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Introduction
LEDs are current driven devices. matrix including arrays formed (A,1) i.e. row A, column 1. This
It is relatively simple to drive sev- using discrete LEDs. method of addressing also indi-
eral LEDs individually. However, cates the flow of electrical
as the number of LEDs increases, This application note is especially current. In order to turn LED
the amount of resources needed relevant to these products and (A,1) on, current is caused to flow
to operate these LEDs will grow applications: from A to 1. If switches are at-
to an unmanageable level. As tached to each port A to D and 1
such, LEDs are often arranged in • Single Color and Bi-Color Tiles to 4, then, to turn the top-left LED
matrices in order to make effi- • 8x8 Rich color tiles on, switches A and 1 are made to
cient use of resources. (HDSP-R881/R883) conduct. The other LEDs will not
• LED arrays (composed of LED have any current flowing because
In a matrix format, LEDs are ar- lamps, chip LEDs, etc.) either their row or column switch
ranged in rows and columns. This • LED video screens is non-conducting.
arrangement will be discussed in • Moving message panels
more detail later. What should be Figure 1 shows two different con-
noted here is that the matrix ar- Basic Structure of an LED Matrix figurations. The difference is in
rangement demands that LEDs be We will confine our discussion, the method that is used to drive
driven in multiplex. The multiplex initially, to the 4x4 matrices as the LEDs. With the common-row
sequence inevitably requires more shown below in Figure 1. The un- anode configuration, current
complex processing but is more derlying principle here is that sinks are attached to ports 1 to 4.
efficient compared to individually each LED can be addressed by With the common-row cathode,
driving each LED. specifying its location in terms of current sources are attached to
rows and columns. For example, ports 1 to 4.
This application note will also de- the top-left LED is addressed as
scribe how the brightness of each
individual LED can be controlled
in multiplex mode. It involves di- 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
viding the LED driving sequence
into three levels in the time do- A A
main. The last section will
introduce several ICs that are B B
widely used in driving LEDs.
C C
This note is intended to support
the design of messaging and video D D
systems using LED tiles. How-
ever, the concepts and techniques
introduced here apply to any LED
Figure 1. Common-row anode (left) and common-row cathode (right) matrix arrangements.
Multiplexing an LED Matrix
Multiplexing is the technique plex is employed here. Only one
employed to operate LED row is energized at any one time.
matrices. By multiplexing, only During the period in which a
one row of the LED matrix is given row is energized, the de-
activated at any one time. This sired LEDs are lit by energizing
approach is required because one the appropriate columns. Some-
end of the LED (either the anode times this process is known as
or the cathode) is tied to a single scanning.
row. From Figure 2, we can see
that if current is applied to both 1 2 3 4
rows A and B at the same time, A
3
A+B D
4
C
Figure 3. Multiplexing an LED matrix. Current flows when the switches are pressed. The figure
on the left is a time chart showing when and which switches are pressed. The circles in the
D figure on the right indicate which LEDs are lit when the sequence is deployed.
2
1 PERIOD 1 PERIOD 1 PERIOD 1 PERIOD
ON
LED 1
OFF
ON
LED 2
OFF
Figure 5. Switching sequence of two LEDs. LED1 will appear brighter than LED2 because it is
turned on for a longer time within a period.
pulse width modulation (PWM). is to divide each scanning period the time slot, the finer the bright-
This concept is illustrated in into time slots. Thus, we now ness control. It is limited by the
Figure 5. have a time domain hierarchy. switching time of the driving sys-
tem, which in turn determines the
However, the driving system Brightness Control of an Individual minimum length of a time slot.
shown in Figure 4 will activate an LED LED switching time is not an
entire row at the same time. How The PWM technique described issue since it is very short (several
do we control the brightness of here can be extended beyond the tens of ns).
each individual LED? The answer 4 grey scale system; the narrower
Fn - 1 Fn Fn + 1 FRAME
Figure 6. Hierarchy for a 4 grey scale, 1/4 duty factor system. Frame refers to a complete image on a 4x4 LED display.
Frame rate is the number of frames per second (see below).
1 2 3 4
SCAN PERIOD
A A
4 3 2 1
B
C B
D 4 2 1 0
1
2 C
0 1 2 3
3
4 D
3 0 2 4
Figure 7. Individual LED brightness control technique in a multiplex scheme. The timing diagram on the left shows 4
scan periods (A to D) and 4 time slots within each scan period. Each scan period corresponds to one row of LEDs.
The figure on the left shows the relative brightness of each LED. Brightness decreases from 4 to 0.
3
Frames and Persistence of Vision
Frames here are defined as the 4. Refresh rate - the frequency of 7. PWM - Pulse Width Modulation,
final image on the display that is the images being displayed. the common method used to
to be presented to the observer. 5. Brightness control - control control light output from an
Frames can be simple characters of the overall brightness of the LED (see Figure 10).
or pictures. Video works by pre- display. 8. Scan period - the period of
senting a set of frames so quickly 6. Gray scale - control over the time a common-line is activated
that the observer does not per- brightness of each LED in order (see Figure 7).
ceive any discontinuity. The rate to generate multiple color com- 9. Peak forward current - the
at which the frames are refreshed binations. e.g. 8-bit gray scale maximum forward current that
is termed the refresh frequency. If per LED (red, green and blue) the LED is subjected to (see
the frequency is above a certain means that the brightness of Figure 10).
threshold frequency, the observer each LED can be controlled to 10. Average forward current -
will not notice any flickering. For 256 “shades”. By mixing the the time averaged current the
LED displays, a refresh rate of three colors contained in a LED experiences (see Figure
above 60 Hz is recommended. pixel, 256x256x256 (16.7 mil- 10).
lion) or 24-bit color depth is
Persistence of vision is the human achieved. 1 PIXEL
visual phenomenon that allows
video images to be viewed with- COMMON LINE
out flicker. When the human
COMMON LINE
visual system is presented with an
image, that image continues to be COMMON LINE
perceived even though it is no COMMON LINE
longer in the visual field of the ob-
server, albeit for a short time. This
G1 ACCESS LINE
G2 ACCESS LINE
R1 ACCESS LINE
R2 ACCESS LINE
B1 ACCESS LINE
B2 ACCESS LINE
Terminology
ton
1. Common line - see Figure 8. TIME
DUTY FACTOR = ton/T T
2. Access line - see Figure 8.
3. Pixel/dot - pixel and dot refer
Figure 10. Definition of PWM and peak forward current. Average current,
to the same object (see Figure Iavg, is Ipeak x D.F. where Ipeak is peak forward current and D.F. is duty
9). factor. Generally, higher Iavg results in higher brightness. Hence, the top
pulse train will produce a brighter LED than the bottom one.
4
Display System Structure
This section concentrates on
video displays. The drivers used
here are constant current latches
and intelligent drivers.
SIGNAL
SOURCE
MODULES MODULES MODULES MODULES
Figure 11. Typical structure of an LED standalone display panel. At the top-level is the display screen controller
followed by the panel controller which governs the operation of the LED module.
SCREEN D
D
EC
R
EA
SI
N
G
PANEL D/p DA
TA
Q
UA
N
TI
TY
MODULE D/(p × m)
Figure 12. Hierarchy of a display screen - a screen consists of several panels while a panel consists of
several modules. D is the amount of data per screen. e.g. in a 320x240 pixel screen with 24-bit color depth, D =
320x240x24 = 1.84 million bits. p = number of panels per screen and m = number of modules per panel.
COMMON-LINE DRIVER
SHIFT-REGISTER
LED ARRAY
COMMON-LINE DRIVE
BRIGHTNESS CONTROL GAMMA CORRECTION RAM
CONTROL
THE MODULE CONTROLLER RECEIVES THE VIDEO (IMAGE) DATA THE ACCESS-LINE DRIVERS ARE CURRENT SINKS IN
AND PROCESSES IT i.e. COLOR AND GAMMA CORRECTION. IT WILL THIS EXAMPLE OF A COMMON-ANODE LED ARRAY
THEN DISTRIBUTE THE DATA TO THE COMMON-LINE AND ACCESS CONFIGURATION. MOST DRIVERS INCORPORATE
LINE DRIVERS. THE CONTROLLER IS ALSO RESPONSIBLE FOR A SHIFT REGISTER TO ALLOW SERIAL INTERFACING.
PRODUCING THE CONTROL SIGNALS THAT GOVERN THE OPERATION THE CURRENT SINKS ARE PRESET TO A
OF THE DRIVERS. THE CONTROLLER CAN BE IMPLEMENTED WITH AN PARTICULAR VALUE BY SETTING AN EXTERNAL
FPGA OR ASIC SOLUTION. TRIMMING RESISTOR. THIS VALUE WILL BE THE
PEAK FORWARD CURRENT OF THE LED. THE
CURRENT SINKS ARE ACTIVATED BY THE VALUE OF
THE SHIFT REGISTER OUTPUT. TYPICALLY, A '1' WILL
THE COMMON-LINE DRIVER ACTS AS A POWER LINE SWITCH. WHEN
TURN THE SINK ON AND VICE VERSA. GRAY SCALE
USED IN COMBINATION WITH THE MODULE CONTROLLER, THE
GENERATION INVOLVES MULTIPLE ACCESS-LINE
COMMON-LINE DRIVER WILL ENERGIZE ONE COMMON-LINE AT A
DATA LATCHING WITHIN A SINGLE SCAN PERIOD.
TIME - A MULTIPLEXING PROCESS. HENCE, THE CURRENT SINKS
THIS IS EXPLAINED FURTHER LATER.
ATTACHED TO THE ACCESS LINES WILL DRIVE ONLY ONE ROW OF
LEDs AT ANY ONE TIME
6
The module controller manages
and processes the video data for
the module. It has several key
functions, which are shown in Fig-
ure 13 on the previous page. Each
is described below:
1. Common-line drive control - Gray scales are achieved by di- 7. Gamma correction - corrects
manages the multiplexing ac- viding each scan period into the non-linear transfer function
tion of the module. It controls 256 time slots (more slots are of the LED screen. Put another
which common-line is to be en- needed for a larger number of way, the signal transfer be-
ergized and synchronizes with gray levels). Thus, the access- tween the electrical and optical
the access-line drive control to line drivers are latched with components of the display sys-
ensure that the correct row data 256 times in a single scan tem is non-linear. This leads to
data is fed into the access-line period. expansion of the bright region
drivers. and compression of the dim re-
4. Brightness control - bright- gion. NTSC and PAL video
2. Access-line drive control - ness control is different from signals are gamma-corrected
determines which LED in the gray scales. Brightness control prior to transmission to elimi-
currently energized common- refers to the control of the nate the non-linear effect of the
line row is to be turned ON. The display’s overall luminance display. Hence, the display
TB62706 (Toshiba), for ex- value, not an individual LED. must take this into account to
ample, has 16 current-sink Manipulating the length of the obtain a linear signal transfer
outputs and a shift register for scan period can control the function. This topic will be fur-
serial interface. A “1” will turn overall luminance or ther discussed in the next
on the LED and vice-versa. brightness. section.
7
SCAN
SCAN PERIOD PERIOD
A
ROW 1
B
ROW 2 C
1
ROW H-1
ROW H
3
COL 1
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
COL 2
1 2 3 4
COL V-1
COL V A
4 3 2 1
LATCH B
SIGNALS
4 2 1 0
LATCHING SEQUENCE
C
Figure 14. Implementing gray scale control. H = number of rows in a module and V = number of columns in a module.
The arrows (in the top-right figure) indicate data latches into the access-line drivers - 4 per scan period in
this example. The bottom-right figure shows the effect - 4 is brightest, 1 is dimmest and 0 is off.
The two figures on the right are single scan period. That allows us tion, if more gray scales are re-
taken from the earlier section. It to control the pulse width applied quired, we simply need to
shows the timing sequence used to each individual LED. Four gray increase the number of data
to produce a 4 gray scale system. scales are produced. Although the latches to the access-line drivers
We can observe from the top right example is of a simple 4x4 LED within a single scan period.
figure that data is latched into the matrix, the same concept applies
access-line drivers 4 times in a for larger array of LEDs. In addi-
8
SCAN
SCAN PERIOD
PERIOD
ROW 1
ROW 1
ROW 2 ROW 2
ROW H-1
ROW H-1
ROW H
ROW H
Figure 15. Brightness control by manipulating the length of a scan period. The overall luminance
of the display will be brighter with longer scan periods (figure on the left).
Fn - 1 Fn Fn + 1 Fn - 1 Fn Fn + 1
COL 1 TS1 TS2 TSG-1 TSG COL 1 TS1 TS2 TSG-1 TSG
COL 2 TS1 TS2 TSG-1 TSG COL 2 TS1 TS2 TSG-1 TSG
COL V TS1 TS2 TSG-1 TSG COL V TS1 TS2 TSG-1 TSG
CLOCK CLOCK
F - Frame
n - Frame index
SP - Scan Period
H - number of rows in a module
V - number of columns in a module
G - number of gray scales (equivalent to number of time slots)
Figure 16. The concept of Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) for light output control. Manipulating the width of
the Scan Period (SP) affects the overall brightness of the display screen (figure on the right). Increasing the
number of data latches (time slots) per scan period increases the number of gray scales.
All the data latches (time slots) ure 16), the module controller
need to be contained in a single must ensure that all the data
scan period. If the scan period is latches occur within that short-
shortened to reduce the overall ened scan period.
brightness of the screen (see Fig-
9
RED
UCN5891
GREEN
BLUE
DATA
RED TB62706
GREEN TB62706
BLUE TB62706
Figure 17. Interfacing a three-color LED array to the drivers. The UCN5891 incorporates a shift
register. By connecting the serial output to the serial input and loading the register with “0”s,
we can scan the common lines by shifting a single “1” through the register. The TB62706 has 16
current-sink outputs (only two outputs are shown above). We can either dedicate one data line
per driver or cascade the three drivers in series (shown above). Cascading will reduce the
number of data lines to one but requires a higher data rate.
10
Intelligent drivers
The previous section demon- the common-line driving. Bright-
strated the concept of using ness control is also offloaded to
constant-current latches at the the intelligent drivers. Intelligent
low side of the LED array. drivers are highly recommended
Although more expensive, for video applications.
intelligent drivers reduce the com-
plexity of the module controller Detailed explanation of these
considerably. As shown below in drivers is beyond the scope of this
Figure 18, intelligent drivers will application note. Please refer to
manage the generation of gray the appropriate driver data sheet.
scales. The module controller, (E.g. TLC5911 from Texas Instru-
however, still needs to manage ments. See Appendix B.)
COMMON-LINE DRIVER
SHIFT-REGISTER
LED ARRAY
11
Gamma correction
The transfer function between the
electrical and optical components
of a display system is non-linear.
If this non-linearity is not compen-
sated, high brightness regions are
expanded and dim regions are
compressed. The figure below
shows the characteristic.
1.0
GAMMA-CORRECTED
DATA
RESULT
0.5
LED DISPLAY
CHARACTERISTIC
0 0.5 1.0
Figure 19. Gamma correction. The LED display’s transfer function follows a
power law. To compensate for the non-linearity, video data is gamma-
corrected. The result is a linear transfer function.
As an example, CRT displays have where Rin`, Gin` and Bin` are the others use 10 bits for increased
a gamma of around 0.45. Hence, incoming video signals from the picture quality. T.I. has an intelli-
video source: gent driver that has gray scales up
Rdisplay = Rin2.2 to 10 bits (TLC5911).
Gdisplay = Gin2.2 Rdisplay = (Rin`0.45)2.2 = Rin`
Gdisplay = (Gin`0.45)2.2 = Gin` Picture quality is a subjective
Bdisplay = Bin2.2 measurement. Display makers
Bdisplay = (Bin`0.45)2.2 = Bin`
usually tune their screens for
where Rin, Gin and Bin are the data acceptable brightness, contrast,
input into the display drivers. If A linear relationship will then be
and gamma before deployment.
we gamma-correct Rin, Gin and established. Gamma-correction is
Bin: usually implemented using a look-
up table, e.g. PROM or DSP.
Rin` = Rin0.45 However, digital circuitry has fi-
nite resolution. For that reason,
Gin` = Gin0.45
the gamma-corrected data
Bin` = Bin0.45 should have a higher resolution.
Some screen builders use an 8-bit
to 9-bit gamma correction while
12
Color Space Transformation
Rich-color displays possess a
color space that is significantly
FULL-COLOR
smaller than full-color displays. If FULL-COLOR
the incoming video signals as- RICH-COLOR
RICH-COLOR
sume that the display it is driving
has a full-color space, the colors
on the rich-color display will ap-
pear compressed. Color-correction
can be implemented using a look-
up table as well. Detailed
description on this subject is,
however, beyond the scope of this
note.
Data distribution
Figure 20. CIE chromaticity diagram showing the color spaces for a full-color display and a rich color
As mentioned earlier, it is best to
display. The two bands of color are compressed on the rich-color space if color-correction is not
break down a display system into performed.
the module level and the panel
level. Each is responsible for data
distribution at its own level. The
module controller will be respon- MODULE MODULE MODULE MODULE
sible for distributing data within its
panel and a given panel controller
PANEL PANEL
will only receive data relevant for
that given panel. The controller
MODULE MODULE MODULE MODULE
should ignore all other data. This
simplifies management of data.
MODULE MODULE MODULE MODULE
13
Appendix A: Choosing a Driver
Table 1. Characteristics of Various LED Drivers
Type Limiting resistor ASSP [1] CC[2] latch driver Intelligent driver
LED brightness Poor * Excellent Excellent
consistency
Maximum forward Limited by resistor Moderate (~50 mA) Moderate (~90 mA) Moderate (~90 mA)
current power rating
Additional comments Use only when Designed for Data usually Brightness of
brightness standard LED stored in internal individual LEDs
consistency is packages shift register can be digitally
not critical. e.g. 7-segment (SIPO [4]). Current controlled
display and 5x7 control via (as fine as 1024
dot matrix. external resistor. brightness levels)
Notes:
* Specifications vary manufacturer-to-manufacturer.
[1] Application Specific Standard Product
[2 ] Constant-current
[3] $ - cents/LED array, $$ - ~$0.50/output and $$$$ - ~$5.00/IC
[4] Serial-in, Parallel-out
Standard LED displays ASSP E.g. Seven-segment, 5x7 dot matrix and bar
graph arrays.
14
Appendix B: Access-line Drivers
CC driver latches and intelligent drivers are recommended for video applications.
ASSPs are used for standard products such as 5x7 tiles and segmented displays.
(continues)
15
Appendix B: Access-line Drivers (continued)
16
Appendix C: Common-line Drivers
17
www.semiconductor.agilent.com
Data subject to change.
Copyright © 2001 Agilent Technologies, Inc.
May 7, 2001
5980-3132EN