1998 May 11
7
Philips Semiconductors
Product specification
LCD controllers/drivers
PCF2103 family
7
FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION
7.1
LCD bias voltage generator
The intermediate bias voltages for the LCD display are generated on-chip. This removes the need for an external
resistive bias chain and significantly reduces the system current consumption. The optimum value of V
LCD
depends on
the multiplex rate, the LCD threshold voltage (V
th
) and the number of bias levels and is given by the relationships given
in Tables 2 and 3. Using a 5-level bias scheme for 1 : 18 maximum rate allows V
LCD
<5 V for most LCD liquids.
Table 2
Optimum/maximum values for V
OP
(off pixels start darkening; V
off
= V
th
)
Table 3
Minimum values for V
OP
(on pixels clearly visible; V
on
> V
th
)
MUX RATE
NUMBER OF LEVELS
V
on
/V
th
1.272
2.236
V
OP
/V
th
3.7
2.283
V
OP
(typical; for V
th
= 1.4 V)
5.2 V
3.9 V
1 : 18
1 : 2
5
3
MUX RATE
NUMBER OF LEVELS
V
on
/V
th
1.12
1.2
V
OP
/V
th
3.2
1.5
V
OP
(typical; for V
th
= 1.4 V)
4.6 V
2.1 V
1 : 18
1 : 2
5
3
7.2
Oscillator
The on-chip oscillator provides the clock signal for the
display system. No external components are required and
pin OSC must be connected to V
DD
.
7.3
External clock
If an external clock is to be used, it is input at the OSC pin.
The resulting display frame frequency is given by
f
3072
Only in the power-down state is the clock allowed to be
stopped (OSC connected to V
SS
), otherwise the LCD is
frozen in a DC state.
7.4
Power-on reset
The on-chip power-on reset block initializes the chip after
power-on or power failure. This is a synchronous reset and
requires 3 oscillator cycles to be executed. Afterwards, a
clear display is initiated.
7.5
Power-down mode
The chip can be put into power-down mode where all static
currents are switched off (no internal oscillator, no bias
level generation, all LCD outputs are internally connected
to V
SS
) when PD = 1.
f
frame
------------
=
During power-down, the whole chip is being reset and will
restart with a clear display after power-down. Therefore,
the whole chip has to be initialized after a power-down as
after an initial power-up.
7.6
Registers
The PCF2103 has two 8-bit registers, an Instruction
Register (IR) and a Data Register (DR). The Register
Select signal (RS) determines which register will be
accessed. The instruction register stores instruction codes
such as ‘display clear’ and ‘cursor shift’, and address
information for the Display Data RAM (DDRAM) and
Character Generator RAM (CGRAM). The instruction
register can be written from but not read by the system
controller. The data register temporarily stores data to be
read from the DDRAM and CGRAM. When reading, data
from the DDRAM or CGRAM corresponding to the address
in the instruction register is written to the data register prior
to being read by the ‘read data’ instruction.
7.7
Busy flag
The busy flag indicates the internal status of the PCF2103.
Logic 1 indicates that the chip is busy and further
instructions will not be accepted. The busy flag is output at
pin DB7 when RS = 0 and R/W = 1. Instructions should
only be written after checking that the busy flag is logic 0
or waiting for the required number of cycles.