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Microsoft patents display tech that refreshes screen sections at different speeds

Patent drawing
Patent drawing from the official filing.

Microsoft describes a display system that divides a screen into separate rows and columns to control how often each part updates. By using specific signals to enable or disable updates for different sections, the device can refresh one area of the screen faster than another.

Why it mattersThis technique could help reduce power usage or improve visual performance in future monitors and screens by allowing more precise control over how the image is drawn.

In the filing’s own words

A display device includes a plurality of image-forming elements arranged in a grid, including a plurality of rows and columns. A gate integrated circuit (IC) outputs a clock signal. A gate output buffer controls whether the clock signal is received by image-forming elements in a corresponding one or more rows. A source IC outputs data signals to control the plurality of image-forming elements. A block selection component controls, via a block selection signal, whether image-forming elements in a corresponding one or more columns are refreshed based at least in part on the data signals. A timing controller controls the output enable signal and the block selection signal to thereby control refresh rates for the plurality of image-forming elements, such that a first display region is refreshed at a first refresh rate, and a second display region is refreshed at a second refresh rate.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A display device, comprising: a plurality of image-forming elements arranged in a grid, wherein the grid includes a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns; a gate integrated circuit (IC) configured to output a clock signal to control the plurality of image-forming elements; a gate output buffer configured to control, based at least in part on an output enable signal being active, whether the clock signal is received by image-forming elements in a corresponding row group including one or more rows of the plurality of rows; a source IC configured to output data signals to control the plurality of image-forming elements; a plurality of block selection components, each block selection component configured to control, via a respective block selection signal, whether image-forming elements in a corresponding column group including one or more columns of the plurality of columns are refreshed based at least in part on the data signals, wherein each block selection component is configured to propagate a state of its respective block selection signal through a corresponding trace extending along the corresponding column group; and a timing controller configured to control the output enable signal and each respective block selection signal to thereby control refresh rates for the plurality of image-forming elements, such that a first display region including a first subset of image-forming elements is refreshed at a first refresh rate, and a second display region including a second subset of image-forming elements is refreshed at a second refresh rate.

Facts

Company
Microsoft (Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC)
Official title
Display configuration for refresh rate control
Patent number
US12763030B1
Application number
19212478
Filed
May 19, 2025
Granted
Oct 13, 2026
Inventors
3
Claims
20

Classified under

G09G 3/3266 Physics & computingG09G 3/3275 Physics & computingG09G 3/3677 Physics & computingG09G 3/3688 Physics & computingG09G 2310/0245 Physics & computingG09G 2310/0289 Physics & computing

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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.