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Display Decoder

BCD to 7-Segment Display Decoder

As we saw in the previous tutorial, a Digital Decoder IC, is a device which converts one digital format into another and one
of the most commonly used device for doing this is called the Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) to 7-Segment Display Decoder. 7-
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 segment LED (Light Emitting Diode) or LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) type displays, provide a very convenient way of displaying
information or digital data in the form of numbers, letters or even alpha-numerical characters.

Typically 7-segment displays consist of seven individual coloured LED’s (called the segments), within one single display package. In
order to produce the required numbers or HEX characters from 0 to 9 and A to F respectively, on the display the correct combination of
LED segments need to be illuminated and BCD to 7-segment Display Decoders such as the 74LS47 do just that.

A standard 7-segment LED display generally has 8 input connections, one for each LED segment and one that acts as a common
terminal or connection for all the internal display segments. Some single displays have also have an additional input pin to display a
decimal point in their lower right or left hand corner.

In electronics there are two important types of 7-segment LED digital display.

1. The Common Cathode Display (CCD) – In the common cathode display, all the cathode connections of the LED’s are joined
together to logic “0” or ground. The individual segments are illuminated by application of a “HIGH”, logic “1” signal to the
individual Anode terminals.
2. The Common Anode Display (CAD) – In the common anode display, all the anode connections of the LED’s are joined
together to logic “1” and the individual segments are illuminated by connecting the individual Cathode terminals to a “LOW”,
logic “0” signal.

Common Cathode and Common Anode Format

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 Electrical connection of the individual diodes for a common cathode display and a common anode display and by illuminating each light
emitting diode individually, they can be made to display a variety of numbers or characters.

7-Segment Display Format

So in order to display the number 3 for example, segments a, b, c, d and g would need to be illuminated. If we wanted to display a
different number or letter then a different set of segments would need to be illuminated. Then for a 7-segment display, we can produce
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 different number or letter then a different set of segments would need to be illuminated. Then for a 7-segment display, we can produce
a truth table giving the segments that need to be illuminated in order to produce the required character as shown below.

Truth Table for a 7-segment display

Individual Segments Individual Segments

Display Display
a b c d e f g a b c d e f g
× × × × × × 0 × × × × × × × 8
× × 1 × × × × × × 9
× × × × × 2 × × × × × × A
× × × × × 3 × × × × × b
× × × × 4 × × × × C
× × × × × 5 × × × × × d
× × × × × × 6 × × × × × E
× × × 7 × × × × F

7-Segment Display Elements for all Numbers.

It can be seen that to display any single digit number from 0 to 9 in binary or letters from A to F in hexadecimal, we would require 7
separate segment connections plus one additional connection for the LED’s “common” connection. Also as the segments are basically a
standard light emitting diode, the driving circuit would need to produce up to 20mA of current to illuminate each individual segment

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 and to display the number 8, all 7 segments would need to be lit resulting a total current of nearly 140mA, (8 x 20mA).

Obviously, the use of so many connections and power consumption is impractical for some electronic or microprocessor based circuits
and so in order to reduce the number of signal lines required to drive just one single display, display decoders such as the BCD to 7-
Segment Display Decoder and Driver IC’s are used instead.

Binary Coded Decimal

Binary Coded Decimal (BCD or “8421” BCD) numbers are made up using just 4 data bits (a nibble or half a byte) similar to the
Hexadecimal numbers we saw in the binary tutorial, but unlike hexadecimal numbers that range in full from 0 through to F, BCD
numbers only range from 0 to 9, with the binary number patterns of 1010 through to 1111 (A to F) being invalid inputs for this type of
display and so are not used as shown below.

Binary Pattern Binary Pattern

Decimal BCD Decimal BCD
8 4 2 1 8 4 2 1
0 0 0 0 0 0 8 1 0 0 0 8
1 0 0 0 1 1 9 1 0 0 1 9
2 0 0 1 0 2 10 1 0 1 0 Invalid
3 0 0 1 1 3 11 1 0 1 1 Invalid
4 0 1 0 0 4 12 1 1 0 0 Invalid
5 0 1 0 1 5 13 1 1 0 1 Invalid
6 0 1 1 0 6 14 1 1 1 0 Invalid
7 0 1 1 1 7 15 1 1 1 1 Invalid

BCD to 7-Segment Display Decoders

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 A binary coded decimal (BCD) to 7-segment display decoder such as the TTL 74LS47 or 74LS48, have 4 BCD inputs and 7 output lines,
one for each LED segment. This allows a smaller 4-bit binary number (half a byte) to be used to display all the denary numbers from 0 to
9 and by adding two displays together, a full range of numbers from 00 to 99 can be displayed with just a single byte of 8 data bits.

BCD to 7-Segment Decoder

The use of packed BCD allows two BCD digits to be stored within a single byte (8-bits) of data, allowing a single data byte to hold a BCD
number in the range of 00 to 99.

An example of the 4-bit BCD input ( 0100 ) representing the number 4 is given below.

Display Decoder Example No1

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 In practice current limiting resistors of about 150Ω to 220Ω would be connected in series between the decoder/driver chip and each LED
display segment to limit the maximum current flow. Different display decoders or drivers are available for the different types of display
available, e.g. 74LS48 for common-cathode LED types, 74LS47 for common-anode LED types, or the CMOS CD4543 for liquid crystal
display (LCD) types.

Liquid crystal displays (LCD´s) have one major advantage over similar LED types in that they consume much less power and nowadays,
both LCD and LED displays are combined together to form larger Dot-Matrix Alphanumeric type displays which can show letters and
characters as well as numbers in standard Red or Tri-colour outputs.

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 « Binary Decoder | Binary Adder »

Other Good Tutorials in this Category

Binary Adder

Binary Decoder

Binary Subtractor

Combinational Logic Circuits

Digital Comparator

Display Decoder

Priority Encoder

The Demultiplexer

The Multiplexer

Tags: Combination Logic Digital Logic Display

25 Responses to “Display Decoder”

Older comments

Teja
This is usefull site for digital basics.
Reply
June 29th, 2015

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 lucasb
hello,

do you know other BCD doing like 74LS48 ?

thks
Reply
June 23rd, 2015

Wayne Storr
Hello Lucasb, The 74LS47 and 74LS48 are the most common, but other types of 7-segment
decoders include the 74LS247, 4511, 4513, 4543, etc.
Reply
June 23rd, 2015

Kirti Gaurav Das

Hello, all. How are You .This is good site for learning digital basics .
Reply
June 23rd, 2015

waqas
This post really helps me a lot in understanding how to convert bcd to 7 segment decoder.Fig
that are used are very helpful for understanding.
Reply
May 25th, 2015

MOHAMMAD
VERY THAUGTFULL AND INNOVATIVE
BUT I HAVE A QUESTION :
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENT BETWEEN 7447 AND 7448 (BCD TO 7 SEG) DECODERS
Reply
May 4th, 2015

Wayne Storr
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 The 7447 is an active-low output for driving common-anode LED displays. The 7448 is an
active-high output for driving common-cathode LED displays. You can find more information
from their respective datasheets.
Reply
May 4th, 2015

aliya
Amazing thanks a lot
Reply
April 22nd, 2015

Egbert Sequeira
organised site for info
Reply
April 6th, 2015

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three × =9

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