US-12625579-B2 - Driving system having multiple driver circuits for cooperatively driving display panel and driver circuit thereof

US12625579B2US 12625579 B2US12625579 B2US 12625579B2US-12625579-B2

Abstract

A driving system includes a plurality of driver circuits each having a first terminal and a second terminal. The first terminal is commonly coupled to a first transmission bus, and the second terminal is commonly coupled to a second transmission bus. The driver circuits include a first driver circuit and at least one second driver circuit. Each second driver circuit generates a notification. The first driver circuit receives the notification from each second driver circuit, outputs a confirmation signal through the first terminal after receiving the notification, and starts a preset operation for sensing with a delay of a compensation time for the first driver circuit after outputting the confirmation signal. The second driver circuit further receives the confirmation signal through the first terminal, and starts the preset operation for sensing with a delay of a compensation time for the respective second driver circuit after receiving the confirmation signal.

Inventors

Chung-Yu HSU

Assignees

NOVATEK MICROELECTRONICS CORP.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20240902

Claims (6)

1 . A driving system comprising: a plurality of driver circuits, each of the plurality of driver circuits having a first terminal and a second terminal, the first terminal of each of the plurality of driver circuits being commonly coupled to a first transmission bus, and the second terminal of each of the plurality of driver circuits being commonly coupled to a second transmission bus, wherein each of at least one second driver circuit among the plurality of driver circuits is configured to generate a notification; wherein a first driver circuit among the plurality of driver circuits is configured to receive the notification from each of the at least one second driver circuit, the first driver circuit is configured to output a confirmation signal through the first terminal of the first driver circuit after receiving the notification from each of the at least one second driver circuit, and the first driver circuit is configured to start a preset operation for sensing with a delay of a compensation time for the first driver circuit after outputting the confirmation signal; wherein the at least one second driver circuit further receives the confirmation signal through the first terminal, and starts the preset operation for sensing with a delay of a compensation time for the respective second driver circuit after receiving the confirmation signal.
2 . The driving system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of driver circuits comprise more than 3 driver circuits.
3 . The driving system of claim 1 , wherein each of the at least one second driver circuit generates the notification when obtaining a sensing start signal, and the first driver circuit outputs the confirmation signal after obtaining the sensing start signal.
4 . The driving system of claim 3 , wherein each of the at least one second driver circuit generates the notification by converting the second terminal of each of at least one of the plurality of driver circuits from a first level to a second level.
5 . The driving system of claim 4 , wherein the first driver circuit receives the notification by monitoring the second transmission bus to determine whether the second terminal of the first driver circuit is pulled to the second level.
6 . The driving system of claim 3 , wherein the first driver circuit receives the notification through a command line.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a division of U.S. application Ser. No. 18/225,156, filed on Jul. 23, 2023. The content of the application is incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a driving system and driver circuits, and more particularly, to a driving system having multiple driver circuits for cooperatively driving a display panel. 2. Description of the Prior Art In various electronic products such as mobile phones, GPS navigator systems, monitors, laptops and computers, a touch panel is widely utilized as the interface for data communications. The touch panel is a human-based input device, which complies with requirements for hierarchy menu, and possesses keyboard and mouse functions and human-based operations such as handwriting input as well. Particularly, the touch panel is capable of integrating input and output functions in the same interface, e.g. the screen. This feature is far superior to the conventional input devices. Due to the trends of increasing size and resolution, a touch panel may be commonly driven by multiple driver circuits (e.g., driver integrated circuits (ICs)). Each driver circuit is responsible to control the touch sensing and display operations of a corresponding area on the touch panel. In the touch sensing operations, a driver circuit outputs a touch driving signal to the corresponding area, where the touch driving signal is usually a sine wave signal. If the touch driving signals of two driver circuits are not synchronized, the received sensing signals may not be well demodulated. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a driving system and driver circuits for controlling a touch panel, where the driver circuits may perform touch sensing with a synchronous timing. An embodiment of the present invention discloses a driving system, which comprises a plurality of driver circuits each having a first terminal and a second terminal. The first terminal of each of the plurality of driver circuits is commonly coupled to a first transmission bus, and the second terminal of each of the plurality of driver circuits is commonly coupled to a second transmission bus. The plurality of driver circuits comprise a first driver circuit and at least one second driver circuit. Each of the at least one second driver circuit generates a notification. The first driver circuit receives the notification from each of the at least one second driver circuit, outputs a confirmation signal through the first terminal after receiving the notification from each of the at least one second driver circuit, and starts a preset operation for sensing with a delay of a compensation time for the first driver circuit after outputting the confirmation signal. The at least one second driver circuit further receives the confirmation signal through the first terminal, and starts the preset operation for sensing with a delay of a compensation time for the respective second driver circuit after receiving the confirmation signal. Another embodiment of the present invention discloses a first driver circuit couplable to at least one second driver circuit. Each of the first driver circuit and the at least one second driver circuit has a first terminal and a second terminal. The first terminal of each of the first driver circuit and the at least one second driver circuit is commonly coupled to a first transmission bus, and the second terminal of each of the first driver circuit and the at least one second driver circuit is commonly coupled to a second transmission bus. The first driver circuit outputs a first synchronization signal to the first transmission bus through the first terminal, receives a second synchronization signal from the second transmission bus through the second terminal wherein the second synchronization signal is output by one of the at least one second driver circuit at the time when the one of the at least one second driver circuit receives the first synchronization signal, and calculates a compensation time corresponding to the one of the at least one second driver circuit according to an output time point of the first synchronization signal and a reception time point of the second synchronization signal. Another embodiment of the present invention discloses a first driver circuit couplable to at least one second driver circuit. Each of the first driver circuit and the at least one second driver circuit has a first terminal and a second terminal. The first terminal of each of the first driver circuit and the at least one second driver circuit is commonly coupled to a first transmission bus, and the second terminal of each of the first driver circuit and the at least one second driver circuit is commonly coupled to a second transmission bus. The first driver circuit receives a notification from each of the at least one second driver circuit, outputs