Abstract:
A LCD driving system for increasing LCD response times. Voltages across liquid crystals are increased by modulating gamma reference voltages fed to a data driver, modulating image codes fed to the data driver, or both. Particularly, around the highest and the lowest image code, modulation of gamma reference voltages fed to a data driver is most effective.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    The present invention relates to a system for driving a liquid crystal display, and particularly to a system for increasing LCD response time.  
           [0003]    2. Description of the Related Art  
           [0004]    The slow electro-optical LCD response time panels has been a major roadblock for the LCD market to expand beyond notebook and computer monitors. Although there has been significant progress in enhancing the switching speed of nematic liquid crystals (LCs), visual artifacts resulting from slow response are still quite noticeable. The full on/off time may be adequate, but response time between intermediate grays is inherently slow; up to 10 times as slow as the full on/off time.  
           [0005]    Synthesizing even faster LC molecules is one obvious solution, however, expense and time are both considerable, since the speed must increase by as much as three times, There is a need for a method utilizing large voltage to drive liquid crystals to reduce response time.  
           [0006]    [0006]FIG. 1 shows a conventional driving method of increasing LCD response time. The method utilizes the concept of data-overwrite realized by applying large voltage across liquid crystals to reduce response time. As shown in FIG. 1, a data driver pulls the voltage level C n−1  of the n−1 frame to the voltage level C n , wherein C n−1 , C n , and C n ′ all represent voltages corresponding to specific gray levels. For a data driver not applied in data-overdriven method, a voltage level is C n  and the trace T 1  shows a charging process of liquid crystals. For a data driver applied in data-overdriven method, a voltage level is C n ′ higher than voltage level C n  and the trace T 2  shows a charging process of liquid crystals. When liquid crystals are charged to the voltage level C n , the data driver drives the voltage level C n ′ to the voltage level C n .  
           [0007]    Because conventional data-overdrive mode is realized by switching image codes thereby changing voltage levels, there are limits to the highest and lowest image codes. There is thus a need for a novel method to realize data-overdriven.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0008]    It is therefore an object of the present invention to reduce LCD response times in LCD panel.  
           [0009]    To achieve the above objects, the present invention provides a driving system for a LCD panel.  
           [0010]    The driving system in the present invention includes a buffer, storage, a controller, a comparator, a programmable gamma reference voltage generator, and a data driver.  
           [0011]    In order to shorten LCD response times, voltages across liquid crystals are increased by modulating gamma reference voltages fed to a data driver, modulating image codes fed to the data driver, or both.  
           [0012]    At the highest or the lowest image code, reduced LCD response time is achieved by modulating gamma reference voltages fed to a data driver.  
           [0013]    Around the highest or the lowest image code, LCD response times is achieved by modulating gamma reference voltages fed to a data driver is more effective.  
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0014]    The aforementioned objects, features, and advantages of this invention will become apparent by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 1 shows a conventional driving method of increasing LCD response times.  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the present invention.  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the data driver in the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0018]    There are three methods of increasing LCD response time: switching driving voltage, switching image code, or switching both driving voltage and image code.  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the present invention. A buffer  1  sends image code C n  to storage  2  and a modulator  3 . The storage  2  stores image code C n  and outputs image code C n−1  of the previous frame to comparator  3 . A controller  5  sends control instructions to the comparator  3  and a programmable gamma reference voltage generator  6  for selecting driving method, either one or both. The comparator  3  receives image code C n−1  of the previous frame from the storage  2  and image code C, from the buffer  1 , compares image code C n−1 , C n , and sends comparison results to the controller  5 . The controller  5  sends modulation instruction to the comparator  3  according to comparison results. The comparator  3  outputs modulated image code C n ′, to a data driver  4 . The controller  5  sends control instruction to the programmable gamma reference voltage generator  6 , which generates gamma reference voltages VG 1 ˜VG M  to the data driver  4 . The controller  5  also sends control instruction to the storage  2  for controlling access. The data driver  4  receives image codes C n ′ from the comparator  3  and gamma reference voltages VG 1 ˜VG M  to output driving voltage increasing response time.  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the data driver in the present invention. A gamma correction curve is realized by M adjustable gamma reference voltages VG 1 ˜VG M  and select switch  61 . The select switch  61  is used to adjust gamma reference voltages VG 1 ˜VG M . The relationships between gamma reference voltages VG 1 VG M  and image codes are arranged as follows. The data driver  4  receives N bits, therefore, 2 N  image codes and M gamma reference voltages VG 1 ˜VG M .  
         [0021]    image code  0  to the 1st gamma reference voltage VG 1    
         [0022]    image code  1  to the 2nd gamma reference voltage VG 2    
         [0023]    image code  2   N −2 to the M−1th gamma reference voltage VG M−1    
         [0024]    image code  2   N −1 to the Mth gamma reference voltage VG M    
         [0025]    other image codes are arranged by LCD characteristics.  
         [0026]    In order to eliminate limits of switching image codes at the first image code and the Mth image code, the present invention takes advantage of switching the let gamma reference voltage VG 1  and the Mth gamma reference voltage VG M . At the image code  2   N −1, the M gamma reference voltage VG M  is adjustable for data overdrive and increasing response time, At the image code  0 , the 1st gamma reference voltage VG 1  is adjustable for data overdrive.  
         [0027]    In normal, not data-overdrive mode, there are relationships between gamma reference voltages and voltages of common electrode in LCD panel as follows.  
         [0028]    When the LCD panel is normal white, then 
         | VG   M   −V   COM   |&lt;|VG   1   −V   COM |. 
         [0029]    When the LCD panel is normal black, then 
         | VG   M   −V   COM   |&gt;|VG   1   −V   COM |. 
         [0030]    In fast mode, when the image code of the previous frame is  2   N −2 and the image code of the following frame is  2   N −1, the relationships between gamma reference voltages and voltages of common electrode in LCD panel are as follows.  
         [0031]    (1) When the driving voltage is not equal to a voltage corresponding to the image code  2   N −1 and the LCD panel is normal white, then |VG M ′˜V COM |&lt;|VG M −V COM |.  
         [0032]    When the driving voltage is not equal to a voltage corresponding to the image code  2   N −1 and the LCD panel is normal black, then |VG M ′˜V COM |&gt;|VG M −V COM |.  
         [0033]    (2) When the driving voltage is equal to a voltage corresponding to the image code  2   N −1 and the LCD panel is normal white or black, then |VG M ′˜V COM |≡|VG M −V COM |.  
         [0034]    When image codes are around  2   N −1, driving voltage in fast mode is represented as follows. 
           V   1   ′=V   1   −[c   M−1 ( D   1 ′)]· VG   M−1   c   M−1 ( D   1 ′)· VG   M   ′−c   M−1 ( D   1 )· VG   M   
         [0035]    wherein 
           V   1   −VG   M−1   +c   M−1 ( D   1 )·( VG   M   −VG   M−1 ) 
         [0036]    V 1 is a driving voltage of the previous frame 
           V   1   =VG   M−1   −c   M−1 ( D   1 ′)·( VG   M   ′−VG   M−1 ) 
         [0037]    V 1 ′ is a driving voltage of the following frame  
         [0038]    c M−1 (D 1 ′) is a image code of the following frame  
         [0039]    c M−1 (D 1 ) is a image code of the previous frame  
         [0040]    When image code is  2   N −1, the highest code, data-overdrive mode is only realized by switching gamma reference voltage as follows. 
           V   1   ′=V   1   +c   M−1 ( D   1 )·( VG   M   ′−VG   M−1 ) 
         [0041]    In fast mode, when the image code of the previous frame is 1 and the image code of the following frame is 0, the relationships between gamma reference voltages and voltages of common electrode in LCD panel as follows.  
         [0042]    (1) When the driving voltage is not equal to a voltage corresponding to the image code  0  and the LCD panel is normal white, then |VG 1 ′−V COM |&lt;|VG 1 −V COM |.  
         [0043]    When tie driving voltage is not equal to a voltage corresponding to the image code  0  and the LCD panel is normal black, then |VG 1 ′−V COM |&gt;|VG 1 −V COM |.  
         [0044]    (2) When the driving voltage is equal to a voltage corresponding to the image code  0  and the LCD panel is normal white or black, then |VG 1 ′−V COM |≡|VG 1 −V COM |.  
         [0045]    When image codes are around  0 , driving voltage in fast mode is represented as follows. 
           V   1   ′=V   1   −[c   0 ( D   1 ′)− c   0 ( D )] VG   2   +c   0 ( D   1 ′)· VG   1   ′−c   0 ( D   1 )· VG   1   
         [0046]    wherein 
           V   1   =VG   1   =c   0 ( D   1 )·( VG   2   −VG   1 ) 
         [0047]    V 1  is a driving voltage of the previous frame 
           V   1   =VG   1   +c   0 ( D   1 ′)·( VG−VG   1 ′) 
         [0048]    V 1  is a driving voltage of the following frame  
         [0049]    c 0 (D 1 ′) is a image code of the following frame  
         [0050]    c 0 (D 1 ) is a image code of the previous frame  
         [0051]    When image code is 0, the lowest code, data-overdrive mode is only realized by switching gamma reference voltage as follows. 
           V   1   ′=V   1   +c   0 ( D   1 )·( VG   1   ′−VG   1 ) 
         [0052]    The driving method is particularly effective at the highest and lowest image codes by switching the gamma reference voltage VG 1  and VG M . The driving method applied to image codes around the highest and lowest is realized by switching image codes, gamma reference voltages, or both.  
         [0053]    Although the present invention has been described in its preferred embodiments, it is not intended to limit the invention to the precise embodiments disclosed herein. Those who are skilled in this technology can still make various alterations and modifications without departing from the scope and spirit of this invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention shall be defined and protected by the following claims and their equivalents.