Parade Technologies, Ltd.

Lattice Semiconductor Corporation

Zhengyu Yuan

Ming Qu

Xin Jin

Qing Ouyang

Jian Feng Chen

Qing Yu

Kc Lee

Kochung Lee

Xiang Zhu

Hongquan Wang

Roel Coppoolse

Qing Li

Denis Ellis

Xiang Chen

Quan Yu

Ding Lu

Ross Martin Fosler

Yongmin Ge

Jian Jin

Zhiqiang Huang

Zhanpeng Zhang

Hongrong Zhang

This application is directed to intra-panel communication in a touch display device in which a touch-integrated timing controller (TTCON) is coupled to touch-embedded source drivers (TSDs) via a plurality of forward links and a set of backward links. The forward links include a first subset of display forward links and a second subset of touch forward links. The TSDs are electrically coupled to a display panel including a plurality of display pixels and a plurality of touch sensors. The TTCON sends a display drive signal including display content data and display control data over the display forward links, and sends a touch control signal including an instruction to initiate an operation mode over the touch forward links. Upon receiving the touch control signal, the TSDs identify the instruction to initiate the operation mode, generate touch data accordingly, and return the touch data to the TTCON via the backward links.

Intra-panel interface for concurrent display driving and touch sensing in touchscreen displays

A protocol transparent retimer circuit monitors certain link layer control signals, detects far-end receiver parameters of the link partners, and detects attributes of the data signal on the link to determine the link status and operate the retimer in accordance with the determined link status. By combining and reducing host and device system states into a few retimer states, the retimer circuit is largely simplified and yet still serves its purpose. The retimer includes a controller that employs a state machine to interpret the monitored and detected signals to determine the link state and operate the retimer in an operational state corresponding to the determined link state. The approach enables the retimer to restore signal integrity and forward data it receives in both downstream and upstream directions of the link without frequency alteration.

System transparent retimer

A protocol transparent retimer circuit monitors certain link layer control signals, detects far-end receiver parameters of the link partners, and detects attributes of the data signal on the link to determine the link status and operate the retimer in accordance with the determined link status. By combining and reducing host and device system states into a few retimer states, the retimer circuit is largely simplified and yet still serves its purpose. The retimer includes a controller that employs a state machine to interpret the monitored and detected signals to determine the link state and operate the retimer in an operating state corresponding to the determined link state. The approach enables the retimer to restore signal integrity and forward what ever it receives in both downstream and upstream directions of the link without frequency alteration.

A source device communicates with a sink device over a main communication channel and configuration data is sent over a display data channel. A retimer is coupled between the source device and the sink device to improve the quality of signal transmitted from the source device to the sink device. The retimer monitors the data being sent on the display data channel to look for a desired command. Once the command is found, a copy of the command is decoded by the retimer and the configuration data and associated values are stored in a storage. The retimer uses the stored configuration data to modify the received communication data signal to match the operational characteristics between the source device and sink device and then transmit the modified signal to the sink device using these operational characteristics.

Display data channel snooping scheme for retimers

A touch panel display subsystem for bi-directional intra-panel communication includes a forward link and a backward link between a timing controller and one or more source drivers. The forward link includes a timing controller transmitter in the timing controller to receive video signal, video control signal and touch control signal, and to transmit over the forward link in the format of frame based packet, and a source driver receiver in the source driver to receive video signal, video control signal and touch control signal over the forward link. The backward link includes a source driver transmitter in the source driver to receive the touch sensor data and transmit the touch sensor data over the backward link when the backward link is enabled, and a timing controller receiver in the timing controller to receive the touch sensor data over the backward link when the backward link is enabled.

Bi-directional scalable intra-panel interface

A system and method are disclosed to control the power consumption of column drivers in a display system. A video input signal is received which has an active video period and a vertical blanking period between frames. A timing controller transmits a first video frame to a column driver. The timing controller transmits a column driver disable command during a vertical blanking period. Prior to the subsequent active video period, the timing controller transmits a column driver enable command. The timing controller proceeds to transmit a second video frame to the column driver. In one embodiment, the timing controller determines whether to disable and enable the column driver based on a refresh rate, the refresh rate calculated by the timing controller from the video input signal.

Power reduction technique for digital display panel with point to point intra panel interface

A system and method are disclosed for embedding a timing controller on column drivers which, among other advantages, reduces power consumption and size constraints. A standalone timing controller is eliminated by splitting a video input signal and delivering the signal to each of the column drivers. Timing controller functionality is embedded in each of the column drivers to allow the column drivers to process the received video signal. An auxiliary input used for communication between column drivers and an external system is received by a master column driver. The master column driver communicates with slave column drivers to enable point to point communication between each column driver and the external system.

Column drivers with embedded high-speed video interface timing controller

A system and a method are disclosed for a hybrid mode re-driver which, among other advantages, reduces power consumption while maintaining signal integrity. Equalization is performed on a signal to remove distortions such as inter-symbol interference. The signal is then analyzed and the quality of the signal is assessed. In some cases, retiming is then performed on the signal to remove additional signal distortions. In other cases, retiming is not performed and is transmitted to a driver while bypassing retiming components. When retiming components are bypassed, the retiming components are placed in a state of reduced power consumption to reduce system power consumption.

Hybrid mode repeater/re-driver for high speed digital video signaling

A system and a method are disclosed for an intra-panel communication interface which, among other advantages, enhances system reliability and reduces bus width. A timing controller initializes communication with a plurality of source drivers by transmitting link data through a plurality of data channels and monitors source driver status through an auxiliary status channel. The plurality of source drivers share the auxiliary status channel to indicate their status. The timing controller transmits display data to a source driver through a data channel. The display data includes a request for status data from the source driver. The source driver transmits the requested status data to the timing controller via the auxiliary status channel.

Scalable intra-panel interface

A system and a method for communicating configuration data between a source device and a sink are described. An active buffer receives data from an auxiliary communication channel which communicates data between the source device and the sink device. The active buffer modifies data received from the auxiliary communication channel. For example, the active buffer amplifies the received data or electrically reshapes the received data. The modified data is then transmitted from the active buffer to a destination device. In one embodiment, the auxiliary communication channel is bi-directional and upon receiving data from a first device, the active buffer is modified to permit uni-directional transmission of data from the first device to a second device.

Active auxiliary channel buffering

A system and a method for exchanging communication data between devices using a bi-directional communication channel are disclosed. A combiner is coupled to a source device via first bi-directional configuration channel and to a sink device via a second bi-directional configuration channel. Upon receiving data from the first bi-directional configuration channel and not receiving data from the second bi-directional configuration channel, the combiner transmits the received data to the sink device using the second bi-directional configuration channel and prevents data transmission from the sink device to the source device using the second bi-directional configuration channel. Similarly, upon receiving data from the second bi-directional configuration channel and not receiving from the first bi-directional configuration channel, the combiner prevents data transmission from the source device to the sink device and transmits the received data to the source device using the first bi-directional configuration channel.

DisplayPort auxiliary channel active buffer with auxiliary channel/display data channel combiner for fast auxiliary channel

Systems and methods provide synchronization techniques across a number of communication channels. For example, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a synchronization scheme is disclosed for synchronizing across multiple data transmission channels, with each transmission channel multiplexing parallel data into serial data.

Growing community of inventors

Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Zhengyu Yuan