Disclosure of Invention
In view of the foregoing, an object of the present invention is to provide a display device and a signal transmission method thereof, so as to achieve impedance matching between a display signal transmission line and a receiving end at different frequencies, and improve a display signal eye diagram.
According to one aspect of the invention, a signal transmission method is provided, which comprises the steps of receiving a display signal and obtaining a picture refresh rate of the display signal, wherein the display signal is used for driving a display panel to display pictures, providing an impedance control signal according to the picture refresh rate, transmitting the impedance control signal to a display signal interface of a source drive circuit through a signal transmission line, wherein the display signal interface is electrically connected with built-in impedance of the source drive circuit, and adjusting the built-in impedance according to the impedance control signal so that the built-in impedance is used for realizing impedance matching with the signal transmission line.
Optionally, the built-in impedance of the source driving circuit is provided with a plurality of gears, and the step of adjusting the built-in impedance according to the impedance control signal includes adjusting the built-in impedance to a corresponding gear according to the impedance control signal.
Optionally, the step of providing the impedance control signal according to the picture refresh rate includes detecting a refresh rate range in which the picture refresh rate is located, and providing the corresponding impedance control signal according to the refresh rate range in which the picture refresh rate is located.
Optionally, the step of detecting a refresh rate range in which the picture refresh rate is located includes detecting whether the picture refresh rate is greater than or equal to a preset picture refresh rate, if yes, providing the impedance control signal to adjust the internal impedance to a first gear, otherwise providing the impedance control signal to adjust the internal impedance to a second gear, where a resistance value of the first gear is smaller than a resistance value of the second gear.
Optionally, the timing controller includes a register, in which a plurality of codes are preset, the plurality of codes respectively correspond to the plurality of gears, and the impedance control signal includes at least one of the plurality of codes.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a display apparatus for performing the signal transmission method as described above, comprising a timing controller for receiving a display signal to obtain a picture refresh rate of the display signal and providing an impedance control signal according to the picture refresh rate, a source driving circuit including a display signal interface for receiving the display signal and an adjustable built-in impedance electrically connected to the display signal interface, the source driving circuit for driving a display panel to display a picture according to the display signal, a signal transmission line for transmitting the display signal from the timing controller to the display signal interface, wherein the source driving circuit receives the impedance control signal and adjusts the built-in impedance according to the impedance control signal so that the built-in impedance is used to achieve impedance matching with the signal transmission line.
Optionally, the built-in resistor of the source driving circuit includes a plurality of gears, and the source driving circuit adjusts the built-in impedance to a corresponding gear according to the impedance control signal.
Optionally, the timing control circuit detects a refresh rate range in which the picture refresh rate is located, and provides the corresponding impedance control signal according to the refresh rate range in which the picture refresh rate is located.
Optionally, the timing control circuit detects whether the frame refresh rate is greater than or equal to a preset frame refresh rate, if yes, the impedance control signal is provided to adjust the internal impedance to a first gear, otherwise, the impedance control signal is provided to adjust the internal impedance to a second gear, and a resistance value of the first gear is smaller than a resistance value of the second gear.
Optionally, the timing controller includes a register, in which a plurality of codes are preset, the plurality of codes respectively correspond to the plurality of gears, and the impedance control signal includes at least one of the plurality of codes.
According to the display device and the signal transmission method thereof, the timing controller detects the refresh rate of the display picture and adjusts the built-in terminal resistance of the source electrode driving circuit, so that the impedance matching of the transmission line and the receiving end of the display signal is realized. In the prior art, the impedance of the transmission line carrying the low-voltage differential signal of the display information is regarded as a determined value, so that the impedance of the receiving end corresponding to the impedance is only required to be adjusted to correspond to the determined value, and the quality of the displayed signal eye diagram can be seriously affected in the conventional multi-frame rate display device. The signal transmission method of the invention takes the impedance of the transmission line as a variable related to the frequency of the transmission signal, and for a specific transmission line, the corresponding relation between the impedance and the signal frequency can be detected in advance, the time sequence controller can acquire the picture refresh rate and the corresponding signal frequency from the received display signal, and acquire the real-time impedance of the transmission line according to the corresponding relation so as to adjust the built-in impedance of the receiving end, namely the source electrode driving circuit, so as to realize impedance matching. The signal transmission method and the display device can improve the eye pattern condition of the display signal and improve the display quality, thereby reducing the radio frequency noise of the display device.
Detailed Description
Various embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The same elements or modules are denoted by the same or similar reference numerals in the various figures. For clarity, the various features of the drawings are not drawn to scale.
Also, certain terms are used throughout the description and claims to refer to particular components. It will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that a hardware manufacturer may refer to the same component by different names. The present patent specification and claims do not take the form of an element or components as a functional element or components as a rule.
Furthermore, it should be noted that relational terms such as first and second are used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. Moreover, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising one does not exclude the presence of other like elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises an element.
In the prior art, the display device adopts a high-frequency signal, and the reflection problem of the transmission line needs to be considered because the high-frequency signal has high frequency and short wavelength. Specifically, when the wavelength is too short to be equal to the length of the transmission line, the shape of the original signal is changed after the reflected signal is overlapped with the original signal, so that reflection is generated at the receiving end, the eye pattern quality of the transmission signal is affected, and the transmission signal is distorted. A common method for reducing signal reflection is to implement impedance matching (IMPEDANCE MATCHING) between the transmission line and the receiving end, specifically, to make the characteristic impedance of the transmission line equal in magnitude and phase to the impedance of the receiving end, which is called as impedance matching for short, where the output end of the transmission line is in an impedance matching state. In the impedance matching state, all high-frequency microwave signals can be transmitted to the receiving end, and almost no signals are reflected back to the source point.
In the prior art, the impedance of the transmission line is regarded as a fixed value, the built-in impedance of the receiving end is adjustable, and the built-in impedance of the receiving end is adjusted to be matched with the fixed value, namely, the transmission line and the receiving end can be regarded as an impedance matching state in the running process of the display device. Fig. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a prior art display device in which a timing controller 100 controls a source driving circuit 210, as shown in fig. 3, in which a processor 300 transmits a display signal to the timing controller 100, the timing controller 100 transmits display screen information to the source driving circuit 210 in the form of a low voltage differential signal, the internal impedance of the source driving circuit 210 is denoted as R S0, for example, the timing controller 100 and the source driving circuit 210 are respectively coupled to two ends of a transmission line, and the impedance of the transmission line is regarded as a fixed value and denoted as Z 0. In the prior art, the built-in impedance R S0 of the source driving circuit 210 and the transmission line impedance Z 0 are matched, so that the quality of the signal eye pattern detected at the receiving end of the source driving circuit 210, i.e. the output end of the transmission line, is poor, and the requirement cannot be satisfied.
The invention improves the existing signal transmission method, and realizes the improvement of the eye diagram of the display signal on the premise of not changing the hardware structure of the display device, thereby improving the display quality and reducing the radio frequency noise.
Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram showing signal transmission in a display device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and referring to fig. 4, it should be understood that, in order to clearly show the difference between the signal transmission method of the present invention and the prior art, fig. 4 is only described with reference to the process of transmitting a display signal from the timing controller 100 to the source driving circuit 210, and the signal transmission method of the present invention can be used for the transmission process of a low voltage differential signal in any display device.
As shown in fig. 4, in the signal transmission method of the present invention, the timing controller 100 receives the signal of the processor 300 and transmits the display signal to the source driving circuit 210 in the form of a low voltage differential signal, unlike the conventional transmission method of the low voltage differential signal, in the present invention, the impedance of the signal transmission line between the timing controller 100 and the source driving circuit 210 is varied, and in particular, the impedance of the transmission line is related to the frequency of the signal passing through the transmission line. For example, in the embodiment shown in fig. 4, the transmission line impedance and the built-in impedance of the source driving circuit 210 matched thereto are also different for two display signals having different frequencies. As a preferred embodiment, when the frequency of the display signal is less than 1GHz, the impedance of the transmission line is regarded as Z 1, and when the frequency of the display signal is greater than 1GHz, the impedance of the transmission line is regarded as Z 2, and it should be understood that the magnitude of the built-in impedance corresponding to the source driving circuit 210 is also changed, where the built-in impedance corresponding to Z 1 is R S1, the built-in impedance corresponding to Z 2 is R S2, and the transmission line impedance Z 1 corresponding to the low-frequency signal is greater than the transmission line impedance Z 2 corresponding to the high-frequency signal. The invention respectively treats the display signals with different frequencies, is more close to production practice, continuously adjusts the impedance of the receiving end for the display signals with different frequencies and the corresponding transmission lines with different impedances, ensures that the impedance matching state can be maintained, improves the eye diagram of the display signals, and is beneficial to improving the display quality.
It should be noted that the signal transmission method of the present invention does not require a hardware structure of the display device, and only the impedance of the transmission line and the source driving circuit 210 for different frequencies is shown in fig. 4. That is, Z 1 and Z 2 are the impedance expressions of the same transmission line for signals with different frequencies, the internal impedance of the source driving circuit 210 is adjustable, for example, the timing controller 100 can control the internal impedance according to the signal frequency, in other words, the above R S1 and R S2 are also the same group of adjustable resistors adjusted according to the signal frequency, it should be understood that both R S0、RS1 and R S2 are schematically expressed, in a practical product, the internal impedance of the source driving circuit 210 can be controlled by one or multiple resistors or adjustable resistors connected in series/parallel, for example, by internal codes, specifically, the timing controller 100 can set a register, and preset multiple groups of codes in the register to respectively control the internal impedance of the source driving circuit 210 to match with the impedance of the transmission line. The signal transmission method is realized by writing the program into the time sequence controller of the display device, thereby greatly facilitating the improvement of the existing product and saving the design cost.
It should be understood that the degree of variation of the impedance of the transmission line with the frequency of the signal is related to the material, length and thickness of the transmission line itself, that is, the invention does not use 1GHz as the only standard for dividing high frequency and low frequency, and the high frequency and low frequency can be divided according to the characteristics of the transmission line itself for different transmission lines. In addition, in some embodiments, the impedance of the transmission line changes more severely with the frequency, so that in order to improve the accuracy, the number of the shift positions of the built-in impedance of the source driving circuit may be greater than two, thereby improving the matching accuracy of the impedance of the transmission line and the built-in impedance of the source driving circuit. In other words, the invention takes the impedance of the transmission line as a variable, the impedance of the receiving end can be divided into a plurality of variable gears according to the required precision and the variation range of the impedance of the transmission line, and the invention is not limited to the variable gears.
Referring to fig. 5, fig. 5 shows a flow chart of the signal transmission method of the present invention. As shown in fig. 5, the signal transmission method of the present invention includes the steps of:
and S0, detecting the corresponding relation between the impedance of the signal transmission line and the signal frequency. In the present invention, the impedance of the signal transmission line is a variable quantity that varies with the frequency of the signal, and it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the impedance of the signal transmission line and its matching relationship with the impedance of the receiving end seriously affect the signal transmission quality, if the impedance is not matched, the signal will be reflected at the receiving end and return to the transmitting end, resulting in a degradation of the signal eye diagram of the receiving end. In other words, in order to achieve impedance matching, the impedance of the receiving end, i.e., the internal impedance of the source driving circuit 210, needs to be changed along with the impedance of the transmission line, and the degree of change is determined by the correspondence relationship described above.
It should be understood that step S0 is not necessary, and in some embodiments, the correspondence between the impedance of the signal transmission line and the frequency of the signal may be determined by, for example, the material, the length, the thickness, etc. of the transmission line itself, and in other embodiments, the correspondence is preset. In summary, this step is used to determine this correspondence, and detection is not necessary.
Step S1, the time schedule controller receives the display signal and acquires the picture refresh rate of the display signal. In the conventional display device, the timing controller 100 receives a display signal from the processor 300, for example, and it should be understood that the display signal is a set including information such as picture information, frame rate (picture refresh rate) information, resolution information, and the like, and the timing controller 100 is configured to at least partially decode the display signal to obtain the picture refresh rate. It should also be appreciated that the picture refresh rate and the frequency of the display signal are, for example, positive correlations, i.e., the frequency can be determined by detecting the picture refresh rate at which the display signal is obtained.
And S2, the time sequence controller acquires an impedance control signal according to the picture refresh rate. Specifically, the timing controller is capable of detecting and judging the size of the picture refresh rate. In some embodiments, the timing controller divides the frame refresh rate into a plurality of ranges, and when the timing controller receives the display signal and determines the frame refresh rate of the display signal, the timing controller queries the corresponding frame refresh rate range and generates the impedance control circuit according to the corresponding range. Specifically, the timing controller includes, for example, a register in which a plurality of codes are provided, and each of the codes corresponds to the plurality of picture refresh rate ranges, and the generated impedance control signal includes the corresponding code.
In some embodiments, in order to reduce the amount of calculation, a predetermined frame refresh rate (for example, the frame refresh rate of the display signal with the frequency of 1 GHz) is set in the timing controller, and the timing controller determines the magnitude relationship between the frame refresh rate of the received display signal and the predetermined frame refresh rate. If the picture refresh rate is greater than or equal to the preset picture refresh rate, the picture refresh rate is judged to be a high-frequency signal, a corresponding impedance control signal with a first code is output, and if the picture refresh rate is not greater than or equal to the preset picture refresh rate, the picture refresh rate is judged to be a low-frequency signal, and a corresponding impedance control signal with a second code is output.
And S3, the source electrode driving circuit receives the impedance control signal and the display signal through the signal transmission line. The source electrode driving circuit comprises a display signal interface, specifically a differential signal interface, correspondingly, the signal transmission line is a differential signal transmission line, and the built-in impedance comprises a group of adjustable differential impedance corresponding to the differential signal transmission line. The display signal interface of the source electrode driving circuit is electrically connected with the built-in impedance so that the built-in impedance can be changed according to the magnitude of the impedance control signal.
And S4, the source electrode driving circuit adjusts the built-in impedance according to the impedance control signal so as to match the built-in impedance with the impedance of the signal transmission line. In some embodiments, the internal impedance of the source driving circuit is divided into a plurality of stages according to the impedance, wherein each stage corresponds to the above-mentioned range of picture refresh rates and also corresponds to one code in the above-mentioned timing register. Specifically, after receiving the impedance control signal including the corresponding code, the source driving circuit adjusts the internal impedance to the corresponding gear, for example, according to the code.
In some embodiments, the built-in impedance includes only a first gear corresponding to the high frequency signal and a second gear corresponding to the low frequency signal, and the impedance value of the first gear is less than the second gear. The source electrode driving circuit receives an impedance control signal with a first code and adjusts built-in impedance to a first gear according to the first code when the time sequence controller judges that the picture refresh rate of the received display signal is larger than or equal to a preset picture refresh rate, and receives an impedance control signal with a second code and adjusts built-in impedance to the second gear according to the second code when the time sequence controller judges that the picture refresh rate of the received display signal is smaller than the preset picture refresh rate.
The signal transmission method of the embodiment of the invention takes the impedance of the signal transmission line as a variable related to the frequency of the display signal, and utilizes the time sequence controller 100 to acquire the picture refresh rate of the display signal, and further calculates the acquired signal frequency to determine the impedance of the signal transmission line. Furthermore, the control of the built-in impedance of the source driving circuit 210 is realized by using the register in the timing controller 100, so that the adaptation of the built-in impedance of the source driving circuit 210 to the impedance of the signal transmission line is realized, the quality of the displayed signal eye diagram is improved, the display quality is improved, the radio frequency noise is reduced, in addition, the adjustment of the built-in impedance of the source driving circuit 210 is realized by the program in the register, the change of hardware is not involved, the improvement of the existing product is facilitated, and the design cost is saved.
The present invention further provides a display device for implementing the signal transmission method, referring to fig. 6, fig. 6 shows a block diagram of a display device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 6, the display device of the present invention includes a processor 300, a timing control circuit 100, and a display panel 200, the display panel 200 further includes a source driving circuit 210, and a signal transmission line STL is disposed between the timing controller 100 and the source driving circuit 210. As described above, the timing controller 100 receives the display signal provided from the processor 300 and reads the picture refresh rate of the display signal, calculates and obtains the impedance of the corresponding signal transmission line STL according to the picture refresh rate, and a register (not shown) in the timing controller 100 receives the impedance of the signal transmission line STL and controls the built-in impedance of the source driving circuit 210 to be changed to match the impedance of the signal transmission line STL using a preset program.
Embodiments in accordance with the present invention, as described above, are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise embodiments disclosed. Obviously, many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and the practical application, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention and various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. The scope of the invention should be determined by the appended claims and their equivalents.