At present, there are several mainstream TFT LCD interface methods: MCU interface, RGB interface, SPI interface, MIPI interface, QSPI interface, LVDS interface.
The MCU interface, RGB interface and SPI interface are the most used ones, with the following main differences.
MCU interface: will decode the command, generated by timing generator timing signal, drive COM and SEG drive.
RGB interface: When writing LCD register setting, there is no difference with MCU interface. The difference only lies in the way the image is written.
SPI interface: SPI (Serial Peripheral Interfacce), serial peripheral interface, is a synchronous serial data transfer standard proposed by MOTOROLA.
The SPI interface is commonly referred to as a 4-wire serial bus and works in a master/slave mode, with the data transfer process initialized by the host.
SPI CLK, SCLK: Serial clock, used to synchronize data transfer, output by the host
CS: chip select line, active low, output by the host
MOSI: host output, slave input data line
MISO: host input, slave output data line
There is no such thing as the best or the worst interface, only the one that is suitable or unsuitable for the product application. Therefore, we have compiled the data to provide the following table to provide a multi-faceted analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the various interfaces introduced in this article, so that you can analyze and compare them to find the most suitable display interface for your product.
| Display Interface | Resolution | Speed | Pin Count. | Noise | Power Consumption | Connect Distance | Cost |
| MCU 8080/6800 | Middle | Low | More | Middle | Low | Short | Low |
| RGB 16/18/24 | Middle | Fast | More | Worst | High | Short | Low |
| SPI | Small | Low | Less | Middle | Low | Short | Low |
| I²C | Small | Low | Less | Middle | Low | Short | Low |
| Serial RGB 6/8 | Middle | Fast | Less | Worst | High | Short | Low |
| LVDS | high | Fast | Less | Best | Low | Long | High |
| MIPI | high | Fastest | Less | Best | Low | Short | Average |
