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For training purposes only 5.11 - 1 Cat: B1.1
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Training Manual
Module 5 Digital Technology / EIS
5.11 Electronic Displays
5.11 Electronic Displays
Sep04 / THTT
Copyright by SR Technics Switzerland
Corresponding with EASA Part-66
For training purposes only 5.11 - 2 Cat: B1.1
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Training Manual
Module 5 Digital Technology / EIS
5.11 Electronic Displays
Introduction
Electronic Displays for Aircrafts may be constructed in several ways.
The first instruments for aircraft borrowed technology from ships, railroad locomo-
tives and auto-mobiles - transportation of the period. For simple parameters, dials
and gauges were adequate. Even the first radio navigation instruments used sim-
ple pointer indicators for the ADF and CDI.
In spite of the complexity, many aircraft are still full of mechanical displays.
The ultimate navigation instrument, however, would be a map with the familiar
"You are here" arrow. On the display is your flight plan, destination, location of bad
weather, obstructions and collision hazards. This display depends on the ability to
pictorially present information. Other data can be displayed with numbers and let-
ters, or alphanumeric. Examples are engine parameters, radio frequencies, air-
ports, outside air temperature, airspeed and so on. Any parameter that is scalar
can be shown with an alphanumeric display, while data that are vectors, such as
courses, tracks, and headings, are best indicated with a graphic display.
A reflective display (like a painted number) requires ambient light to be visible; it
does not generate light. All mechanical pointer displays are reflective. For alpha-
numeric, numbers are painted on rotating drums mounted behind a window on a
panel. The drum rotates and displays characters similar to the way a mechanical
odometer operates in an automobile. The first DMEs were made this way; with
distance displayed on rotating drums.
An early emissive display was the warning lamp. An example is a gear up - gear
down light and a marker beacon indicator. One requirement of a warning light is
high brightness; it must be seen in sunlight, which can be very bright in a cockpit.
There are no trees or clouds to shade the sun from an aircraft at high altitude. To
reduce direct sunlight, a glare shield creates a "roof' at the top of the instrument
panel. Even with this shield, emissive displays must be very bright.
At the other end of the emissive brightness scale is the dark of night, where dis-
plays are reduced in intensity. There could also be a single warning light with so
much illumination that night vision of the crew would be affected. (This is more crit-
ical in military flying than in the civil world.)
The required range of light intensivity is large and some display types cannot pro-
vide it.
Older Display Technologies
Incandescent
One of the first technologies in aircraft was the incandescent lamp, leading to the
first alphanumeric electronic displays. The incandescent was probably the first ap-
plication of the segmented numeric display, where digits are formed by seven seg-
ments. Illumination comes from filaments stretched between posts (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Seven Segment Incandescent Display
The display provides 10 decimal digits. Light emitted by the display is close to
white. When intensity is reduced, the colour shifts to longer wavelengths and ap-
pears more orange. This was not a bad characteristic because redder light does
not affect night vision as much as shorter wavelengths. Filters over a display can
generate colours other than white. This is a problem, however, when the display
is reduced in intensity and shifts toward red.
Although the incandescent is still found in many aircraft, there are limitations. First,
it is not suitable for alphanumeric displays. There are alphanumeric displays with
16 segments and numerals are acceptable. Letters of the alphabet, however, are
difficult to read. Another problem is efficiency. At daytime brightness, the display
becomes hot, limiting its life to approximately 5000 hours at moderate brightness.
However, when the display operates at sunlight-readable intensity, life is reduced
considerably. The final problem is cost. When incandescent displays became
available, the high cost was acceptable since they were the only choice. Later
technologies are much less costly.
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Module 5 Digital Technology / EIS
5.11 Electronic Displays
Plasma
A display technology used in significant numbers before LEDs was introduced, is
plasma. It is based on orange light emitted from ionized neon gas. An example is
shown in Figure 2. Neon gas is contained between two flat glass plates. The rear
glass is coated with a conductive material, usually a metal.
Deposited on the inside of the front glass are metal segments. These can be a sev-
en segment configuration or a customized pattern. The metal segments are very
thin and transparent to light. If a sufficiently high electric potential is applied be-
tween the rear conductive coating and a metal segment, the neon gas ionizes. Or-
ange light is emitted when neon atoms return to their zero energy state. By
selectively energizing segments, numeric digits are generated.
Figure 2: Plasma Display
Recent Display Technologies
Light Emitting Diode (LEDs)
A LED consists of a junction diode made from the semiconductor compound gal-
lium arsenide phosphide. It emits light when forward biased, the colour of the light
emitted is in direct proportion to the current flow.
Light emission in the red, orange, green and yellow regions of the spectrum is ob-
tained depending on the composition and impurity content of the compound.
Figure 3: Light Emitting Diode
When a P-N junction is forward biased, electrons move across the junction from
the n-type side to the p-type side where they recombine with holes near the junc-
tion. The same occurs with holes going across the junction from the p-type side.
Every recombination results in the release of a certain amount of energy, causing,
in most semiconductors, a temperature rise. In gallium arsenide phosphide some
of the energy is emitted as light gets out of the LED because the junction is formed
very close to the surface of the material.
In applying this to aircraft displays either the 7 segment or dot-matrix configura-
tions may be used.
Various seven-segment decoders are available to drive common-cathode and
common-anode seven-segment displays. These drivers receive a number, usually
in BCD format, and decode the number into signal levels to activate the proper a-
g segments of the display. Figure 4 shows one example of a seven segment dis-
play. Figure 5 shows a TTL 7447 IC and a common-anode LED display. The TTL
7448 is designed to drive common-cathode displays. The dc illumination method
shown is the easiest to implement; but higher light output with lower energy con-
sumption can be obtained by pulsing and multiplexing the display voltage. A pulse
rate of 100 Hz is imperceptible to the human eye.
Figure 4: Seven Segment Display
Anode
p
n
Cathode
Schematic Symbol:
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5.11 Electronic Displays
Figure 5: Seven Segment Decoder and Display
Video Displays
Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT)
Although Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Displays (see next section) dominate the
cockpits of new aircraft, the CRT has long been one of the most popular technol-
ogies. It has been manufactured for more than 75 years and installed in aircraft
since World War II. The first application as an airborne display was military radar
screens.
In the mid fifties, it was applied to weather radar for airliners. When colour was
added, different shades of colour, rather than a gray scale, could designate the in-
tensity of rain. Weather radar screens were also enhanced with overlays and ma-
nufacturers started to use the CRT as a multi function display, where check lists
and other items are displayed. The weather radar was the first true electronic flight
instrument system.
Construction of the CRT is shown in Figure 6. It is a vacuum tube with components
enclosed in an evacuated glass bottle. At the end away from the screen, in the
neck, is a heated cathode to provide a source of electrons. The electrons acceler-
ate toward the screen with increasingly higher positive voltage. Electrodes near
the cathode focus the beam into a narrow spot on the screen. The final accelerat-
ing electrode has a very high potential, typically from 10 to 25 kV, depending on
CRT size.
Figure 6: Principle of a Cathode Ray Tube
The electron beam is deflected by a magnetic field. An electric field could be used,
but a magnetic field deflects the beam through a greater angle. This permits the
design of shorter tubes, but even these tubes often have a length that is objection-
able for aircraft. A magnetic field is generated with a ferrite yoke that fits around
the neck of the CRT.
The screen is coated with a phosphor material. Single colour (monochromatic)
tubes have one phosphor deposited on the front glass. A thin coating of aluminium
is evaporated onto the glass to provide a return path for current of the electron
beam. When an electron strikes phosphor atoms they emit light photons. Green is
a common colour for CRTs in oscilloscopes and computer screens and is still
used in aircraft instruments.
CRT phosphors become sunlight readable by increasing beam current and forcing
more photons from the phosphor. The disadvantage is a reduction in tube life. A
CRT for a television receiver in the home, where ambient light is low, can last tens
of thousands of hours. A CRT in an aircraft will last thousands of hours.
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Module 5 Digital Technology / EIS
5.11 Electronic Displays
A reduction of beam current decreases CRT brightness without a colour shift and
is an effective method of dimming the display.
There are two basic methods of creating an image on a CRT. The first is raster
scan, the same as used in television and computer screens. The second is stroke
writing, which generates a display as you might draw with a pencil. To understand
their advantages and disadvantages consider how the two different, yet common,
displays are generated.
Note:
Raster scanning will be used for Horizon- and weather radar background informa-
tion.
Stroke writing is used for all other parameter drawings on the screen. The perma-
nent change between raster and stroke appears as one picture only.
In all modern display units a combination of the two display techniques is used.
Raster Scanning
As Figure 6 shows, a CRT is an evacuated glass tube, that is designed in such a
way that electrons are caused to move along the tube and deflected so as to write
across a fluorescent screen, similar to a pencil drawing lines, one below the other
down a piece of paper.
Once the last line is drawn at the bottom of the screen, the electron beam starts
again at the top. The markings (lines) it has made on the screen will last for a short
while as the inner part of the screen is fluorescent.
The beam writes lines very quickly, too quick for the human eye to see, and by ad-
justing the density of the electron flow as the beam moves across the screen dif-
ferent density lines can be imaged and a picture can be produced. A moving
picture is possible as "re-write" times are fast.
Figure 7 shows a working cross section of a CRT with electrostatic deflection and
a voltage divider which provides appropriate validates from a voltage supply.
The heater (H), is an electrically heated tungsten wire inside the cathode (C). It is
insulated from the hollow cylindrical nickel cathode, and when a current is passed
through the heater, it raises the temperature of the cathode to a point where the
electrons become agitated and the cathode emits electrons (thermionic emission).
The negatively charged electrons are attracted to and accelerated towards the an-
odes A1 and A2 (these are usually cylinders with holes at either end and are pos-
itive with respect to the cathode, A2 more so than A1). The electrons are attracted
to the anodes, and because of their acceleration the electrons move through the
centre of the anodes to impinge on the screen.
The grid G, also a hollow cylinder, has a negative voltage which can be varied by
R1. Varying R1 can make the voltage on the grid more or less negative to the cath-
ode thus controlling the amount of electrons and thus the brilliance of the display.
Figure 7: Working Section of a CRT
Focusing is achieved by altering R2, thus altering the voltage between A1 and A2.
When the electrons strike the screen S, which is coated with a phosphor coating,
it causes the phosphor to luminesce and give a spot of light on the screen.
There is a return path for the electrons from the screen to the cathode, otherwise
unwanted negative charge would build up on the screen. This does not happen be-
cause when struck by electrons, the screen emits secondary electrons, these are
attracted to and collected by a conductive coating (graphite) on the inside of the
tube and returned to the cathode via the power supply.
To trace out a display it is necessary for the spot to be deflected horizontally and
vertically. Figure 7 shows an electrostatic deflection system where the two sets of
plates y1 and y2 and X1 and X2 deflect the beam horizontally and vertically. The
y plates deflect the beam vertically and the X plates deflect the beam horizontally,
by making one plate of the pair more positive than the other.
By combining the two effects the beam can be made to move to any position by
controlling the polarities of the two sets of plates.
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5.11 Electronic Displays
To produce a picture on the screen it is scanned from left to right and from top to
bottom. Similar to the way you read a book. The left to right sweep is controlled by
a timebase which consists of an amplifier and relaxation oscillator. The timebase
applies a varying signal to the X plates (electrostatic deflection system) or coils at
the top and bottom (electro-magnetic deflection system).
Principle of the Colour CRT (stroke writing)
Colour CRTs are widely used in aircraft cockpit displays - particularly for the larger
aircraft though some cargo type aircraft use a green screen flight deck.
Unlike the black and white CRT the colour CRT has three electron guns.
Figure 8: Principle of the Colour CRT
The CRT has 3 electron guns each dedicated to a colour: red, green or blue.
The inside of the screen is coated with many thousands of tiny dots of red, green
and blue phosphors, arranged in small areas, each area contains a phosphor of
each type. The beam from a particular gun must only be able to strike the desig-
nated phosphor, i.e. the 'red' gun electrons strike only the red dots, the 'green' gun
the green dots and the 'blue' gun the blue dots. To achieve this a perforated steel
sheet called a shadow mask is accurately positioned adjacent to the screen.
This shadow mask is very accurately manufactured with small holes through which
the beam paths pass through.
As the three electron guns scan the screen under the influence of the deflection
coils, the shadow mask ensures that each beam strikes only its designated phos-
phor. By independent control of the three guns and their beam currents other col-
ours may be generated. If only the red, green, or blue colours is required then, as
the scanning is so fast, you would see a completely red, blue or green screen.
If all three guns are operating with an equal mix of red, green and blue this would
give a white trace, if only red and blue were emitting the mix would be a purpur
trace. If the green gun electron beam and red gun electron beam current was high-
er than the blue then a yellowish trace would appear. So by controlling the intensity
of the three electron beams various colours may be obtained.
Figure 9: Operation of the Shadow Mask
Advantages of the CRT
Most CRT technology was developed for television receivers. For the first EFIS
(electronic flight instrument system), smaller CRTs of high brightness were devel-
oped. The tubes have deflection yokes, where colour purity adjustments are made
at the factory and bonded in place. With the growing popularity of EFIS displays,
newer CRT displays are as large as a small television receiver.
Advantages of the CRT:
Full colour graphics display
Good resolution
Sunlight readable
Dimmable
Reasonably power efficient
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5.11 Electronic Displays
Relatively inexpensive
Wide temperature range
Proven technology
Life span as good as most technologies
Disadvantages of the CRT:
Requires several power supply voltage
Requires very high voltage
Generates magnetic fields which can radiate
Is constructed with a fragile glass envelope
Is heavier than other display technologies
Requires significant depth behind the front panel
Item 5, on weight, includes magnetic deflection components and transformers for
generating high voltage.
Item 6 on panel depth is the most significant CRT problem. Depth represents wast-
ed volume. Space behind the instrument panel is always tight in an aircraft and
small assemblies are highly desirable.
Most EFIS displays in aircraft currently used are CRT - based. The flat panel Ac-
tive Matrix LCD however, is replacing the tubes in many existing and new-design
aircraft.
Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
The newest technology goes toward improvement of the display units in the cock-
pit. This LCD units are smaller, lighter and uses less power. There is no radiation
of electric or magnetic fields who must be shielded. The display has a better read-
ability in bright sunlight and a very high resolution, so more information is display-
able. As a safety aspect, there is no CRT to implode and no more very high voltage
are used. The reliability is high, there are no adjustments for purity, convergence,
focus and deflection necessary. The costs of a LCD is higher than of a CRT, be-
cause it is more difficult to manufacture it. The chance to have failed picture ele-
ments (pixels) is high, with so many active transistor-elements.
The DU contains a display glass assembly with liquid crystal display LCD ele-
ments. About 4 million thin film transistors (TFT) absorbing or conducting the light
from the bright backlight assembly. through the glass panel. Each colour dot has
3 transistor elements. One for red, green and blue to produce the desired colour.
Figure 10: Example of an Active Matrix LCD Display Unit
Liquid Crystal Technology:
LCD is unique in that it can be reflective, emissive or both. The basic function is
that of a light valve. The LCD turns ambient light on and off or it can be supplied
with a light source. Thus, it is reflective or emissive. Figure 11 shows the basic
construction, the heart of the LCD is a fluid, the liquid crystal, between two clear
glass plates. The rear glass is coated with a thin, transparent metallic film. The
front plate is coated in specific areas with metallic material. LCD construction to
this point is similar to the plasma display described.
Outside of the front and rear glass plates is a polarizing film. This creates plane
polarized light out of randomly polarized light. Polarization occurs when the electric
field of the light is parallel to a plane. A polarizing film is like a microscopic window
blind. When light strikes the polarizing film where the electric field can pass
through the blind, light passes. Light of other polarization is blocked.
If two polarizing films are aligned so polarization is the same, we see through the
two films. On the other hand, aligning the films so polarization is different blocks
the light; the result is darkness.
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5.11 Electronic Displays
Crystals, liquid or solid, have a unique characteristic of being able to rotate the po-
larization of light. Crystals have an ordered array of molecules which can have
characteristics similar to the window blind example above. Another important char-
acteristic is that the crystalline structure reacts to electric fields. In a liquid crystal,
the ability to rotate the polarization of light is a function of the applied electric field.
Assume the polarizing films are arranged so polarization is the same front and
back. Pass light through the films and there would be little attenuation. By applying
an electric field across the liquid crystal material in the space between films, polar-
ity of the light is rotated. If that rotation is 90 degrees the area where the electric
field is applied becomes dark. Polarized light was rotated 90 degrees so it cannot
pass through the rear polarizing film.
Selective application of an electric field, therefore, causes areas to become
opaque. A light source behind the rear polarizing film generates characters such
as 7-segment digits and alphanumeric.
If the polarizing filters are oriented 90 degrees to each other, the display appears
dark unless there is rotation in the space between front and back polarizers. In this
case, the electric field causes a bright area, as the additional 90 degree rotation
allows light to pass through the LCD. By orientation of front and back polarizing
films, the LCD can be configured as a white on black display or black on white.
A static electric field produces the desired results but continuous application of an
electric field can cause unwanted chemical reaction in the liquid crystal material.
To prevent this, the applied field alternates, with no DC component.
The LCD is a shutter, allowing light to pass or be blocked. If a light source is placed
at the rear it emits light and becomes an emissive display. If the glass panel is re-
placed with a mirrored surface, ambient light is reflected from the rear glass plate
and no illumination is required. Here, the display is a reflective type. If the mirror is
partially transparent, the light can be reflected or transmitted.
This is called transflective.
A major advantage of LCD is low power. Only an electric field is required to pass
or shut off light. Virtually zero energy achieves this change of state. When an LCD
is in the reflective mode, a low power display provides sunlight readable results
with nearly zero power. With back lighting, energy is required.
For a sunlight readable emissive display, the light energy is significant and only
highly efficient back lighting may be used, such as fluorescent. Incandescent light-
ing may be used for night-time viewing. A common arrangement is a transflective
display with incandescent lighting for night, reflective mode for sunlight and emis-
sive mode for night viewing.
Figure 11: Principle of an Active Matrix LCD
Because power to the liquid crystal is very small, a large number of segments may
be used. As pointed out for the LED, a large array has problems with the amount
of energy in a small area. A bright LED consumes 10 to 20 mW and, for a large
matrix such as 1024 elements, all segments on can dissipate 20 watts.
Clearly, 20 watts cannot be highly concentrated in the front panel of an avionics
display. On the other hand, 1024 LCD segments may occupy a small area with no
danger because power is extremely low.
What does become a problem, however, is how to connect 1024 segments to the
driving electronics. Graphics displays produce pictures with a large number of
emitters or light shutters. As an example, a reasonable picture can be made with
a matrix of 256 by 256 picture elements, or pixels. This represents 65,536 pixels.
The word "reasonable" is used in this example; a picture of 256 by 256 pixels is
not television quality, which is approximately 500 by 750 pixels. A good quality
computer monitor is 1024 by 1024 or more than a million pixels. It is not possible
to have a million-pin connector to connect the LCD to one million drivers on a print-
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5.11 Electronic Displays
ed circuit board. Before generating LCD graphics, connections need to be reduced
to individual pixels.
The technique is to place the driving electronics on the glass with the segments.
Very small thin film transistors, TFT, are deposited on the glass and connected to
the segments. Each pixel is addressed sequentially. For a large LCD with a 1024
by 1024 matrix, each pixel is addressed by horizontal and vertical lines where the
lines intersect. When segments are addressed, a transistor acts as a storage ele-
ment to keep the segment activated until addressing returns to that pixel. With X-
Y multiplexing, the number of lines addressed is now 2048, still a large number. A
2048 pin connector is impractical and further reduction of interconnects is re-
quired.
By mounting integrated circuits directly to the glass and using electronic multiplex-
ing, the number of interconnects is reduced to a handful. This display is called the
active matrix liquid crystal display, or AMLCD.
The shape of a pixel is considered to be square. If a display has an aspect ratio of
4 to 3, meaning width is 4/3 that of height, pixels are arranged as a matrix of 4N
columns by 3N rows. If a display has a resolution of 1024 pixels along the horizon-
tal, it requires 4N columns to be 1024 or N equals 256. The number of rows is 768.
The total pixels is 1024 X 768 or 786 X 432 pixels. Another way of describing this
display is to specify a resolution of 1024 X 768, which may be recognized by as a
computer monitor specification.
LCDs generate colour graphics by providing three light shutters, one for each ad-
ditive primary colour at each pixel. Every shutter also has a microscopic filter; red,
green or blue. This implies that if there are 1 million pixels in a 1024 by 1024 dis-
play, there are 3 million LCD light shutters!
What is the probability of getting 3 million pixels to work? It is small, and there is a
lot of scrap in the AMLCD industry. The product, therefore, is expensive. This is
changing as manufacturing techniques grow more refined LCD displays have lim-
itations. Most early problems have been solved but one remains: Temperature
range, an LCD can be destroyed by excessively high or low temperature. Low tem-
perature freezes the LCD material and causes possible permanent damage. Re-
sponse time also slows. For an instrument display, where there is no high-speed
motion, slowness can be tolerated. At a low temperature that renders an LCD tel-
evision worthless, the LCD display is satisfactory for an indicator. Noticeable slow-
ing occurs at temperatures below about 10 degrees C and freezing occurs below
-20 degrees C. Permanent damage results below about -40 degrees C. With the
possible exception of bush planes in Alaska, aircraft are not usually flown with a
cockpit temperature below -20 degrees C. And aircraft are rarely stored below -40
degrees C.
Back-lighting LCD displays is an art. To be sunlight readable requires significant
intensity. Any backlight must be reasonably efficient if the display is not to get too
warm. For colour LCDs, the backlight should have a white colour that does not
shift with dimming, as would an incandescent. Of all the potential lamp technolo-
gies, fluorescent tubes emerged as the choice of illumination. Specialized fluores-
cent tubes with steady illumination are mounted behind the LCD.
Fluorescent tubes require high voltage and a "kick" to start an internal arc. The
lamps are a constant current device so they need current limiting. A power supply
is usually included as a part of the lamp assembly. In spite of the fact that fluores-
cent tubes are more efficient than other lamp technologies, they dissipate energy.
The power supply also needs to dissipate heat so backlight assemblies often have
heat sinks.
Figure 12: Example of a Cockpit LCD Display Unit Block Diagram
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5.11 Electronic Displays