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TFP401A: SLLA325C, TFP401A + DS90C387A

Part Number: TFP401A
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: DS90C387A,

Hello LHS Team,

Customer is interfacing TFP401A + DS90C387A to an OLED display per TI App Note slla325 and is having issues. A brief synopsis from the customer is below:

We have a first design that is not working and what is worst: we are not sure about what is the real problem. We can watch fuzzy images and only when we reduce the frame rate and therefore the pixel clock for dual channel LVDS to around 60Mhz instead of 74.25Mhz (theoretical for 1080p@60hz).

 We suspect about several causes...

1.  Recently we found out from the display mfg. that the first pixel is even and not odd, so the design is wrong and the bits are swapped. We are not sure what implies this fail because it would be expected that the image be erroneous (order pixels swapped) but not that there image not be sharp. Am I wrong?. In your slla325c application note, page 5, you recommend to swap in this case QO[0:23] and QE[0:23] when working with "even-first" serialization regards the figure 4 in same page. Won't be easier to swap the serialized lanes instead the RGB bits, I mean A[0:3] and A[4:7]?

2. We are not really sure about the previous assumption since we don't find the specification in the datasheet about the maximum delay between the odd and even clocks at the output of Ds90c387a and in our display the input is limited to 500ps between even clock (expected first in the time) and odd clock (expected at the same time or later in the time). Could you clarify this point and confirm what is the maximum delay between Ds90c387a output clocks and which one comes out first?

3. The LVDS voltage levels are slightly different: common mode voltage meets but Ds90c387a differential voltage is greater than the expected at the input of the display. Not sure how serious is this point.

 I hope you could give us some hints about if we are in the right way or if there is a real obstacle to make work our display with Tfp401a + Ds90c387a.

  • Hi Jeff,

    Incorrect mapping can result in fuzzy images rather than an erroneous image. This customer had a similar issue:

    e2e.ti.com/.../2834506

    Does your customer's display look similar to the above? And yes you may swap the serailized lanes instead if that is easier.

    Regards,
    I.K.
  • Hello,

    I am the customer that Jeffery mentions. I asked by "ticket" since I shared a document and some information that is confidential: thank you for not mention and/or upload it to this forum.

    The post that you mentions seems a clare case of bit swapping since the image is fuzzy but quite similar to the expected. Our case is not the same: we have odd and even bits swapped but we cannot see an image similar than the expected. At 74.25Mhz the display doesn't show anithing and if we decrease the frequeny to 60mhz we can see some "really" fuzzy images but blinking. So I suspect that is not an issue about bit swapping but about timings. The skew between even/odd clocks supported in our displays is 0 to 500ps so we'd need to know this specification at the ouput of DS90C387A. In the mentioned post the customer talks about 925ps of dealy between clocks what wouldn't be acceptable in our case. Is this delay measured/documented by TI? Is different for dual-to-dual and single-to-dual?

    Thank you,
    Manuel.
  • Hi Manuel,

    I've checked with the team but unfortunately have not been able to find any data for this specification for this device. The skew the other customer observed may have been specific to his application/system. Have you measured the skew in your system and found it to be over the 500ps limit of your display?

    Also, although this does appear to be a timing issue, can you fix the odd/even bit mapping so we can comfortably eliminate that as a root cause?

    Regards,
    I.K.
  • Hello IK,

    unfortunately we can't measure the skew because we don't have a so high speed oscilloscope and this is the reason why I asked. I understand that what the other customer measured is particular to his design but 925ps sounds really strange since supposing a zero skew between clocks it would be 140mm of lenght mismatching: a really bad PCB design so quite strange.

    We are going to solve the swap mistake just in case.

    I take the opportunity to ask about other issue related with this design.... We need to use two identical displays and as multidrop with LVDS channels is not usually recommended: Any suggestion? We have thought in placing 2x DS90C387A in "fly-by" sourced from a single TFP401A ...

    Thanks,
    Manuel.
  • Hi Manuel,

    Sorry for the delay. For multi-drop I believe you can reference this application note: www.ti.com/.../snla157.pdf

    Regards,
    I.K.
  • Hi Manuel,

    Any updates on this issue? Did fixing the swapping mistake resolve it?

    Regards,
    I.K.
  • Thanks for your interest IK. I just received the new PCBs today; I will assembly them in a couple of days: I will give you feedback within few days. I still evaluating the multidrop different scenarios.

    Regards,

    Manuel.

  • Hi I.K,

    the problem is solved and the display is working :-). Now we are studing the best reliable option for multidrop: thank you for the application note suggested and in general by all the support :-).

    Best regards,

    Manuel.