IP Library Granted Patent US 9,626,908
Granted Patent B2
US 9,626,908 · App. 14/830,486 · Granted Apr 18, 2017

Smart pixel lighting and display microcontroller

Inventors: Kapil V. Sakariya (Los Altos, CA); Andreas Bibl (Los Altos, CA); Kelly McGroddy (San Francisco, CA)
Assignee: Apple Inc.
G09G3/3233G09G3/3216G09G3/3266H01L25/0753H01L25/167G09G2300/0828G09G2300/0842G09G2300/0857G09G2330/028H01L2924/0002
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 9,626,908
App. No.
14/830,486
Granted
Apr 18, 2017
Kind
B2
Abstract

A light emitting assembly is described. In one embodiment, one or more light emitting diode (LED) devices and one or more microcontrollers are bonded to a same side of a substrate, with the one or more microcontrollers to switch and drive the one or more LED devices.

Claims (23)

1. A light emitting assembly comprising:

an array of light emitting diode (LED) devices on a substrate; and

an array of microcontroller chips to switch and drive the array of LED devices, wherein the number of microcontroller chips in the array of microcontroller chips is less than the number of LED devices in the array of LED devices, and each microcontroller chip in the array of microcontroller chips is electrically coupled with a plurality of pixels to drive a plurality of LED devices in each pixel.

2. The assembly of claim 1 , further comprising distribution lines on the substrate to electrically couple the array of microcontroller chips and the array of LED devices.

3. The assembly of claim 2 , wherein the distribution lines electrically couple a plurality of microcontroller chips of the array of micro controller chips to one another.

4. The assembly of claim 2 , wherein each LED device in the array of LED devices has a maximum length or width dimension of 1 to 100 μm.

5. The assembly of claim 2 , wherein the array of LED devices is bonded to landing pads in electrical connection with the distribution lines.

6. The assembly of claim 2 , wherein each microcontroller chip in the array of microcontroller chips includes one or more input circuits and at least one output circuit.

7. The assembly of claim 6 , wherein at least one of the one or more input circuits is coupled to a capacitive storage module.

8. The assembly of claim 6 , wherein the output circuit includes an analog driving circuit.

9. The assembly of claim 6 , wherein at least one of the one or more input circuits further comprises an analog-to-digital converter.

10. The assembly of claim 9 , wherein the analog to digital converter of the input circuit is coupled with a data storage module.

11. The assembly of claim 2 , wherein each microcontroller chip in the array of microcontroller chips includes digital logic, the digital logic including an input logic block, an output logic block, and a data storage module.

12. The assembly of claim 11 , wherein the data storage module comprises at least one bank of random access memory.

13. The assembly of claim 12 , wherein the at least one bank of random access memory includes static random access memory.

14. The assembly of claim 12 , wherein the at least one bank of random access memory includes dynamic random access memory.

15. The assembly of claim 2 , further comprising:

one or more data drivers electrically coupled with the distribution lines; and

one or more scan drivers electrically coupled with the distribution lines.

16. The assembly of claim 15 further comprising a timing controller coupled with the one or more data drivers, the timing controller operable to signal the one or more scan drivers to cause a first row of a display panel to be not refreshed in a current data frame and a second row of the display panel to be refreshed in the current data frame.

17. The assembly of claim 2 , wherein multiple microcontroller chips in the array of microcontroller chips include an external communication module to exchange data between the multiple microcontroller chips.

18. The assembly of claim 2 , wherein the substrate is a lighting substrate.

19. The assembly of claim 2 , further comprising a sensor device, wherein the sensor device includes one or more of a thermal sensor, an optical sensor, or a pressure sensor.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Apr 25, 2016
From: LUXVUE TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION
To: APPLE INC.
Reel/Frame 038521/0255 →
Continuity (2)
Continuation 13717634 · Dec 17, 2012
Related Publication 20150356918A1 · Dec 10, 2015