MAHALAKSHMI

ENGINEERING COLLEGE
TRICHIRAPPALLI- 621 213

UNIT – IV – STORAGE AND DISPLAY DEVICES

CATHODE RAY OSCILLOSCOPE :-

CRO is a useful portabl;e lab instrument .It is a universal tool in all kinds of
electrical and electronics Inventions.
CRO is used for display ,measurement ,analysis of waveforms and various quantities in
electrical and electronic circuits.
Oscilloscopes are now available to measure frequencies upto 1GHZ.
BLOCK DIAGRAM OF CRO.

CATHODE RAY TUBE:-

CRT is the heart of CRO and it generates the electron beam and accelerates the
beam to high velocity, deflects the beam create the image and displays on the phosphor
screen and displays on the phosphor screen.
TRIGGER CIRCUIT:-
It is employed to synchronized the horizontal deflection with the vertical input .It
links the vertical input and horizontal time base.

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 TIME BASE GENERATOR:-
It is used to reproduce the waveform accurately .It generates ramp voltage
which is having constant horizontal velocity which the function of deflecting voltage and
expressed in time per division.
HORIZONTAL AMPLIFIER:-
It amplifies the sweep generator output,during the ordinary mode of CRO operation
vertical input signal is amplified and during the x-y mode of CRO operation horizontal input
signal is amplified.
VERTICAL AMPLIFIER:-
This receives the input signal and determines the sensitivity and bandwith of
oscilloscopes and expressed in terms of oscilloscopes and expressed in bandwith of
oscilloscopres and expressed in terms of volt per division.
DELAY LINE:-
Delay line is mainly used to delay the transmission of signal voltage.
POWER SUPPLY:-
It provides the voltage required by the CRT to generate and accelerate the
electron beam. It also provides the voltage for various stages. High voltage is given to CRT
and low voltages to all other circuits.

PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION:-
CRO is a device used to supply electrical signal.
Which is primarily the function of time.
The input voltage is amplified by vertical amplifier and passes through a delay line and
applied to vertical deflection plates.
The luminous spot strikes the phosphor screen and it provide a bright visible spot on the
screen either orthogonal axes (ie) x & y axes creates a two dimensional display.
The ‘x’ axes is deflected at constantrate relative to time by using ‘H’ plates and ‘y’ axes
is defined in response to an input voltages by using the ‘V’ plates .
DEFECTION SENSITIVITY.
It is defined as the deflection of the screen per unit deflection voltage .The
deflection sensitivity is given by

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 S= D/Ed
APPLICATION OF CRO:-
CRO is used to measure 1.voltage ,current ,phase ,frequency, amplitude ,resistance, delay
& impedance.
CRO is used to determine 1.signal origin 2. modulation characteristic 3.SSB Modulation
CRO is used in 1.Television, Radar, fault testing of winding in electrical machines.
CRO is used to study 1.lissajous figures
2. waveforms.
3. hysterisis loop for magnetic material
4. electronic devices phenomenon.
5. Performance of various stages in electronic
System.
DIGITAL STORAGE OSCILLOSCOPE:-
The digital storage oscilloscope, has the capability of retaining the image on the screen
for longer than those of the previous possible techniques.
Digital storage oscilloscope are available in 2 different types.They are
(a)Processing type
(b)Non-processing type
The processing type digital storage oscilloscope includes built-in computing power in
which all data is already in digital form.
Processing capability ranges from simple functions to complete fast fourier transform
spectrum analysis capability.
The non-processing type digital storage oscilloscopes are designed as replacements for
analog instruments (or) both storage and non-storage types.
Block diagram consist of
1.Attenuator & offset
2.Analog to digital converter
3.Memory part.
4.Record control.
5.Trigger circuit
6.Timing & mode logic

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 7.Digital to analog converters.

BLOCK DIAGRAM OF DIGITAL STORAGE OSCILLOSCOPE

The analog voltage ,input signal is digitized in a 10 bit ADC with a resolution of 0.1%
and frequency response of 25khz.
The total memory storage capacity is 4096 for a single channel 2048 for two channels
each and 1024 for four channels each.
The analog input voltage is sampled at adjustable rates and data points are read are read
onto the memory.
Once the sampled record of the event is captured in memory ,many useful manipulations
are possible.
If the memory is readout rapidly and respectively, an input event which was a single
short transient becomes an repetitive or continuous waveform.
The digital recorder can be set to record continuously, until the trigger signal is received.
Then the recording is stopped.

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 In this way freezing data is received prior to the trigger signal in the memory.
ADVANTAGES OF DIGITAL STORAGE OSCILLOSCOPE
Resolution of 0.025%
Accuracy of 0.1%
Better than analog oscilloscopes.
Easy comparison of two signals, due to split-screen
Pre trigger capability.

SAMPLING CRO:-
Sampling oscilloscope is used to examine very fast signals.
Samples are taken at different portions of the waveform over successive cycles.
Then the total picture is stretched and amplified by low bandwidth amplifiers. It is then
displayed as a continuous wave on the screen.
Sampling oscilloscopes use sampling techniques, if the measurement on repetitive
waveform signals , continuous display for frequencies is above 500MHZ range .The
sampling techniques immediately transform the input signal into the lower frequency
domain .Then the low frequency circuitry is producing a highly effective display .
But the sampling techniques cannot be used fir the display of transient waveform.
The figure shows the block diagram of sampling oscilloscopes. It consist of various parts
a)sampling rate
b) vertical amplifier
c) voltage comparator.
d) stair case generator.
e) Attenuator.
f) ramp generator.
g) oscillator.

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 The input waveform which is repetitive is applied to the sampling gate .The input
waveform is sampled whenever a sampling pulse opens the sampling gate.
The sampling must be synchronized with the input signal frequency.
Therefore the signal is delayed in the vertical amplifier allowing the sweep triggering to
be done by the input signal.
The different waveform related to the operation of the sampling oscilloscope is shown in
figure

Waveform related to operation of sampling oscillloscopes

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 The trigger pulse activates an oscillator at the beginning of each sampling cycle. Then
oscillator generator generates a linear ramp voltage .This voltage is applied to a voltage
comparator.
The voltage comparator compares the ramp voltage to the stair case generator output
voltage.
When two voltages are equal in amplitude, the staircase generator advances one step.
Simultaneously a sampling pulse is generated and is applied to the sampling gate .
Now the sampling gate opens and allow the sample of the input voltage. This is the
amplified and applied to the vertical defection plates .
The resolution of the final image depends upon the step size of the staircase generator .
If the number of steps are smaller, larger the number of steps are smaller , larger the
number of samples and higher the resolution of the image.
ADVANTAGES OF SAMPLING OSCILLOSCOPES:-
It can measure very high speed events.
It can respond and store rapid bits of information.
DISADVANTAGES:-
It can only make measurements on respective waveform signals, continuous display for
frequencies from 50 to 300MHZ range

LED (Light Emitting Diode)

LED's are special diodes that emit light when connected in a circuit. They are frequently used
as "pilot" lights in electronic appliances to indicate whether the circuit is closed or not. A a
clear (or often colored) epoxy case enclosed the heart of an LED, the semi-conductor chip.

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 The two wires extending below the LED epoxy enclosure, or the "bulb" indicate how the
LED should be connected into a circuit. The negative side of an LED lead is indicated in two
ways: 1) by the flat side of the bulb, and 2) by the shorter of the two wires extending from
the LED. The negative lead should be connected to the negative terminal of a battery. LED's
operate at relative low voltages between about 1 and 4 volts, and draw currents between
about 10 and 40 milliamperes. Voltages and currents substantially above these values can
melt a LED chip.

The most important part of a light emitting diode (LED) is the semi-conductor chip located in
the center of the bulb as shown at the right. The chip has two regions separated by a junction.
The p region is dominated by positive electric charges, and the n region is dominated by
negative electric charges. The junction acts as a barrier to the flow of electrons between the p
and the n regions. Only when sufficient voltage is applied to the semi-conductor chip, can the
current flow, and the electrons cross the junction into the p region.

In the absence of a large enough electric potential difference (voltage) across the LED leads,
the junction presents an electric potential barrier to the flow of electrons.

What Causes the LED to Emit Light and What Determines the Color of the Light?

When sufficient voltage is applied to the chip across the leads of the LED, electrons can
move easily in only one direction across the junction between the p and n regions. In the p region
there are many more positive than negative charges. In the n region the electrons are more
numerous than the positive electric charges. When a voltage is applied and the current starts to
flow, electrons in the n region have sufficient energy to move across the junction into the p
region. Once in the p region the electrons are immediately attracted to the positive charges due
to the mutual Coulomb forces of attraction between opposite electric charges. When an electron
moves sufficiently close to a positive charge in the p region, the two charges "re-combine".

Each time an electron recombines with a positive charge, electric potential energy is converted
into electromagnetic energy. For each recombination of a negative and a positive charge, a
quantum of electromagnetic energy is emitted in the form of a photon of light with a frequency

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characteristic of the semi-conductor material (usually a combination of the chemical elements
gallium, arsenic and phosphorus). Only photons in a very narrow frequency range can be emitted
by any material. LED's that emit different colors are made of different semi-conductor materials,
and require different energies to light them.

How Much Energy Does an LED Emit?

The electric energy is proportional to the voltage needed to cause electrons to flow across
the p-n junction. The different colored LED's emit predominantly light of a single color. The
energy (E) of the light emitted by an LED is related to the electric charge (q) of an electron and
the voltage (V) required to light the LED by the expression: E = qV Joules. This expression
simply says that the voltage is proportional to the electric energy, and is a general statement
which applies to any circuit, as well as to LED's. The constant q is the electric charge of a single
electron, -1.6 x 10-19 Coulomb.

Magnetic Tape Recorders

Recorders discussed so far are low frequency recorders and they provide a permanent
record on their paper chart. It is usually described and sometimes necessary to record data in a
such a way that it can be retrieved in electrical form again and it can be easily achieved by using
magnetic tape reproduced in electrical form again and it can be easily achieved by using
magnetic tape recorders which even record signal of high frequency of the order of MHz.

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Construction:

The basic Component of a magnetic tape recorder are:

1) Magentic tape
2) Recording Head
3) Reproducing Head
4) Tape Transport mechanism
5) Conditioning Devices

Magnetic tape:

The magnetic tape is made of a thin sheet of tough dimensionally stable plastic
one side of which is coated with a magnetic material.
The plastic base is polyvinayal chloride .
The magnetic coating consist of a dispersion of very small particles of iron oxide
in the plastic binder.
The iron oxide particles are usally of needles shape about 0.6 micro meter.
The size of typical tape is 12.7mm wide and 25.4 micro meter thick.

Recording Head:

Recording head is a device that impresses a residual magnetic pattern upon it in response
to an amplified input electrical signal.
The head essentially consist of a toroidal core high permeability material with a coil and
a fine air gap of about 10 micro meters.
The air gap is shunted by passing magnetic and the coil current creates a flux of some
shape to bridges the air gap. thus the flux created in the airgap passes through the
magnetic tape and magnetizes the iron oxide particles as they pass the gap.the state of
magnetization of the iron oxide particles is retained as they leave the gap and so the
actual recording takes place at the trailing edge of the gap.
Thus a signal is recorded on the tape in a form of magnetic pattern dispersed in space
along the tape , similar to the original coil current variation in time.

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Reproducing Head:

The reproducing head is similar to that of recording head in appearance.

The working of reproducing head is reveres working of recording head.

The tape transport mechanism:

It moves the tape along the recording head at constant speed without any strain, distortion or
wear. for this the mechanism must be such as to guide the tape passed the magnetic heads with
great precision maintain proper tension and have sufficient tape to magnetic head contact.

Operating principle:

As already mentioned the recorder tape is coated with a magnetic material consisting of a
dispersion of very small particles of iron oxide. As the tape is transferred from on reel to another
reel, it passes across a magnetic head that impress a residual magnetic pattern dispersed in space
along the tape can be retrieved at any time by passing the tape across another magnetic head,
called the reproducing head, in which a voltage is induced . A large value of current in the coil
of the recording head would leave a higher residual flux and lower current residual flux, and so
we have a very simple recording process. However the linearity between residual flux the coli
current is extremely poor. The method of securing linearity will be described in recording
methods.

Advantages:

1) Wide frequency range from dc to several Mhz

2) Low distortion
3) Possibility of playing back or reproducing of the recorded signal as many times as
required with out loss signal permitting extensive analysis.

Application:

1) Medical research and patient monitoring.

2) Communication surveillance and spying.

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 3) Data recording and analysis on aircrafts and satellites.

Liquid Crystal Display:

The liquid crystal display has the distinct advantages of having a lower power
requirement than the LED. it is typically of the order of micro watts of the display in comparison
to the same order of mill watts for LEDs. Low power requirement has made it compatible with
MOS integrated logic circuit.

A liquid crystal display consist of a film of liquid crystal, about 15 micro meter of
thickness sandwich between it does not generate light. Its brightness depends upon the intensity
of light source shining through reflected from the crystal. The response time of LCD typically
range between 10 and 100 ms. the main drawbacks of LCD are additional requirement of light
source a limited temperature range of operation, low reliability, and short operating life.
Basically LCD operates from a low voltage, low frequency ac signal and draw very light current.
They are often arranged as 7 segment display for numerical display for numerical read out as
shown in fig.

The AC voltage required to turn on a segment is applied between the segment and the
backplane from a capacitor that draws very light current for low frequency ac voltage. the
voltage frequency is usually not kept lower than 25 Hz as this would produced visible flicker.

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LCDs widely used in battery powered devices such as calculators and watches.

Printer

A printer is an output device that produces text and graphics on paper.

Major types of printer

Printers can be divided into two main groups, impact printer and non-impact printer.
Impact printer produces text and images when tiny wire pins on print head strike the ink ribbon
by physically contacting the paper. Non-impact printer produces text and graphics on paper
without actually striking the paper.Printers can also be categorized based on the print method or
print technology. The most popular ones are inkjet printer, laser printer, dot-matrix printer
and thermal printer. Among these, only dot-matrix printer is impact printer and the others are
non-impact printers.Some printers are named because they are designed for specific functions,
such as photo printers, portable printers and all-in-one / multifunction printers. Photo
printers and portable printers usually use inkjet print method whereas multifunction printers may
use inkjet or laser print method.

Inkjet printers and laser printers are the most popular printer types for home and business
use. Dot matrix printer was popular in 70’s and 80’s but has been gradually replaced by inkjet
printers for home use. However, they are still being used to print multi-part forms and carbon
copies for some businesses. The use of thermal printers is limited to ATM, cash registers and
point-of-sales terminals. Some label printers and portable printers also use thermal printing.Due
to the popularity of digital camera, laptop and SoHo office (small office / home office), the
demand for photo printers, portable printers and multifunction printers has also increased
substantially in recent years.

Inkjet Printers

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 Inkjet printers are non-impact printers which print text and images by spraying tiny
droplets of liquid ink onto paper. They are the most popular printers for home use.Currently,
most inkjet printers use either thermal inkjet or piezoelectric inkjet technology. Thermal inkjet
printer uses heating element to heat liquid ink to form vapor bubble, which forces the ink
droplets onto the paper through the nozzle. Most inkjet manufacturers use this technology in
consumer inkjet printers.Piezoelectric inkjet technology is used on all Epson printers and
industrial inkjet printers. Instead of using heating element, these printers use a piezoelectric
crystal in each nozzle. The piezoelectric crystal changes shape and size based on the electric
current received, and forces tiny droplets of ink onto the paper from the nozzle.

Thermal inkjet printers use aqueous ink which is a mixture of water, glycol and dyes.
These inks are inexpensive but they can only be used on paper or specially coated materials.
Piezoelectric inkjet printers allow the use of a wider range of inks, such as solvent inks, UV-
curable inks, dye sublimation inks, and can print text and graphics on different uncoated
materials.

The inkjet head design is also divided into two main groups: fixed-head and disposable
head. Fixed-head is built into the printer and should last for the whole life of the printer. It
produces more accurate output than cheap disposable head. The ink cartridges for fixed head
printers are also cheaper as the print head does not need to be replaced. However, if the head is
damaged, the entire printer has to be replaced. isposable head is included in replacement ink
cartridge. It is replaced each time an ink cartridge runs out of ink. This increases the cost of ink
cartridges and also limits the use of high quality print head in these cartridges. However, a
damaged print head is not a problem as one can easily replace it with a new ink cartridge.Some
printer manufacturers use disposable ink and disposable print head separately. The print head
can last much longer than cheap disposable head and is suitable for high volume printing.
However, it can also be replaced easily if the head is clogged or damaged.

Although inkjet printers are generally used in home and small businesses, some
manufacturers, such as Hewlett Packard, have produced high end inkjet printers for industrial
use. These professional inkjet printers are usually used to print advertising graphics or technical
drawings.

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Advantages of inkjet printers:

1) Low cost

2) High quality of output, capable of printing fine and smooth details

3) Capable of printing in vivid color, good for printing pictures

4) Easy to use

5) Reasonably fast

6) Quieter than dot matrix printer

7) No warm up time

Disadvantages of inkjet printers:

1) Print head is less durable, prone to clogging and damage

2) Expensive replacement ink cartridges

3) Not good for high volume printing

4) Printing speed is not as fast as laser printers

5) Ink bleeding, ink carried sideways causing blurred effects on some papers

6) Aqueous ink is sensitive to water, even a small drop of water can cause blurring

7) Cannot use highlighter marker on inkjet printouts

Laser Printers

Laser printers are non- impact printers which can print text and

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images in high speed and high quality resolution, ranging from 600 to 1200 dpi.

Unlike inkjet printers, laser printer use toner (black or colored powder) instead of liquid
inks. A laser printer consists of these major components: drum cartridge, rotating mirror, toner
cartridge and roller. The drum cartridge rotates as the paper is fed through. The mirror deflects
laser beam across the surface of the drum. Laser beam creates charge that causes the toner to
stick to the drum. As the drum rotates and presses on paper, toner is transferred from the drum
to paper, creating images. Rollers then use heat and pressure to fuse toner to paper. Colored
laser printers add colored toner in three additional passes.

Advantages of laser printers:

1) High resolution

2) High print speed

3) No smearing

4) Low cost per page (compared to inkjet printers)

5) Printout is not sensitive to water

6) Good for high volume printing

Disadvantages of laser printers:

1) More expensive than inkjet printers

2) Except for high end machines, laser printers are less capable of printing vivid colors and
high quality images such as photos.

3) The cost of toner replacement and drum replacement is high

4) Bulkier than inkjet printers

5) Warm up time needed

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Dot-matrix printer

Dot-matrix printer is an impact printer that produces text and graphics when tiny wire pins on the
print head strike the ink ribbon. The print head runs back and forth on the paper like a
typewriter. When the ink ribbon presses on the paper, it creates dots that form text and images.
Higher number of pins means that the printer prints more dots per character, thus resulting in
higher print quality.

Dot-matrix printers were very popular and the most common type of printer for personal
computer in 70’s to 80’s. However, their use was gradually replaced by inkjet printers in 90’s.
As of today, dot matrix printers are only used in some point-of-sales terminals, or businesses
where printing of carbon copy multi-part forms or data logging are needed.

Advantages of dot matrix printer:

1) Can print on multi-part forms or carbon copies

2) Low printing cost per page

3) Can be used on continuous form paper, useful for data logging

4) Reliable, durable

Disadvantages of dot matrix printer:

1) Noisy

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2) Limited print quality

3) Low printing speed

4) Limited color printing

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