Method and apparatus for reducing heat generated at source driver of display apparatus

A display apparatus driving circuit comprising:

• a source driver for driving a display unit;
• a heat detecting circuit for detecting amount of heat generated at said source driver, and outputting a heat detection signal when the detected amount of generated heat is equal to or larger than a predetermined reference value;
• and
• a heat reduction circuit for changing, when the heat detection signal is received, a driving method of the display unit to reduce the amount of heat generated at said source driver;
• wherein said heat detecting circuit receives at least part of image data on a row basis, compares first data in row p and second data in row p+1 out of the received image data so as to detect a value based on a difference between the first data and the second data as the generated heat amount, where p is a natural number, and includes a counter for outputting a count as the generated heat amount, and
• said counter increments the count when absolute differences of the first data and the second data in one frame is larger than predetermined first threshold for the number of times equal to or larger than a predetermined second threshold, and decrements the count when the number of times is smaller than the second threshold.

A display apparatus driving circuit comprising:

• n source drivers for driving a display unit;
• at least one heat detecting circuit incorporated in at least one of said n source drivers for detecting amount of heat generated at said at least one of said n source drivers, and outputting a heat detection signal when the detected amount of generated heat is equal to or larger than a predetermined reference value;
• and
• a heat reduction circuit for changing, when the heat detection signal is received, a driving method of the display unit to reduce the amount of heat generated at said at least one source driver;
• wherein said heat detecting circuit includes:
• a temperature measuring circuit for measuring a temperature which is the amount of heat generated at said at least one source driver;
• and
• a temperature comparison circuit for comparing the temperature measured by said temperature measuring circuit and a reference temperature which is the reference value, and
• said heat detecting circuit outputs the heat detection signal when the temperature measured by said temperature detecting circuit is equal to or higher than the reference temperature,
• said at least one source driver having said heat detecting circuit among said n source drivers is two or more source drivers which are interconnected, and
• heat detecting circuits included in said two or more source drivers share a detection result.