Patent ID: 7221304

Claim:
An apparatus for driving display panel, comprising: a data latch unit, used for receiving and latching at least one input data stream and outputting N digital latch data based on the latch result thereof, wherein each digital latch data is (M+L)-bit, and N, M, and L are all positive integers greater than 0; a reference voltage source, used for providing 2 M +1 coarse analog voltages V(i) having different levels, wherein V(i) represents the ith coarse analog voltage, i is an integer, and 0<i≦2 M +1; a digital-to-analog conversion unit, coupled to the data latch unit and the reference voltage source, the digital-to-analog conversion unit including N digital-to-analog converters (DACs), wherein each DAC selects two of the coarse analog voltages based on the M-bit first portion data in a corresponding digital latch data, and produces the corresponding analog output data based on the selected two coarse analog voltages and the L-bit second portion data in the corresponding digital latch data; and an output buffer unit, coupled to the digital-to-analog conversion unit, the output buffer unit including N output buffers, wherein each output buffer corresponding coupled to one DAC, used for bringing the analog output data provided by the DAC to an expected analog voltage level.