Information grouping method, driving circuit and RGB backlight system

Abstract

This invention discloses an information grouping method applied to a backlight system. The backlight system includes multiple sequentially coupled driving circuits and at least two types of LED loads. Each driving circuit includes M load interfaces, and each load interface is coupled to one type of LED load. Each driving circuit includes a register, and the data stored in the register is set by a preset encoding rule so that the data corresponds to the type of LED load coupled to each of the M load interfaces. The driving circuit determines the type of LED load coupled to each load interface based on the data in the register. Based on the sampling information of the load interfaces coupled to the same type of LED load, the state information of that type of LED load is obtained.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of LED driving technology, and more specifically to an information grouping method for a backlight system, a driving circuit, and an RGB backlight system employing this method. Background Technology

[0002] In LED backlight systems, to reduce the communication wiring between the host computer and the driver circuits and improve reliability, multiple driver circuits are typically connected in series to form a daisy chain for chain-like communication. The host computer needs to obtain real-time information on whether the voltage of the LED beads driven by each driver circuit in the chain is sufficient, so as to dynamically adjust the supply voltage (VLED) to ensure that all LEDs operate within the normal forward voltage drop range and avoid flickering or uneven brightness.

[0003] For RGB backlight systems, since the forward voltage drop (VF) and drive current of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) LEDs are different, multiple independent power supply voltages (e.g., VLED_R, VLED_G, VLED_B) are typically required for each color LED. Therefore, the host computer needs to obtain the voltage feedback (FB) information of all load interfaces under each power supply voltage in order to independently adjust each voltage. Summary of the Invention

[0004] In a first aspect, the present invention provides an information grouping method applied to a backlight system, the backlight system comprising S sequentially coupled driving circuits and at least two types of LED loads, each driving circuit comprising M load interfaces, characterized in that...

[0005] Each of the aforementioned load interfaces is coupled to an LED load of one type;

[0006] According to the preset encoding rules, a set of data corresponding to the type of LED load coupled to each of the M load interfaces is generated;

[0007] Read this set of data to determine the type of LED load coupled to each load interface;

[0008] Based on the sampling information of the load interfaces coupled to the same type of LED load among S*M load interfaces, the status information of the LED load of that type is obtained, where M is a natural number not less than 2 and S is a natural number not less than 1.

[0009] Preferably, the driving circuit includes a register for storing the data, and each load interface corresponds to at least one bit of the register.

[0010] Preferably, the number of bits required by the register is determined according to the number of load interfaces of the driving circuit and the number of types of LED loads.

[0011] Preferably, each load interface corresponds to N bits of the register, where N is equal to the number of types of LED loads.

[0012] Preferably, the register contains N sub-intervals, each sub-interval corresponding to a type of LED load, and each sub-interval contains at least M bits.

[0013] Preferably, the M bits in each sub-interval correspond one-to-one with the M load interfaces. By setting the value of the data of the corresponding bit in the corresponding sub-interval, it is identified whether the corresponding load interface is connected to the type of LED load corresponding to that sub-interval.

[0014] Preferably, each load interface corresponds to P bits in the register, where the value of P satisfies that 2 to the power of P is not less than the number of types of LED loads.

[0015] Preferably, the value of P is configured as the result of rounding up the logarithm of the number of LED load types to base 2.

[0016] Preferably, the register contains M sub-intervals, each sub-interval corresponding to a load interface, and each sub-interval contains P bits.

[0017] Preferably, the different values ​​of the data consisting of P bits in the register corresponding to each load interface correspond one-to-one with the type of LED load, and are used to uniquely identify the type of LED load connected to the load interface.

[0018] Preferably, the type of LED load is distinguished according to the color of light emitted by the LED load.

[0019] Preferably, the backlight system further includes a host computer, which sends communication frames to the S driving circuits to indicate the number of status information items that the S driving circuits need to acquire each time and the corresponding LED load type.

[0020] Preferably, the communication frame includes multiple control units, the number of which is equal to the number of LED load types, and the multiple control units correspond one-to-one with the LED load types. The data of each control unit is used to indicate whether to feedback the status information of the corresponding LED load type.

[0021] Preferably, the communication frame further includes multiple data units, the number of which is equal to the number of LED load types, and the multiple data units correspond one-to-one with the LED load types. The data of each data unit is configured as the status information of the corresponding LED load type.

[0022] Preferably, the S driving circuits sequentially update the data on the data unit in the communication frame and forward the updated communication frame to the adjacent driving circuit; each driving circuit updates the data on the corresponding data unit according to the data on the control unit and the status information of the type of each of its own LED loads.

[0023] Preferably, when the data indication on the corresponding control unit needs to feed back the status information of the corresponding LED load type, the data on the data unit corresponding to that type is updated according to the status information of that type of the driving circuit itself; when the data indication on the corresponding control unit does not need to feed back the status information of the corresponding LED load type, the data on the data unit corresponding to that type remains unchanged.

[0024] Preferably, the S driving circuits update the data on the data unit in the communication frame sequentially from the beginning of the link to the end of the link. The driving circuit located at the end of the link transmits the status information to the host computer through a readback line. The driving circuit at the beginning of the link is coupled to the host computer.

[0025] Preferably, the S driving circuits sequentially update the data on the data unit in the communication frame from the end of the link to the beginning of the link, and the driving circuit located at the beginning of the link transmits the status information to the host computer, wherein the driving circuit at the beginning of the link is coupled to the host computer.

[0026] Preferably, the sampling information includes at least one of the voltage sampling value, current sampling value, or temperature sampling value of the corresponding load interface.

[0027] Preferably, the status information of the same type of LED load is processed by at least one of logical AND, logical OR, average, maximum value, and minimum value to obtain the final status information fed back to the host computer.

[0028] Preferably, after the host computer has sent the communication frame for a predetermined delay time, it determines whether the status information of each group is normal based on the data on the data unit in the received communication frame.

[0029] Preferably, when the drive circuit at the beginning or end of the link transmits the status information back to the host computer, the status information of each group is output bit by bit to the host computer according to whether the status information of each LED load type represented by the data of the control unit is fed back, in a time-division multiplexing manner.

[0030] Secondly, the present invention provides a driving circuit for use in a backlight system, characterized in that the driving circuit includes a register, a read circuit and M load interfaces;

[0031] Each of the aforementioned load interfaces is coupled to at least one of two types of LED loads;

[0032] The data stored in the register is set by a preset encoding rule so that the data corresponds to the type of LED load coupled to the M load interfaces respectively;

[0033] The reading circuit determines the type of LED load coupled to each load interface based on the data in the register.

[0034] Based on the sampling information of the load interface coupled to the same type of LED load, the status information of the corresponding type of LED load is obtained.

[0035] Preferably, it further includes a first connection port, a second connection port, and a processing circuit, wherein,

[0036] The first connection port is coupled to the host computer or the previous level drive circuit connected to it;

[0037] The second connection port is coupled to the next-level drive circuit connected to it or left unused;

[0038] The processing circuit updates the status information of the corresponding type of LED load based on the status information of each type of LED load.

[0039] Preferably, the original state information of each type of LED load is preset to a normal state or an abnormal state.

[0040] Preferably, when the driving circuit is configured as the first or the Sth in the backlight system, the processing circuit therein is used to generate the state information of the LED load of a certain type based on the state information of the S LED loads of a certain type, and transmit it to the host computer, where S is the number of driving circuits connected in series in the backlight system.

[0041] Preferably, the system further includes M sampling circuits, each corresponding to one of the M load interfaces, and used to acquire the sampling information of the M load interfaces respectively.

[0042] Preferably, the number of bits required by the register is determined by the number M of the load interfaces of the driving circuit and the number N of the types of LED loads.

[0043] Preferably, each load interface corresponds to P bits in the register, where the value of P satisfies that 2 to the power of P is not less than the number of LED load types N.

[0044] Preferably, the number of bits required by the register is not less than M*P.

[0045] Preferably, the different values ​​of the data consisting of P bits in the register corresponding to each load interface correspond one-to-one with the type of LED load, and are used to uniquely identify the type of LED load connected to the load interface.

[0046] Thirdly, an RGB backlighting system is provided, including:

[0047] Multiple drive circuits and three types of LED loads are coupled in sequence.

[0048] Each driver circuit is used to control at least one type of LED load in the RGB backlight system.

[0049] Preferably, the three types of LED loads correspond to LED loads that emit red light, LED loads that emit green light, and LED loads that emit red and blue light, respectively.

[0050] This invention provides an information grouping method, a driving circuit, and an RGB backlight system. The invention aims to solve the following technical problems:

[0051] 1. Reduce the storage overhead of registers used for load interface grouping within the driver circuit, especially when the number of load interfaces and groups is large.

[0052] 2. Improve the transmission efficiency and flexibility of multiple voltage feedback information in chain communication, and support dynamic selection of the groups that need to be fed back.

[0053] 3. Compatible with both forward (head to tail) and reverse (tail to head) chain feedback paths.

[0054] 4. Provides a unified and scalable information grouping framework that is applicable not only to voltage feedback but also to sampling information such as current and temperature. Attached Figure Description

[0055] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention or the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only embodiments of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on the provided drawings without creative effort.

[0056] Figure 1a This is a schematic diagram of the overall architecture and chain communication of the backlight system of the present invention;

[0057] Figure 1b This is a schematic diagram of the driving circuit of the present invention;

[0058] Figure 2a This is a schematic diagram of the register structure for an encoding method according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

[0059] Figure 2b This is a schematic diagram of the register structure for another encoding method according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

[0060] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of the register structure of the encoding method according to the second embodiment of the present invention;

[0061] Figure 4 This is a partial structural diagram of the communication frame of the present invention;

[0062] Figure 5 This is a timing diagram illustrating the process of parsing the status information of each group bit by bit according to the control unit in this invention. Detailed Implementation

[0063] The present invention is described below based on embodiments, but the invention is not limited to these embodiments. In the detailed description of the invention below, certain specific details are described in detail. Those skilled in the art will fully understand the invention even without these details. To avoid obscuring the essence of the invention, well-known methods, processes, flows, elements, and circuits are not described in detail.

[0064] Furthermore, those skilled in the art should understand that the accompanying drawings provided herein are for illustrative purposes only and are not necessarily drawn to scale.

[0065] Furthermore, it should be understood that in the following description, "circuit" refers to a conductive loop consisting of at least one element or sub-circuit connected by electrical or electromagnetic connections. When an element or circuit is said to be "connected" to another element or "connected" between two nodes, it can be directly coupled or connected to another element, or there may be intermediate elements. The connection between elements can be physical, logical, or a combination thereof. Conversely, when an element is said to be "directly coupled to" or "directly connected" to another element, it means that there are no intermediate elements between them.

[0066] Unless the context explicitly requires it, the words "comprising," "including," and similar terms throughout the specification and claims should be interpreted as encompassing rather than being exclusive or exhaustive; that is, meaning "including but not limited to."

[0067] In the description of this invention, it should be understood that the terms "first," "second," etc., are used for descriptive purposes only and should not be construed as indicating or implying relative importance. Furthermore, in the description of this invention, unless otherwise stated, "a plurality of" means two or more.

[0068] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the overall architecture and chain communication of the backlight system. Figure 1b This is a schematic diagram of the driving circuit of the present invention. The backlight system includes a host computer 0, S driving circuits 1 to S (host computer, driving circuit 1, driving circuit 2, ... driving circuit S) coupled to the host computer and sequentially coupled to each other, and at least two types of LED loads.

[0069] refer to Figure 1b Each driving circuit includes M load interfaces, and each load interface is coupled to an LED load of a certain type. In this embodiment of the invention, there are three types of LED loads, which are distinguished according to the color of light emitted by the LED loads. The three types of LED loads correspond to LED loads that emit red light (LED1), LED loads that emit green light (LED2), and LED loads that emit red and blue light (LED3), respectively.

[0070] Each driver circuit includes a first connection port SDI and a second connection port SDO. The first connection port SDI is coupled to a host computer or a previous-level driver circuit connected to it; the second connection port SDO is coupled to a next-level driver circuit connected to it or left unused. Specifically, the first connection port SDI of driver circuit 1 is coupled to the output port MDO of host computer 0 to receive the communication frame VF1 sent by host computer 0 to indicate the need for status information feedback. Its second connection port SDO is coupled to the first connection port SDI of driver circuit 2. The first connection port SDI of driver circuit 2 is coupled to the second connection port SDO of driver circuit 1, and the second connection port SDO is coupled to the first connection port SDI of driver circuit 3, and so on, until the output port SD0 of driver circuit S feeds back the final group status information FB1 / FB2 / FB3 to host computer 0 through the read-back line and the input port MDI of host computer.

[0071] In this embodiment of the invention, each driving circuit includes a register. The register encodes data according to a preset encoding rule to generate a set of data corresponding to the types of LED loads coupled to the M load interfaces respectively. This register configuration allows each driving circuit to determine the type of LED load coupled to each load interface based on the data in its internal register; thereby, based on the sampling information of the load interfaces coupled to the same type of LED load, the status information of that type of LED load can be obtained.

[0072] In this embodiment of the invention, each driving circuit also includes a reading circuit, which reads the set of data in the register and determines the type of LED load coupled to each load interface based on the data in the register.

[0073] Furthermore, each driving circuit also includes a processing circuit. The processing circuit processes the sampling information of the load interfaces coupled to the same type of LED load based on the data read from the register circuit and the sampling information of each load interface, to obtain the status information of the corresponding type of LED load. The processing circuit also updates the status information of the corresponding type of LED load based on its own status information for each type of LED load.

[0074] In one embodiment, at least one of the register, read circuitry, and processing circuitry is coupled to a microcontroller in the drive circuitry.

[0075] Continue to refer to Figure 1b The driving circuit also includes M sampling circuits, which correspond one-to-one with the M load interfaces and are used to acquire the sampling information of the M load interfaces respectively.

[0076] The backlight system obtains the status information of an LED load of a certain type based on the sampling information of the load interfaces coupled to the same type of LED load from among S*M load interfaces, where M is a natural number not less than 2 and S is a natural number not less than 1. When the driving circuit is configured as the first or Sth in the backlight system, its processing circuit generates the status information of that type of LED load based on the status information of the S LED loads of a certain type and transmits it to the host computer, where S is the number of driving circuits connected in series in the backlight system. Specifically, in this embodiment, each driving circuit can determine which of the M load interfaces correspond to the red-emitting LED load, the green-emitting LED load, and the red-blue-emitting LED load, respectively, based on the data stored in the register. When it is necessary to obtain the status information of an LED load of a certain color, the driving circuit can specifically obtain the status information of the LED load of that color based on the sampling information of all load interfaces corresponding to that LED load. Here, the status information includes, but is not limited to, the voltage, current, or temperature information of the LED load of that color. Accordingly, the sampling information includes at least one of the voltage sampling value, current sampling value, or temperature sampling value of the corresponding load interface.

[0077] It should be noted that the driving circuit is not limited to obtaining the status information of only one type of LED load at a time. The driving circuit is also compatible with scenarios where it needs to obtain the status information of multiple types of LED loads at a time. In such scenarios, the driving circuit obtains the status information of multiple LED loads of different colors based on the sampling information of the load interfaces corresponding to the multiple emitting colors of the LED loads. In one embodiment, the driving circuit obtains the status information of multiple emitting colors of LED loads simultaneously; in another embodiment, the driving circuit obtains the status information of multiple emitting colors of LED loads in a time-division manner. This invention does not limit the specific implementation of this method.

[0078] Preferably, the data in the register is set based on the external connections of each load interface and a predetermined encoding rule. Each load interface corresponds to at least one bit in the register. The number of bits required in the register is determined by the number of load interfaces in the driver circuit and the number of different types of LED loads.

[0079] Within a driving circuit, sampling information from multiple channels of the same type of LED load (e.g., feedback results from four channels of a group of eight LED loads that emit red light) can be processed using at least one of the following logic operations: AND, OR, averaging, taking the maximum value, and taking the minimum value, to obtain state information representing the final state of that group. Preferably, AND (all normal values ​​indicate a normal state, any abnormal value indicates an abnormal state) or OR (any normal value indicates a normal state, all abnormal values ​​indicate an abnormal state) is used. Further, for the S driving circuits, the state information of the same type of LED load is processed using at least one of the following logic operations: AND, OR, averaging, taking the maximum value, and taking the minimum value, to obtain the final state information FB1 / FB2 / FB3 for each group, which is then fed back to the host computer.

[0080] Figure 2a This is a schematic diagram of the register structure using an encoding method of N bits per channel in the first embodiment of the present invention. In this preferred embodiment, each load interface corresponds to N bits of the register, where N equals the number of LED load types.

[0081] Specifically, in this embodiment, the register contains N sub-intervals, each sub-interval corresponding to a type of LED load, and each sub-interval contains M bits. The M bits in each sub-interval correspond one-to-one with the M load interfaces of the driving circuit. By setting the data value of the corresponding bit in the corresponding sub-interval, it is identified whether the corresponding load interface is connected to the type of LED load corresponding to that sub-interval.

[0082] In this embodiment of the invention, the LED load is classified into three types based on its emission color, i.e., N=3. Each load interface corresponds to 3 bits. Taking an 8-load interface per driver circuit as an example, the register within each driver circuit contains at least 24 bits. The register contains 3 sub-areas, each with 8 independent bits. Each sub-area is mapped to 8 load interfaces (denoted as CH1~CH8) through 8 bits to identify whether the corresponding load interface is connected to the type of LED load corresponding to that sub-area. Here, red-emitting LED loads, green-emitting LED loads, and red-blue-emitting LED loads are classified into group 1, group 2, and group 3, respectively, and the corresponding bit bits are represented by the labels CHi_FB1, CHi_FB2, and CHi_FB3, where i is a natural number from 1 to 8.

[0083] Continue to refer to the appendix Figure 2aIn this embodiment, within a single 8-channel (8 load interfaces) drive circuit, three groups (Group 1, Group 2, and Group 3) are defined by three independent 8-bit sub-registers (Group 1 register, Group 2 register, and Group 3 register). Each sub-register's bit corresponds one-to-one with a load interface. When a bit is set to 1, it indicates that the load interface belongs to that group; when a bit is set to 0, it indicates that the load interface does not belong to that group. Specifically, bits 0 through 7 in register 1 correspond to the eight load interfaces CH1 through CH8, respectively, to indicate whether these eight load interfaces CH1 through CH8 are connected to the LED load of group 1, i.e., the LED load emitting red light; bits 0 through 7 in register 2 correspond to the eight load interfaces CH1 through CH8, respectively, to indicate whether these eight load interfaces CH1 through CH8 are connected to the LED load of group 2, i.e., the LED load emitting green light; bits 0 through 7 in register 3 correspond to the eight load interfaces CH1 through CH8, respectively, to indicate whether these eight load interfaces CH1 through CH8 are connected to the LED load of group 3, i.e., the LED load emitting blue light.

[0084] In Group 1 register, when the (i-1)th bit CHi_FB1 is high, it indicates that the (i-1)th load interface is connected to the LED load of Group 1. In Group 2 register, when the (i-1)th bit CHi_FB2 is high, it indicates that the i-th load interface is connected to the LED load of Group 2. In Group 3 register, when the (i-1)th bit CHi_FB3 is high, it indicates that the i-th load interface is connected to the LED load of Group 3. For example, if Group 1 register is set to 10011010, the feedback results from load interfaces 2, 4, 5, and 8 will generate the status information FB1 of Group 1 through logical operations; if Group 2 register is set to 00000101, the feedback results from load interfaces 1 and 3 will generate the status information FB2 of Group 2 through logical operations; if Group 3 register is set to 01100000, the feedback results from load interfaces 6 and 7 will generate the status information FB3 of Group 3 through logical operations. i is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to 8.

[0085] It is understandable that in other implementations, it is also possible to select a bit position of 0 in each sub-register to indicate that the load interface belongs to the group, and a bit position of 1 to indicate that the load interface does not belong to the group, as long as it is possible to distinguish whether the type of LED load is connected to the corresponding load interface.

[0086] It should be noted that, as Figure 2bAs shown, in another implementation, the register may not be configured to define the three groups separately by three independent 8-bit sub-registers (Group 1 register, Group 2 register, and Group 3 register). Instead, a register containing at least 24 bits can be divided into three sub-intervals. Bits 0 to 7 correspond to Group 1, and these eight bits correspond to eight load interfaces CH1 to CH8, respectively, to identify whether the eight load interfaces CH1 to CH8 are connected to the LED load of Group 1, i.e., the red LED load; the eighth bit... Bits 8 through 15 correspond to group 2. These 8 bits correspond to the 8 load interfaces CH1 through CH8 respectively, to indicate whether the 8 load interfaces CH1 through CH8 are connected to the LED load of group 2, that is, the LED load that emits green light; Bits 15 through 23 correspond to group 3. These 8 bits correspond to the 8 load interfaces CH1 through CH8 respectively, to indicate whether the 8 load interfaces CH1 through CH8 are connected to the LED load of group 3, that is, the LED load that emits blue light.

[0087] Similarly, within the register, when the (i-1)th bit CHi_FB1 is high, it indicates that the (i-1)th load interface is connected to the LED load of group 1; when the (i-1)th bit CHi_FB2 is high, it indicates that the i-th load interface is connected to the LED load of group 2; and when the (i-1)th bit CHi_FB3 is high, it indicates that the i-th load interface is connected to the LED load of group 3, where i is a natural number from 1 to 24. For example, if the register data is set to 011000000000010110011010, then the feedback results from load interfaces 2, 4, 5, and 8 will generate the status information FB1 of group 1 through logical operations; the feedback results from load interfaces 1 and 3 will generate the status information FB2 of group 2 through logical operations; and the feedback results from load interfaces 6 and 7 will generate the status information FB3 of group 3 through logical operations.

[0088] Figure 2a and 2b The technical solution in this paper enables the driving circuit to process the status information that needs to be fed back in groups. However, each group requires a complete M-bit register (M is 8 in this embodiment). When the number of groups increases, the number of bits in the register increases linearly, specifically as the product of the number of groups and the number of load interfaces. When more groups or more load interfaces are needed, the number of bits in the register will increase significantly, which will lead to an increase in area and cost.

[0089] Furthermore, in chain communication, traditional methods typically require the host computer to poll the status information of different groups of each drive circuit sequentially, which is inflexible, has low communication efficiency, and cannot dynamically select the group status information that needs to be fed back.

[0090] Based on this, the present invention also proposes a more efficient, flexible, and register-storage-saving information grouping method and a chain feedback mechanism. For example... Figure 3 The diagram shown illustrates the register structure using a P-bit encoding method per channel in the second embodiment of the present invention. In this preferred embodiment, each load interface corresponds to P bits in the register, where the value of P satisfies 2^P ≥ the number of LED load types, that is, 2 to the power of P is not less than the number of LED load types.

[0091] In this embodiment of the invention, the register's bits comprise M sub-intervals, each sub-interval corresponding to a load interface, and each sub-interval contains P bits. The different values ​​of the data formed by the P bits corresponding to each load interface correspond one-to-one with the type of LED load, used to uniquely identify the type of LED load connected to that load interface.

[0092] In this embodiment of the invention, the LED load type is similarly divided into 3 types according to its emission color, i.e., N=3. Since 2^2=4≥3, P=2, and each load interface is allocated 2 bits. Here, we still take 8 load interfaces per driver circuit as an example. The register in each driver circuit contains at least 16 bits. The register contains 8 sub-intervals, each sub-interval has 2 bits, and each sub-interval is mapped to 3 LED load types through 2 bits to uniquely identify the type of LED load corresponding to the load interface. Here, LED loads emitting red light, LED loads emitting green light, and LED loads emitting red and blue light are classified into group 1, group 2, and group 3, respectively, and the sub-interval of the corresponding load interface is represented by the label CHi_FB, where i is a natural number from 1 to 8.

[0093] Continue to refer to the appendix Figure 3 In this embodiment, within a single 8-channel (8 load interfaces) drive circuit, the register is divided into 8 sub-areas, each corresponding to one load interface. Specifically, CH1 corresponds to bits [1:0], CH2 corresponds to bits [3:2], and so on, with CH8 corresponding to bits [15:14]. Each load interface uniquely identifies the type of LED load connected to it through different data combinations consisting of 2 bits.

[0094] In a preferred encoding scheme, each sub-interval is distinguished by a code (00 / 01 / 10) to identify the types of three LED loads: 00 indicates that the load interface corresponding to this sub-interval is connected to the LED load in group 1; 01 indicates that the load interface corresponding to this sub-interval is connected to the LED load in group 2; and 10 indicates that the load interface corresponding to this sub-interval is connected to the LED load in group 3. Additionally, 11 can be reserved for use as an identifier for unused or incorrect load interfaces. It is understood that the codes 00 / 01 / 10 do not uniquely correspond to the types of the three LED loads. For example, codes 00 / 01 / 10 could correspond sequentially to the LED loads in groups 3, 2, and 1, or sequentially to the LED loads in groups 2, 1, and 3. This invention does not limit this.

[0095] In a practical application, load interfaces CH1, CH3, and CH5 are connected to LED loads in group 1, and the register values ​​for two bits in the register sub-ranges CH1_FB, CH3_FB, and CH5_FB are all 00; load interfaces CH2, CH4, and CH6 are connected to LED loads in group 2, and the register values ​​for two bits in the register sub-ranges CH2_FB, CH4_FB, and CH6_FB are all 01; load interfaces CH7 and CH8 are connected to LED loads in group 3, and the register values ​​for two bits in the register sub-ranges CH7_FB and CH8_FB are all 10. Then the data in the entire 16-bit register is: CH8_FB ~ CH1_FB = 10 10 01 0001 00 01 00 (binary).

[0096] After the driver circuit is powered on, it reads the data in the register and can automatically identify the type of LED load for each load interface. In subsequent information sampling, load interfaces with the same light emission color are grouped together to realize the grouped feedback of status information.

[0097] Taking an example of 8 load interfaces and 3 types of LED loads, in this embodiment, P=2 (because 2^2=4≥3), and the register requires 8×2=16 bits, which is much lower than the 24 bits (3×8=24 bits) in the first embodiment, saving about 33% of storage resources. When taking an example of 8 load interfaces and 4 types of LED loads, in this embodiment, P=2 (because 2^2=4≥4), and the register requires 8×2=16 bits, which is much lower than the 32 bits (4×8=32 bits) in the first embodiment, saving about 50% of storage resources. When taking an example of 10 load interfaces and 8 types of LED loads, in this embodiment, P=3 (because 2^3=8≥8), and the register requires 10×3=30 bits, which is much lower than the 80 bits (8×10=80 bits) in the first embodiment, saving about 62.5% of storage resources. Therefore, the number of bits required by the register is determined by the number of load interfaces of the driving circuit and the number of LED load types. The more load interfaces or types there are, the more storage resources the second embodiment can save compared to the first embodiment.

[0098] In a preferred embodiment, when the status information represents the voltage status, each load interface within each drive circuit is configured with a voltage comparator. When the voltage drop of the LED load at that load interface is detected to be lower than a set threshold, a status information indicating an abnormal voltage is output; otherwise, a status information indicating a normal voltage is output. When one LED load in the same group has an abnormal voltage drop, the status information of that group will be abnormal; when all LED loads in the same group have normal voltage drops, the status information of that group will be normal.

[0099] Figure 4 This is a structural diagram of a communication frame. Traditional methods typically require the host computer to sequentially poll the status information of different groups for each driver circuit, making it impossible to dynamically select the group status information to be fed back. This invention further supports the host computer sending communication frames to S driver circuits to indicate the number of status information items each driver circuit needs to acquire and the corresponding LED load type.

[0100] Combining the overall architecture of the backlight system shown in Figure 1, and in Figure 2 ( Figure 2a and Figure 2b )or Figure 3 Based on the register structure shown, in a preferred embodiment, referencing Figure 4As shown, the communication frame VF1 sent by the host computer 0 contains not only instruction bits but also multiple control units and multiple data units. The number of control units in communication frame VF1 is equal to the number of LED load types, and each control unit corresponds one-to-one with a specific LED load type. The data on each control unit indicates whether to provide status information for the corresponding LED load type. Similarly, the number of data units is also equal to the number of LED load types, and each data unit carries status information for its corresponding LED load type.

[0101] During communication frame transmission, S driving circuits sequentially update the data on the data units in the communication frame and forward the updated communication frame to adjacent driving circuits. Specifically, each driving circuit updates the data on the corresponding data unit based on the data on the control unit and the status information of each LED load type. When the data on the corresponding control unit indicates that the status information of the corresponding LED load type needs to be fed back, the data on the data unit corresponding to that type is updated according to the driving circuit's own status information of that type; when the data on the corresponding control unit indicates that the status information of the corresponding LED load type does not need to be fed back, the data on the data unit corresponding to that type remains unchanged. In a preferred embodiment, the original status information of each type of LED load is preset to a normal state or an abnormal state.

[0102] In one implementation, the drive circuit located at the end of the status information feedback link transmits the status information to the host computer via a readback line. Referring to Figure 1, drive circuit 1 is located at the beginning of the link and coupled to host computer 0, while drive circuit S is located at the end of the link. Communication frame VF1 updates the data on the data units of each drive circuit and is then transmitted to drive circuit S. Drive circuit S transmits the finally updated status information FB3 / FB2 / FB1, which integrates the status information of each group from all drive circuits, to host computer 0 via the readback line through port MDO of the host computer.

[0103] In one specific embodiment, the high 3 bits (bits 3-5) of the communication frame VF1 represent control units, denoted as FB3_EN, FB2_EN, and FB1_EN respectively, with each control unit having one control bit. The low 3 bits (bits 2-0) represent data units, denoted as FB3, FB2, and FB1 respectively, with each data unit having one data bit. The valid states on control bits FB3_EN, FB2_EN, and FB1_EN respectively indicate that the status information FB1 of group 1, FB2 of group 2, and FB3 of group 3 needs to be fed back to the host computer 0. The invalid states on control bits FB3_EN, FB2_EN, and FB1_EN respectively indicate that the status information FB1 of group 1, FB2 of group 2, and FB3 of group 3 does not need to be fed back to the host computer 0. In this way, the host computer 0 can select which group status information needs to be fed back each time by setting the valid state of the data on the corresponding control bits (e.g., valid state is data 1, invalid state is data 0). For example, if it is necessary to provide feedback on the status information FB1 of group 1, but not on the status information FB2 of group 2 or FB3 of group 3, the control bits FB3_EN FB2_EN FB1_EN can be set to 100; if it is necessary to provide feedback on the status information FB1 of group 1 and the status information FB2 of group 2, but not on the status information FB3 of group 3, the control bits FB3_EN FB2_EN FB1_EN can be set to 110.

[0104] In a specific communication frame VF1 transmission process, taking a status information of 1 representing an abnormal status information and a status information of 0 representing a normal status information as an example: The host computer 0 sends a communication frame VF1 with initial data bits (FB3, FB2, and FB1 are all 0). The driver circuit 1 receives this communication frame VF1 and, based on the control unit data, determines whether the status information of a certain LED load type needs feedback. If feedback is needed, it performs a logical OR operation between the status information of that type group within the driver circuit and the corresponding data unit in the data unit, writing the result of the logical OR into the corresponding data unit. If no feedback is needed, the corresponding data unit remains unchanged. Then, the driver circuit passes the updated communication frame to the next driver circuit. Subsequent driver circuits repeat the above operation, passing the data level by level. After the last driver circuit completes the data update, it returns the status information FB3 / FB2 / FB1 of each group to the host computer 0 via the read-back line. The host computer 0 parses the data in the data unit to determine whether there is a load interface with an abnormal status information for a certain LED load type on the entire link, and adjusts the corresponding power supply voltage, drive current, or temperature accordingly.

[0105] It should be understood that the above-mentioned data transmission method is only one preferred method. Other methods suitable for data transmission in serial links are all within the protection scope of the embodiments of the present invention. The present invention does not limit the data transmission method.

[0106] In another implementation, without using a readback line, S drive circuits sequentially update the data in the data units of the communication frame from the end of the link to the beginning, and transmit the status information to the host computer through the drive circuit at the beginning. In this implementation, the host computer 0 sends a communication frame VF1 to indicate the need for status information feedback. During the transmission of this communication frame VF1, that is, during the transmission from drive circuit 1 to drive circuit S, the data in the data units of the communication frame VF1 is not updated. Instead, after all drive circuits have received the communication frame VF1, starting from the drive circuit at the end of the link, the data in the data units of the communication frame VF1 is updated sequentially to the drive circuit 1 at the beginning. The host computer 0 receives the finally updated status information FB3 / FB2 / FB1, which integrates the status information of each group from all drive circuits, through port MDI.

[0107] Figure 5 This is a timing diagram illustrating how the host computer parses the status information of each group bit by bit according to the control unit. The host computer 0 completes the transmission of communication frame VF1 via port SDI after a predetermined delay T. DELAY Then, based on the data received from the data unit, it is determined whether the status information of each group is normal.

[0108] Assuming the transmission speed of communication frame VF1 is very fast, approximately instantaneous, it can complete the transmission from port MDO of the host computer, sequentially through the second connection port SDO of driver circuit 1, the second connection port SDO of driver circuit 2, and so on, until driver circuit S. When the last driver circuit S needs to transmit status information back to host computer 0, it can output the status information of each group bit by bit to host computer 0 according to the enable status of each group represented by the data of the control unit, in a time-division multiplexing manner. For example, if FB1_EN=1, then in the first time slot T... FB Output the status information level FB1 of group 1; if FB_2_EN=1, then in the second time interval T FB Output the status information level FB2 of group 1; if the corresponding enable bit is 0, the bus level remains unchanged (or remains high impedance). The host computer 0 waits for a predetermined delay time T after sending the communication frame. DELAY Then, in time slot T FB By sequentially sampling the readback lines, the state information of all required packets can be obtained. In this example, FB1_EN=1, FB2_EN=1, FB_3_EN=0, therefore the first and second time slots T... FB Output FB1 and FB2 respectively, in the third time slot T.FB Keep the voltage level unchanged.

[0109] It should be noted that, in this embodiment, a level signal is used as the carrier of status information. In other embodiments, communication commands (data packets) may also be used as the carrier of status information, and this invention is not limited to this.

[0110] This invention has at least the following beneficial effects: 1. Saves register storage space: By adopting a load-interface encoding method (P bits per load interface), the register size is reduced from the product of the number of LED load types and the number of load interfaces to the product of the number of load interfaces and the number of LED load types, rounded up to the base 2. For an RGB system with 8 load interfaces and 3 LED load types, the size is reduced from 24 bits to 16 bits, saving approximately 33% of storage resources. The more load interfaces and types there are, the more significant the saving effect. 2. Flexible and controllable feedback status information: Through the control unit in the communication frame, the host computer can dynamically select which groups of status information need to be read, reducing the transmission of invalid data and improving communication efficiency. 3. Supports chained cumulative operations: Utilizing a chained OR / AND logic, only one propagation from head to tail (or tail to head) is needed to obtain the summarized status information of each group in the entire link, eliminating the need for individual addressing or polling, greatly shortening the feedback time. 4. Compatible with multiple feedback paths, supporting both backward (returning via the end readback line) and forward (returning via the beginning) transmission, adapting to different system topologies. 5. Highly versatile, applicable not only to voltage status information but also to the grouping and summarizing of sampled information such as current and temperature.

[0111] This invention also provides an architecture diagram of a complete RGB backlight system, including a host computer, three adjustable power supplies (for supplying power to three types of LED loads respectively), multiple series driving circuits, and RGB LED loads driven by each driving circuit. The three types of LED loads correspond to LED loads emitting red light, LED loads emitting green light, and LED loads emitting red and blue light, respectively.

[0112] The above description is merely a preferred embodiment of the present invention and is not intended to limit the invention. For those skilled in the art, the present invention can be modified and varied in various ways. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc., made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. An information grouping method applied to a backlight system, the backlight system comprising S driving circuits and at least two types of LED loads coupled sequentially, each driving circuit comprising M load interfaces, characterized in that, Each of the aforementioned load interfaces is coupled to an LED load of one type; According to the preset encoding rules, a set of data corresponding to the type of LED load coupled to each of the M load interfaces is generated; Read this set of data to determine the type of LED load coupled to each load interface; Based on the sampling information of the load interfaces coupled to the same type of LED load among S*M load interfaces, the status information of the LED load of that type is obtained, where M is a natural number not less than 2 and S is a natural number not less than 1.

2. The information grouping method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The driving circuit includes a register for storing the data, and each load interface corresponds to at least one bit of the register.

3. The information grouping method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The number of bits required by the register is determined by the number of load interfaces of the driver circuit and the number of types of LED loads.

4. The information grouping method according to claim 3, characterized in that, Each load interface corresponds to N bits of the register, where N equals the number of types of LED loads.

5. The information grouping method according to claim 4, characterized in that, The register contains N sub-intervals, each sub-interval corresponding to a type of LED load, and each sub-interval contains at least M bits.

6. The information grouping method according to claim 5, characterized in that, The M bits in each sub-interval correspond one-to-one with the M load interfaces. By setting the value of the corresponding bit in the corresponding sub-interval, it is identified whether the corresponding load interface is connected to the type of LED load corresponding to that sub-interval.

7. The information grouping method according to claim 3, characterized in that, Each load interface corresponds to P bits in the register, where the value of P satisfies that 2 to the power of P is not less than the number of types of LED loads.

8. The information grouping method according to claim 7, characterized in that, The value of P is configured to be the result of rounding up the logarithm of the number of LED load types to base 2.

9. The information grouping method according to claim 7, characterized in that, The register contains M sub-intervals, each sub-interval corresponding to a load interface, and each sub-interval contains P bits.

10. The information grouping method according to claim 7, characterized in that, The different values ​​of the data consisting of P bits in the register corresponding to each load interface correspond one-to-one with the type of LED load, and are used to uniquely identify the type of LED load connected to the load interface.

11. The information grouping method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The type of LED load is distinguished according to the color of light emitted by the LED load.

12. The information grouping method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The backlight system also includes a host computer, which sends communication frames to the S driving circuits to indicate the number of status information items that the S driving circuits need to acquire each time and the corresponding LED load type.

13. The information grouping method according to claim 12, characterized in that, The communication frame contains multiple control units, the number of which is equal to the number of LED load types, and each control unit corresponds one-to-one with the LED load type. The data of each control unit is used to indicate whether to provide status information for the corresponding LED load type.

14. The information grouping method according to claim 13, characterized in that, The communication frame also includes multiple data units, the number of which is equal to the number of LED load types, and each data unit corresponds one-to-one with the type of LED load. The data of each data unit is configured as the status information of the corresponding LED load type.

15. The information grouping method according to claim 14, characterized in that, The S driving circuits sequentially update the data on the data unit in the communication frame and forward the updated communication frame to the adjacent driving circuit; each driving circuit updates the data on the corresponding data unit according to the data on the control unit and the status information of the type of each of its own LED loads.

16. The information grouping method according to claim 15, characterized in that, When the data indicator on the corresponding control unit needs to provide feedback on the status information of the corresponding LED load type, the data on the data unit corresponding to that type is updated according to the status information of that type of the drive circuit itself; when the data indicator on the corresponding control unit does not need to provide feedback on the status information of the corresponding LED load type, the data on the data unit corresponding to that type remains unchanged.

17. The information grouping method according to claim 15, characterized in that, The S driving circuits update the data in the data unit of the communication frame sequentially from the beginning of the link to the end of the link. The driving circuit located at the end of the link transmits the status information to the host computer through the readback line. The driving circuit at the beginning of the link is coupled to the host computer.

18. The information grouping method according to claim 15, characterized in that, The S driving circuits update the data in the data unit of the communication frame sequentially from the end of the link to the beginning of the link. The driving circuit located at the beginning of the link transmits the status information to the host computer. The driving circuit at the beginning of the link is coupled to the host computer.

19. The information grouping method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The sampling information includes at least one of the voltage sampling value, current sampling value, or temperature sampling value of the corresponding load interface.

20. The information grouping method according to claim 12, characterized in that, The status information of the same type of LED load is processed by at least one of the following methods: logical AND, logical OR, average, maximum value, and minimum value, in order to obtain the final status information fed back to the host computer.

21. The information grouping method according to claim 12, characterized in that, After the host computer sends the communication frame after a predetermined delay, it determines whether the status information of each group is normal based on the data in the data unit of the received communication frame.

22. The information grouping method according to claim 17 or 18, characterized in that, When the drive circuit at the beginning or end of the link transmits the status information back to the host computer, the status information of each group is output bit by bit to the host computer according to whether the status information of each LED load type represented by the data of the control unit has been fed back, in a time-division multiplexing manner.

23. A driving circuit, applied to a backlight system, characterized in that, The driving circuit includes a register, a read circuit, and M load interfaces; Each of the aforementioned load interfaces is coupled to one of at least two types of LED loads; The data stored in the register is set by a preset encoding rule so that the data corresponds to the type of LED load coupled to the M load interfaces respectively; The reading circuit determines the type of LED load coupled to each load interface based on the data in the register. Based on the sampling information of the load interface coupled to the same type of LED load, the status information of the corresponding type of LED load is obtained.

24. The driving circuit according to claim 23, characterized in that, It also includes a first connection port, a second connection port, and processing circuitry, wherein, The first connection port is coupled to the host computer or the previous level drive circuit connected to it; The second connection port is coupled to the next-level drive circuit connected to it or left unused; The processing circuit updates the status information of the corresponding type of LED load based on the status information of each type of LED load.

25. The driving circuit according to claim 24, characterized in that, The original status information for each type of LED load is preset to either normal or abnormal status.

26. The driving circuit according to claim 24, characterized in that, When the driving circuit is configured as the first or the Sth in the backlight system, the processing circuit therein is used to generate the state information of the LED load of a certain type based on the state information of the S LED loads of a certain type, and transmit it to the host computer, where S is the number of driving circuits connected in series in the backlight system.

27. The driving circuit according to claim 23, characterized in that, It also includes M sampling circuits, each corresponding to one of the M load interfaces, and used to acquire the sampling information of the M load interfaces respectively.

28. The driving circuit according to claim 23, characterized in that, The number of bits required by the register is determined by the number of load interfaces M of the driver circuit and the number of LED load types N.

29. The driving circuit according to claim 28, characterized in that, Each load interface corresponds to P bits in the register, where the value of P satisfies that 2 to the power of P is not less than the number of LED load types N.

30. The driving circuit according to claim 29, characterized in that, The number of bits required by the register is no less than M*P.

31. The driving circuit according to claim 29, characterized in that, The different values ​​of the data consisting of P bits in the register corresponding to each load interface correspond one-to-one with the type of LED load, and are used to uniquely identify the type of LED load connected to the load interface.

32. An RGB backlighting system, comprising: Multiple sequentially coupled driving circuits as described in any one of claims 23-31 and three types of LED loads; Each driver circuit is used to control at least one type of LED load in the RGB backlight system.

33. The RGB backlight system according to claim 32, characterized in that, The three types of LED loads correspond to LED loads that emit red light, LED loads that emit green light, and LED loads that emit red and blue light, respectively.

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