Method for driving electro-optic displays

• US 9,620,066 B2
• Filed: 02/01/2011
• Issued: 04/11/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: E Ink Corporation (E Ink Holdings Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: E Ink Corporation (E Ink Holdings Incorporated)
• Inventors: Bishop, Seth J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bukowski, Kenneth
• Application Number:
  US13/018,829
• Publication Number:
  US 20110187689A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,261 Days
• Field of Search: 345 11- 13, 345107
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2300/026 Video wall, i.e. juxtaposition of a plurality of screens to create a display screen of bigger dimensions
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/0286 Details of a shift registers arranged for use in a driving circuit
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/08 Details of timing specific for flat panels, other than clock recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/2092 Details of a display terminals using a flat panel, the details relating to the control arrangement of the display terminal and to the interfaces thereto suitable for both CRT and flat panel G09G5/003; specific for a CRT G09G1/165
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/344 based on particles moving in a fluid or in a gas, e.g. electrophoretic devices electrophoretic devices per se G02F1/167
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3453 based on rotating particles or microelements
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/38 using electrochromic devices

Abstract

A large area display comprises multiple sub-units arranged in rows and columns. Each sub-unit has associated row and column drivers, with the column driver driving the column electrodes of all the sub-units a column. A chip select means provides a separate chip select signal to each row of sub-units, so that only one row of sub-units are scanned at a time, and all the sub-units in the selected row are scanned simultaneously. Column data are supplied to the column drivers as a linear series of column data values; and delayed Gate Start Pulse signals are fed to the column drivers in each column of sub-units after the first so that these column drivers receive the delayed Gate Start Pulse signals and apply the appropriate column data values to their associated column electrodes.

Claims

1. A method of driving a large area display comprising a plurality of sub-units arranged in a plurality of rows and columns, each sub-unit having an associated row driver and an associated column driver, the sub-units within each column being interconnected such that the associated column driver drives the column electrodes of all the sub-units within the column such that the plurality of sub-units of the large area display are scanned as a single display, the method comprising:

sequentially providing a separate chip select signal to each row driver associated with a row of sub-units,

sequentially scanning each row of pixels in the row of sub-units for which the associated row driver has received the chip select signal so that only the rows of pixels within a single row of sub-units is scanned at any one time,

supplying column data to a first shift register of a first column drivers as a linear series of column data values under the control of a Gate Start Pulse signal and a Gate Clock signal, the Gate Start Pulse signal indicating the start of a new row of data to the first shift register and the Gate Clock signal indicating that a new column data value is to be supplied to the first shift register, and

supplying the column data to a second shift register of a second column driver as a linear series of column data values under the control of a delayed Gate Start Pulse signal and the Gate Clock signal, the delayed Gate Start Pulse signal indicating the start of a new row of data to the second shift register and the Gate Clock signal indicating that a new column data value is to be supplied to the second shift register.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the Gate Start Pulse and Gate Clock signals are provided to a programmable logic device which generates the delayed Gate Start Pulse signal at a time appropriate for the second column driver to begin receiving data.

3. A method according to claim 2 wherein the column data are supplied to the first and second column drivers as a linear series of column data extending across all the columns in all the sub-units of a row of sub-units, and the delayed Gate Start Pulse signal causes bytes 1 to N of the linear series of data (where N is an integer equal to the number of columns in the sub-units of the first column) to be placed in the first shift registers of the first column driver, and bytes (N+1) to 2N to be placed in the second shift register of the second column driver.

4. A large area display comprising:

a plurality of sub-units arranged in a plurality of rows and columns, each sub-unit having an associated row driver and an associated column driver, the sub-units within each column being interconnected such that the associated column driver drives the column electrodes of all the sub-units within the column;

chip select means for providing a separate chip select signal to each row of sub-units, so that in the row of sub-units for which the associated row driver has received the chip select signal, only the rows of pixels within a single row of sub-units is scanned at any one time;

column data supply means for supplying column data to the column drivers as a linear series of column data values;

means for feeding, for each row scanned, delayed Gate Start Pulse signals to the column drivers in each column of sub-units after the first so that the column drivers in each column of sub-units after the first receive the delayed Gate Start Pulse signals and apply the appropriate column data values to their associated column electrodes; and

wherein the plurality of sub-units of the large area display are scanned as a single display.

5. A large area display according to claim 4 wherein the means for feeding delayed Gate Start Pulse signals comprises means for generating Gate Start Pulse and Gate Clock signals, the Gate Start Pulse signal indicating the start of a new row of data and the Gate Clock signal indicating that a new column data value is to be supplied, and a programmable logic device which receives the Gate Start Pulse and Gate Clock signals and generates the delayed Gate Start Pulse signals.

6. A large area display according to claim 5 wherein the column data supply means is arranged to supply the column data to the column drivers as a linear series of column data extending across all the columns in all the sub-units of a row of sub-units, and the means for feeding delayed Gate Start Pulse signals are arranged to cause bytes I to N of the linear series of data (where N is a integer equal to the number of columns in the sub-units of the first column) to be placed in shift registers of the column drivers in the first column of sub-units, and bytes (N+1) to 2N to be placed in shift registers of the column drivers in the second column of sub-units.

7. A large area display according to claim 4 wherein at least one of the sub-units is provided, along an edge where it abuts another sub-unit, with optical means arranged to reduce the apparent width of a gap between the sub-units.

8. A large area display according to claim 7 wherein the optical means comprises a lens molded into the viewing surface of the sub-unit.

9. A large area display according to claim 4 wherein at least one of the sub-units is provided with an electro-optic medium which continues over an edge of the sub-unit where it abuts another sub-unit.

10. A large area display according to claim 4 comprising a rotating bichromal member or electrochromic electro-optic medium.

11. A large area display according to claim 4 comprising an electrophoretic medium which itself comprises a plurality of electrically charged particles disposed in a fluid and capable of moving through the fluid under the influence of an electric field.

12. A large area display according to claim 11 wherein the electrically charged particles and the fluid are confined within a plurality of capsules or microcells.

13. A large area display according to claim 11 wherein the electrically charged particles and the fluid are present as a plurality of discrete droplets surrounded by a continuous phase comprising a polymeric material.

14. An electro-optic display according to claim 11 wherein the fluid is gaseous.