Patent ID: 7746007

Claim:
An LED active shunt current control system for controlling current flow through an LED backlight network of an LCD display, comprising: a plurality of backlight LEDs connected in series; wherein edge LEDs are divided from center LEDs in the display backlight by an electrical node; a shunt tap positioned at the electrical node between the center LEDs and the edge LEDs; wherein the shunt tap is adapted to divert a predetermined amount of current flowing through the center LEDs away from the edge LEDs; an analog output generator in electrical communication with an edge control circuit and a shunt control circuit; wherein the analog output generator is adapted to generate an edge current setting and a shunt current setting; the edge control circuit is in electrical communication with the plurality of LEDs; wherein the edge control circuit is adapted to receive the edge setting and provides an LED voltage at an anode of a first center LED to maintain the edge current as specified by the edge setting; a shunt control circuit in electrical communication with a shunt control transistor; and wherein the shunt control circuit is adapted to receive the shunt setting and provide a voltage to the shunt control transistor to maintain the shunted current as specified by the shunt setting.