Micro-display backplane power reduction techniques: Column segmentation and row charge sharing

Micro-displays are ubiquitous in portable electronics, ranging from consumer products to specialized industrial and medical devices including heads-up displays (HUDs), and augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headsets. To increase the battery life of portable electronics, it is important to address power consumption in micro-displays, which is the most power-hungry block in these devices. With the improved power efficiency of display media, the power consumption of the display backplane is still high, especially while streaming video. Therefore, to reduce overall power consumption, it is important to reduce the power consumption of the display backplane. This work investigates the impact of column segmentation techniques and row charge sharing on reducing the power consumption of the display backplane. The measurement result of a VGA (480 × 640) micro-display implemented in TSMC 65 nm technology shows a 18.4% reduction in the average total power consumption of the display backplane using a dual-column driver with column segmentation architecture. • Study of various column segmentation architectures to reduce column driver power. • Use of row charge sharing mechanism to reduce power consumption of row driver. • Understanding of effect of image pattern on display backplane power consumption. • Understanding the effect of increase in display resolution or refresh rate on power consumption of backplane.