TW201629942A - Method for transmitting data from timing controller to source driver and associated timing controller and display system - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for transmitting data from a timing controller to a source driver includes: applying a plurality of data rates to a discrete data rate setting; and transmitting image data of a plurality of frames by using the plurality of data rates, respectively, wherein for each of the frames, its corresponding image data is transmitting by using only one of the data rates.

Description

Method for transmitting data from a timing controller to a source driver and related timing control Controller and display system

The present invention relates to display systems, and more particularly to a method of transmitting data from a timing controller to a source driver and associated timing controllers and display systems.

In a conventional P2P timing controller, image data is transmitted to multiple source drivers using a single data rate. However, using a single data transmission rate to transmit will cause a large electromagnetic interference (EMI) peak. In addition, since the point-to-point timing controller uses the serializer/deserializer interface to transmit image data, and the data transfer rate is quite high (for example, greater than 1 Gb/s), the traditional spread spectrum technique is more Difficult to apply in point-to-point timing controllers.

One of the objectives of the present invention is to provide a method for transmitting data from a timing controller to a source driver and a related timing controller and display system that utilize different data transmission rates to transmit image data to effectively reduce electromagnetic interference peaks to solve The above question.

According to an embodiment of the invention, a self-timer controller transmits data to a source driver The method includes: applying a plurality of data transmission rates to a discrete data transmission rate setting; and transmitting the image data of the plurality of images by using the plurality of data transmission rates, wherein for each image, the corresponding method The image data is transmitted using only one of the plurality of data transmission rates.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a timing controller for a display system is disclosed. The timing controller is configured to apply a plurality of data transmission rates to a discrete data transmission rate setting, and use the plurality of data transmission rates to respectively transmit image data of the plurality of images, wherein for each image, The corresponding image data is transmitted using only one of the plurality of data transmission rates.

100, 300‧‧‧ display system

110‧‧‧Sequence Controller

120‧‧‧Display face

124‧‧‧Active display area

122_1 to 122_N‧‧‧ source driver

400 to 404‧‧ steps

1 is a schematic diagram of a display system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a schematic diagram of transmitting images using a plurality of data transmission rates in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 3 is a schematic illustration of an image format in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a flow chart of a method of transmitting data from a timing controller to a source driver in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Certain terms are used throughout the description and following claims to refer to particular elements. Those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that a hardware manufacturer may refer to the same component by a different noun. The scope of this specification and the subsequent patent application do not use the difference of the names as the means for distinguishing the elements, but the difference in function of the elements as the criterion for distinguishing. The term "including" as used throughout the specification and subsequent claims is an open term and should be interpreted as "including but not limited to". In addition, the term "coupled" is used herein to include any direct and indirect electrical connection means. Therefore, if a first device is coupled to a second device, it means that the first device can be directly electrically connected to the device. The second device is indirectly electrically connected to the second device through other devices or connection means.

Referring to Figure 1, a first diagram is a schematic illustration of a display system 100 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the display system 100 includes a timing controller 110 and a display panel 120, wherein the display panel 120 includes at least one source driver (in this embodiment, the plurality of source drivers 122_1 to 122_N) And an active display area 124 (active display area 124 may also be referred to as an active array). In this embodiment, the timing controller 110 is a point-to-point timing controller, and the timing controller 110 uses the serializer/deserializer interface to transmit image data to the source drivers 122_1 to 122_N, respectively, and the display system 100 is A liquid crystal display (LCD).

In the operation of the display system 100, first, the timing controller 110 applies a plurality of data transmission rates to a discrete data transmission rate setting, and then, the timing controller 110 gradually receives image data of a plurality of frames. And using the plurality of data transmission rates to respectively transmit the (processed) image data of the plurality of images to each of the source drivers 122_1 to 122_N, wherein for each frame, the corresponding image The image data is transmitted using only one of the plurality of data transmission rates. Then, after receiving the image data from the timing controller 110, the source drivers 122_1 to 122_N transmit the corresponding data to the data lines of the active display area 124.

In detail, referring to FIG. 2, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of transmitting images using data transmission rates DR1 to DR3 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the timing controller 110 uses the data transmission rate DR1. Transmitting the image data of the first image F1 to the source drivers 122_1 to 122_N, and transmitting the image data of the second image F2 to the source drivers 122_1 to 122_N by using the data transmission rate DR2, and transmitting the third data by using the data transmission rate DR3. The image data of the image F3 to the source drivers 122_1 to 122_N transmits the image data of the fourth image F4 to the source drivers 122_1 to 122_N by using the data transmission rate DR2, and repeatedly uses the data transmission rates DR1, DR2, DR3, The images F5, F6, F7, and F8 after DR2 are transmitted separately and so on, and the image data can be transmitted by using different data transmission rates, and the electromagnetic interference peak can be effectively reduced.

It should be noted that the second drawing is merely illustrative and not a limitation of the present invention. For example, the number of data transmission rates is determined according to the designer's consideration, that is, the timing controller 110. Image data can be transmitted using two, four or five different data transmission rates; Figure 2 shows that the image data of any two adjacent images are transmitted using different data transmission rates, however, in other In the embodiment, the image data of some adjacent images can be transmitted by using the same data transmission rate. For example, the data transmission rate DR1 is used to transmit the images F1 and F2 and F4 and F5, and the data transmission rate DR2 is used. Images F3 and F6 are transmitted; and in other embodiments, the data transfer rate is not used to periodically transfer image data of the image. These design changes are subject to the scope of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, a third diagram is a schematic diagram of an image format of an image 300 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The image 300 includes active image data and the non-active data, which is displayed on the active display area 124, that is, the "third area" shown in FIG. 3; the non-active data is not displayed in the image. The vertical blanking interval (VBI) data indicated by the "first region" in Fig. 3, and the "second region" and "fourth region" in Fig. 3 are indicated on the active display area 124. Horizontal blanking interval (HBI). In this embodiment, when the vertical blanking period data is ready to be transmitted to the source drivers 122_1 to 122_N, the timing controller switches the data transmission rate. In detail, when the vertical blanking period data of the image 300 is ready to be transmitted to the source driver, a microprocessor built in the timing controller 110 performs firmware encoding to switch an oscillator frequency offset to switch to The data transmission rate of the image data of the transmission image 300.

In addition, in this embodiment, for each image transmitted to the source drivers 122_1 to 122_N, the image data amount of the image is adjusted by referring to the data transmission rate for transmitting the image, wherein Images transmitted with higher data transfer rates have a larger amount of data. In detail, for each image, by referring to the data transmission rate of the image data used to transmit the image, the amount of data of the non-active data in the image, such as the vertical blanking period data and/or the Horizontal occlusion data will increase or decrease accordingly.

Taking FIG. 2 as an example, it is assumed that the image size of the image data of each image input to the timing controller 110 is 2040*1100, and the timing controller 110 adds four vertical blanking period data lines to the first image F1. , that is, the image size of the first image F1 is 2044*1100, and the data is utilized. The transmission rate DR1 is used to transmit the first image F1; then, the timing controller 110 adds two vertical blanking data lines to the second image F2, that is, the image size of the second image F2 is 2042*1100, and is utilized. The data transmission rate DR2 is used to transmit the second image F2; then, the timing controller 110 will not adjust the data amount of the third image F3, that is, the image size of the third image F3 is 2040*1100, and the data transmission rate DR3 is used. The third image F3 is transmitted, and so on.

In another example, if the image size of the image data of each image input to the timing controller 110 is 2040*1100, the timing controller 110 increases the horizontal blanking period data so that the image size of the first image F1 is 2040*1102. And transmitting the first image F1 by using the data transmission rate DR1; then, the timing controller 110 does not adjust the second image F2, that is, the image size of the second image is 2040*1100, and is transmitted by using the data transmission rate DR2. Second image F2; Next, the timing controller 110 reduces the horizontal blanking period data so that the image size of the third image F3 is 2040*1098, and transmits the third image F3 by using the data transmission rate DR3.

By switching the data transmission rate while preparing to transmit the vertical blanking period data, and adjusting the data amount of the vertical blanking period data of the image, the active display area 124 will not have a flash point.

Referring also to FIGS. 1 through 4, FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a method for transmitting data from a timing controller to a source driver in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the flow of which is as follows: Step 400: Flow begins.

Step 402: Apply a plurality of data transmission rates to a discrete data transmission rate setting.

Step 404: The image data of the plurality of images is separately transmitted by using the plurality of data transmission rates, wherein for each image, the corresponding image data is transmitted by using only one of the plurality of data transmission rates.

Briefly summarized in the present invention, in the present invention, the timing controller has a discrete data transmission rate setting, and the timing controller uses the plurality of data transmission rates to separately transmit image data of the plurality of images. The electromagnetic interference peak can be reduced by utilizing the method of transmitting data from a timing controller to a source driver and the associated timing controller and display system as proposed by the present invention.

The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and the scope of the patent application according to the present invention is Equal variations and modifications are intended to be within the scope of the present invention.

100‧‧‧Display system

110‧‧‧Sequence Controller

120‧‧‧ display panel

124‧‧‧Active display area

122_1 to 122_N‧‧‧ source driver

Claims (20)

A method for transmitting data from a timing controller to a source driver includes: applying a plurality of data transmission rates to a discrete data transmission rate setting; and transmitting the images of the plurality of images by using the plurality of data transmission rates respectively Data; and wherein for each frame, its corresponding image data is transmitted using only one of the plurality of data transmission rates. For example, in the method of claim 1, the image data of any two adjacent images is transmitted by using different data transmission rates. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of transmitting the image data of the plurality of images by using the plurality of data transmission rates comprises: periodically using the plurality of data transmission rates to transmit the plurality of images Image data. The method of claim 1, further comprising: for each image transmitted to the source driver, adjusting the image data of the image by referring to a data transmission rate of the image data used to transmit the image. The amount of information. The method of claim 4, wherein each image includes active image data and non-active data, the active image data is used to display an active display area of a display panel, and the non-active data is not The step of displaying the data amount of the image data of the image in the active display area of the display panel and referring to the data transmission rate of the image data for transmitting the image includes: for each transmission to the source For the image of the polar drive, the amount of data of the inactive data of the image is adjusted with reference to the data transmission rate of the image data used to transmit the image. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of adjusting the data amount of the inactive data of the image by referring to the data transmission rate of the image data for transmitting the image comprises: transmitting to the source driver for each For the image, the vertical blanking interval (vertical blanking interval) of the image is adjusted with reference to the data transmission rate of the image data used to transmit the image. VBI) Data and/or horizontal blanking interval (HBI) data. For example, in the method of claim 4, for any two images, the image transmitted at a higher data transmission rate has a larger amount of data. The method of claim 1, wherein the timing controller is a point-to-point timing controller. a timing controller of a display device, wherein the timing controller is configured to apply a plurality of data transmission rates to a discrete data transmission rate setting; and use the plurality of data transmission rates to respectively transmit image data of the plurality of images, For each image, the corresponding image data is transmitted using only one of the plurality of data transmission rates. For example, in the timing controller of claim 9, the image data of any two adjacent images is transmitted by using different data transmission rates. The timing controller of claim 9, wherein the timing controller periodically uses the plurality of data transmission rates to transmit image data of the plurality of images. The timing controller of claim 9, wherein for each image transmitted to the source driver, the timing controller adjusts the image by referring to a data transmission rate of the image data used to transmit the image. The amount of data in the image data. The timing controller of claim 12, wherein each image includes active image data and non-active data, the active image data is used to display an active display area of a display panel, and the non-active data The active display area of the display panel is not displayed, and for each image transmitted to the source driver, the image data of the image is adjusted with reference to the data transmission rate of the image data used to transmit the image. The amount of information. The timing controller of claim 13, wherein for each image transmitted to the source driver, the vertical blanking period of the image is adjusted with reference to a data transmission rate of the image data used to transmit the image. (vertical blanking interval, VBI) data and/or horizontal blanking interval (HBI) data. The timing controller of claim 12, wherein for any two images, the image transmitted at a higher data transmission rate has a larger amount of data. A timing controller as in claim 9 wherein the timing controller is a point-to-point timing controller. A display system includes: a timing controller; and at least one source driver; wherein the timing controller is configured to apply a plurality of data transmission rates to a discrete data transmission rate setting, and utilize the multiple data transmission rates The image data of the plurality of images is respectively transmitted, and for each image, the corresponding image data is transmitted by only one of the plurality of data transmission rates. For example, in the display system of claim 17, wherein the image data of any two adjacent images is transmitted by using different data transmission rates. The display system of claim 17, wherein the timing controller periodically uses the plurality of data transmission rates to transmit image data of the plurality of images to the source driver. The display system of claim 17, wherein for each image transmitted to the source driver, the timing controller adjusts the image of the image with reference to a data transmission rate of the image data used to transmit the image. The amount of information like information.