KR101696715B1 - PC A patern generator for testing displays using and patern generating method at the same - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a pattern generating method and apparatus capable of inspecting the image quality of a high resolution display panel using a PC without using an expensive pattern generator.
To this end, in the PC to be inspected and the PC connected with the display panel, the PC has a key input unit as an input unit for inputting a command for image quality inspection of the display panel, and a display unit A control unit for generating pattern data by a copying and pasting function in accordance with the resolution set through the key input unit and controlling the pattern data to be output to the display panel as display means for providing display means; And a pattern transfer unit for transferring the pattern data stored in the memory to the serial conversion unit. The pattern conversion unit converts the pattern data stored in the memory to a serial conversion unit.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pattern generator and a pattern generation method for high resolution display inspection using a PC,

The present invention relates to a pattern generator for a display inspection, and more particularly, to a pattern generating method and apparatus capable of inspecting the image quality of a UHD panel using a PC without using an expensive pattern generator.

In recent years, TV and monitor companies have been providing high-definition TVs or monitors that are more than four times higher in quality than existing Full HD with UHD (Ultra High Definition) beyond Full HD (High Definition) .

Various types of display devices such as UHD TVs, LCD panels used for monitors, and OLED panels are high-precision systems including many devices. In order to secure the reliability of devices, a procedure for verifying the operation characteristics during development and manufacturing is indispensable do. To test the operating characteristics of the display device, a test pattern is required. For this purpose, most panel inspection apparatuses have a built-in pattern generator or a dedicated pattern generator connected thereto. Here, the pattern generator refers to a video signal output device capable of verifying whether the display panel is normal, not distorted, left, right, or defective by giving a video signal to the display panel.

As a conventional pattern generator, a graphics card type PC built-in pattern generator is used. Since it depends entirely on the operating system (OS) of the PC, there is a limitation in operability when a failure occurs in the Microsoft Windows system. A pattern generator that can be operated independently of the OS is required.

In addition, when the resolution of the display panel, which is a target of the panel inspection, is increased to UHD or higher in the current full HD, there is a problem that the memory capacity and speed corresponding to the increase in resolution also increase. .

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-1998-041562 (published on August 17, 1998)

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a pattern generator and pattern generating method for high resolution display panel inspection which can be operated independently from an operating system while being constructed with a built-in PC.

To this end, according to the present invention, there is provided a display panel to be inspected and a PC connected to the display panel, wherein the PC has a key input unit as input means for inputting a command for image quality inspection of the display panel, A control unit for generating pattern data by a copying and pasting function according to the resolution set through the key input unit and controlling the pattern data to be output to the display panel; And a pattern transfer unit for transferring the pattern data stored in the memory to the serial conversion unit, wherein the pattern transfer unit includes a memory for storing pattern data, a serial interface for providing a serial interface with the display panel, and a pattern transfer unit for transferring the pattern data stored in the memory to the serial conversion unit.

The controller may convert pattern data of the generated 16-bit data format into a 13-bit data format, store the converted data in a memory, and output the stored pattern data to the pattern transmission unit.

The data structure of the memory preferably includes 3-bit R, G, and B color regions and 10-bit data regions.

The control unit may read the predetermined region data of the memory by a copy command according to the resolution, process the data in the memory to perform a data copy function, and store the data stored in the memory in the display region of the display It is preferable to process the data attaching function by writing in the designated area of the set memory, store the pattern data generated through the copying and pasting function in the memory, and output the pattern data stored in the memory to the pattern transmitting section.

Preferably, the display panel is a UHD panel, and the pattern transfer unit converts the pattern data stored in the memory to an interface format of the UHD panel and outputs the converted data.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of generating patterns using a display panel to be inspected and a PC connected to the display panel, the method comprising the steps of: (a) selecting pattern data to generate the regular pattern; (b) designating a start point, an end point, and color information of the display screen with the selected pattern data and writing the display screen on the display screen; and (c) (D) converting the pattern data generated in the 16-bit character format into a 13-bit data format; and (e) converting the pattern data converted in the step (d) Which is an object to be inspected, of the display panel), and the converted signal is transmitted to the serial conversion unit and output to the display panel In that it comprises the features.

In the step (c), if the resolution is set to UHD or higher, the pattern data may be generated through a split mode copy using the copy and paste function.

It is possible to inspect the operation characteristics of the UHD display panel using a PC without using an expensive pattern generator, thereby reducing the cost.

In addition, even if it is configured as a built-in PC, it can be operated independently of the OS, and thus can be configured as an independent pattern generator.

In addition, the memory capacity required for the inspection of a high-resolution display panel of UHD or higher can be reduced, thereby reducing the cost.

1 is a diagram illustrating a pattern generator using a PC according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a pattern processing unit in the PC of FIG. 1,
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a memory of the pattern processing unit of FIG. 2 in the form of a Trure Bidirectional Memory,
4 shows a data structure of the memory of Fig. 3, Fig.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a pattern generator using a PC according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIGS. 6 and 7 are diagrams illustrating generation of pattern data by selecting the letter 'a' as a pattern type in FIG.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The advantages and features of the present invention, and how to accomplish it, will be described with reference to the embodiments described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described herein but may be embodied in other forms. The embodiments are provided so that those skilled in the art can easily carry out the technical idea of the present invention to those skilled in the art.

In the drawings, embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the specific forms shown and are exaggerated for clarity. In addition, like reference numerals designate like elements throughout the specification.

The singular forms in this specification include plural forms unless the context clearly dictates otherwise, and the terms "comprises" and "comprising" used in the specification are intended to be interchangeable with reference to one or more other elements, steps, Operation, element and / or device.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a diagram illustrating a pattern generator according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a pattern generator according to the present invention includes a UHD panel 200 to be inspected, pattern data required for inspection of the UHD panel 200, and supplies the pattern data to the UHD panel 200 And a PC 100 capable of confirming the pattern signal beforehand.

In general, the PC 100 includes a key input unit 110 as an input means for inputting a command for image quality inspection of the UHD panel 200, a display (not shown) for providing a screen for setting the key input unit 110, A controller 130 for receiving a resolution setting value through the key input unit 110 and controlling the UHD 200 to output a pattern image signal, a pattern processor 130 for storing and outputting pattern data, (140).

Also, the key input unit 110 is a key input unit for operating an operation including a direction key, a numeric key, a control key, and the like. The display 120 displays an operation state of the pattern generator, and may be an LCD monitor.

The pattern processing unit 140 receives the pattern file from the control unit 130, stores the received pattern file, and transmits the pattern file to the UHD panel 200 And stores the generated pattern data.

The pattern processing unit 140 outputs the generated pattern data. The pattern processing unit 140 continuously reads the memory from the controller 130 through the copying and pasting function according to the resolution of the display to be inspected, and reads the pattern data stored in the memory Output. In this way, the pattern data of the memory is outputted through the function of copying and pasting the pattern data according to the UHD resolution, and the converted data is outputted in accordance with the interface method of the UHD panel.

A serial converter 260 connected to the UHD panel 200 and a pattern transmitter 250 for transmitting the pattern data stored in the memory 140 to the serial converter 260, And an external device connecting the PC 100 and the UHD panel 200.

The pattern transfer unit 250 converts the pattern data generated by the pattern processing unit 140 according to the interface method of the UHD panel 200 to be inspected and outputs the converted data. For example, when the transmission method is a transistor-to-transistor (TTL) signal in the pattern processing unit 140, since the swing size of the signal uses power supply and voltage, the transmission speed is slow, the current consumption is large, The TTL signal can be converted into a low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS) signal or the TTL signal can be converted into a TMDS (Transition Minimized Display Signaling) signal. Accordingly, the pattern transferring unit 250 transfers the signal transmitted from the pattern processing unit 140 to the LVDS signal so as to enable low-power high-speed transfer, and the LVDS signal has the transfer rate of 800 mbps. It can be configured as a parallel distributed type that converts to Vby1 for 6Gbps transmission speed, or partly to LVDS signal and the rest to Vby1 signal. Accordingly, the voltage swing size can be reduced and the number of transmission lines can be reduced, thereby greatly improving the current consumption and EMI characteristics of the entire pattern transfer unit 250.

The serializer 260 provides a serial interface to transmit the pattern data output from the pattern transmitter 250 to the UHD panel 200 as a connector. In case of a plurality of UHD panels 200, a serial converter 260 providing a serial interface is provided as many as the number of UHD panels. In this case, when there are a plurality of UHD panels 200 to be inspected, a plurality of serial converters connected to the pattern transmitter 250 and serially converting the output signals are configured. In this case, the number of channels according to the display panel 200 and the serial converter 260 can be selected according to the purpose of the user, and the pattern transmitter 250 can be configured to be multi- .

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of the pattern processing unit 140 in the PC 100 of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a form of a trure bidirectional memory in the memory 141 of the pattern processing unit 140 of FIG. 2 And Fig. 4 is a diagram showing the data structure of the memory 141 of Fig.

2, when the PC 100 is used as the pattern generator, the pattern processing unit 140 may be configured only as the memory 141, and the FPGA 142 performing the memory controller or data transmission control may be configured as the controller 130 And can be implemented simply as the control unit 131a and the memory 141. However, the function of the pattern processing unit 140 will be described independently as a convenience of description and a function of making a program.

On the other hand, the types of patterns that are currently used are approximately 30 to 60 types, and colors of R (Red), G (Green) and B (Blue), color bar, checkered pattern, line, , Characters, bitmaps, and the like. Here, when the pattern is a regular character and a graphic, for example, a character and a slash ('/'), the control unit 130 controls the memory 141 and stores the data in the memory 141 in the memory 141 to process the data copying function and stores the data stored in the memory 141 in the memory 141 set as the screen display area of the display And writes the data to the designated area to process the data pasting function. As described above, the pattern data can be generated and processed through the copying and pasting function of the control unit 130.

In addition, the UHD panel 200 can write character data or graphic objects such as slashes on the screen by designating the start point, end point, and color information of the screen to be written. In the UHD panel 200, Pattern data can be generated and processed more easily by using the above copying and pasting function through the setting of four, four or eight division mode.

As described above, when the PC 100 is used as the pattern generator according to the present invention, patterns can be generated more quickly by processing pattern copying and pasting in hardware.

In the present invention, since the object to be inspected is high resolution of the UHD panel 200 and the capacity of the memory is related to the output resolution, in order to realize UHD resolution, 13 bits are used as the storage capacity (register length) Setting. At this time, the generated pattern data is stored in the memory 141. At this time, the memory controller or the transmission control function of data related to generation, storage, and transmission of the actual pattern data is performed through the FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array 142) And acts as a control unit in the actual pattern processing unit 140.

When the pattern file is transmitted in the 16-bit data format, the FPGA 142 converts the 16-bit data format of the pattern file into the 13-bit data format and stores the converted data in the memory 141. When the 13-bit data format is set according to the present invention, the number of pixels and the number of the vertical or horizontal line memories are counted according to an Addr command, and the UHD resolution A total of 3840 * 2160 * 3 * 13 bits of data is output.

As shown in FIG. 3, pattern data of a 13-bit data format is output to a 16-bit data format, and 13 * 8 bits of data can be output when the UHD panel is set to output 8-pixel units.

In addition, the memory 141 can be set as a line memory that outputs 8-pixel units each having a register length of 13 bits, and the line memory is set as a horizontal line memory or a vertical line memory And can be set as a control memory (Contro Memory) in the form of controlling each horizontal or vertical line memory.

Accordingly, in accordance with the UHD resolution, the FPGA 142 generates 2160 horizontal synchronizing signals in the vertical direction (vertical direction) when the memory 141 is set to the horizontal memory through the copying and pasting function, Vertical direction) in order to generate 2160 horizontal signals sequentially. On the other hand, when the memory 141 is set as a vertical memory, it can generate 3840 vertical synchronizing signals in the horizontal direction (horizontal direction) or sequentially generate 3840 vertical signals in the horizontal direction (horizontal direction). In this manner, the FPGA 142 continuously reads the memory 141 according to the synchronizing signal or the sequentially generated signal according to the UHD resolution, and outputs the pattern data stored in the memory to the pattern transferring unit 250 , And in the case of UHD resolution, a total of 3840 * 2160 * 3 * 13 bits of data is output. The pattern transferring unit 250 converts the pattern data generated by the pattern processing unit 140 according to an interface method of the UHD panel 200 to be inspected.

4, the data structure of the memory 141 includes 3-bit R, G, and B color regions 141a, 141b, and 141c in a 13-bit register length, 141d. At this time, a single color of R, G, or B as a kind of a pattern or a combination of these colors can be composed of only 3 bits of the color region without using a 10-bit data region in 13-bit storage capacity. For example, in a combination of 2 ³ = 8 bits, the binary number 111 can constitute eight colors of Gray, 100 for Red, 010 for Green, 110 for Yellow, and 011 for Cyan. A 10-bit data area can be formed by a combination of 2 ¹⁰ = 1024 bits, and pattern types such as graphics, characters, check patterns, and bitmaps except for hues can be configured.

The memory capacity can be reduced by implementing the memory capacity of the memory in the minimum possible range through the 13-bit data structure of the memory 141. In the case of generating the pattern data, the position of the register of the color area and the data area It is possible to realize an effect of speeding up the processing speed according to the speed.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a process of generating pattern data using a PC according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 are flowcharts illustrating generation of pattern data by selecting a character ' Fig.

Referring to FIG. 6, the processing of the pattern data will be described below.

First, the controller 130 of the PC selects a character, a graphic, and a bitmap image having a regular pattern as the type of the pattern (S510).

6, the control unit 130 may write the character 'a' to the display screen by designating the start point, end point, and color information of the display screen to be written, using the selected pattern data (S520) .

At this time, according to the copy command of the CPU, predetermined area data of the memory 141 is read and stored in the memory 141 to process the data copy function, and the data stored in the memory 141 is read out The data paste function is processed by writing to the designated area of the memory 141 set as the screen display area (S530). As shown in FIG. 7, the pattern data can be generated and processed through the copying and pasting function of the control unit 130.

Also, when the resolution is set to UHD or higher, in the case of generating the pattern of the control unit, 2, 4 or 8 division modes are set for the UHD panel, and the pattern data (S540).

Then, the pattern processor 140 converts the pattern data generated in the 16-bit character format into a 13-bit data format and stores the data in the memory (S550).

The pattern transferring unit 250 converts the pattern data generated by the pattern processing unit 140 according to the interface method of the UHD panel 200 to be inspected and transmits the converted signals to the serial converting unit and transmits them to the UHD And the inspection is performed (S560).

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Accordingly, such modifications or variations are intended to fall within the scope of the appended claims.

100: PC
110: key input unit
120: Display
130, and 130a:
140: pattern processor
200: UHD panel

Claims (8)

A UHD display panel to be inspected and a PC connected to the UHD display panel,
The PC includes a key input unit as input means for inputting a command for image quality inspection of the UHD display panel, a display as display means for providing a screen so that the key input unit can be set, And a memory for storing pattern data generated by the controller, wherein the pattern data is generated by a copying and pasting function and the pattern data is output to the UHD display panel,
And a pattern transmitter for converting pattern data stored in the memory into an interface format of the UHD display panel and transmitting the pattern data to the serial converter,
Wherein the controller converts pattern data of the generated 16-bit data format into a 13-bit data format, stores the converted pattern data in the memory, and outputs pattern data stored in the memory to the pattern transmission unit,
The memory is set to any one of a horizontal memory, a vertical memory, and a control memory for controlling the horizontal or vertical memory, including the 3-bit R, G, and B color areas and 10-bit data areas in the 13-bit data structure ,
When the memory is set as the horizontal memory, 2160 horizontal synchronizing signals are generated in the vertical direction or 2160 horizontal signals are sequentially generated. When the memory is set as the vertical memory, 3840 vertical synchronizing signals are generated in the horizontal direction And generates 3840 vertical signals sequentially. The pattern generator for high resolution display inspection using a PC.
The method according to claim 1,
Wherein when the type of the pattern data is a single color of R, G, B or a combination of these colors, the 10-bit data area is not used in the 13-bit data structure, Wherein the pattern generator is configured to generate a pattern of a plurality of patterns.
The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the 3-bit R, G, and B color regions are not used in the 13-bit data structure but only the 10-bit data region when the pattern data is in a pattern form excluding colors. Pattern generator for high resolution display inspection using PC.
The method according to claim 1,
The control unit reads the predetermined region data of the memory by a copy command according to the resolution and processes the data in the memory to process the data copy function. The data stored in the memory is stored in the memory And the pattern data generated through the copying and pasting function is stored in the memory and the pattern data stored in the memory is output to the pattern transferring unit. Pattern generator for high resolution display inspection. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the pattern transfer unit converts the TTL signal into an LVDS signal or converts the TTL signal into a TMDS signal and outputs the TMDS signal.
6. The method of claim 5,
Wherein the LVDS signal is converted into a Vby1 signal or a part of the LVDS signal is processed into an LVDS signal and the remaining signal is processed into a Vby1 signal.
A method for generating a pattern using a UHD display panel to be inspected and a PC connected to the UHD display panel,
The PC,
(a) selecting the pattern data as pattern data to generate a regular pattern;
(b) designating a start point, an end point, and color information of the display screen with the selected pattern data and writing them on a display screen;
(c) generating pattern data for the entire display screen through the copying and pasting function in the step (b); and
(d) converting pattern data generated in a 16-bit character format into a 13-bit data format,
(e) judging whether the kind of inspection pattern is a combination of color signals,
(f) if the type of the inspection pattern is a combination of color signals only, the 13-bit data structure may be composed of only 3 bits of the color region without using a 10-bit data region,
Otherwise, if the pattern is a pattern except for a color signal, the 13-bit data structure may include only the 10-bit data region without using 3 bits of the color region,
(g) When the memory is set to the horizontal memory according to the UHD resolution, 2160 horizontal synchronizing signals are generated in the vertical direction or 2160 horizontal signals are sequentially generated. When the memory is set as the vertical memory, Generating vertical synchronizing signals or sequentially generating 3840 vertical signals to output pattern data;
(h) converting the pattern data output in the step (g) according to an interface method of the UHD display panel and outputting the converted pattern data. 8. The method of claim 7,
Wherein the pattern data is generated through division mode copying using the copying and pasting function when the resolution is set to UHD or higher in step (c).

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