Patent ID: 8456093

Claim:
A control module for driving a light emitting diode (LED) array, said control module including a plurality of electrical terminals for providing electrical connections between components internal to the control module and components external to the control module, with the LED array including at least N number of column conductors disposed external to the control module which are to be separately connected to N number of the electrical terminals and including at least Y number of row conductors disposed external to the control module which are to be separately connected to N number of the electrical terminals and further including at least N×Y number of LEDs disposed external to the control module, with at least one LED being connected between a separate pair of the column and row conductors, where N and Y are at least three, said control module further including the following disposed internal to the control module: N number of LED current drivers having outputs electrically connected to separate ones of the N number of electrical terminals; Y number of transistor switches, each of the transistor switches having a first set of switch terminals separately connected to separate ones of the Y number of electrical terminals and each having a second set of switch terminals electrically connected to a common voltage point; and a controller for controlling the states of the N number of LED current drivers and the Y number of transistor switches during each of a consecutive number of separate LED drive periods, wherein during a given one of LED drive periods, all of the N number of LED current drivers are activated and only one of the transistor switches is turned ON so that only the N number of LEDs connected to the row conductor associated with the ON transistor switch are driven.