Separately controllable array of radiation elements

摘要

A good way to avoid extreme current levels when supplying large amounts of power is to increase the voltage. The easiest way to do this is connecting the radiation elements (e.g. laser diode pixels) in series (La1 to La-n). In such a pixelated driver, the amount of components and complexity per pixel are reduced by connecting as many radiation elements as possible in series, supplying the string by one current controlled driver (Is), shortening pixels which should be in off state by a switch in parallel (40-1 to 40-n) to the radiation element, storing binary on/off information (30-1 to 30-n) for each pixel locally, creating a floating supply (20-1 to 20-n) for the switches, and managing information transfer to the floating storage and switches.

主权项

1. A circuit for driving an array of radiation elements, said circuit comprising:
a plurality of switching elements connected in parallel to respective ones of said radiation elements and controllable to individually shorten said respective ones of said radiation elements; a plurality of local storage elements connected to respective ones of said switching elements and adapted to locally store a binary information which determines the switching state of the respective switching element; and a plurality of local floating supply elements for delivering a floating supply used to control respective ones of said switching elements in accordance with said binary information.