TWI820898B - Electronic label device for electronic shelf label system - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention discloses an electronic label device for electronic shelf label system which includes a display module and a driving chip. The display module includes a driving substrate and a display medium, and the display medium is disposed on the driving substrate. The driving chip is disposed on the driving substrate and is electrically connected with the driving substrate. The driving chip controls the display module to display images through the driving substrate. The driving chip includes a memory unit, a compression unit, a decompression unit and a timing control circuit. The compression unit and the decompression unit are respectively electrically connected with the memory unit. The timing control circuit is electrically connected to the memory unit through the compression unit or the decompression unit; wherein the timing control circuit controls the compression unit to compress a data to obtain a compressed data and stores it in the memory unit, and the timing control circuit further controls the decompression unit decompress the compressed data to get the data.

Description

Electronic label device used in electronic shelf labeling system

The present invention relates to an electronic device, and in particular to an electronic label device used in an electronic shelf label system.

In the picking process of existing electronic shelf label systems, electronic label devices that display product information are usually attached to the shelves. When personnel want to pick goods, signals can be sent to the electronic label device through the system host, so that the electronic label The light-emitting diode (LED) of the device can flash, so the picking personnel can quickly find the shelf and find the goods to be selected from the shelf. How to reduce the overall cost of electronic label devices has always been one of the most important issues in the industry.

In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic label device used in an electronic shelf label system, which can reduce the overall cost of the electronic label device.

To achieve the above object, an electronic label device used in an electronic shelf label system according to the present invention includes a display module and a driver chip. The display module includes a driving substrate and a display medium, and the display medium is arranged on the driving substrate. The driver chip is disposed on the driver substrate and is electrically connected to the driver substrate. The driver chip controls the display module to display images through the driver substrate. The driver chip includes a memory unit, a compression unit, a decompression unit and a timing control circuit. The compression unit and the decompression unit are electrically connected to the memory unit respectively. The timing control circuit is electrically connected to the memory unit through the compression unit or the decompression unit; wherein, the timing control circuit controls the compression unit to compress a data to obtain a compressed data. And it is stored in the memory unit, and the timing control circuit further controls the decompression unit to decompress the compressed data to obtain the data.

In one embodiment, the display medium is an electronic paper film.

In one embodiment, the memory unit is a one-time programmable read-only memory or a multi-time programmable rewritable memory.

In one embodiment, the compression unit implements the data compression function through software, hardware, or firmware; the decompression unit implements the data decompression function through software, hardware, or firmware.

In one embodiment, the data includes a plurality of lookup table data.

In one embodiment, the driver chip further includes a scan driver circuit, the driver substrate includes a plurality of pixel units, the scan driver circuit is electrically connected to the timing control circuit and the pixel units respectively, and the scan driver circuit passes through a plurality of scan lines. The lines are electrically connected to the pixel units.

In one embodiment, the driving chip further includes a data driving circuit. The data driving circuit is electrically connected to the timing control circuit and the pixel units respectively, and the data driving circuit is electrically connected to the pixel units through a plurality of data lines. connection.

In one embodiment, the driver chip further includes a data storage unit. The data storage unit is electrically connected to the timing control circuit. The data storage unit is used to store display data of the display module.

In one embodiment, the electronic tag device further includes a system circuit board that is electrically connected to the driving substrate and the driving chip.

In one embodiment, the electronic tag device further includes a connection circuit board, which is connected to the system circuit board and the drive substrate respectively. The system circuit board is electrically connected to the drive substrate and the drive chip through the connection circuit board.

Based on the above, in the electronic label device of the present invention applied to the electronic shelf label system, the display module is controlled by the driver chip to display the image, and may include a memory unit, a compression unit, a decompression unit and a timing control circuit; wherein, the timing The control circuit can control the compression unit to compress the data to obtain the compressed data and store it in the memory unit, and the timing control circuit can further control the decompression unit to decompress the compressed data to obtain the data. Compared with the existing technology, the design It is said that since the driver chip has a compression unit and a decompression unit, the timing control circuit can compress the data and then store it in the memory unit. By this, The driver chip of the present invention can store more data (such as more lookup table data) with the same capacity of memory unit, thereby reducing the size of the driver chip and the overall cost of the electronic tag device.

1: Electronic label device

11:Display module

111:Driver substrate

1111:Substrate

1112: Pixel unit

112:Display media

1121: Containment structure

12: Driver chip

121: Timing control circuit

122: Memory unit

123:Compression unit

124: Decompression unit

125a, 125b: Scan driving circuit

126: Data drive circuit

127:Data storage unit

128:Power conversion unit

129:Output/input port

13:System circuit board

14:Connect the circuit board

15:Adhesive layer

16:Substrate

17: Common electrode layer

C: charged particles

L: dielectric solution

A1: Display setting area

A2: Surrounding area

DL: data line

LPD: low voltage detection unit

OSC: oscillator circuit

SL: scan line

TS: temperature sensor

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an electronic label device used in an electronic shelf label system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the electronic tag device of FIG. 1 .

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of an embodiment of a driver chip in the electronic tag device of FIG. 1 .

The electronic label device used in the electronic shelf label system according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the relevant drawings, in which the same components will be described with the same reference symbols.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an electronic label device used in an electronic shelf label system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the electronic label device of FIG. 1 .

Please refer to FIGS. 1 and 2 . The electronic label device 1 used in the electronic shelf label system may include a display module 11 and a driver chip 12 . In addition, the electronic label device 1 of this embodiment may further include a system circuit board 13 and a connection circuit board 14.

The display module 11 includes a driving substrate 111 and a display medium 112. The display medium 112 is disposed on the driving substrate 111. The driving substrate 111 of this embodiment has a display setting area A1 and a peripheral area A2 adjacent to the display setting area A1. Here, the display setting area A1 is an area where the display medium 112 is installed, and the peripheral area A2 is an area that is not the display setting area A1 but is adjacent to the display setting area A1. The peripheral area A2 in this embodiment is, for example, located around the periphery of the display setting area A1. The material of the driving substrate 111 can be changed according to product requirements. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2 , the driving substrate 111 may include a substrate 1111 and a plurality of pixel units 1112 . The pixel units 1112 are disposed on the surface of the substrate 1111 facing the display medium 112 . In some embodiments, each pixel unit 1112 may include at least one switching element and a pixel electrode. The switching element may be a thin film transistor (TFT), for example, so that the driving substrate 111 is an active matrix (Active Matrix) driven thin film. The transistor substrate (driving backplane) controls whether the electric field of each pixel unit 1112 is formed or not. The material of the substrate 1111 can be changed according to product requirements, and the substrate 1111 can be Flexible substrate or inflexible substrate, and can be a glass substrate, a plastic substrate, or a soft substrate; the material of the soft substrate is, for example, but not limited to, polyimide (PI) or polyparaphenylene. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

The driving substrate 111 can control the display medium 112 to display images. In some embodiments, the display medium 112 may be an electronic paper film (E-paper film), making the display module 11 an electronic paper display module. The display medium 112 of this embodiment includes, for example, a bistable electronic paper film, which has the advantages of power saving and wide viewing angle. It can be a microcapsule type electronic paper, a microcup type electronic paper, or Cholesteric Liquid Crystal electronic paper, but it is not limited to this. In some embodiments, when the display medium 112 is a microcapsule or microcup type electronic paper, the display medium may include electrophoretic substances. The electrophoretic substances include a plurality of charged light-colored pigment particles and a dark-colored dielectric solution. The pigment particles and The medium solution is contained in a plurality of microcapsules respectively, and the microcapsules can be combined together using an adhesive; alternatively, the content of the electrophoretic substance can also be a combination of dark pigment particles and light-colored medium solution; and Alternatively, the content of the electrophoretic substance may also be a combination of pigment particles of multiple colors and a light-colored medium solution, which is not limited by the present invention.

The display medium 112 in this embodiment includes an electrophoretic substance, such as a plurality of charged particles C and a dielectric solution L. The display medium 112 of this embodiment also includes a receiving structure 1121. The receiving structure 1121 may have a plurality of micro-cups or a plurality of microcapsules. Here, the accommodation structure 1121 has a plurality of microcups as an example, and the charged particles C are suspended in the dielectric solution L, and the charged particles C and the dielectric solution L are both accommodated in the microcups. .

In addition, the electronic tag device 1 may also include another substrate 16 and a common electrode layer 17 , and the accommodating structure 1121 is located between the substrate 16 , the common electrode layer 17 and the driving substrate 111 . The substrate 16 can be a protective substrate, which can be a flexible substrate or an inflexible substrate, and can be a glass substrate, a plastic substrate, or a soft substrate, and the material of the substrate 16 can be the same as or different from the material of the substrate 1111 . In addition, the common electrode layer 17 is a transparent electrode layer, which is sandwiched between the accommodating structure 1121 and the substrate 16 and is disposed relative to the pixel units 1112 of the driving substrate 111 . The material of the common electrode layer 17 can be, for example, indium tin oxide (ITO), indium zinc oxide (IZO), aluminum zinc oxide (AZO), gallium zinc oxide (GZO) or zinc oxide (ZnO), etc., which are all used in the present invention. not limited.

In addition, the electronic paper display device 1 may further include an adhesive layer 15 , and the adhesive layer 15 is located between the display medium 112 and the driving substrate 111 . The adhesive layer 15 is used to adhere the display medium 112 to the driving substrate 111 so that the display medium 112 can completely cover the pixel units 1112 in the normal direction of the substrate 1111. Therefore, when a voltage difference is applied between the pixel electrode of the pixel unit 1112 and the common electrode layer 17 to generate an electric field, the charged particles C in the accommodating structure 1121 can be driven to move and reflect ambient light to appear as charged particles. C or the color of the dielectric solution L, thereby displaying the image.

The driving chip 12 is disposed adjacent to the display medium 112 and is disposed on the driving substrate 111 . Here, the driving chip 12 is disposed in the peripheral area A2 of the driving substrate 111 and is electrically connected to the driving substrate 111 to control the display medium 112 to display images through the driving substrate 111 . Here, the driving chip 12 is an integrated circuit (IC) and is disposed in the peripheral area A2 using Chip On Glass (COG) technology. The functions of the driver chip 12 will be introduced below.

The system circuit board 13 is electrically connected to the driving substrate 111 and the driving chip 12 to control the display module 11 to display images. The system circuit board 13 may be, for example, a printed circuit board, which may include a main controller. The main controller may include at least one microcontroller unit (MCU) to control the operation of the electronic label device 1 .

In addition, the connection circuit board 14 is connected to the system circuit board 13 and the drive substrate 111 respectively, and the system circuit board 13 can be electrically connected to the drive substrate 111 and the drive chip 12 through the connection circuit board 14 . Specifically, the connection circuit board 14 of this embodiment is, for example, but not limited to, a flexible circuit board (FPC), and the driving substrate 111 (driving chip 12) and the system circuit board 13 are respectively connected to the opposite sides of the connection circuit board 14, and They are electrically connected to the connecting circuit board 14 respectively. Therefore, the main controller of the system circuit board 13 can be electrically connected to the driving substrate 111 and the driving chip 12 through the connection circuit board 14, thereby providing driving signals and transmitting them to the driving substrate 111, thereby controlling the display medium 112 to display images.

Please refer to FIG. 3 , which is a functional block diagram of an embodiment of the driver chip 12 in the electronic tag device 1 of FIG. 1 .

The driver chip 12 of this embodiment includes a timing control circuit (Tcon) 121, a memory unit 122, a compression unit 123 and a decompression unit 124. In addition, the driving chip 12 of this embodiment may further include at least a scan driving circuit, a data driving circuit 126 and a data storage unit 127. Here, FIG. 3 takes two scan driving circuits 125a and 125b as an example.

The compression unit 123 and the decompression unit 124 are electrically connected to the memory unit 122 and the timing control circuit 121 respectively, and the timing control circuit 121 can be electrically connected to the memory unit 122 through the compression unit 123 or the decompression unit 124. Thereby, the timing control circuit 121 can store data in the memory unit 122, and the timing control circuit 121 can also retrieve the stored data from the memory unit 122. In addition, the timing control circuit 121 can control the compression unit 123 to compress a data to obtain a compressed data, and store the compressed data in the memory unit 122; the timing control circuit 121 can also control the decompression unit 124 to store the compressed data in the memory. The compressed data in unit 122 is decompressed to obtain the data. In some embodiments, the above-mentioned "the data" includes, for example, a plurality of lookup table (Lookup Table, LUT) data. In some embodiments, these lookup table data may include processing procedures for black screens, white screens, or other color screens (the third or above color) of the display module 11 and common voltages at different temperature ranges.

Specifically, in order to store more lookup table data with the same capacity of the memory unit 122, the timing control circuit 121 of this embodiment will first use the compression unit before storing the lookup table data in the memory unit 122. 123 compresses these lookup table data to reduce the amount of data, and then stores it in the memory unit 122; when the compressed lookup table data stored in the memory unit 122 is to be used, the decompression unit 124 is used to decompress the compressed lookup table data. These lookup table data are decompressed and restored to obtain these lookup table data, thereby controlling the display module 11 through these lookup table data. Since the driver chip 12 has the compression unit 123 and the decompression unit 124, it can store more lookup table data with the same capacity of the memory unit 122, thereby reducing the size of the driver chip 12 and the overall cost of the electronic label device 1. .

The memory unit 122 in this embodiment can be a one-time programmable read-only memory (OTPROM, OTP for short) or a multiple-time programmable re-write memory; and the memory capacity is, for example, but not limited to It is 8k bytes (Bytes) or 16k bytes or other capacities. In addition, the compression unit 123 can achieve the function of data compression in the form of software, hardware (circuit) or firmware (Firmware); the decompression unit 124 can achieve the function of data decompression in the form of software, hardware (circuit) or firmware. There is no limitation; in some embodiments, the compression unit 123 and the decompression unit 124 may be integrated into a single component.

The scan driving circuits 125a and 125b are located on both sides of the data driving circuit 126, and are electrically connected to the timing control circuit 121 and the pixel units 1112 (FIG. 2) of the driving substrate 111 respectively. Scan driver The paths 125a and 125b can be electrically connected to the pixel units 1112 of the driving substrate 111 through a plurality of scan lines SL; the data driving circuit 126 is electrically connected to the timing control circuit 121 and the pixel units 1112 of the driving substrate 111 respectively. , and the data driving circuit 126 can be electrically connected to the pixel units 1112 of the driving substrate 111 through a plurality of data lines DL. In addition, the data storage unit 127 is electrically connected to the timing control circuit 121 . The data storage unit 127 is, for example but not limited to, a random access memory (RAM), which is used to store display data required for the display module 11 to display images.

Therefore, in the electronic tag device 1 of this embodiment, the timing control circuit 121 can transmit the vertical clock signal and the vertical synchronization signal to the scan driving circuits 125a and 125b respectively, and convert the display data stored from the data storage unit 127 into The data signal (data voltage) used by the data driving circuit 126 is transmitted to the data driving circuit 126, and the decompressed lookup table data from the memory unit 122, the horizontal clock signal and the horizontal synchronization signal are sent to the data driving circuit 126 to enable scanning. The driving circuits 125a and 125b can sequentially conduct each scan line SL according to the vertical clock signal and the vertical synchronization signal, and the data driving circuit 126 can transmit the data signal corresponding to each row of pixel units 1112 to each row of pixel units 1112 through the data lines DL. The pixel electrodes of the pixel units 1112 generate an electric field between the pixel electrodes of each pixel unit 1112 and the common electrode layer 17, thereby controlling the display medium 112 to display images.

In addition, the driving chip 12 of this embodiment may further include necessary components, units or circuits, such as but not limited to a power conversion unit 128 (such as but not limited to a DC-DC converter), an output/ Input (I/O) port 129, temperature sensor (Temperature Sensor) TS, low voltage detection (Low Power Detection) circuit LPD, oscillation circuit (Oscillation Circuit) OSC, or other required components, units or circuits, this The invention is not particularly limited.

To sum up, in the electronic label device of the present invention applied to the electronic shelf label system, the display module is controlled by the driver chip to display the image, and may include a memory unit, a compression unit, a decompression unit and a timing control circuit; wherein, the timing The control circuit can control the compression unit to compress the data to obtain the compressed data and store it in the memory unit, and the timing control circuit can further control the decompression unit to decompress the compressed data to obtain the data. Compared with the existing technology, the design It is said that since the driver chip has a compression unit and a decompression unit, the timing control circuit can compress the data and then store it in the memory unit. Thereby, the driver chip of the present invention can store more data (such as more lookup table data) with the same capacity of memory unit, thereby reducing the size of the driver chip and the overall cost of the electronic tag device.

The above is only illustrative and not restrictive. Any equivalent modifications or changes that do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention shall be included in the appended patent scope.

12: Driver chip

121: Timing control circuit

122: Memory unit

123:Compression unit

124: Decompression unit

125a, 125b: Scan driving circuit

126: Data drive circuit

127:Data storage unit

128:Power conversion unit

129:Output/input port

DL: data line

LPD: low voltage detection unit

OSC: oscillator circuit

SL: scan line

TS: temperature sensor

Claims (10)

An electronic label device used in an electronic shelf label system, including: A display module includes a driving substrate and a display medium, the display medium being disposed on the driving substrate; and A driver chip is disposed on the driver substrate and is electrically connected to the driver substrate. The driver chip controls the display module to display images through the driver substrate. The driver chip includes: a memory unit; and A compression unit and a decompression unit are electrically connected to the memory unit respectively; and a timing control circuit electrically connected to the memory unit through the compression unit or the decompression unit; Wherein, the timing control circuit controls the compression unit to compress a data to obtain compressed data and store it in the memory unit, and the timing control circuit further controls the decompression unit to decompress the compressed data to obtain the data. The electronic label device according to claim 1, wherein the display medium is an electronic paper film. The electronic tag device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the memory unit is a one-time programmable read-only memory or a multi-time programmable rewritable memory. The electronic label device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the compression unit achieves the data compression function by means of software, hardware or firmware; and the decompression unit achieves the data decompression function by means of software, hardware or firmware. The electronic tag device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the data includes a plurality of lookup table data. The electronic tag device of claim 1, wherein the driver chip further includes a scan driver circuit, the driver substrate includes a plurality of pixel units, and the scan driver circuit is electrically connected to the timing control circuit and the pixel units respectively. connection, and the scan driving circuit is electrically connected to the pixel units via a plurality of scan lines. The electronic tag device as claimed in claim 6, wherein the driver chip further includes a data driver circuit, the data driver circuit is electrically connected to the timing control circuit and the pixel units respectively, and the data driver circuit passes through a plurality of The data lines are electrically connected to the pixel units. The electronic tag device of claim 6, wherein the driver chip further includes a data storage unit, the data storage unit is electrically connected to the timing control circuit, and the data storage unit is used to store display data of the display module. The electronic tag device as described in claim 1 further includes: A system circuit board is electrically connected to the driving substrate and the driving chip. The electronic tag device as described in claim 9 further includes: A connecting circuit board is connected to the system circuit board and the driving substrate respectively. The system circuit board is electrically connected to the driving substrate and the driving chip through the connecting circuit board.

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