparatus of claim 1, wherein the voltage output is varied according to the brightness at the outside of the LC panel and the output power to the backlight from the inverter is varied according to the voltage output.

5. The backlight control apparatus of claim 4, wherein the output power to the backlight is decrease when the brightness at the outside of the LC panel is decreased so that the brightness of the backlight is decreased.

6. The backlight control apparatus of claim 4, wherein the output power to the backlight is increased when the brightness at the outside of the LC panel is increased so that the brightness of the backlight is increased.

7. The backlight control apparatus of claim 1, wherein the inverter driving controller includes a table having data for a level adjusting the output power from the inverter based on the voltage output.

8. The backlight control apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first MOS-transistor and the second MOS-transistor are under the same temperature condition.