NED University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi.

Automotive & Marine Engineering Department

Automobile Instrumentation Display Devices-Section

Display Devices: The four display devices included in the discussion are 1) 2) 3) 4) LED Light Emitting diodes LCD Liquid Crystal Display VFD Vacuum fluorescent display CRT Cathode ray tube

LED: A light-emitting diode is a semiconductor diode that emits incoherent light when operated/electrically biased in the forward direction of the p-n junction.

Operation of LED: An LED consists of a chip of semi conducting material doped, with impurities to create a p-n junction. As in other diodes, current flows easily from the p-side, or anode, to the nside, or cathode i.e. forward biased direction, but not i the reverse direction. Charge n carriers are electrons and holes and flow into the junction from electrodes with different voltages. When an electron meets a hole, it falls into a lower energy level, and releases energy in the form of a photon (packet of light). LEDs are often used as small indicator lights on electronic devices. The color of the emitted light depends on the composition and condition of semi conducting material used, and can be infrared, visible and ultra violet. The wave length of the light and therefore its color, depends on the band gap energy of the materials forming the pn junction. In silicon and germanium diodes, the electron and holes recombine by a non radiative transition which produces no optical emission, because these are indirect band gap material. The materials used for LED have a direct band gap.

Advantages of using LEDs: 1) LEDs produce more light per watt than bulbs 2) LEDs can emit light of different required color without the use of color filters 3) LEDs are ideal for use in applications that are subject to frequent on-off cycling, unlike fluorescent lamps that burn out more quickly. 4) LEDs can be very small and are easily populated onto printed circuit boards.

Disadvantages of us ing LEDs: The major disadvantage of using LED is its very high power consumption and LED can not be used in application where coherent and directive light is required.

Basic circuit to operate LED:

LCD: Liquid Crystal Display A liquid crystal display (LCD) is a thin, flat display device made up of number of color or pixels arrayed in front of a light source or reflector.

Construction of LCD Screen: The construction of the LCD is shown in the figure below.

The slides shown in the figure above represents the following, 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) Vertical filter Electrode Twisted liquid crystals Electrode Horizontal filter film to block/allow through light. Reflective surface to send light back to viewer.

Surface of the electrodes are in contact with the liquid crystals. Electrodes are made up of Indium tin oxide. Polarizing filters are aligned in such a way that light passing from one filter will be blocked by another filter if no crystal is in between. Operation: Liquid crystal display technology uses rod shaped molecule (liquid crystals), which flow like liquid and bends light. When unenergized, the crystal direct the light through two polarizing filters, allowing a natural back ground color to show. When energized, they redirect/ twist the light so that it is absorbed in one of the polarizing filters. The more the molecule are twisted the better the contrast and viewing angle. In color LCDs each individual pixel is divided into three cells, or sub pixels, which are colored red, green, and blue, respectively, by additional filters (pigment filters, dye filters and metal oxide filters). Each sub pixel can be controlled independently to yield thousands or millions of possible colors for each pixel.

CRT (Cathode Ray tube): Cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun (a source of electrons) and a fluorescent screen, with an internal or external mean to accelerate or deflect the electron beam, used to form images in the form of light emitted from the fluorescent screen. Construction and Operation of Catho de ray tube: The source of the electron beam is the electron gun, which produces a stream of electrons through thermionic emission (thermal emission), and focuses it into a thin beam. The gun is located in a narrow cylindrical neck at extreme rear of the CRT. It has electrical connecting pins usually arranged in circular configuration. These pins provide external connection to the cathode to various grid elements in the gun used to focus the beam. Since the Cathode ray tube is a hot cathode device, these pins also provide connections to one or more filament heaters within the electron gun. When the CRT is operating, the heater can often be seen glowing orange through the glass walls of the CRT neck.

Drawbacks of using CRT: Following are the drawbacks of using CRT 1) Very high voltages required 2) Huge size 3) Heat up soon

Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD): A vacuum fluorescent display is a display device used commonly on consumer electronics equipment. Unlike liquid crystal display, a VFD emits a very bright light with clear contrast and can easily support display elements of various colors. The technology is related to cathode ray tube. The figure below shows the typical VFD display of a VCR.

Construction: The VFD is composed of three basic electrodes; the Cathode (Filaments), Anodes (Phosphor) and Grids under a high vacuum condition in a glass envelope. Cathode is made up of tungsten wire which emits electrons when heated by electric current. Anode is a phosphorous coated plate encased in a glass tube under high vacuum condition. The Grids are a thin metal mesh which control and diffuse electrons emitted from the Cathode.

Operation: VFDs are efficient emitter of electrons at much cooler temperature. The Anodes are conductive electrodes on which the phosphor is printed to indicate characters, icons or symbols. Electrons emitted from the Cathode are accelerated with positive potential applied to both Grid and Anode, which upon collision with the Anode excites the phosphor to emit light. The desired illuminated patterns can be achieved by controlling the positive or negative potentials on each Grid and Anode.

Advantages and uses: The main advantage of using VFD over any other technology is that it has a very bright light and clear contrast display. Early on, the main disadvantage of using this type of display was the consumption of significantly high power then a simple LCD display.