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US 11,081,070 B2Granted
Backlight systems and methods for electronic device displays
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorsVehbi Calayir, Johan L. Piper
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Aspects of the subject technology relate to control circuitry for light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The control circuitry may include an LED timing controller integrated circuit configured to receive data from host circuitry for an electronic device, an LED row driver integrated circuit, the LED row driver integrated circuit configured to connect a high voltage power rail to the light-emitting diodes via plurality of switches, and LED column driver integrated circuits each configured to adjust a current through at least one of the light-emitting diodes.
Claims21
An electronic device, comprising:
- a display with a backlight unit, the backlight unit comprising:
- a backlight substrate;
- an array of light-emitting diodes arranged in rows and columns on the backlight substrate;
- a backlight timing controller integrated circuit on the backlight substrate and configured to receive backlight data from host circuitry for the electronic device via a high speed link;
- a backlight row driver integrated circuit on the backlight substrate, wherein the backlight row driver integrated circuit is separate from the backlight timing controller integrated circuit and coupled to the backlight timing controller integrated circuit with a dedicated data link, the backlight row driver integrated circuit configured to connect a high voltage power rail to the light-emitting diodes via plurality of switches;
- and
- a plurality of backlight column driver integrated circuits on the backlight substrate, each column driver integrated circuit configured to control a current through at least one of the light-emitting diodes and a dedicated data link between each backlight column driver integrated circuit and the backlight timing controller integrated circuit.
4 more elements
An electronic device, comprising:
- a display with a backlight unit, the backlight unit comprising:
- an array of light-emitting diodes arranged in rows and columns, the rows arranged in groups of adjacent rows;
- a backlight row driver integrated circuit, the backlight row driver integrated circuit having a plurality of switches, each switch coupled to at least one row in each of the groups of adjacent rows;
- and
- a plurality of backlight column drivers, each backlight column driver coupled to a different group of adjacent rows.
2 more elements
An electronic device, comprising:
- a display with a backlight unit, the backlight unit comprising:
- an array of light-emitting diodes arranged in rows and columns, the rows arranged in groups of adjacent rows;
- a backlight row driver integrated circuit, the backlight row driver integrated circuit having a plurality of switches, each switch coupled to at least one row in each of the groups of adjacent rows;
- and
- a plurality of backlight column drivers, each backlight column driver coupled to a different subset of the columns in each of the groups of adjacent rows.
2 more elements
An electronic device, comprising:
- a display having:
- a liquid crystal display unit having an array of pixels configured to be operated by liquid crystal display control circuitry at an LCD scan rate;
- and
- a backlight unit, the backlight unit comprising:
- an array of light-emitting diodes arranged in rows and columns and each operable to illuminate a corresponding portion of the array of pixels;
- and
- backlight control circuitry configured to concurrently operate multiple rows of the array of light-emitting diodes, each of the multiple rows disposed in a different one of multiple corresponding groups of mutually adjacent rows, wherein the backlight control circuitry is further configured to synchronize operation of the rows of the array of light-emitting diodes with operation of the rows of the array of pixels of the liquid crystal display unit by performing at least one of:
- (i) maintaining a scan rate of the array of light-emitting diodes of the backlight unit above a threshold that is based on the LCD scan rate and a number of the different groups,
- (ii) concurrently operating the multiple rows by concurrently operating multiple sub-groups of adjacent rows by interleaving a first sub-group of adjacent rows at a first time and a second sub-group of adjacent rows at a second time, each of the first sub-group disposed in a different one of the multiple corresponding groups, or
- (iii) operating the rows within each of the multiple corresponding groups in a non-sequential order.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.