All You Need to Know About MCU and RGB Interface
summary
MCU interface and RGB interface are widely used interfaces, among which MCU interface is the easiest to drive, but with the technical progress of tft screen and the problem of production cost, more and more tft display driver IC manufacturers have given up on WVGA, that is, 480×800 The production of MCU interface driver IC with above resolutions, but small lcd displays such as 1.14-inch, 1.77-inch and 2.4-inch are not affected. It is recommended that you pay attention to circumvention on new projects.
With the continuous development of LCD, it can display 16.7M colors from only black and white, and the resolution has been upgraded from 16×4, 16×2, 20×4 to QVGA, HD, FHD and even 4K. The higher the resolution, the better the color representation, which means more data needs to be transmitted. The corresponding LCD interface also continues to develop, classification is also very fine.
At present, LCD interface generally has such several: MCU interface, RGB interface, SPI interface, MIPI interface, LVDS interface, eDP interface.
Because of the transmission rate, RGB interface, MCU interface and SPI interface are mainly used for display screens with low resolution.
MIPI interface and eDP interface is now the HD and above display screen the most commonly used interface, with high-speed transmission and anti-interference ability, but also has high requirements for driving his processor, low-end single-chip microcomputer can only use MCU interface.
Parallel interface is widely used, while MCU interface and RGB interface are the two most commonly used interfaces:
What is MCU interface?
MCU interface driver IC structure
- MCU Interface:
MCU can be divided into 8080 mode and 6800 mode. The LCD driver IC used by the LCD screen with MCU interface is internally integrated with RAM, which can process the data/command issued by the host and convert the data into RGB data of each pixel without clock signal and other signals. The LCD driver IC can control the LCD display according to the RGB data.
part of our MCU interface tft screen production
1.77-inch 128x160 QQVGA tft display
1.77-inch lcd panel, TN display mode, MCU interface, optimal viewing angle at 6 o'clock
2.4-inch 240x320 QVGA tft display
2.4-inch lcd panel, TN display mode, MCU interface, brightness and size can be customized
0.96-inch 80x160 tft display, MCU interface, IPS mode
0.96-inch lcd panel using MCU interface, 16.7M colors, using IPS display technology, all view direction
What is RGB interface?
RGB interface driver IC structure
An LCD driver IC that uses an RGB interface does not have RAM inside. The host computer is required to provide HSYNC, VSYNC, ENABLE, CS, RESET, RS signals to display the content, and there is no RAM inside the driver IC, so it cannot be calculated, so the host computer is required to transmit the data of each RGB pixel, which requires the host computer to have a LCD controller. The RGB data and point, line, and frame synchronization signals needed to produce the RGB interface display will display the correct content,
part of our RGB interface tft screen production
4.3-inch 480x272 tft display
4.3-inch 480×272 lcd panel, RGB interface, driver IC is NV3047, Suitable for PAD, PMP, MP4, DVB-S, GPS products
5-inch 800x480 tft display, sunlight readable display
5-inch 800×480 tft display, IPS mode, high brightness display, 1000cd/㎡, sunlight readable display.
3.95-inch 480x480 tft display, rectangular display
3.95 -inch480x480 tft display, IPS mode, RGB interface, the brightness is 350cd/㎡, square display.
RGB interface or MCU interface Who is better?
The display of the MCU interface has low requirements on the host computer and does not require the memory of the host computer
The MCU interface data is written into the RAM of the driver IC, and the host does not need to send any command when the picture is not updated. However, even if the RGB interface displays the same content, the host needs to send RGB data and synchronization signals all the time. It consumes a little more power, but because it writes data directly, RGB displays are faster and can play video and dynamic images.
RGB interface has higher requirements for host than MCU interface, requiring LCD driver
The LCD driver IC used by the RGB interface has no RAM, and theoretically the display can be infinitely large as long as the transmission rate is fast enough. The actual situation is limited by the calculation speed of the LCD driver, the transmission speed of the LCD display FPC, etc. RGB interface can achieve a relatively high resolution of 1024×768. The MCU interface is limited by the size of RAM in the LCD driver IC, which can only be used below WVGA.
conclusion
Since the display of the MCU interface requires RAM to be integrated into the driver IC, the driver IC supporting the MCU interface will be more expensive, and only a few manufacturers will produce the driver IC of the MCU interface due to the decreasing usage.
If you are starting a new project now, we strongly recommend that you choose RGB interface or another interface.
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