阅读说明：本技术 控制信号发生器及其驱动方法 (Control signal generator and driving method thereof ) 是由 张俊瑞 朱学辉 兰荣华 何宗泽 张叶浩 于 2019-10-28 设计创作，主要内容包括：本公开提供了一种控制信号发生器及其驱动方法。该控制信号发生器包括级联的N级控制信号发生电路,配置为接收彼此之间的有效脉冲沿相差设定时间的K个时钟信号,其中N级控制信号发生电路中的第n级控制信号发生电路被配置为：基于K个时钟信号中的第k个时钟信号生成选通信号；以及基于选通信号依次输出K个时钟信号中的其他K-1个时钟信号中的至少两个时钟信号作为控制信号；第k个时钟信号的有效脉冲沿位于第n-1级控制信号发生电路的选通信号的有效脉冲持续时间内；N是大于等于1的整数,n大于等于1且小于等于N,K是大于等于3的整数,k大于等于1且小于等于K。(The present disclosure provides a control signal generator and a driving method thereof. The control signal generator comprises cascaded N-stage control signal generation circuits, and is configured to receive K clock signals with effective pulse edges different from each other by a set time, wherein the nth stage of the N-stage control signal generation circuits is configured to: generating a gating signal based on a kth clock signal of the K clock signals; and outputting at least two clock signals of other K-1 clock signals in the K clock signals in sequence based on the gating signal as control signals; the effective pulse edge of the kth clock signal is positioned in the effective pulse duration of the gating signal of the (n-1) th stage control signal generation circuit; n is an integer of 1 or more, N is 1 or more and N or less, K is an integer of 3 or more, and K is 1 or more and K or less.)

1. A control signal generator comprising cascaded N-stage control signal generation circuits configured to receive K clock signals having valid pulse edges that differ from each other by a set time, wherein an nth stage of the N-stage control signal generation circuits is configured to:

generating a gating signal based on a kth clock signal of the K clock signals; and

sequentially outputting at least two clock signals in other K-1 clock signals in the K clock signals as control signals based on the gating signals;

wherein, the effective pulse edge of the kth clock signal is positioned in the effective pulse duration of the gating signal of the (n-1) th stage control signal generation circuit; n is an integer of 1 or more, N is 1 or more and N or less, K is an integer of 3 or more, and K is 1 or more and K or less.

2. The control signal generator of claim 1, wherein the nth stage control signal generation circuit comprises:

the gating sub-circuit comprises a first input end, a second input end and an output end, wherein the first input end of the gating sub-circuit is electrically connected to the output end of the gating sub-circuit of the (n-1) th-stage control signal generation circuit, the second input end of the gating sub-circuit is electrically connected to receive the kth clock signal, and the output end of the gating sub-circuit is electrically connected to the first input ends of at least two switching sub-circuits to provide gating signals;

the at least two switch sub-circuits respectively comprise a first input end and a second input end, and the second input ends of the at least two switch sub-circuits are electrically connected to receive at least two clock signals in other K-1 clock signals;

the second input end of the gating sub-circuit is electrically connected with the second input end of a first switch sub-circuit in at least two switch sub-circuits of the (n-1) th-stage control signal generation circuit, and the first switch sub-circuit is a last switch sub-circuit in the at least two switch sub-circuits which sequentially output control signals and outputs the control signals.

3. The control signal generator of claim 2, wherein the first input terminal of the gate sub-circuit of the 1 st-stage control signal generation circuit is electrically connected to the output terminal of the gate sub-circuit of the nth-stage control signal generation circuit when N is equal to or greater than 3.

4. The control signal generator of any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the active pulse edges of the K clock signals differ by 1/K clock signal periods in sequence, and the duty cycles of the K clock signals are 1/K.

5. A control signal generator as claimed in claim 2, wherein the gating sub-circuit comprises a latch having a data input as a first input of the gating sub-circuit and a clock input as a second input of the gating sub-circuit.

6. The control signal generator of claim 2, wherein the at least two switch sub-circuits each comprise:

and the control end of the transmission gate is used as the first input end of the switch sub-circuit, and the data input end of the transmission gate is used as the second input end of the switch sub-circuit.

7. A driving method of the control signal generator according to one of claims 1 to 6, comprising:

applying the K clock signals to a control signal generator; wherein

The nth stage control signal generation circuit generates a gating signal of the nth stage control signal generation circuit based on a kth clock signal in the K clock signals and a gating signal of the (n-1) th stage control signal generation circuit; and

and sequentially outputting at least two clock signals in the other K-1 clock signals as control signals based on the gating signal of the nth-stage control signal generation circuit.

8. The driving method as claimed in claim 7, wherein an effective pulse edge of the k-th clock signal is within an effective pulse duration of a gate signal of the n-1 th stage control signal generating circuit.

9. The driving method according to claim 7, wherein the enable signal is further applied to the level 1 control signal generation circuit in response to the K clock signals whose effective pulse edges differ from each other by a set time being applied to the control signal generator.

10. The driving method according to claim 7, wherein the effective pulse edges of the K clock signals are sequentially different by 1/K clock signal periods, and the duty ratios of the K clock signals are 1/K.

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of control technologies, and more particularly, to a control signal generator and a driving method thereof.

Background

In complex control, a large number of control signals are often involved. In order to properly implement the control function, it is required that the control signals have a certain timing relationship therebetween. If the timing between different control signals is incorrect or the pulse duration of the control signals does not meet the set requirements, incorrect operation may result. Therefore, the accuracy of the timing of the control signals and the pulse duration is particularly important.

Disclosure of Invention

The present disclosure provides a control signal generator and a driving method thereof to at least partially solve the above problems.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a control signal generator including cascaded N-stage control signal generation circuits configured to receive K clock signals whose effective pulse edges differ by a set time from each other, wherein an nth stage of the N-stage control signal generation circuits is configured to: generating a gating signal based on a kth clock signal of the K clock signals; and sequentially outputting at least two clock signals of other K-1 clock signals in the K clock signals as control signals based on the gating signal; wherein, the effective pulse edge of the kth clock signal is positioned in the effective pulse duration of the gating signal of the (n-1) th stage control signal generation circuit; n is an integer of 1 or more, N is 1 or more and N or less, K is an integer of 3 or more, and K is 1 or more and K or less.

In some embodiments, the nth stage control signal generation circuit includes: the gating sub-circuit comprises a first input end, a second input end and an output end, wherein the first input end of the gating sub-circuit is electrically connected to the output end of the gating sub-circuit of the (n-1) th-stage control signal generation circuit, the second input end of the gating sub-circuit is electrically connected to receive the kth clock signal, and the output end of the gating sub-circuit is electrically connected to the first input ends of at least two switching sub-circuits to provide gating signals; the at least two switch sub-circuits respectively comprise a first input end and a second input end, and the second input ends of the at least two switch sub-circuits are electrically connected to receive at least two clock signals in other K-1 clock signals; the second input end of the gating sub-circuit is electrically connected with the second input end of a first switch sub-circuit in at least two switch sub-circuits of the (n-1) th-stage control signal generation circuit, and the first switch sub-circuit is a last switch sub-circuit in the at least two switch sub-circuits which sequentially output control signals and outputs the control signals.

In some embodiments, when N is equal to or greater than 3, the first input terminal of the gate sub-circuit of the 1 st-stage control signal generation circuit is electrically connected to the output terminal of the gate sub-circuit of the nth-stage control signal generation circuit.

In some embodiments, the effective pulse edges of the K clock signals are sequentially different by 1/K clock signal periods, and the duty ratios of the K clock signals are 1/K.

In some embodiments, the gating sub-circuit comprises a latch, a data input of the latch serving as a first input of the gating sub-circuit, and a clock input of the latch serving as a second input of the gating sub-circuit.

In some embodiments, the at least two switch sub-circuits each comprise: and the control end of the transmission gate is used as the first input end of the switch sub-circuit, and the data input end of the transmission gate is used as the second input end of the switch sub-circuit.

According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a driving method of a control signal generator, including: applying the K clock signals to a control signal generator; wherein the nth stage control signal generation circuit generates a gating signal of the nth stage control signal generation circuit based on a kth clock signal of the K clock signals and a gating signal of the nth-1 stage control signal generation circuit; and sequentially outputting at least two clock signals in the other K-1 clock signals as control signals based on the gating signal of the nth-stage control signal generation circuit.

In some embodiments, the active pulse edge of the kth clock signal is within the active pulse duration of the strobe signal of the stage n-1 control signal generation circuit.

In some embodiments, the enable signal is also applied to the stage 1 control signal generation circuit in response to the application of the K clock signals to the control signal generator that differ in active pulse edges from each other by a set time.

In some embodiments, the effective pulse edges of the K clock signals are sequentially different by 1/K clock signal periods, and the duty ratios of the K clock signals are 1/K.

According to the technical scheme of the embodiment of the disclosure, the N-level control signal generation circuits are cascaded, so that the generation of any number of control signals by using a small number of K clock signals is realized, the structure of the control signal generator is simplified, and the scale and the power consumption of the control signal generator are reduced; the gating signal of the nth stage control signal generation circuit is generated by using the kth clock signal of which the effective pulse edge is positioned in the effective pulse duration of the gating signal of the (n-1) th stage control signal generation circuit, so that the control signal generator has more sufficient time sequence redundancy, and the reliability of the control signal generator is improved.

Drawings

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the following description of the embodiments of the present disclosure taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that throughout the drawings, like elements are represented by like or similar reference numerals. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 schematically shows a block diagram of a control signal generator according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 schematically shows a block diagram of adjacent n-1 th and nth stage control signal generation circuits according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 3A schematically illustrates an example block diagram of a control signal generator having 3 clock signals;

FIG. 3B schematically illustrates a timing diagram of the control signal generator shown in FIG. 3A;

FIGS. 4A and 5A schematically illustrate block diagrams of a control signal generator having 4 clock signals;

FIGS. 4B and 5B schematically illustrate timing diagrams of the control signal generator shown in FIGS. 4A and 5A;

FIG. 6 schematically shows a circuit diagram of a switch sub-circuit according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

fig. 7 schematically shows a flow chart of a driving method of a control signal generator according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure more clear, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below in detail and completely with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present disclosure. It is to be understood that the described embodiments are only a few embodiments of the present disclosure, and not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the described embodiments of the disclosure without any inventive step, are within the scope of protection of the disclosure. In the following description, some specific embodiments are for illustrative purposes only and should not be construed as limiting the disclosure in any way, but merely as exemplifications of embodiments of the disclosure. Conventional structures or constructions will be omitted when they may obscure the understanding of the present disclosure. It should be noted that the shapes and sizes of the respective components in the drawings do not reflect actual sizes and proportions, but merely illustrate the contents of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

Unless defined otherwise, technical or scientific terms used in the embodiments of the present disclosure should be given their ordinary meanings as understood by those skilled in the art. The use of "first," "second," and similar terms in the embodiments of the disclosure is not intended to indicate any order, quantity, or importance, but rather is used to distinguish one element from another.

Furthermore, in the description of the embodiments of the present disclosure, the term "connected" or "connected" may mean that two components are directly connected or connected via one or more other components. Further, the two components may be connected or coupled by wire or wirelessly.

In the description of the embodiments of the present disclosure, the term "valid pulse edge" refers to a pulse edge that is capable of triggering an associated device to perform an operation based on the pulse edge. In some embodiments, the rising edge of the pulse signal may be used to trigger the relevant device to perform an operation, and the rising edge of the pulse signal is an effective pulse edge. In other embodiments, the falling edge of the pulse signal may be used to trigger the relevant device to perform an operation, and the falling edge of the pulse signal is the effective pulse edge.

In the description of the embodiments of the present disclosure, the term "active level" refers to a level of a signal that enables a device that performs an operation based on the level to perform the operation. In some embodiments, the device may perform operations based on a high level, which is then the active level. In other embodiments, the active level may also be a low level.

Furthermore, in the description of the embodiments of the present disclosure, the term "active pulse duration" refers to a duration period of an active level.

The disclosed embodiments provide a control signal generator that can generate any number of control signals from K input clock signals, where K is an integer greater than or equal to 3. Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described taking a control signal generator generating a multi-path scanning signal as an example. However, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present disclosure is not so limited. For example, any desired control signal may be obtained by changing the timing, period, duty cycle, or the like of the K input clock signals.

The multi-channel scanning signal is a common control signal, and can be applied to various application scenarios such as image display, data processing, and the like. The conventional method for generating the multiple scanning signals is to use a counter, count the clock signals by using the counter, and generate the required multiple scanning signals by using a decoder. This typically requires more combinational logic devices to implement. As the number of combinational logic devices increases, the timing requirements between the devices become very strict and the redundancy of the timing becomes smaller and smaller. As the timing redundancy is reduced, the reliability of the circuit is reduced, which may lead to malfunction in severe cases.

Fig. 1 schematically shows a block diagram of a control signal generator 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 1, a control signal generator 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes a cascade of N-stage control signal generating circuits 101, respectively shown as a control signal generating circuit 1, … …, a control signal generating circuit N-1, a control signal generating circuit N, … …, and a control signal generating circuit N, where N is an integer of 1 or more.

As shown in FIG. 1, the control signal generator 100 can receive K clock signals with effective pulse edges different from each other by a set time, which are respectively denoted as CK₁、CK₂… … and CK_KWherein K is an integer of 3 or more. The K clock signals may be provided via K clock signal lines.

The nth stage control signal generation circuit among the N-stage control signal generation circuits according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may generate a strobe signal based on a kth clock signal among the K clock signals, and sequentially output at least two clock signals among the other K-1 clock signals among the K clock signals as control signals output by the control signal generator 100 based on the generated strobe signal. Wherein N and K are natural numbers, N is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N, and K is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to K.

As shown in fig. 1, description will be made taking as an example that each control signal generation circuit can output m control signals, where m is an integer of 2 or more and K-1 or less. Of course, the embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited thereto, and each stage of the control signal generation circuit may output the same number of control signals, and may output any number of signals within a range of greater than or equal to 2 and less than or equal to K-1.

As shown in fig. 1, m control signals output from the control signal generation circuit 1 are represented as Z₁₁To Z_1mThe m control signals outputted from the control signal generating circuit n are respectively represented as Z_n1To Z_nmTherefore, the control signal generator formed by cascading the N control signal generating circuits can output N m control signals, so that any number of control signals can be realized by changing the number of the cascaded control signal generating circuits, and the value of N m is far larger than that of K. According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the control signal generation circuit of each stage has a simple structure, so that the control signal generator 100 configured in a cascade manner is reduced in scale and easily expandedAnd (6) unfolding.

According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the effective pulse edge of the kth clock signal input to the nth stage control signal generation circuit is located within the effective pulse duration of the gate signal of the (n-1) th stage control signal generation circuit.

As shown in FIG. 1, the kth clock signal of the nth stage control signal generation circuit is denoted as CK_kThe gating signal of the n-1 th stage control signal generating circuit is denoted as S_n-1. The gate signal S is generated by cascading an n-1 stage control signal generating circuit with an nth stage control signal generating circuit_n-1Electrically connected to the input terminal of the nth stage control signal generating circuit to generate the kth clock signal CK_kIs located at the strobe signal S_n-1Can ensure that the gate signal of the nth stage control signal generation circuit is reliably generated, thereby providing sufficient timing redundancy for the control signal generator 100, as will be described in detail later with reference to specific examples.

Fig. 2 schematically shows a block diagram of adjacent n-1 th and nth stage control signal generation circuits according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 2, each stage of the control signal generation circuit according to the embodiment of the present disclosure includes a gate sub-circuit 210 and at least two switch sub-circuits 220. Therein, the gating sub-circuit 210 includes a first input IN1[210 ]]A second input IN2[210]]And an output terminal OUT [210]]. Taking the nth stage control signal generation circuit as an example, the first input IN1[210 ] of the gate sub-circuit 210 of the nth stage control signal generation circuit]An output terminal OUT [210] of the gate sub-circuit 210 electrically connected to the n-1 th stage control signal generation circuit]To receive the gating signal S of the n-1 th stage control signal generation circuit_n-1. Second input IN2[210] of gate sub-circuit 210 of nth stage control signal generation circuit]Is electrically connected to receive the K clock signal CK of the K clock signals_k. The output terminal OUT [210] of the gate sub-circuit 210 of the nth stage control signal generation circuit]A first input IN1[220 ] electrically connected to at least two switch sub-circuits 220 of the stage]To provide the gate signal S of the nth stage control signal generation circuit to the switch sub-circuit 220_n。

As shown IN FIG. 2, each switch sub-circuit 220 has a first input IN1[220 ]]A second input IN2[220]]And an output terminal OUT [220]]. Taking the nth stage of control signal generation circuit as an example, the second input IN2[220] of each switch sub-circuit 220]Is electrically connected to receive the K clock signal CK divided from the other K-1 clock signals_kBut not a clock signal. IN this embodiment, the nth stage control signal generating circuit includes m switch sub-circuits 220, and the second input terminal IN2[220] of each switch sub-circuit 220]Receiving a clock signal, denoted CK respectively_k+1、……CK_k+m. Each switch sub-circuit 220 outputs a control signal, respectively designated as Z_n1To Z_nm. As shown in FIG. 2, the output OUT [210] of the gating sub-circuit 210]Is electrically connected to the first input IN1[220 ] of all m switch sub-circuits 220]The m switch sub-circuits 220 can be turned on simultaneously.

According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the second input terminal IN2[210] of the gate sub-circuit 210 of the nth stage control signal generation circuit is also electrically connected to the second input terminal IN2[220] of one (i.e., the first) of the at least two switch sub-circuits 220 of the nth-1 stage control signal generation circuit, and the switch sub-circuit 220 (i.e., the first) of the n-1 stage control signal generation circuit is the last switch sub-circuit of the at least two switch sub-circuits sequentially outputting the control signal of the nth-1 stage control signal generation circuit outputting the control signal.

As shown IN FIG. 2, the second input IN2[210] of the gate sub-circuit 210 of the nth stage control signal generation circuit]And a second input IN2[220] of the mth switch sub-circuit 220 of the (n-1) th stage control signal generation circuit]Are electrically connected together. This structure ensures the kth clock signal CK_kCan be reliably positioned at the gate signal S of the n-1 th stage control signal generation circuit_n-1Of the active pulse duration.

It should be noted that the last output does not mean a position on the structure, but is instead at the strobe signal S_n-1Within the effective pulse duration of (a), all the switch sub-circuits output the sequence of the control signals.

In some embodiments, gating subcircuit 210 may be comprised of a latch. The data input of the latch may serve as a first input of the gating sub-circuit 210 and the clock input of the latch may serve as a second input of the gating sub-circuit 210. The following example will be described by taking a D latch as an example of the gating sub-circuit 210, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and other circuit structures may be adopted as the gating sub-circuit 210.

The operation of the control signal generator will be described with reference to specific examples.

Fig. 3A schematically shows an example block diagram of a control signal generator 300 having 3 clock signals, and fig. 3B schematically shows a timing diagram of the control signal generator 300 shown in fig. 3A.

As shown in fig. 3A, each dashed box shows a stage of control signal generation circuit, and the cascade of N stages of control signal generation circuits is still taken as an example. The control signal generator 300 receives 3 clock signals CK₁、CK₂And CK₃The 3 clock signal periods are the same and the duty ratio is 1/3, and CK₁、CK₂And CK₃Are different from each other by 1/3 clock cycles.

Clock signal CK₁、CK₂And CK₃The waveform of (c) is shown in fig. 3B. In one clock cycle, the clock signal CK₁And clock signal CK₂By 1/3 clock cycles, clock signal CK₂And clock signal CK₃Are different by 1/3 clock cycles.

As shown in fig. 3A, each stage of the control signal generating circuit of the control signal generator 300 may include one D latch and two switching sub-circuits. Taking the 2 nd stage control signal generation circuit as an example, the data input terminal of the D latch of the 2 nd stage control signal generation circuit is electrically connected to the output terminal of the D latch of the 1 st stage control signal generation circuit. The clock input of the D-latch of the level 2 control signal generation circuit is electrically connected to the second input of the switch sub-circuit 12 of the level 1 control signal generation circuit. The output terminal of the D latch of the 2 nd stage control signal generation circuit is electrically connected to the data input terminal of the D latch of the 3 rd stage control signal generation circuit, and the output terminal of the D latch of the 2 nd stage control signal generation circuit is also electrically connected to the first input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 21 and the first input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 22.

It should be understood that the clock signal CK may be provided through a clock signal line₁、CK₂And CK₃. Wherein the same clock signal at the inputs of each D-latch and each switch sub-circuit means that the inputs are all electrically connected together and to the same clock signal line.

According to this example, the data input terminal of the latch n of the nth stage control signal generation circuit of the control signal generator 300 is electrically connected to receive the clock signal CK_{k MOD K}Then a second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit n1 may be electrically connected to receive CK_{(k+1)MOD K}The second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit n2 may be electrically connected to receive CK_{(k+2)MOD K}And the clock input terminal of the latch n +1 of the nth stage control signal generation circuit is electrically connected with the second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit n2 of the nth stage control signal generation circuit. Where "MOD" is a remainder operator, and K is the number of clock signals, i.e., K equals 3.

As shown in FIG. 3A, in the 1 st stage control signal generating circuit, the clock input terminal of the latch 1 is electrically connected to receive the clock signal CK₁The second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 11 is electrically connected to receive CK₂The second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 12 is electrically connected to receive CK₃。

In the 2 nd stage control signal generating circuit, the clock input terminal of the latch 2 is electrically connected to receive the clock signal CK₃The second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 21 is electrically connected to receive CK₁(3+1) MOD 3 is equal to 1, and the second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 22 is electrically connected to receive CK₂((3+2)MOD 3＝2)。

In the 3 rd stage control signal generating circuit, the clock input terminal of the latch 3 is electrically connected to receive the clock signal CK₂The second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 31 is electrically connected to receive CK₃(2+1) MOD 3 is 3), it should be noted that since the value of the clock signal subscript is 1, 2 or 3, the result of (2+1) MOD 3 is 3, and the second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 32 is electrically connected to receive CK₁((2+2)MOD 3＝1)。

In FIG. 3A, the clock input terminal of the latch N in the Nth stage control signal generation circuit is electrically connected to receive the clock signal CK_I，CK_I(and CK_I+1And CK_I+2) May be CK₁、CK₂And CK₃One of which is determined by the number of cascaded control signal generating circuits.

The operation timing of the control signal generator 300 is described with reference to fig. 3B.

As shown in FIG. 3B, an enable signal EN is first applied to the data input terminal of the D-latch of the stage 1 control signal generation circuit, and the duration of the active pulse of the enable signal EN is required to ensure the first clock signal CK₁Is within the active pulse duration of the enable signal EN to ensure that the latch 1 operates reliably.

When the enable signal EN is at an active level (e.g., high level), the latch 1 is at the clock signal CK₁Is controlled by the active pulse edge (e.g., rising edge) of the clock signal, the strobe signal S is output₁As shown in FIG. 3B, S₁To an active level (e.g., high).

At the strobe signal S₁After going high, both the switch sub-circuit 11 and the switch sub-circuit 12 are turned on, so that the clock signal CK applied to the switch sub-circuit 11 and the switch sub-circuit 12, respectively, can be supplied₂And CK₃And (5) outputting in sequence. As shown in fig. 3B, at S₁During high level period, clock signal CK₂Output as control signal Z via switch sub-circuit 11₁₁，CK₃Output as control signal Z via switch sub-circuit 12₁₂。

Gating signal S of control signal generating circuit at stage 1₁During the period of keeping at high level, the latch 2 of the 2 nd stage control signal generating circuit is in the clock signal CK₃Is triggered by an active pulse edge (e.g., a rising edge), a strobe signal S is output₂As shown in fig. 3B, the first and second,S₂to an active level (e.g., high).

At the strobe signal S₂After going high, both the switch sub-circuit 21 and the switch sub-circuit 22 are turned on, so that the clock signal CK applied to the switch sub-circuit 21 and the switch sub-circuit 22, respectively, can be supplied₁And CK₂And (5) outputting in sequence. As shown in fig. 3B, at S₂During high level period, clock signal CK₁Output as control signal Z via switch sub-circuit 21₂₁，CK₂Output as control signal Z via switch sub-circuit 22₂₂。

Gating signal S of control signal generating circuit in stage 2₂During the period of keeping at high level, the latch 3 of the 3 rd stage control signal generating circuit is in the clock signal CK₂Is controlled by the active pulse edge (e.g., rising edge) of the clock signal, the strobe signal S is output₃As shown in FIG. 3B, S₃To an active level (e.g., high).

At the strobe signal S₃After going high, both the switch sub-circuit 31 and the switch sub-circuit 32 are turned on, so that the clock signal CK applied to the switch sub-circuit 31 and the switch sub-circuit 32, respectively, can be supplied₃And CK₁And (5) outputting in sequence. As shown in fig. 3B, at S₃During high level period, clock signal CK₃Output as control signal Z via switch sub-circuit 31₃₁，CK₁Output as control signal Z via switch sub-circuit 32₃₂。

According to the example shown in fig. 3A and 3B, an arbitrary number of control signals can be generated based on only 3 clock signals and with a small number of devices, significantly simplifying the structure of the control signal generator.

Devices that perform operations based on pulse edges are prone to race hazards. For example, when the valid pulse edge of the clock signal received at the clock input of the D-latch is very close to the pulse edge of the signal at its data input, the D-latch will no longer operate reliably and a malfunction is likely to occur.

As shown in FIG. 3B, according to this example, the clock signal CK of the latch 2₃Is located at the strobe signal S₁And is spaced from the strobe signal S₁End of the effective pulse duration, i.e. S₁Maintains 1/3 clock cycles (i.e., a duty cycle) at the arrival of the falling edge, such a time margin can ensure that the latch 2 operates reliably. Similarly, the clock signal CK of the latch 3₂Is located at the strobe signal S₂And is spaced from the strobe signal S₂The arrival of the falling edge of (c) maintains 1/3 clock cycles (i.e., a duty cycle) to ensure that latch 3 operates reliably. Therefore, the control signal generator 300 may have better timing redundancy.

In addition, as shown in fig. 3A, when the number of cascaded control signal generation circuits is equal to or greater than 3, the output terminal of the gate sub-circuit (i.e., latch N) of the last stage control signal generation circuit may be electrically connected to the first input terminal of the gate sub-circuit (i.e., latch 1) of the 1 st stage control signal generation circuit. Thus, the strobe signal S_NApplied to the data input of the latch 1, thereby forming a loop structure, particularly suitable for loop processing structures, such as image displays.

Fig. 4A schematically shows an example block diagram of a control signal generator 400 having 4 clock signals, and fig. 4B schematically shows a timing diagram of the control signal generator 400 shown in fig. 4A.

As shown in FIG. 4A, the control signal generator 400 receives 4 clock signals CK₁、CK₂、CK₃And CK₄The 4 clock signals have the same period and the duty ratio is 1/4, and CK₁、CK₂、CK₃And CK₄Are different from each other by 1/4 clock cycles. Clock signal CK₁、CK₂、CK₃And CK₄The waveform of (c) is shown in fig. 4B.

As shown in fig. 4A, each stage of the control signal generation circuit of the control signal generator 400 includes one D latch and two switch sub-circuits. Taking the 2 nd stage control signal generation circuit as an example, the data input terminal of the D latch of the 2 nd stage control signal generation circuit is electrically connected to the output terminal of the D latch of the 1 st stage control signal generation circuit. The clock input of the D-latch of the level 2 control signal generation circuit is electrically connected to the second input of the switch sub-circuit 12 of the level 1 control signal generation circuit. The output terminal of the D latch of the 2 nd stage control signal generation circuit is electrically connected to the data input terminal of the D latch of the 3 rd stage control signal generation circuit, and the output terminal of the D latch of the 2 nd stage control signal generation circuit is also electrically connected to the first input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 21 and the first input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 22.

It should be understood that the clock signal CK may be provided through a clock signal line₁、CK₂、CK₃And CK₄. Wherein the same clock signal at the inputs of each D-latch and each switch sub-circuit means that the inputs are all electrically connected together and to the same clock signal line.

According to this example, the data input terminal of the latch n of the nth stage control signal generation circuit of the control signal generator 400 is electrically connected to receive the clock signal CK_{k MOD K}Then a second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit n1 may be electrically connected to receive CK_{(k+1)MOD K}The second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit n2 may be electrically connected to receive CK_{(k+2)MOD K}And the clock input terminal of the latch n +1 of the nth stage control signal generation circuit is electrically connected with the second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit n2 of the nth stage control signal generation circuit. Where "MOD" is a remainder operator, and K is the number of clock signals, i.e., K equals 4.

As shown in FIG. 4A, in the 1 st stage control signal generating circuit, the clock input terminal of the latch 1 is electrically connected to receive the clock signal CK₁The second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 11 is electrically connected to receive CK₂The second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 12 is electrically connected to receive CK₃。

In the 2 nd stage control signal generating circuit, the clock input terminal of the latch 2 is electrically connected to receive the clock signal CK₃The second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 21 is electrically connected to receive CK₄(3+1) MOD 4 is 4, since the value of the clock signal subscript is 1, 2, 3, or 4,therefore, the result of (3+1) MOD 4 is denoted as 4), and the second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 22 is electrically connected to receive CK₁((3+2)MOD 4＝1)。

Similarly, the clock signal CK of the Nth stage control signal generating circuit in FIG. 4A_I(and CK_I+1And CK_I+2) May be CK₁、CK₂、CK₃And CK₄One of which is determined by the number of cascaded control signal generating circuits.

In the 3 rd stage control signal generating circuit, the clock input terminal of the latch 3 is electrically connected to receive the clock signal CK₁Therefore, the structure of the 3 rd stage control signal generation circuit is the same as that of the 1 st stage control signal generation circuit. Similarly, the structure of the 4 th-level control signal generation circuit is the same as that of the 2 nd-level control signal generation circuit, and so on.

The operation timing of the control signal generator 400 is described with reference to fig. 4B.

As shown in FIG. 4B, an enable signal EN is first applied to the data input terminal of the D-latch of the stage 1 control signal generation circuit, and the duration of the active pulse of the enable signal EN is required to ensure the first clock signal CK₁Is within the active pulse duration of the enable signal EN to ensure that the latch 1 operates reliably.

When the enable signal EN is at an active level (e.g., high level), the latch 1 is at the clock signal CK₁Is controlled by the active pulse edge (e.g., rising edge) of the clock signal, the strobe signal S is output₁As shown in FIG. 4B, S₁To an active level (e.g., high).

At the strobe signal S₁After going high, both the switch sub-circuit 11 and the switch sub-circuit 12 are turned on, so that the clock signal CK applied to the switch sub-circuit 11 and the switch sub-circuit 12, respectively, can be supplied₂And CK₃And (5) outputting in sequence. As shown in fig. 4B, at S₁During high level period, clock signal CK₂Output as control signal Z via switch sub-circuit 11₁₁，CK₃Output as control signal Z via switch sub-circuit 12₁₂。

Gating signal S of control signal generating circuit at stage 1₁During the period of keeping at high level, the latch 2 of the 2 nd stage control signal generating circuit is in the clock signal CK₃Is controlled by the active pulse edge (e.g., rising edge) of the clock signal, the strobe signal S is output₂As shown in FIG. 4B, S₂To an active level (e.g., high).

At the strobe signal S₂After going high, both the switch sub-circuit 21 and the switch sub-circuit 22 are turned on, so that the clock signal CK applied to the switch sub-circuit 21 and the switch sub-circuit 22, respectively, can be supplied₄And CK₁And (5) outputting in sequence. As shown in fig. 4B, at S₂During high level period, clock signal CK₄Output as control signal Z via switch sub-circuit 21₂₁，CK₁Output as control signal Z via switch sub-circuit 22₂₂。

As shown in fig. 4B, according to this example, the clock signal CK of the latch 2₃Is located at the strobe signal S₁And is spaced from the strobe signal S₁End of the effective pulse duration, i.e. S₁The arrival of the falling edge of (2) is maintained at 1/2 clock cycles, such a time margin being sufficient to ensure that the latch 2 operates reliably. Similarly, the clock signal CK of the latch 3₁Is located at the strobe signal S₂And is spaced from the strobe signal S₂The arrival of the falling edge of (c) is maintained at 1/2 clock cycles to ensure that the latch 3 operates reliably enough. Accordingly, the control signal generator 400 may have improved timing redundancy.

It can be seen that the timing redundancy of the example shown in fig. 4A and 4B is improved and the control signal generator 400 can operate more reliably than the example shown in fig. 3A and 3B.

Similarly, as shown in fig. 4A, when the number of cascaded control signal generation circuits is equal to or greater than 3, the output terminal of the latch N of the last stage control signal generation circuit may be electrically connected to the first input terminal of the latch 1 of the 1 st stage control signal generation circuit to form a loop structure.

Fig. 5A schematically shows another example block diagram of the control signal generator 500 having 4 clock signals, and fig. 5B schematically shows a timing diagram of the control signal generator 500 shown in fig. 5A.

As shown in fig. 5A, each stage of the control signal generation circuit of the control signal generator 500 includes 1D latch and 3 switching sub-circuits. Taking the 2 nd stage control signal generation circuit as an example, the data input terminal of the D latch of the 2 nd stage control signal generation circuit is electrically connected to the output terminal of the D latch of the 1 st stage control signal generation circuit. The clock input terminal of the D latch of the level 2 control signal generation circuit is electrically connected to the second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 13 of the level 1 control signal generation circuit. The output terminal of the D latch of the 2 nd-stage control signal generation circuit is electrically connected to the data input terminal of the D latch of the 3 rd-stage control signal generation circuit, and the output terminal of the D latch of the 2 nd-stage control signal generation circuit is also electrically connected to the first input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 21, the first input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 22, and the first input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 23.

According to this example, the data input terminal of the latch n of the nth stage control signal generation circuit of the control signal generator 500 is electrically connected to receive the clock signal CK_{k MOD K}Then a second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit n1 may be electrically connected to receive CK_{(k+1)MOD K}The second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit n2 may be electrically connected to receive CK_{(k+2)MOD K}The second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit n3 may be electrically connected to receive CK_{(k+3)MOD K}And the clock input terminal of the latch n +1 of the nth stage control signal generation circuit is electrically connected with the second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit n2 of the nth stage control signal generation circuit. Where "MOD" is a remainder operator, and K is the number of clock signals, i.e., K equals 4.

As shown in FIG. 5A, in the 1 st stage control signal generating circuit, the clock input terminal of the latch 1 is electrically connected to receive the clock signal CK₁The second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 11 is electrically connected to receive CK₂The second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 12 is electrically connected to receive CK₃The second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 13 is electrically connected toCK collecting device₄。

In the 2 nd stage control signal generating circuit, the clock input terminal of the latch 2 is electrically connected to receive the clock signal CK₄The second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 21 is electrically connected to receive CK₁(4+1) MOD 4 is 1, and the second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 22 is electrically connected to receive CK₂((4+2) MOD 4 ═ 2), and a second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit 23 is electrically connected to receive CK₃((4+3)MOD 4＝3)。

Similarly, the clock signal CK of the Nth stage control signal generating circuit in FIG. 5A_I(and CK_I+1、CK_I+2And CK_I+3) May be CK₁、CK₂、CK₃And CK₄One of which is determined by the number of cascaded control signal generating circuits.

The operation timing of the control signal generator 500 is shown in FIG. 5B, which is different from the examples shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B mainly in that the strobe signal S is generated₁After going high, the switch sub-circuit 11, the switch sub-circuit 12 and the switch sub-circuit 13 are all turned on, so that the clock signal CK can be supplied₂、CK₃And CK₄And (5) outputting in sequence. As shown in fig. 5B, at S₁During high level period, clock signal CK₂Output as control signal Z via switch sub-circuit 11₁₁，CK₃Output as control signal Z via switch sub-circuit 12₁₂，CK₄Output as control signal Z via switch sub-circuit 13₁₃。

In addition, as shown in fig. 5B, the gate signal S of the control signal generation circuit at the 1 st stage₁During the period of keeping at high level, the latch 2 of the 2 nd stage control signal generating circuit is in the clock signal CK₄Is controlled by the active pulse edge (e.g., rising edge) of the clock signal, the strobe signal S is output₂As shown in FIG. 5B, S₂To an active level (e.g., high). In this way, the effective pulse edge of the clock signal of each stage of the control signal generation circuit can be kept 1/4 clock cycles (i.e., one duty cycle) from the arrival of the falling edge of the strobe signal.

It can be seen that the control signal generator 500 can output more control signals in each stage of the control signal generation circuit than the example shown in fig. 4A and 4B, but the time margin between the clock signal and the strobe signal is reduced. In practice, the signal generator 400 or the control signal generator 500 may be controlled as required.

Fig. 6 schematically shows a circuit diagram of a switch sub-circuit according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 6, taking the first switch sub-circuit of the nth stage control signal generation circuit as an example, the switch sub-circuit includes a transmission gate 61, a first inverter 62 and a transistor 63. The control terminal of the transmission gate 61 is used as the first input terminal of the switch sub-circuit, and the gating signal S of the nth stage control signal generating circuit_nAnd an inverted strobe signal S output via the first inverter 61_nAre electrically connected to the two control terminals of the transmission gate 61, respectively. The data input terminal of the transmission gate 61 serves as the second input terminal of the switch sub-circuit and is electrically connected to receive the clock signal CK_k+1. The output of the transmission gate 61 serves as the output of the switching sub-circuit. In fig. 6, two inverters connected in series are also electrically connected to the output of the transmission gate 61, and the purpose is to output a control signal Z at the output of the inverters connected in series in order to increase the load capacity of the transmission gate_n1. When the communication signal S_nWhen the level is high, the transmission gate 61 is turned on and the clock signal CK is asserted_k+1Output as control signal Z via transmission gate and two inverters connected in series_n1。

The switch sub-circuit shown in fig. 6 is merely an example, and the disclosure is not limited thereto.

Fig. 7 schematically shows a flow chart of a driving method of a control signal generator according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 7, the driving method includes:

in step S710, K clock signals whose effective pulse edges differ from each other by a set time are applied to the control signal generator.

In step S720, the nth stage control signal generation circuit generates a gate signal of the nth stage control signal generation circuit based on a kth clock signal of the K clock signals and a gate signal of the n-1 th stage control signal generation circuit.

In step S730, the nth stage control signal generation circuit sequentially outputs at least two clock signals among the other K-1 clock signals as control signals based on the gate signal of the nth stage control signal generation circuit.

According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, in response to the K clock signals, which differ from each other in effective pulse edge by a set time, being applied to the control signal generator, the enable signal is also applied to the stage 1 control signal generation circuit to start the control signal generator.

In the driving method, an active pulse edge of a k-th clock signal is located within an active pulse duration of a gate signal of an n-1 th stage control signal generating circuit.

According to the embodiment of the disclosure, the control signal generator is formed by cascading N-level control signal generation circuits, so that compared with the control signal generator adopting a counter and decoder structure, the circuit structure can be simplified, and the power consumption of the circuit scale can be effectively reduced.

According to the embodiment of the disclosure, the gate signal of the nth stage control signal generation circuit is generated by using the kth clock signal with the effective pulse edge within the effective pulse duration of the gate signal of the (n-1) th stage control signal generation circuit, so that the control signal generator has more sufficient timing redundancy, and the reliability of the control signal generator is improved.

It should be noted that in the above description, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure are shown by way of example only, and the embodiments of the present disclosure are not meant to be limited to the steps and structures described above. Steps and structures may be modified and substituted as desired, where possible. Accordingly, certain steps and elements are not essential elements for implementing the general inventive concepts of the disclosed embodiments.

The disclosure has thus been described in connection with the preferred embodiments. It should be understood that various other changes, substitutions, and additions may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the present disclosure. Therefore, it is intended that the scope of the embodiments of the present disclosure be limited not by the specific embodiments described above, but rather by the claims appended hereto.