Flat panel head down displays

1 Introduction
1.1 Although CRTs will have a place in airborne displays for the foreseeable future (and
especially in HUDs), they have a number of disadvantages. They are bulky - in
particular requiring considerable depth behind the display face; they operate at very
high voltages; and interfacing them with digital equipment is complex. In many cockpit
applications these disadvantages can be overcome by the use of flat panel electronic
displays, such as the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD). Although CRT technology still
remains as a benchmark for display performance and quality, it is nevertheless being
replaced by the LCD as the display technology of choice for many cockpit applications.

1.2 Unlike the CRT, which may be regarded as an essentially homogenous surface on
which information can be written at any point, flat panel displays are characterised by
having a display surface which is composed of individual points or picture elements,
arranged in a matrix structure of rows and columns. Individual picture elements, or
'pixels', are addressed by reference to the numbered row and column in which the pixel
is located. Having established which particular pixel is to be controlled, the brightness
of the pixel is then set in accordance with the image data to be displayed.

1.3 The flat panel's pixel structure and method of control fits in very neatly with the
organisation of the digital computers responsible for producing the information to be
written on the display. A typical display computer has an array of video memory which
is also arranged in rows and columns; each memory location is responsible for the
brightness of a single element of the complete image. The arrangement of the flat panel
therefore gives potential for simplifying the interface between computer and display and
represents an advantage for the flat panel over the CRT.

1.4 In practice the situation is complicated by the need of certain types of flat panel for
complicated drive voltage waveforms and, for colour-capable panels, by the grouping of
the pixels into three- or four-pixel colour groups; nevertheless the drive interface is
conceptually simpler and largely digital in nature, thus reducing the size, cost and
complexity of the electronics involved.

1.5 This chapter considers LCD, plasma, electroluminescent, and Light Emitting Diode
(LED) displays, as well as some flat panel display technologies which are still under
development.

2 Liquid crystal displays

2.1 Liquid Crystal Displays are different to CRTs, in that they do not emit light; instead,
they control the transmission of light falling upon them and may therefore be thought of
as 'light modulators'. This characteristic allows the simpler types of LCD to be viewed
in ambient light and, with the ultra-low power and low drive voltage requirements of
such displays, renders them very suitable for use in certain types of consumer goods
such as watches, calculators etcetera. Because LCDs do not generate light, they must be
externally lit or back-lit if viewing in dark conditions is required.

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2.2 Liquid crystals are a group of materials composed of large organic molecules that are
significantly long in comparison to their width. The presence of small electric dipole
fields associated with the individual molecules gives each molecule a tendency to align
itself with its immediate neighbours. In addition the liquid form of the material gives
the molecules a freedom of movement enabling them to be aligned by external
influences, either by the presence of microscopic grooves in the surface against which
they lie or by the presence of an electric field. Because of their inherent self-alignment,
the substances exhibit a phenomenon known as 'optical birefringence' in which the
molecules interfere with light waves in a highly directional manner, thus causing the
optical properties of the fluid to vary with direction. It is this property of liquid crystal
materials that is of use in display applications.

2.3 The ordering of the elongated liquid crystal molecules is of three main types, known as
the Nematic, Cholesteric and Smectic Mesomorphic states. The arrangement of the
molecules in each state is shown in Figure 2-1. The nematic type is characterised by
having all the molecules parallel to one another. Cholesteric molecules are arranged in
molecular layers with the molecules in any one layer parallel to one another but offset at
an angle from those in the adjacent layer. The smectic liquid also has a layered structure
but with a constant preferred direction. The majority of displays today employ nematic
material; research into the use of smectic materials in display applications is proceeding
also.

Smectic Nematic Cholesteric

Figure 2-1; The three mesomorphic states

2.4 Construction and operation: In the most common mode of LCD operation, the twisted
nematic mode, a cell is formed in which the long, thin, liquid crystal molecules are
sandwiched between two glass plates. The glass plates are constructed with microscopic
grooves on their inner surfaces, inducing the adjacent liquid crystal molecules to
become aligned with the grooves. The grooves in one plate are aligned at ninety degrees
to those in the other and this constrains the molecules to adopt a spiral orientation as
shown in Figure 2-2. A polarizer is attached to each glass plate such that its plane of
polarization is aligned with the grooves in the glass. Thus the planes of polarization of
the two polarizers are crossed and it might be expected that light shining through the
sandwich would be prevented from emerging. However, the spiral molecular orientation
of the liquid crystal material causes the plane of polarization of the light from one
polarizer to be rotated by 90o as it passes through the liquid, thus aligning it with the
second polarizer and allowing the light to be transmitted.

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Figure 2-2; Operation of twisted nematic LCD

2.5 When an electric potential difference is applied between transparent electrodes on the
inner glass surfaces, the resulting electric field across the liquid crystal material causes
the molecules to become aligned along the field, in a direction normal to the glass
surfaces. This disrupts the spiral molecular structure of the fluid, inhibiting the rotation
of the polarized light as it passes through. The light is now blocked by the second
polarizer and is therefore prevented from passing through the liquid crystal cell. A
situation therefore exists in which light is transmitted by the cell in the de-energised
condition but blocked when the cell is energised. This type of cell is known as a
'normally white' LCD (i.e. in the un-energised state, the LCD permits light to pass
through). A 'normally black' form is also available from some manufacturers, in which
the exit polarizer is aligned with the input polarizer.

2.6 Electrical characteristics: The relatively low value of electric field required for cell
operation can be produced by a potential difference of only a few volts, simplifying the
interface between LCD and digital drive electronics. It has been found however that the
application of a constant dc electric field for long periods causes deterioration of the
liquid crystal material by electrolysis. For this reason the drive circuitry is arranged to
continuously switch the polarization of the applied electric field so that the average dc
potential is exactly zero. The liquid crystal material is electrically non-conductive and
therefore inhibits the flow of electric current between the cell electrodes. The material
does, however, exhibit a significant dielectric effect and this causes the cell to behave as
a small-value capacitor so the ac drive waveform applied to the cell causes a small
current to flow. For simple segmented alphanumeric displays this current is negligible;
but for large LC panels designed for the display of video information the overall current
drain is quite significant.

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2.7 Temperature characteristics: The light-switching properties of the LCD depend upon
physical movement of the molecules comprising the liquid crystal material. At low
temperatures the material becomes viscous and this increases the response time of the
LCD. Below zero degrees centigrade the response time may be in excess of one second
and for use in military cockpits heating of the display surface is required. High
temperatures pose different problems; the alignment of the molecules tends to become
slightly disordered and the contrast of the display reduces in a progressive manner until
the picture fades completely at around 90oC. A more significant problem concerns the
effect of temperature on the polarizers. These are constructed of stressed thermoplastic
material and suffer from the gradual onset of discolouration if subjected to extended
periods at high temperatures. In addition, when a critical temperature (the thermoplastic
temperature) is reached the material relaxes, destroying its polarizing properties. This
process is irreversible; thus high temperatures will irretrievably damage a Liquid
Crystal Display. Polarizing materials commonly in use tend to relax at temperatures in
excess of about 85oC though more recently polarizers have become available with
capability up to 110oC. It is not unknown for temperatures in fighter cockpits to reach
these levels so at present LCDs should be regarded as being temperature-limited.

2.8 Segmented displays: Segmented LCDs are characterised by a layout in which the
display surface is divided into a number of relatively large active areas, for example the
segments making up the digits of a four-character seven-segment display. The important
distinguishing feature of these displays is that the total number of active areas is
sufficiently low for individual contacts to be provided to each active area. On the glass
plate closest to the observer, the electrodes are shaped in the form of the active areas
they control; the back plate is covered by a continuous 'backplane' electrode. There is
thus the same number of contacts as there are active areas, plus one for the backplane.
The active areas are switched on and off by direct application of controlling voltages to
the relevant contacts. This type of LCD has a transflective backplane which reflects
most of the light falling upon it. Ambient light entering from the front of the display,
passes through the display, is reflected off the backplane and passes again through the
display before being transmitted to the eye of the observer. The luminance of the
display is therefore dependent on the ambient light and such displays are capable of
very good contrast ratio. In low light conditions the display is lit through the
transflective backplane by a suitable backlight. Because of the optical birefringence
properties which enable the LCD to operate, viewing of this type of display is not
equally good from all directions but is usually acceptable over a reasonable angle of
view. There are, however, problems of viewability under forward sun conditions, when
the display is not directly lit by strong ambient light but needs to be bright in order to
counteract the contraction of the pilot's pupils; a backlight of significant luminance is
therefore required. A more significant disadvantage of this display type is its limitation
to the display of a small number of simple shapes (often alphanumeric character
segments) pre-defined by the electrode pattern.

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3 Active matrix liquid crystal displays

3.1 For the display of video scenes containing dynamic, complex pictorial information,
nematic liquid crystal displays have been developed containing upwards of a million
discrete pixels, often arranged for example as a matrix of 1024 rows by 1024 columns.
It is not possible to control this huge number of elements via contacts to the individual
electrodes, so the electrodes are addressed via row and column selection circuits and the
entire display is scanned in a sequential manner in which all the elements in one row are
updated simultaneously, each row being addressed in turn. This reduces the number of
connections required to 2048 in the above example which, although still a large number,
is feasible using modern assembly techniques. However, in this arrangement the
elements in any one row are serviced only once in every 1024 refresh cycles and this
low duty cycle would ordinarily cause the contrast of each element to be so low that the
video scene would be invisible.

3.2 To overcome the effects of the low duty cycle and render a twisted nematic matrix LCD
usable it is necessary to arrange a switch mechanism at the site of each individual
matrix element (or cell). When a cell's row is energised the switch is turned on, thus
applying an electric field determined by the column voltage (a function of the scene
luminance at that point) to the cell's electrodes and charging up the cell capacitance.
During the period (most of the time) when other rows are being addressed, the switch is
turned off, preventing the charge in the cell from leaking away and thus maintaining the
energization. This arrangement is shown in Figure 3-1. Because each element of the
array is operated by an active semiconductor switch, this type of display is referred to as
an Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Display, or AMLCD.

Figure 3-1; Active matrix LCD arrangement

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3.3 For a 1024x1024 display, the deposition of over one million transistor switches on to
the surface of a glass plate measuring perhaps 6 inches square is a formidable challenge.
The conventional transistor fabrication methods involving the doping of pure crystalline
silicon have proved totally impractical for such large-area processing on a glass surface
and so new semiconductor construction methods involving the use of amorphous (non-
crystalline) silicon thin-film transistors (TFTs) have been developed.

3.4 To date, manufacturers have succeeded in the fabrication of AMLCD arrays on a

production basis for the laptop computer market and, more recently, for the television
market. The arrays presently available, though still relatively expensive when compared
to CRTs, have significantly declined in cost (and are still doing so) as the production
processes have improved and the reject rate has dropped. Units are now available which
offer good visual performance. The production processes involved in the construction of
AMLCDs are not dissimilar to those for the manufacture of conventional semiconductor
devices and therefore offer the prospect of reduced cost and good repeatability once the
process variables are brought under control. The lure of the computer and mass
television markets has attracted vast sums of money for AMLCD development,
particularly within Japanese industry and the remaining difficulties are being
aggressively addressed. One such difficulty concerns the performance of the amorphous
TFTs; these exhibit high leakage in the "off" state, allowing charge to leak from the
cells; they also give a high "on" resistance, thus limiting the amount of charge that can
be deposited into the cells.

3.5 Colour AMLCDs: Displays exhibiting full colour and greyscale are now widely
available. To achieve colour, a pattern of red, green and blue dyes is imprinted on to a
sheet of transparent plastic, which is then aligned with the AMLCD such that each
small area of dye coincides with an AMLCD cell. Thus each cell is constrained to pass
only red, green or blue light. The dye pattern can be arranged in various ways, of which
the most common are illustrated in Figure 3-2. In these arrangements, the LCD pixels
are grouped in triads or quads, each possessing all of the primary colours. These clusters
are called 'Colour Groups' or 'Colour Triads' (or Quads). For the purposes of displaying
a colour image, it is convenient to think of the display as containing, for example,
512x512 colour quads, rather than 1024x1024 pixels. In this respect, the colour
properties of AMLCD cells are analogous to but slightly different from those of digital
camera sensors; in cameras the colour filters are usually arranged as quads, but the
colour assumed by each ‘pixel’ is a combination of the intensity of the light received
directly by the (for example, green) pixel, plus the intensities of the immediately
adjacent (for example red and blue) pixels. Thus an eight megapixel camera will
provide eight million discrete luminance values to the camera’s processor and will also
provide eight million chrominance values; the chrominance values are, however,
obtained by interpolation from only two million discrete chrominance data points.

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R G B R G R G B R G R G R G R
B R G B R R G B R G W B W B W
G B R G B R G B R G R G R G R
R G B R G R G B R G W B W B G
B R G B R R G B R G R G R G R

Diagonal Vertical RGBW

Stripe Stripe (Quad with White)

R G B R G B R G R G R
G B R G B R G G B G B G
R G B R G B R G R G R
G B R G B R G G B G B G
R G B R G B R G R G R
RGB RGBG
Delta Triad (Quad double green )
Figure 3-2; Common AMLCD pixel arrangements

3.6 Effect of cell layout on viewability: Studies performed in the USA and elsewhere
indicate that pixel layout has a significant effect on the acceptability of images
displayed on AMLCDs. For binary (on/off) images, the quad RGBG layout shows
superior quality over delta triad or diagonal stripe, for images drawn in white, cyan,
green or yellow (all colours containing significant amounts of green). This result is
attributable to the greater green pixel density of the RGBG arrangement. For colours not
containing green, the delta triad arrangement is preferred. Additionally, for images in
which grey-scaled colours are used for anti-aliasing, the delta triad arrangement appears
to give good performance. More recently, high-density (up to 125 colour groups/inch)
vertical-stripe panels have become popular, due in part to the geometric simplicity of
the arrangement being easier to manufacture at high densities, and in part to the superior
colour performance of the arrangement when viewed from the side.

3.7 Display construction: The general assembly arrangement of a Colour AMLCD unit is
shown in Figure 3-3. To make the image visible a backlight is required; this is
mounted together with a diffuser across the rear of the LC panel. Row and column
driver circuits are mounted on small flexirigid panels called 'Tabs' which are soldered to
the row and column contacts, often arranged on three sides of the LC panel. The 'tabs'
are then folded round the backlight, with access to the backlight (essential if the
backlight is of the hot-cathode variety) being provided from the fourth side (usually the
bottom) of the display. A heat exchanger is mounted behind the backlight to remove the
considerable quantity of heat generated by backlight, display drivers and HDD
electronics, which are mounted behind the heat exchanger.

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Figure 3-3; AMLCD assembly

3.8 Resolution: For best display resolution, the LCD pixels need to be as small and as close
together as possible. However as the pixel size is decreased, proportionately more of the
display surface becomes taken up with the boundaries between pixels and with the area
of the TFTs; this results in loss of transmissivity of the AMLCD to light. Additionally
the spacing between pixels corresponds to the spacing between row and column
contacts at the edges of the display and this is limited by the ability of current
manufacturing processes to reliably solder wiring into place. Until recently, pixel
spacings on commercially available panels were limited to around 0.15mm. With a
colour group spacing of twice this, minimum feature size was relatively coarse in
comparison with the best CRT technology. However, improvements in technology have
now resulted in military-specification panels with pixel spacings of around 0.085mm,
and ‘ruggedized’ commercial panels of 0.068mm. With a geometry in which the red,
green and blue pixels forming the colour triads are arranged in vertical stripes, this
corresponds to a horizontal colour triad pitch of 0.25mm (military) and 0.2mm
(commercial), comparing well with CRT pitches.

3.9 Brightness: The great advantage of the segmented monochrome LCD is its ability to be
viewed with good contrast in ambient light. Sadly, this feature is not easily obtained in
colour AMLCDs. The light transmissivity of a typical colour AMLCD is in the region
of three to five percent, as is shown in Figure 3-4. In order to obtain a (white)
luminance from the display of 200 ft Lamberts (considered to be no more than adequate
for HDD use) a powerful backlight is required. In most arrangements currently
available, this is provided by a series of hot-cathode fluorescent tubes mounted together
with a diffuser immediately behind the LCD panel. For maximum light transmission,
the dyes used to colour the LCD cells are roughly spectrally matched to the red, green
and blue emissions of the white fluorescent tube phosphor.

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Figure 3-4; AMLCD transmissivity

3.10 Backlights: Two types of phosphor tube are available for use in LCD backlights, based
on either hot-cathode or cold-cathode technology. Hot-cathode tubes offer easy start-up
('striking') and good control over dimming. However, the performance presently
available from hot-cathode backlights gives a display luminance inferior to that of the
best CRTs, with typical AMLCD luminance struggling to approach 200 ft.L.
Furthermore, the lifetime of hot-cathode tubes is limited, with the failure mode being
sudden and catastrophic. Some manufacturers effectively double up on the number of
hot-cathode tubes in the backlight, in order to provide continued functionality after
failure of a tube. In addition, it is common for the display driver tabs to be arranged
about only three of the sides of the LCD panel, thus providing access through the fourth
side so that the relatively inexpensive backlight can be changed without also having to
change the expensive LC panel. Cold-cathode backlights exhibiting greater luminance
are also available but until recent years these have suffered from a lack of dimming
range. Development work has provided solutions to this problem and AMLCDs with
cold-cathode backlights are now obtainable with luminances of up to 300 ft.L (better
than CRT technology) together with very good dimming ratios in excess of 10,000 to 1.
Cold-cathode tubes also offer advantages of higher reliability and gradual rather than
catastrophic failure modes. This leads to simplification of the backlight construction.
Also, the lifetime of the cold-cathode backlight (often defined as being the point at
which the luminance has fallen to 2/3 of the initial value) compares well with that of the
LCD panel, thus making it economically viable to change both the LCD and the
backlight in one operation. This in turn allows driver tabs to be placed on all four sides
of the LCD and eases the problem of connections from the drivers to the LCD columns.

3.11 Brightness uniformity: The problems encountered in the uniform processing of the
large-area AMLCD panels make it difficult to obtain uniform transmission of light
through all parts of the display surface. This can cause the display surface to appear
blotchy and discoloured and is a major reason for the rejection of panels in production.

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A further difficulty arises from the nature of some backlight designs, which are
sometimes constructed from half-inch-diameter fluorescent tubes spaced in parallel
across the rear of the LCD panel. This arrangement gives a cyclic luminance
distribution across the width of the display, with a spatial frequency in the range of one
half to one inch, depending on the spacing of the tubes. It so happens that the human
eye is particularly sensitive to cyclic luminance variations in the range 0.5 to 2 degrees
which corresponds to the angle subtended by the tube spacing at typical HDD viewing
distances. This feature is quite noticeable in some AMLCD arrangements and is only
partially resolved by good diffuser design. Other backlight designs have effectively
overcome this problem, including cold cathode designs in which a single cold cathode
tube is wound in a serpentine manner across the entire backlight area.

3.12 Contrast: The present performance of AMLCD devices is now better than the best
CRTs under high luminance conditions. A noticeable feature of AMLCDs is that the
contrast does not deteriorate as rapidly as that of CRT technology, with increasing
ambient illumination.

3.13 Greyscale: The achievement of good greyscale performance depends both on the
luminance separation between the brightest and darkest pixel conditions obtainable
from the LC panels (Contrast Ratio) and on the quality of the driver circuits. The early
difficulties encountered in obtaining drivers of sufficient performance to provide the
consistency required have now been overcome, with 256 grey levels obtainable.
Techniques such as 'dithering' the pixels between one level and another on a frame-
alternating basis contribute to this level of performance. It is generally accepted that
sixteen discrete grey levels is the minimum requirement for the rendering of video
scenes containing large tonal areas, with at least thirty-two levels strongly preferred for
FLIR imagery under dark ambient conditions, to avoid the introduction of contours in
the displayed image caused by the inability of the display to render continuously-
varying shades of grey. Modern LCD driver performance easily exceeds this. For the
overlay of bright symbology on a darker background, a different metric for greyscale
performance is required. For this purpose, greyscale performance is usually defined as
the number of discrete luminance steps obtainable from a display, each being separated
by a factor of 1.414 (root-of-two) from the luminance of the adjacent steps, and with
full brightness and full black being counted as steps. A high Contrast Ratio is the key to
good performance here. It is important to remember that, although an AMLCD may be
capable of providing, say, 256 discrete levels of luminance from a given pixel and may
also offer a Contrast Ratio of say 30:1 in dark ambient conditions, the number of greys
with a root-two step size will be limited by the Contrast Ratio to only 11. Under
conditions of high ambient illumination the Contrast Ratio may fall to say 6:1,
restricting the number of root-two grey levels to only 6.

3.14 Viewing angle: AMLCD panels rely on their properties of optical birefringence for
their operation. The panels are designed for viewing from a direction normal to the
display surface and it is an inherent part of the way in which the cell works that the
optical properties cannot be the same for all directions of viewing. Early examples of
AMLCD panels suffered very severely from restrictions to the cone of vision, with off-
axis imagery either fading to white or undergoing colour inversion. As a practical
example, a fighter cockpit with one large (say ten-inch) AMLCD mounted centrally
with one smaller (say five-inch) panel on either side would suffer from unacceptable

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loss of contrast over the lower half of the centre panel and the outer halves of the outer
panels. However, the development of 'Optical Birefringence Retardation Films' has
considerably improved the off-axis performance of the panels in the horizontal
direction, with recent examples exhibiting sufficient off-axis performance for cross-
cockpit viewing in transport aircraft applications. Recently the off-axis performance in
the vertical direction has also been improved by the introduction of sub-structures
within the individual AMLCD pixels. These permit multiple molecular spirals to be
employed within each pixel, each spiral having a different molecular orientation to its
neighbours, thus eliminating one of the major causes of directionality in the viewing
properties. Present state-of-the-art AMLCD viewing angle performance, though still
short of the near-perfect 'Lambertian' performance which can be obtained from CRTs, is
no longer considered to be such a limitation as previously. 'Normally black' AMLCDs
generally have a wider viewing cone than 'Normally white' AMLCDs and have found
their way into certain transport aircraft cockpits (eg Boeing 777); however in general it
is difficult to obtain satisfactory uniformity from a 'normally black' panel in the black
state and so 'Normally white' panels are often preferred. With the latest developments in
birefringence retardation techniques, the viewing cones of ‘Normally white’ AMLCDs
are not greatly worse than those of ‘Normally black’ AMLCDs.

3.15 Colour range: The achievement of a good colour gamut for an AMLCD is a
compromise between colour saturation and display luminance. If the colours used for
the dyes are pale and unsaturated a poor colour gamut will result but the light
transmissivity of the panel will be improved. Conversely, the use of deep, saturated red,
green and blue dyes will result in excellent colour range but poor luminance. The gamut
of a typical AMLCD is shown in Figure 3-5 and Figure 3-6, alongside that of a
Shadowmask CRT for comparison. It is noticeable from Figure 3-6 that the AMLCD
colour gamut is not so adversely affected by ambient illumination as is that of the CRT
and is more centred around White, though the CRT usually has a greater overall gamut.

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Figure 3-5; AMLCD colour gamut zero ambient illumination

Figure 3-6; AMLCD Colour Gamut 100K lux Ambient Illumination

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3.16 Anti-aliasing: The square, sharp-edged pixels of the AMLCD, together with the
relatively coarse pixel pitch, result in imagery which contains strong aliased
components. Unlike the situation with the CRT, where the Gaussian spot profile
provides spatial filtering of high image frequencies, no such mechanism exists for the
AMLCD panel. The symbol generation must therefore be performed in a manner such
that the image frequencies are bandpass-limited before being supplied to the display
surface. Conventional 'spatial filtering' algorithms are often used in which the
brightness setting of any AMLCD colour group is a weighted function of the brightness
input to that group and its nearest neighbours. However, when drawing symbology
across a coloured background, this approach can result in mis-colouration of the pixels
at the edges of the symbol lines, giving a "halo" effect. Much effort has been expended
on the development of techniques which avoid this effect and the recent rapid growth of
processing throughput has permitted satisfactory solutions to be obtained at acceptable
cost, space and power dissipation penalties. A technique used to good effect by one
major display manufacturer involves the simulation of a Gaussian CRT spot profile
across a small sub-matrix of 3x3 colour groups.

3.17 Video compatibility: Amongst the areas of difficulty arising in the display of
conventional video imagery on AMLCDs there are two worthy of discussion here; these
are, the matching of the display to the video line standard and the handling of artefacts
generated by rapid image movement.

3.17.1 Line standards: Unlike the CRT, on which raster lines can be drawn at any point and
with any spacing, the matrix structure of the AMLCD mandates that raster information
can be written only at the same spacing as that of the rows of colour groups. A
minimum-cost design approach for achieving this is to define the pixel spacing such
that the display has the same number of rows as the number of active lines in the TV
standard to be used. This approach works well for the 525-line and 875-line standards
but the 625-line standard presents difficulties on standard panels having 1024 pixels in
the vertical direction. A further problem with this approach is that only a single line
standard can be properly displayed. A more expensive, but more flexible approach is to
perform video line standard conversion electrically, from the input video standard to the
display line standard, though this solution may result in the loss of some image
information.

3.17.2 Image movement: Because of leakage of charge from the AMLCD cells, the refresh
rate of an AMLCD panel is usually at least 100 Hz. Unacceptable flicker and other
image degradation results from running the panel at a lower rate than this, so incoming
video must be fed into a memory buffer, from which it is read out at twice the incoming
field rate. A problem can then arise in the display of incoming standard video which
uses an interlaced line standard and contains moving imagery, because the timing
relationship between the incoming and the displayed video fields becomes confused.
This effect is particularly noticeable in the horizontal movement of features containing
sharp vertical edges, when a "toothcomb" appearance may be evident. The problem also
arises in the generation of HDTV pictures to the European D-MAC standard and has
been the subject of considerable research by broadcast organisations. Present
broadcasting solutions use movement prediction algorithms to artificially align fast-

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moving objects between the odd and even video fields; these techniques are also
required in the implementation of the MPEG2 video compression standard and chip-
based solutions for the domestic environment are becoming available.

3.18 Defects: AMLCD panels have in the past been prone to defects which cause individual
cells or clumps of cells to appear permanently dark or, worse, permanently lit.
Additionally, the geometry involved in providing circuit tracks to the three contacts
needed by each TFT in the matrix requires the conductive tracks to cross one another.
This in turn adds an extra step to the production process for the deposition of insulation
between crossing tracks; a failure of the insulation may cause complete rows and/or
columns of pixels to become shorted, causing prominent lines to appear on the display.
Similarly, a tracking failure may cause either shorting or open-circuiting of rows and/or
columns. This situation has greatly improved with process maturity; whilst pixel defects
are still a cause for rejection of panels during production, the reject rate is now
sufficiently low that panels with very low defect counts are available and affordable.

3.19 Power consumption: The early promise of LCD technology to make possible displays
with a power consumption of milliwatts, has not materialised. Present AMLCD power
consumption is roughly proportional to display area and rather similar to CRT power
consumption. A major power drain is the backlight, which uses in the region of 2 watts
per square inch (1.5 watts per square inch for cold-cathode backlights). A 6-inch HDD
can be expected to consume about 100 watts. At this power level, performance of the
LCD at low temperatures is likely to be less of a problem than that of keeping the
display cool; however, for operation from a cold start in very low temperatures it is
necessary to heat both the backlight and the LC panel and power consumptions in the
region of 300 watts may be expected.

3.20 Further development: The potential advantages of LCD displays over CRTs are so
attractive that intensive development continues in all areas of AMLCD technology.
Below are listed only some of the key areas, solutions to which now permit the LCD to
displace the CRT as the display medium of choice in cockpit applications.

3.20.1 Process developments: Improvements are required and are constantly being made, in
the quality of the panel components, the purity of the LC material and the cleanliness of
the production environment. These improvements are resulting in panels that are
reasonably consistent in their properties from one part of the display surface to another,
do not show a blotchy appearance, and which are capable of rendering consistent grey
levels. Additionally, obtrusive defects are becoming less common as process quality
improves, resulting in higher yields and lower production costs.

3.20.2 Semiconductor improvements: The performance of existing amorphous thin-film

transistor devices is barely adequate for the display quality desired. Much work is being
done in this area and improvements will result in lower refresh rates and better
uniformity. Much research is also being carried out into the construction of
polycrystalline TFTs with attractions of performance advantages and smaller size. In
addition these devices can be deposited on top of the pixel electrodes, thus avoiding
obscuration of the light passing through the pixels. A further area of research is the
construction of plastic polymer transistors, possibly leading towards a production
scenario in which the transistors can (literally) be printed directly on to the glass

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substrates, thus dramatically reducing costs and permitting the production of panels of
almost any size.

3.20.3 Flat backlights: Referring once again to Figure 3-4, it can be seen that the backlight
diffuser absorbs a significant amount of the light emitted from the backlight itself.
Development work has taken place for several years on flat backlights that, besides
requiring much less depth than existing assemblies, might also produce a luminance that
is much more even across the emitting surface. Such backlights might not need a
diffuser at all and would therefore require much less power for the same display
luminance. This development presents significant difficulties but backlights potentially
suitable for avionics applications have been announced. Backlights have been designed
which utilize an aluminised phosphor anode, thus combining the functions of anode and
emitting surface. The cathode is composed of polycrystalline diamond, capable of
producing a ready source of electrons at room temperature. Electrons emitted from the
diamond surface are accelerated across a 3mm gap by a voltage of about 20 kvolts to
excite the phosphor anode. Backlights of up to 10 in x 10 in are producible, with
luminances of up to 7,000 ft.L (70,000 cd/m2). Efficiencies in the range 20 L.m/watt to
80 L.m/watt are achievable; this compares with 40 to 50 L.m/watt for a cold-cathode
backlight.

3.20.4 Drivers on glass: Work is proceeding into the investigation of production techniques by
which the row and column driver circuits might be deposited directly on to the glass of
the LCD panels. This would remove the need for expensive flexirigid Tab assemblies
and would dramatically reduce the number of interconnections required between the
glass and the external circuitry. In turn, this would remove one of the barriers to
reducing the pixel spacing and an improvement in display aliasing performance could
result. At present the performance of such drivers is limited by the poor quality of
amorphous transistors. The development of polycrystalline transistor devices, as already
mentioned above, will permit the deposition of the driver circuits directly on to the
glass; a possible intermediate solution using conventional crystalline silicon driver
chips bonded to the glass surface is also under investigation. The challenges for this
technique are, to find a suitable glue that both bonds tightly and permits differential
expansion between glass and chip, and also to ensure the environmental sealing of the
assembly. Glasses have been developed with coefficients of thermal expansion similar
to that of silicon.

3.21 AMLCD performance: AMLCD technology has moved out of the embryonic stage
into one of commercial and military use. Many examples can now be found of panels
from several manufacturers that exhibit good viewing characteristics and acceptably
low defect counts. The technology to produce high performance panels for airborne
units is now commercially viable. The requirements of the avionics market are for
panels that are both smaller than, and a different aspect ratio to, the panels that are
being produced for the mass market and the quantities needed are also small in
comparison. The problem is no longer one of viability of the technology but one of
viability of the economics of the relatively small production quantities. Meanwhile the
technology itself continues to improve at a remarkable rate. It is now a realistic
proposition to purchase an AMLCD panel with a guaranteed viewability specification
over a limited viewing cone. It must be emphasised, however that this is a technology
that is still developing rapidly; yields and performance are rising and costs, whilst still

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high, are falling. With this cautionary note in mind, a typical specification is given
below.

3.21.1 Size: 6.25 in x 6.25 in. This usually refers to the 'useful' area, the actual panel requiring
about a half-inch border all round for connections, sealing etc. Panels can be made in a
variety of square or rectangular sizes, more or less to order. The high volume domestic
market is the driving force for LCD production; large panels for flat televisions and
computer monitors are now a commercial reality. The standard aspect ratio for these is
4x3 and, more recently, 16x9; for avionic markets, the difficulty is usually one of
obtaining square aspect ratio panels in relatively small quantities.

3.21.2 Resolution: 1024 x 1024 pixels, 512 x 512 Colour Groups. This resolution, with a pixel
pitch of about 0.15 mm, is widely available. Panels with pixel pitches of 0.068mm are
now obtainable.

3.21.3 Layout: RGBG quad format. This, the RGB vertical stripe and RGB Delta Triad are
the most popular. Various “standard” pixel layouts are available from a variety of
manufacturers. If a purchaser has sufficient funds, a pixel layout can be designed for a
specific application. If sensor video information is to be displayed it is helpful to have a
pixel layout closely matching the number of TV lines in use.

3.21.4 Luminance: 300 ft Lamberts. This is for a military panel with the panel viewed normal
to the display surface. As the viewing angle increases the luminance tends to fall off in
a controlled manner but modern retardation films permit luminance to be well
controlled up to viewing angles of about 45o. Panels for commercial/transport
applications might have a less demanding luminance specification of, perhaps, 100 ft.L.

3.21.5 Brightness uniformity: +/-20%. This is difficult to obtain on a consistent basis but
providing the variations are gradual across the panel surface, the lack of uniformity may
not be visually obtrusive.

3.21.6 Contrast ratio: 30:1, 6:1 under 10,000 ft.C (100,000 lux). The first figure refers to the
Contrast Ratio in the dark and relies on good extinction of 'off' pixels and no light
leakage from adjacent pixels. It can be achieved, but only over a limited viewing angle.
A deterioration of performance at greater angles may be expected. The second figure
relies on the ability of the LCD to absorb and/or diffuse-reflect ambient light. In
practice, specular reflection can be a problem. LCD contrast performance within the
viewing cone is generally better than that of CRTs, because the ambient light can assist
in illumination of the pixels. The Contrast Ratio has a direct impact on the number of
grey levels usefully obtainable.

3.21.7 Grey levels: 6 steps of 1.4:1 under 10,000 ft.C (100K Lux), 11 steps of 1.4:1 under dark
ambient conditions, 256 discrete steps obtainable from display. The ability of a panel to
display greys in discrete steps of root-two is important when considering symbology
design, and is usually limited by the Contrast Ratio obtainable from the panel. The
ability to satisfactorily render video scenes with large tonal areas is determined more by
the quality of the driver circuitry.

3.21.8 Viewing angle: +/- 45o horizontal, -10o to +35o vertical. This viewing angle, for a
'normally white' panel, might not be achievable with the above contrast ratio.

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Manufactures generally specify angular zones, over which a specified contrast is

obtainable. For a Contrast Ratio of 30:1 in dark ambient conditions, the viewing angle
might be limited typically to between +5o and +30o vertically, and +/- 45o horizontally.
This is one of the parameters which has improved significantly in recent years with the
development of retardation films. A 'normally black' panel might offer horizontal
viewing angles up to +/- 60o at a reduced contrast. Recent examples of LCD wide-
screen televisions from some (not all) manufacturers demonstrate very good off-axis
viewing capability, both in the horizontal and the vertical planes.

3.21.9 Depth: 8.5 inches. This is the depth of a complete LRU, including panel, backlight,
heaters, cooling and electronics. It represents a considerable improvement over the
depth of units employing CRTs.

3.21.10 Life: 30,000 hours. This is a predicted figure for an LC panel with a cold cathode
backlight, but little experience is available on the effect of operation at extended
temperatures and high humidity. Failure will probably be gradual. The dyes tend to fade
under UV light. For hot cathodes the backlight life is about half the figure quoted and so
for practical HDD use, hot-cathode backlights should be field-replaceable, without
having to also replace the LC panel.

3.21.11 Power consumption: 100 watts. This would be for a 6-inch military display with a
maximum luminance of, say, 300 ft.L. and operating at a medium luminance level, at a
temperature which does not require heating of backlight or display. The backlight and
panel heaters alone will consume about 200 watts. An all-up estimate for such an HDD
starting up from cold would be in the region of 300 watts; however, when calculating
cooling air budgets, it would be reasonable to assume that the heaters were switched off
and a figure of 100 - 120 watts would suffice. Panels intended for commercial cockpits
and having a less demanding luminance specification would have a significantly lower
power consumption.

3.21.12 Weight: 15 lbs. The weight of the unit will be mainly in the power supplies, case and
cooling arrangements, and is significantly less than that of an equivalent CRT-based
unit.

3.21.13 Ambient temperature: -54oC to +85oC (operational), -54oC to +90oC (storage). The
operating temperature range assumes that start-up conditions, involving the use of
backlight and panel heaters and/or cooling arrangements, have already stabilised the
temperatures of the LC panel to about +35oC and the backlight to about +50oC, the most
efficient operating points. Warming of a display from extreme cold might take in the
region of two minutes to the point where the display is of limited use, and five minutes
for full performance.

3.21.14 Status: LCDs are in full production use in laptop computers and in computer monitors,
and examples can also be found in many transport aircraft (eg Boeing 777) as well as in
military combat aircraft. Many aircraft with CRT display suites are now being
retrofitted with AMLCDs and it is now the display technology of choice for new
applications.

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4 Plasma displays
4.1 Plasma displays use an electrical discharge in gas to produce light. As in other forms of
flat panel, the displays are again organized as rows and columns; the discharge is
created by an electric field applied between the row and column electrodes. Pixels are
addressed on a line-by-line basis, with the information in each individual video line
being applied to all display columns whilst the appropriate row electrode is energized
with a ‘priming’ voltage sufficient to strike a discharge in the addressed pixels. Once
the discharge has been established, the electric field is reduced to a value sufficient to
maintain the discharge (but insufficient to strike a discharge in an un-energized pixel)
whilst the remaining display rows are scanned. The maintenance of the discharge in this
manner in un-addressed display rows, overcomes the display luminance problems that
would otherwise result from the low duty-cycle associated with the row addressing.

4.2 The ionized gas exhibits a negative electrical resistance that must be allowed for in the
design of the display drive circuitry. This has given rise to two types of display, using
either an ac drive or a dc drive.

4.3 In a dc plasma display, the negative resistance is accommodated by the use of a current-
limiting resistor component wired in series with each column. Additionally, a perforated
space is used between the row and column electrodes to restrict the migration of ions
and prevent the discharge from spreading to the next pixel.

4.4 The difficulties and expense associated with the use of individual resistors in every
display column has led to the development of ac plasma panels using isolated electrodes
in which the current-limiting component is the inherent self-capacitance of the
electrodes. Most panels obtainable today are of the ac type.

4.5 Monochrome plasma displays generally use neon gas, which fluoresces to provide the
characteristic orange glow associated with these panels. For colour displays, a neon-
xenon mixture is used that radiates in the ultraviolet. Colour generation is from red,
green and blue phosphors arranged as RGB column triplets on the column backplane. In
most colour display arrangements, the phosphors are lit from the viewing side by the
UV radiation; they then fluoresce to produce the required red, green and blue pixel
colours. Because the phosphors are lit from the viewing side, they are generally
described as ‘reflective’ displays. The colour plasma panel is illustrated in Figure 4-1.

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Figure 4-1; Colour plasma panel

4.6 Typical plasma display characteristics are discussed below.

4.6.1 Resolution: 30-60 elements per inch (epi) for dot matrix, and properly proportional
segmented characters from 0.25 to 6.0 inches high. This is about half the resolution of a
colour CRT.

4.6.2 Brightness: 30-50 ft L typical, to values as great as 360 reported.

4.6.3 Contrast: 20:1 or greater in moderate ambient conditions. Achieving video grey scales
is not easy, hence plasma is primarily used as an on-off display.

4.6.4 Display size: For ac panels, size is almost unlimited (17 x 17 in panels with 1024 x
1024 elements have been made and sold). DC panels are limited to approximately 200
columns in the horizontal and by the number of driver circuits in the vertical. Units with
40 x 12 character capability (280 x 108 elements) are available.

4.6.5 Colour: (Monochrome) neon orange, but other monochrome colours are available. Full
colour displays are also available.

4.6.6 Power requirements: Drive voltage is usually 200 to 300 volts and efficiency is a few
tenths of a lumen per watt. Net power including drive circuits is 200-300W.

4.6.7 Thickness: The display panel itself is less than one inch but mounting hardware and
electrical drive circuitry can increase the thickness for some models.

4.6.8 Weight: 55 lbs for a complete unit with 8" x 8" display (includes frames, drive
electronics and power supply).

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4.6.9 Environment: Rugged and temperature insensitive (operates in -20°C to +55°C and
95% Relative Humidity (RH).

4.6.10 Aspect viewing: Wide aspect viewing.

4.6.11 Time constants: Dc types can be operated at standard video rates. Ac types are
available with a worst case vector writing time of 10ms for 512 points.

4.6.12 Storage/refresh: Dc types have no inherent storage thus need complete refreshment,
much like a CRT. Ac types have inherent memory for each element.

4.6.13 Reliability/maintainability: The Plasma panel is considered an LRU with reliable

operation of 100Kh and the only maintenance required is to clean the display face.

4.6.14 Technical status: Operational.

5 Electroluminescent displays
5.1 Electroluminescent displays use a sandwich of phosphor which glows when an
electrical field is applied across it. Four main types of devices may be distinguished
depending on the type of drive (ac or dc) and the character of the active layer (powder
or thin film). The ac film device replaces the phosphor particles and binding medium
with an active layer which has been vacuum deposited on a thin film of phosphor
material (typically ZNS). A 640 x 200 pixel screen using ac, thin film phosphor
technology has been produced. Typical electroluminescent display characteristics:

5.1.1 Resolution: 20 to 50 epi have been built, and work is in progress on 100 to 128 epi
units for larger panel displays. Small demonstration displays as CRT replacements in
HMDs are being developed with 500 epi.

5.1.2 Brightness: 30 ft L. Values as large as 150 to 200 ft L should be available, but the
question remains as to whether these larger brightness values can be obtained without a
life expectancy penalty.

5.1.3 Contrast: 10:1 or better. A full video capability has been demonstrated. Use of a black
absorbing layer and other filtering techniques reportedly permit viewing even in 10K ft
L ambience.

5.1.4 Display size: Maximum reported has been approximately 6 inches or 240 by 320
elements. The physically smaller devices being developed for HMDs are approximately
an inch by 1 inches but contain 485 x 645 total elements (sufficient for all the active
elements in a standard 525 line TV frame with 4:3 aspect).

5.1.5 Colour: Depending on the phosphor selected, all colours are available so that a full
colour display is not impossible but would require several years of concentrated effort.

5.1.6 Power requirements: Drive Voltage is in the 100-300V range and efficiencies of
3 lumen per watt (l/w) have been reported with a future possibility of 10 l/w. Sustaining
power for the 240 x 320 element system is reported as 10w.

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5.1.7 Thickness: Less than one inch, however edge connectors might give local increases in
the profile.

5.1.8 Weight: Not determined.

5.1.9 Environment: Due to solid state and sealed construction it is rugged and insensitive to
temperature.

5.1.10 Aspect viewing: Basically lambertian; like looking at a CRT.

5.1.11 Time constants: Compatible with standard video rates.

5.1.12 Storage/refresh: Internal storage provides CRT type brightness and frame freeze via
the inherent memory.

5.1.13 Reliability/maintainability: Thin Film Transistor (TFT) performance of 1000h has

been demonstrated and phosphor life times of 10Kh have been demonstrated. It is
assumed that the display would be a line replaceable unit (LRU) but, unlike a CRT, it
would not be refurbishable.

5.1.14 Technical status: Laboratory demonstration models.

6 Light emitting diode displays (LED)

6.1 A light emitting diode is a semi-conductive junction which emits light when a current is
passed through it. Although many semiconductor materials are used the primary
materials are gallium arsenide, gallium phosphide and gallium arsenide phosphide. Red,
yellow, orange, blue and green LEDs are available. Combinations of indium, gallium,
aluminium phosphide or arsenide are being studied for a blue LED. Typical LED
display characteristics are:

6.1.1 Resolution: 30-50 epi for dot matrix, properly proportioned, segmented characters from
0.3 to 0.8 inches high.

6.1.2 Brightness: Up to 1000 ft L spot brightness of individual LEDs but average area
luminances of 100 ft L may be achieved.

6.1.3 Contrast: 100:1 in moderate ambient conditions. Useful displays are available even
with 10 K ft L ambient. Primary applications have been on-off rather than the full grey
scale required for video.

6.1.4 Display size: Maximum reported is 6 inches with approximately 200 to 300 elements.
Larger sizes and more elements are possible by stacking more modules. Limits are total
power consumption and required driving circuits.

6.1.5 Colour: Red, yellow, orange, blue and green LEDs are available.

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6.1.6 Power requirements: 1.5 to 2.0V at l A/cm2 (6.5 A/in2) drive current for typical
1000 ft L brightness (400W for a 5 x 5 inch display). Current value determines
brightness.

6.1.7 Thickness: Less than one inch and possibly as little as 1/10 inch.

6.1.8 Weight: As little as 1/2 ounce/in2, excluding drive circuitry.

6.1.9 Environment: Rugged and temperature insensitive (as low as - 27°C is thought to be
the lower limit).

6.1.10 Aspect viewing: Tends to be slightly directional but not a problem for fighter aircraft
cockpits (up to 150° viewing angle).

6.1.11 Time constants: Basically they are compatible with standard video rates.

6.1.12 Storage/refresh: No inherent storage is provided. Refresh must be frequent enough to

avoid flicker. Typically 100Hz or more.

6.1.13 Reliability/maintainability: Life time is on the order of 10Kh to 100Kh. The display is
considered an LRU and not refurbishable.

6.1.14 Technical status: Operational, but mostly in small, secondary displays such as Engine
Performance Indicators.

7 Technologies under development

7.1 Research is being conducted into a number of technologies that might one day have an
application in the cockpit. Three of these, with significant potential, are described
below.

7.2 Digital micro-mirror devices

7.2.1 The recent surge of interest in the construction of 'nano-machines' using the silicon
etching techniques developed for the microcircuit industry, has led to the development
of a semiconductor imaging chip called the 'Digital Micromirror Device' (DMD). This
device has a matrix array of tiny mirrors built into a CMOS static RAM chip (see Figure
7-1). The mirrors can be matrix-addressed and rotated through a small angle of plus or
minus 10o using small electric fields internal to the device in such a way as to spatially
modulate the mirror array so that it generates a picture when illuminated by an external
light source. Micro-mirror devices are capable of displaying high quality imagery with a
very high contrast ratio and luminance. Although it is being marketed initially as a
device for rear-projection or front-projection on to a screen, and is aimed at commercial
applications, it may be suitable for rear-projection-on-to-screen HDDs and also for
direct projection applications such as HUDs and helmet-mounted displays. Resolutions
in the range 1024x768, 1280 x 1024 and even up to 2048X1080 are commercially
available and used in digital projector units. The devices are essentially monochrome,
but three devices illuminated by red, green and blue light can be used to make a colour
display. Alternatively, as the mirror switching speed is very high, a single device may

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be illuminated sequentially with red, green and blue light at three times the field rate.
Unique advantages of this remarkable device include very small size and low weight,
remoting of the light (and heat) source, and completely digital operation. A Colour
HUD or a colour HMD using this technology may be a realistic proposition. The
principle of operation is illustrated in Figure 7-1 and Figure 7-2.

Figure 7-1; Micro-mirror construction

Figure 7-2; Micro-mirror display operation

7.2.2 Typical performance: Typical micro-mirror device performance is as follows:

7.2.2.1 Illuminance: 2000 ft.candles (20Klux). The illuminance is limited only by the
brightness of the external light source and the possible need for IR filtering to achieve
NVIS compatibility. It should be remembered that this is a projection device so the

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brightness is expressed in terms of a light source rather than as the brightness of a

surface.

7.2.2.2 Contrast ratio: >100:1 under 10,000 ft.candles (100KLux).

7.2.2.3 Grey levels: 256. Grey levels are achieved by temporal dithering of the pixel mirrors.
The very high switching speeds of the mirrors (<20 μsec) permits precise control of
greys and the very high contrast ratio permits their effective use.

7.2.2.4 Life: 100,000 hours. Early samples suffered from failure of the mirror hinges, with the
mirrors subsequently falling off. Hinge re-design appears to have solved this problem
and accelerated life testing has amassed some twenty years of use with no failures to
date.

7.2.2.5 Colour gamut: Externally-produced.

7.3 Light-emitting plastics

7.3.1 A technology that has many similarities to, and offers the potential to compete head-on
with, LED panels and possibly with AMLCDs, is that of Light-emitting Plastics, also
commonly known as Organic LEDs or OLEDs. These devices are a class of conjugated
polymers based on polyphenylenevinylene (PPV) material with electroluminescent
properties. Some interesting claims for OLEDs have been made, with demonstration
devices exhibiting luminance levels of up to 300 ft.L (1000 cd/sq.m). A full range of
colours from red through green to blue has been demonstrated. The material is
fabricated in thin sheets and a unique property is its ability to be formed in any shape
and with flexibility. Current efficiencies in the region of three or four percent are
comparable with those of LCD backlights, but as an emissive device it has a wide
viewing angle and has the potential to overcome many of the disadvantages currently
associated with AMLCDs. The technology has matured to the point of commercial
marketability and OLED panels have been used as an alternative to LCD panels on
digital cameras.

7.4 Field emission displays

7.4.1 Field Emission Displays (FEDs) are under development in several countries, and have
recently received backing from the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in the
USA. These devices may be regarded as matrix-addressed (ie digitally addressed) flat
CRTs. A FED contains a shadowmask sandwiched between a cathode and a phosphor
screen. The cathode, which is arranged as a set of row address electrodes on a glass
surface, contains millions of tiny sharp points called 'micro-tips', from which electrons
are emitted. To obtain the maximum possible electron flux the cathode is often
constructed by deposition of diamond on to the conductive row address electrodes
(diamond has a low Work Function; thus it emits electrons readily even at room
temperature). The emitted electrons are accelerated by a high voltage through the
shadowmask towards red, green and blue phosphor stripes, each deposited on a set of
transparent Indium-Tin-Oxide (ITO) column address anodes on the inner surface of the
glass screen. Figure 7-3 shows the general arrangement. Colour discrimination is
performed by the individual addressing of the red, green and blue column electrodes,

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rather than by the shadowmask. The shadowmask acts as the equivalent of the 'gate' in a
CRT, providing a dimming control.

Figure 7-3; FED Construction

7.4.2 Currently, FEDs do not possess sufficient luminance for use in aircraft cockpits. To date
colour FEDs have demonstrated luminances of about 120 ft.L (400 cd/m2). However, an
experimental four-by-four inch monochrome FED has exhibited a luminance of 2500
ft.L (8600 cd/m2) and there appears to be no immediate physical barrier to the eventual
achievement of sufficiently high luminance in a colour device for it to be of use in
airborne applications. The photolithography by which the row and column electrodes
are defined, and by which the deposition of diamond on to the cathode rows and
phosphor on to the anode columns is conducted, requires similar technology to that for
AMLCDs and hence the display resolution may also be expected to be similar to that of
AMLCDs. Because the light from a FED is emitted in all directions from the phosphor,
the viewing cone, like that of a CRT, is excellent in all directions. In addition the device
is relatively rugged and performs well at both low and high temperatures. Thus FED
technology possesses distinct advantages over that of the AMLCD for airborne use.
However, the digital addressing of the FED pixels must be accomplished by the fast
switching of high voltages across anodes and cathodes, giving rise to challenging driver
design problems.

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