LCD drivers

NXP Semiconductors is the leader in advanced drivers for small LCD panels. Our considerable market share keeps us in close contact with demanding customers to understand their needs. As a result, we are able to create fully-featured products at low cost. So why choose NXP Semiconductors?

• Advanced Features — NXP has the most advanced features in our LCD drivers. For example, the on-chip RAM of our segment drivers holds the display contents without refresh, minimizing processing power and bus utilization. The exclusive "icon mode" feature of our character drivers includes segment driver functionality to improve the richness of the user interface while offering drammatic power savings. Also, the majority of our products include all necessary functions such as a charge pump for generating the higher LCD drive bias voltages, requiring no external components. This saves you cost, power, and board real estate, while simplifying your design and improving time-to-market.
• Ultra-Low Power — NXP's expertise in Analog Watch Motor Drivers allows us to create industry-leading, ultra-low power LCD drivers which save system power and enable longer battery life.
• Combination Display Capabilities — NXP's LCD drivers allow you to create complex displays by combining multiple types of LCD display types including dot-matrix (graphic) displays, 7-segment (number) displays, and intuitive icons. With NXP's LCD drivers, you can greatly enhance the user experience of your products by combining elements such as icons for antenna signal strength, battery capacity, or coffee pot fill along with a numeric or character portion to indicate time, temperature, or diagnostic code along with a block character display to display menus or prompts. Only NXP enables you to do all this with a single LCD display driver and custom LCD cell.
• Established Relationships — NXP has established relationships with major LCD glass design and manufacturing houses. In quantities of as little as a few thousand pieces, you can get custom displays for typically a few dollars ($USD, depending on complexity and size). Our advanced LCD drivers are competitively priced. As a result, you can add rich user interface capabilities to your products at minimal cost.

In this section, you'll find pages describing the different types of LCD Displays which cover the advangates and disadvantages of each. You'll also find detailed Products pages covering the different types of LCD driver products we make and how they can be used to drive the different types of displays. In the future, we will be adding information regarding different display technologies, packaging and manufacturing considerations, as well as information on LCD glass manufacturers.

A Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) serves as optical feedback to control input from a data-bus or keypad. This feedback is essential for ease-of-use in today's products. Basic elements of LCD displays include numbers, "starburst" and block characters, icons, and graphic/matrix panels. In combination or separately, the right elements create a pleasant display with excellent functionality and minimum processor supervisory management/overhead.

• LCD Number Displays
• LCD Starburst Character Displays
• LCD Block Character Displays
• LCD Icon Displays
• LCD Graphic/Matrix Panel Displays

The basic liquid crystal display uses the effect of blocking light by switching the light polarization. Ambient light is reflected from a mirrored surface on the back side of the display. Unlike other types of displays which generate their own light, the use of backlighting should be evaluated to improve usability. The use of backlighting can, however, increase power consumption in battery-powered applications.

Liquid crystal displays depend on ambient light being reflected from a mirrored surface on the back side of the display. Readability can be enhanced by using a display with a smart backlight. A backlight can boost contrast by several orders of magnitude. Blinking a backlight can also function as an alert mechanism. Using multicolor backlighting LEDs, the color of the display can be changed to reflect the status of an application. For instance, a green backlight under normal conditions turns red for alert situations. NXP makes a wide variety of LED drivers/controllers that can be programmed for and are ideal for these purposes. When adding backlighting, consideration should be given to the increased power consumption, particularly in battery-powered applications.

• LED Drivers

• All LCD Drivers
• New LCD Drivers

• Segment LCD Drivers
• Character LCD Drivers
• Graphic LCD Drivers

• AN10170 Design guidelines for COG modules with NXP monochrome LCD drivers, V3 (Jun 11, 2009)

• LED Drivers