Application note

Introduction to LCD-TFT display controller (LTDC) on STM32 MCUs

Rev 7 - February 2026

Introduction

The evolution of the mobile, industrial, and consumer applications lead to a stronger need of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and to an increase in the required hardware resources. These applications require higher quality graphics, more hardware and software resources (like memory for graphical primitives or framebuffer), and higher processing performances.

To respond to this increasing demand, microprocessor units are often used, which leads to a higher costs and to more complex designs with longer time to market. To face these requirements, the STM32 microcontrollers (MCUs) offer a large graphical portfolio.

Thanks to their embedded LCD-TFT display controller (LTDC), the STM32 MCUs allow high-resolution display panels to be directly driven, without any CPU intervention. In addition, the LTDC can access autonomously to internal memories or external memories to fetch pixel data.

This application note describes the LCD-TFT display controller of the STM32 MCUs listed in Table 1, and demonstrates how to use and configure the LTDC peripheral. It also highlights some hardware, software, and architectural considerations to obtain the best graphical performances.

Table 1. Applicable products
TypeProducts
STM32 MCUs
  • STM32F429/439 and STM32F469/479 lines
  • STM32F7x6, STM32F7x7, STM32F7x8, and STM32F7x9 lines
  • STM32H5Ex/Fx lines
  • STM32H7A3/B3, STM32H723/733, STM32H725/735, STM32H742, STM32H743/753, STM32H745/755, STM32H747/757 lines
  • STM32H7B0, STM32H730, STM32H750 value lines
  • STM32H7R7/7S7 lines
  • STM32L4+ series
  • STM32U595/5A5, STM32U599/5A9, STM32U5F7/5G7, STM32U5F9/5G9 lines
  • STM32N6 series

General information

This document applies to STM32 Arm® Cortex-based microcontrollers.



Note:

Arm and Cortex are registered trademarks of Arm Limited (or its subsidiaries or affiliates) in the US and/or elsewhere.

The Arm word and logo are trademarks of Arm Limited (or its subsidiaries) in the US and/or elsewhere. All rights reserved.

Reference documents

[1]Application note TFT LCD interfacing with the high-density STM32F10xxx FSMC (AN2790)
[2]Application note QVGA TFT-LCD direct drive using the STM32F10xx FSMC peripheral (AN3241)
[3]Application note DSI Host on STM32F469/479, STM32F7x8/x9, and STM32L4R9/S9 MCUs (AN4860)
[4]Application note Quad-SPI interface on STM32 microcontrollers and microprocessors (AN4760)
[5]Application note Getting started with Octo-SPI, Hexadeca-SPI, and XSPI interfaces on STM32 MCUs (AN5050)
[6]Application note Managing memory protection unit in STM32 MCUs (AN4838)
[7]Application note Level 1 cache on STM32F7 series and STM32H7 series (AN4839)
[8]Programming manual STM32F7 series and STM32H7 series Cortex-M7 processor programming manual (PM0253)
[9]Programming manual STM32 Cortex®-M55 MCUs programming manual (PM0273)
[10]Application note Getting started with STM32F7 series MCU hardware development (AN4661)
[11]Application note Getting started with STM32F4xxxx MCU hardware development (AN4488)
[12]User manual Discovery kit for STM32F7 series with STM32F746NG MCU (UM1907)