Name : Majed Abdulhameed Alsagheer It : Level 2

The emission of photons from a 7-segment display occurs when the

diode junction of each segment is forward biased by an external
voltage allowing current to flow across its junction, and in Electronics
we call this process electroluminescence.
The actual colour of the visible light emitted by an LED, ranging from
blue to red to orange, is decided by the spectral wavelength of the
emitted light which itself is dependent upon the mixture of the
various impurities added to the semiconductor materials used to
produce it.

7-segment Display
Light emitting diodes have many advantages over traditional bulbs
and lamps, with the main ones being their small size, long life, various
colours, cheapness and are readily available, as well as being easy to
interface with various other electronic components and digital
circuits.
But the main advantage of light emitting diodes is that because of
their small die size, several of them can be connected together within
one small and compact package producing what is generally called
a 7-segment Display.
The 7-segment display, also written as “seven segment display”,
consists of seven LEDs (hence its name) arranged in a rectangular
fashion as shown. Each of the seven LEDs is called a segment because
when illuminated the segment forms part of a numerical digit (both
Decimal and Hex) to be displayed.
An additional 8th LED is sometimes used within the same package
thus allowing the indication of a decimal point, (DP) when two or
more 7-segment displays are connected together to display numbers
greater than ten.
Each one of the seven LEDs in the display is given a positional
segment with one of its connection pins being brought straight out of
the rectangular plastic package. These individually LED pins are
labelled from a through to g representing each individual LED. The
other LED pins are connected together and wired to form a common
pin.
So by forward biasing the appropriate pins of the LED segments in a
particular order, some segments will be light and others will be dark
allowing the desired character pattern of the number to be generated
on the display. This then allows us to display each of the ten decimal
digits 0 through to 9 on the same 7-segment display.
The displays common pin is generally used to identify which type of
7-segment display it is. As each LED has two connecting pins, one
called the “Anode” and the other called the “Cathode”, there are
therefore two types of LED 7-segment display called: Common
Cathode (CC) and Common Anode (CA).
The difference between the two displays, as their name suggests, is
that the common cathode has all the cathodes of the 7-segments
connected directly together and the common anode has all the
anodes of the 7-segments connected together and is illuminated as
follows.
1. The Common Cathode (CC) – In the common cathode display,
all the cathode connections of the LED segments are joined together
to logic “0” or ground. The individual segments are illuminated by
application of a “HIGH”, or logic “1” signal via a current limiting
resistor to forward bias the individual Anode terminals (a-g).

Common Cathode Configuration

2. The Common Anode (CA) – In the common anode display, all

the anode connections of the LED segments are joined together to
logic “1”. The individual segments are illuminated by applying a
ground, logic “0” or “LOW” signal via a suitable current limiting
resistor to the Cathode of the particular segment (a-g).

Common Anode Configuration

In general, common anode displays are more popular as many logic

circuits can sink more current than they can source. Also note that a
common cathode display is not a direct replacement in a circuit for a
common anode display and vice versa, as it is the same as connecting
the LEDs in reverse, and hence light emission will not take place.
Depending upon the decimal digit to be displayed, the particular set
of LEDs is forward biased. For instance, to display the numerical
digit 0, we will need to light up six of the LED segments
corresponding to a, b, c, d, e and f. Thus the various digits
from 0 through 9 can be displayed using a 7-segment display as
shown.

Digital Segments for all Numbers

Then for a 7-segment display, we can produce a truth table giving the
individual segments that need to be illuminated in order to produce
the required decimal digit from 0 through 9 as shown below.

7-segment Display Truth Table

 Individual Segments Illuminated

Decimal
Digit

a b c d e f g

0 × × × × × ×

1 × ×

2 × × × × ×

3 × × × × ×

4 × × × ×

5 × × × × ×

6 × × × × × ×

7 × × ×

8 × × × × × × ×
 9 × × × × ×

Driving a 7-segment Display

Although a 7-segment display can be thought of as a single display, it
is still seven individual LEDs within a single package and as such these
LEDs need protection from over current. LEDs produce light only
when it is forward biased with the amount of light emitted being
proportional to the forward current.
This means then that an LEDs light intensity increases in an
approximately linear manner with an increasing current. So this
forward current must be controlled and limited to a safe value by an
external resistor to prevent damage to the LED segments.
The forward voltage drop across a red LED segment is very low at
about 2-to-2.2 volts, (blue and white LEDs can be as high as 3.6 volts)
so to illuminate correctly, the LED segments should be connected to a
voltage source in excess of this forward voltage value with a series
resistance used to limit the forward current to a desirable value.
Typically for a standard red coloured 7-segment display, each LED
segment can draw about 15 mA to illuminated correctly, so on a 5
volt digital logic circuit, the value of the current limiting resistor would
be about 200Ω (5v – 2v)/15mA, or 220Ω to the nearest higher
preferred value.
So to understand how the segments of the display are connected to
a 220Ω current limiting resistor consider the circuit below.

Driving a 7-segment Display

In this example, the segments of a common anode display are
illuminated using the switches. If switch a is closed, current will flow
through the “a” segment of the LED to the current limiting resistor
connected to pin a and to 0 volts, making the circuit. Then only
segment a will be illuminated. So a LOW condition (switch to ground)
is required to activate the LED segments on this common anode
display.
But suppose we want the decimal number “4” to illuminate on the
display. Then switches b, c, f and g would be closed to light the
corresponding LED segments. Likewise for a decimal number “7”,
switches a, b, c would be closed. But illuminating 7-segment displays
using individual switches is not very practical.
7-segment Displays are usually driven by a special type of integrated
circuit (IC) commonly known as a 7-segment decoder/driver, such as
the CMOS 4511. This 7-segment display driver which is known as a
Binary Coded Decimal or BCD to 7-segment display decoder and
driver, is able to illuminate both common anode or common cathode
displays. But there are many other single and dual display drivers
available such as the very popular TTL 7447.
This BCD-to-7 segment decoder/driver takes a four-bit BCD input
labelled A, B, C and D for the digits of the binary weighting of 1, 2,
4 and 8 respectively, has seven outputs that will pass current through
the appropriate segments to display the decimal digit of the numeric
LED display.
The digital outputs of the CD4511 are different from the usual CMOS
outputs because they can provide up to 25mA of current each to
drive the LED segments directly allowing different coloured LED
displays to be used and driven.
Using a 4511 Driver

In this simple circuit, each anode terminal of the common cathode

LED display is connected directly to the 4511 decoder/driver via a
current limiting resistor. The cathodes of each LED segment are
internally connected to ground. The binary inputs, A, B, C, and D to
the 4511 are via four mechanical ON/OFF switches. When all the
switches are in the open position, the voltage across the four 1kΩ
resistors is zero (0V) as they are tied directly to ground. This prevents
any false triggering of the display when any of the switches are open.
Then we can see that using a BCD to 7-segment display driver such as
the CMOS 4511 or TTL 7447, we can control the LED display using
just four switches (instead of the previous 8) or a 4-bit binary signal
allowing up to 16 different combinations.
Most digital equipment use 7-segment Displays for converting digital
signals into a form that can be displayed and understood by the user.
This information is often numerical data in the form of numbers,
characters and symbols. Common anode and common cathode seven-
segment displays produce the required number by illuminating the
individual segments in various combinations.
LED based 7-segment displays are very popular amongst Electronics
hobbyists as they are easy to use and easy to understand. In most
practical applications, 7-segment displays are driven by a suitable
decoder/driver IC such as the CMOS 4511 or TTL 7447 from a 4-bit
BCD input. Today, LED based 7-segment displays have been largely
replaced by liquid crystal displays (LCDs) which consume less current.