Display panel with distributed driver network

A display panel comprising:

• plural light-generating pixels;
• plural drivers collectively used for driving the pixels according to pixel data, the pixel data being arranged to be generated by a timing controller;
• plural transceivers collectively used for relaying the pixel data from the timing controller to the drivers, one of the transceivers being arranged to connect to the timing controller for receiving the pixel data;
• and
• a substrate on which the pixels, the drivers and the transceivers are mounted;
• wherein:
• the drivers are divided into plural groups of drivers, first drivers in an individual group being arranged to receive corresponding pixel data addressed thereto solely from a corresponding transceiver selected from the transceivers;
• the corresponding transceiver and the first drivers are daisy-chained and interconnected via a first number of one or more data lines to form a first linear daisy chain, the first drivers being daisy-chained by connecting each pair of immediately-adjacent first drivers to thereby enable transmission of the corresponding pixel data from the corresponding transceiver to the first drivers while reducing a data-line footprint on the substrate in comparison to a first star-topology arrangement of individually connecting the corresponding transceiver to each of the first drivers;
• each of the first drivers is configured to decode the corresponding pixel data that are encoded by a run length limited (RLL) code;
• and
• the transceivers are daisy-chained and interconnected via a second number of one or more data lines to form a second linear daisy chain, the transceivers being daisy-chained by connecting each pair of immediately-adjacent transceivers to thereby enable transmission of the pixel data from the timing controller to the transceivers while further reducing the data-line footprint on the substrate in comparison to a second star-topology arrangement of individually connecting the timing controller to each of the transceivers.

A display panel comprising:

• plural light-generating pixels;
• plural drivers collectively used for driving the pixels according to pixel data, the pixel data being arranged to be generated by a timing controller;
• plural transceivers collectively used for relaying the pixel data from the timing controller to the drivers, one of the transceivers being arranged to connect to the timing controller for receiving the pixel data;
• the timing controller for generating the pixel data and for assigning an identification (ID) number to each one of the transceivers and the drivers at initialization of the display panel, the ID number being used by the timing controller as an address in delivering the pixel data;
• and
• a substrate on which the pixels, the drivers and the transceivers are mounted;
• wherein:
• the drivers are divided into plural groups of drivers, first drivers in an individual group being arranged to receive corresponding pixel data addressed thereto solely from a corresponding transceiver selected from the transceivers;
• the corresponding transceiver and the first drivers are daisy-chained and interconnected via a first number of one or more data lines to form a first linear daisy chain, the first drivers being daisy-chained by connecting each pair of immediately-adjacent first drivers to thereby enable transmission of the corresponding pixel data from the corresponding transceiver to the first drivers while reducing a data-line footprint on the substrate in comparison to a first star-topology arrangement of individually connecting the corresponding transceiver to each of the first drivers;
• the transceivers are daisy-chained and interconnected via a second number of one or more data lines to form a second linear daisy chain, the transceivers being daisy-chained by connecting each pair of immediately-adjacent transceivers to thereby enable transmission of the pixel data from the timing controller to the transceivers while further reducing the data-line footprint on the substrate in comparison to a second star-topology arrangement of individually connecting the timing controller to each of the transceivers;
• an individual driver comprises an input data port and an output data port, wherein when the individual driver is one of the first drivers in the individual group, the input data port and the output data port are used in daisy-chaining the corresponding transceiver and the first drivers;
• and
• the individual driver is configured to:
• disconnect the output data port from the input data port at the initialization before any ID number is received at the input data port;
• adopt any ID number first received by the input data port as the ID number assigned to the individual driver;
• and
• connect the input data port and the output data port after the ID number assigned to the individual driver is received, thereby allowing subsequent ID numbers generated from the timing controller to pass to remaining first drivers in the individual group for ID number assignment.