Low voltage driver for high voltage lcd

Abstract

A low voltage driver for a higher voltage LCD includes a plurality of LCD drive bias voltage input terminals; an LCD drive voltage output terminal; an input transistor switching circuit having at least one switch for each LCD drive bias voltage for selecting one of the bias voltages; an output transistor switching circuit, responsive to the input transistor switching circuit, for applying the selected one of the bias voltages to the LCD drive voltage output terminal, the transistors of the switching circuits having a predetermined breakdown voltage; a level shifter for providing switching voltages counterpart to the plurality of bias voltages; a logic circuit for enabling the first transistor switching circuit to select a one of the bias voltages and applying a set of counterpart switching voltages to the input and output transistor switching circuits for connecting the selected one of the bias voltages to the output terminal and applying a set of switching voltages to the input and output switching circuits which limit the voltage across the transistor junctions in the switching circuit to less than the predetermined breakdown voltage.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A low voltage driver comprising:
 a plurality of input terminals, each of the input terminals having a respective bias voltage;   an output terminal;   a first plurality of transistors, each of the first plurality of transistors coupled to one of the plurality of input terminals;   a second plurality of transistors, each of the second plurality of transistors disposed between the output terminal and a common drain node shared by two or more of the first plurality of transistors;   a voltage path between a selected input terminal and the output terminal, the voltage path including one of the first plurality of transistors and one of the second plurality of transistors;   wherein a non-selected input terminal is applied to the gate of transistors along the voltage path.