LED device, LED driving circuit and method

This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application Patent No. 61/528,793, filed Aug. 30, 2011, and Taiwan application Serial No. 100135367, filed Sep. 29, 2011, the subject matters of which are incorporated herein by reference.

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a light-emitting diode (LED) device and an LED driving circuit and method.

2. Description of the Related Art

At present, an LED tends to serve as a backlight module of a flat display panel. However, two polar plates of a capacitor of the LED driver tend to deform when the voltage and the current of the LED driver in the backlight module are always changing, and an inductor of the LED driver also generates the retractable deformation. The capacitor and the inductor generate audible noise in the deformation process.

The invention is directed to an LED device, an LED driving circuit and an LED driving method, in which an LED driving signal is shifted toward a higher frequency direction so that the frequency of the LED driving signal after frequency shifting exceeds the human auditory sensitivity.

According to a first aspect, an LED driving circuit including an LED control circuit and a power stage circuit is provided. The LED control circuit shifts an input pulse width modulation (PWM) signal toward a higher frequency direction in a frequency domain to generate an output PWM signal having a duty cycle substantially the same as a duty cycle of the input PWM signal. The power stage circuit outputs an LED driving current according to the output PWM signal.

According to a second aspect, an LED device is provided. The LED device includes one to multiple strings of LEDs and the LED driving circuit. The LED driving circuit is coupled to the one to multiple strings of LEDs and drives the one to multiple strings of LEDs.

According to a third aspect, an LED driving method is provided. The method includes the following steps. First, an LED control circuit is utilized to shift an input PWM signal toward a higher frequency direction in a frequency domain to generate an output PWM signal having a duty cycle substantially the same as a duty cycle of the input PWM signal. Next, a power stage circuit is utilized to output an LED driving current according to the output PWM signal.

The above and other aspects of the invention will become better understood with regard to the following detailed description of the preferred but non-limiting embodiment(s). The following description is made with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1A is a schematic illustration showing an LED device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 1B is a block diagram showing an LED driving circuit according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an LED control circuit according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3A is a schematic illustration showing an example of a duty cycle detecting circuit according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3B shows waveforms in an example of the duty cycle detecting circuit according to an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration showing another example of the duty cycle detecting circuit according to an embodiment.

According to the LED device, the LED driving circuit and the LED driving method in this disclosure, an LED driving signal is shifted toward a higher frequency direction in the frequency domain with its duty cycle kept unchanged, so that the frequency of the LED driving signal after frequency shifting exceeds the human auditory sensitivity and no noise is generated.

FIG. 1A is a schematic illustration showing an LED device 10 according to an embodiment. Referring to FIG. 1A , the LED device 10 includes one to multiple strings of LEDs 20 and an LED driving circuit 100 . The LED driving circuit 100 is coupled to the one to multiple strings of LEDs 20 and drives the one to multiple strings of LEDs 20 . FIG. 1B is a block diagram showing the LED driving circuit 100 according to an embodiment. The LED driving circuit 100 in FIG. 1B drives the corresponding LED in FIG. 1A to reach a predetermined light emitting brightness substantially according to an input PWM signal PS 1 . The LED driving circuit 100 includes an LED control circuit 110 and a power stage circuit. The LED control circuit 110 shifts the input PWM signal PS 1 toward a higher frequency direction in a frequency domain to generate an output PWM signal PS 2 . The frequency of the output PWM signal PS 2 after frequency shifting preferably exceeds the human auditory sensitivity (e.g., higher than 20 KHz or 22 KHz), and is more preferably higher than the detection range (25 KHz) of a microphone.

In addition, the input PWM signal PS 1 is substantially an LED driving signal, so its duty cycle corresponds to the predetermined light emitting brightness. Thus, the LED control circuit 110 keeps the duty cycle of the output PWM signal PS 2 to be substantially the same as the duty cycle of of the input PWM signal PS 1 so that the corresponding LED still can reach the predetermined light emitting brightness. A power stage circuit 120 outputs an LED driving current I LED to drive the corresponding LED according to the output PWM signal PS 2 .

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the LED control circuit 110 according to an embodiment. Referring to FIG. 2 , the LED control circuit 110 includes a duty cycle detecting circuit 130 and a pulse generating circuit 140 . The duty cycle detecting circuit 130 detects a duty cycle DC of the input PWM signal PS 1 . The pulse generating circuit 140 generates the output PWM signal PS 2 according to the duty cycle DC of the input PWM signal PS 1 and a predetermined frequency. The output PWM signal PS 2 has a duty cycle substantially the same as the duty cycle DC of the input PWM signal PS 1 . The predetermined frequency is the frequency of the output PWM signal PS 2 . The LED control circuit 110 substantially shifts the input PWM signal PS 1 from an original frequency to the predetermined frequency in the frequency domain to obtain the output PWM signal PS 2 , wherein the predetermined frequency is higher than the original frequency.

FIG. 3A is a schematic illustration showing an example of the duty cycle detecting circuit 130 according to an embodiment. FIG. 3B shows waveforms in an example of the duty cycle detecting circuit 130 according to an embodiment. Referring to FIG. 3A , the duty cycle detecting circuit 130 includes a counter 132 and a divider 134 . Referring to FIG. 3B , the counter 132 obtains a complete duration CD of the input PWM signal PS 1 and an active duration AD of the input PWM signal PS 1 according to a sampling signal, and the divider 134 divides the complete duration CD by the active duration AD to obtain the duty cycle DC of the input PWM signal PS 1 . FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration showing another example of the duty cycle detecting circuit according to an embodiment. As shown in FIG. 4 , the duty cycle detecting circuit 130 may also obtain the duty cycle DC of the input PWM signal PS 1 through a simple RC circuit in conjunction with an analog-to-digital converter 136 .

The invention also discloses an LED driving method including the following steps. AN LED control circuit is utilized to shift an input PWM signal toward a higher frequency direction in a frequency domain to generate an output PWM signal having a duty cycle substantially the same as a duty cycle of the input PWM signal. A power stage circuit is utilized to output an LED driving current according to the output PWM signal. A duty cycle detecting circuit of the LED control circuit is utilized to detect the duty cycle of the input PWM signal. A pulse generating circuit of the LED control circuit is utilized to generate the output PWM signal according to the duty cycle of the input PWM signal and a predetermined frequency.

The operation principle of the LED driving method has been described in the associated contents of FIGS. 1 to 4 , so detailed descriptions thereof will be omitted.

In the LED driving circuit and method according to the embodiment, the input PWM signal is shifted toward the higher frequency direction in the frequency domain to obtain the output PWM signal, and the duty cycle of the output PWM signal is kept to be the same as the duty cycle of the input PWM signal. Consequently, the frequency of the shifted output PWM signal exceeds the human auditory sensitivity and no noise is generated, and the corresponding LED can be driven to reach the predetermined light emitting brightness without generating errors.

While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of the preferred embodiment(s), it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements and procedures, and the scope of the appended claims therefore should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements and procedures.