Computer Hardware

Computer Science Department

PLASU

Heman A.M.
 Computer

Its an electronic device that receives data as input and perform finite
sequence of operations called processing according to the instructions
contained therein and generates output as information by reason the
operation.
 What is Computer Hardware
Computer hardware is the collection of physical parts of a computer
system:
1. Chases, Monitor, Keyboard, mouse, printer ect
 Physical Components

• Mouse, Keyboard, joystick, SCSI, power pack, HDD, ducking station,

monitor etc
• Others include: printers, plotters and monitors
 What are the hardware
components made of?
• Electrical devices
• Electronic devices
Others include:
• Polymers
• Metals
• Magnetic devices etc
 Architectural Components of
the Computer
• Processor: this comprise of the Arithmetic and Logic Unit of the
computer. It performs unary, binary and logic operation
• RAM: this is the working memory of the computer. It is volatile in
nature. Although the working memory in real sense, its called Virtual
memory in Windows and swap in Unix; combination of RAM and
Hard Disk in a ratio of 1:8 of total RAM size to a memory from the
Hard Disk
• I/O Module: This comprise of all units that manage all the input
devices of a compter
 Learning outcome
At the end of this Course Students should be able to understand:
• Fabrication of semiconductors and the application such as diodes and
Integrated Circuits (ICs)
• Use of MSI, LSI and VLSI ICs in Hardware design
• Primary and Secondary Memories
• Core Memories
• Magnetic devices: Disks and tapes, Video disk
• Peripheral devices: printers, CRTs, keyboards, character recognition
etc
• Operational Amplifiers: Digital-to-analogue and Analogue-to-Digital
converters
 Electronics
• Insulators
• Conductors
• Supper Conductors
• Semiconductors
✓ Intrinsic and
✓ Extrinsic
Energy bandgap
 Doping (fabrication) in Intrinsic
semiconductors
Silicon
• Electronic Configuration: 1s 2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p2
Germanium
• 1S22S22P63S23p63d104S24P2

• P-type
• N-type
Table of common elements used
for semiconductors
 Extrinsic
• P-type: trivalent and tetravalent e.g. Si and Ga
• N-type: tetravalent and pentavalent e.g. Ge and As
 Diode
• A two-terminal device that acts like a mechanical switch
Either
• P-N or
• N-P
 Fabrication of Diode
• Doping: doping is the intentional introduction of impurities into an
intrinsic semiconductor for the purpose of modulating its electrical
properties. The doped material is referred to as extrinsic
semiconductors. Example:
 Biasing
• Forward bias: NB: be mindful of current
Depletion region
 Biasing conn’d
• Reverse bias: NB: be mindful of voltage
Silicon Diode I-V characteristic

Diodes: three regions of their I-V characteristics

• For VD > 0, the diode is in the forward bias region, conducts significant current
once VD > VTh
• For –VZK < VD < 0 the diode is in the revers bias region
• For VD < -Vzk the Diode is in the breakdown region
Half-wave rectifier
Vin(t) = VD(t) + VR - (1)
Characteristics of Have-wave
rectifier
Full wave rectifier circuit
Voltage characteristics of a full
wave bridge rectifier
Voltage characteristics of a full
wave bridge rectifier cont’d
 TRANSISTORS
• A 3-terminal semiconductor electronic device that is primarily design
for amplifying electrical signal
• Used to be extrinsic semiconductor of Si and Ge
• Today it’s made intrinsic of Si
• Si is more superior and easier to obtain
Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJT)

• Amplifire (Linear device): forward bias

• Switch (non-linear device): reverse bias
 Forms of BJT
• NPN or PNP

VCE is +ve
Symbolic Representation of BJT

NPN PNP
 BJT Conn’d
• Form KVL,
- - - - (2)

• And from KCL,

- - - - - (3)

• Major difference is that when I is +v on PNP it will be –ve on NPN and vis-
vasa
I-V Characteristics of BJT
Practically,
iB << iC
Hence:
iE ≌ iC

However, DC gain is
iC = βiB - - (4)

The value of β is within the ranges

of 20 to 50 in power circuits and
100 – 500 in signal circuits
 BJT conn’d
• Considering (3) and (4),
𝛽
• iC = . iE - - - - (5)
𝛽+1
𝛽
• Putting α= , we get
𝛽+1

• iC = αiE - - - - - (6)
 BJT conn’t
• From semiconductor Physics it is proven that
𝑣𝐵𝐸
• IC = IS 𝑒 𝑣𝑇 −1 - - - - - (6)

Where

• β variation with collector current and temperature

Biasing Technique of BJT
 Active mode in BJT
• Base-emitter junction must be forward bias,
• Collector-base junction must be forward bias
• Transistor will be in saturation condition if both junctions are forward
bias and VCEsat is minimal the transistor acts as closed switch
• It will be cutoff if both junctions are revers biased
• Revers active mode: when base-emitter is revers biased
Active Regions of NPN and PNP
BJT
 Resistor Divider in a BJT Circuit
• A resistor divider is a linear component in a DC circuit that produces output
voltage (Vout) which is a fraction of input voltage (Vin).
• This happen as result of distributing the (Vin) among the resistors that
makeup the divider
• The ratio of total resistance to individual resistance of resistors
• Biasing scheme seems to be very sensitive to β
Case where biasing is less
sensitive to β Base current
comparable to the
resistor divider
current; R1 and R2
become parallel
 Comparing the series and
parallel of R1 and R2

• But we know that

• Substituting vBE in above equation, we get

• IC ,
 Field Effect Transistors (FET)
• It’s majority-charge-carrier devices, in which the current is carried
predominantly by majority carriers, or minority-charge-carrier
devices, in which the current is mainly due to a flow of minority
carriers
• The device consists of an active channel through which charge
carriers, electrons or holes, flow from the source to the drain
 FET Conn’d
• Source (S): through which the carriers enter the channel.
Conventionally, current entering the channel at S is designated by I S.
• Drain (D): through which the carriers leave the channel.
Conventionally, current entering the channel at D is designated by I D.
Drain-to-source voltage is VDS.
• Gate (G): the terminal that modulates the channel conductivity. By
applying voltage to G, one can control ID.
• Body (p):serves to bias the transistor into operation; connected to
the highest or lowest voltage within the circuit
• Gate and Source are connected in revers bias
 FET Channels
• n-channel: a negative gate-to-source voltage causes a depletion
region, if the active region expands and completely closes the
channel, the resistance of source-drain become too large that no
current flows. This is called pitch-off and the corresponding voltage is
called pitch-off voltage
• p-channel: a positive voltage from gate to body creates a depletion
layer by forcing the positively charged holes to the gate
insulator/semiconductor interface, leaving exposed a carrier-free
region of immobile, negatively charged acceptor ions.
 MOSFET
• The oxide layer is made of polycrystalline silicon
• The gate is an insulator
• Conductivity changes with amount of applied voltage
• Potential drop across the oxide material induces conducting channel
between the source and the drain
• It designed to be used in enhanced mode
• nMOSFET or nMOS is made of p-type while pMOS is made of n-type
FET I-V Characteristic
 Integrated Circuits (ICs)
• Interconnected circuit components in a Si substrate to form a desired
electronic function
 ICs Characteristics
• All components are embedded in semiconductor substrate which
they cannot be removed for repairs or replacement
• They are a monolithic structure such that the components can best
be seen with microscope
• No component is seen outside of the chip
• Can work on low voltage
• They can handle a limited amount of power
• They are very small in size
• They are cheap
• Complex circuits in a chip can be used to obtain improve performance
characteristics
 ICs Types
• Analogue: Made primarily of Transistors. E.g. Bipolar, MOSFETs Field
Effect etc
• Digital: Made of electronic gates. E.g. NOT, NOR, OR, XOR, AND etc
 Discrete Circuits
• Discrete Circuit: The formation of circuit using electrical/electronic
components on a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) to form a circuit for a
particular function
✓ They occupy a very large space in large electronic circuits
✓ They have reliability issues because they are joined together by
soldering
Characteristics of Discrete Circuits
• They require more voltage
• They can handle much more power than ICs
• They occupy large space
• They are more expensive than ICs
• Their performance is not good
 Scales of ICs
Name Signification Year Transistors number Logic gates number

small-scale
SSI 1964 1 to 10 1 to 12
integration
medium-scale
MSI 1968 10 to 500 13 to 99
integration
large-scale
LSI 1971 500 to 20,000 100 to 9,999
integration
very large-scale
VLSI 1980 20,000 to 1,000,000 10,000 to 99,999
integration
ultra-large-scale
ULSI 1984 1,000,000 and more 100,000 and more
integration
SSI ICs
SSI ICs
MSI ICs
 VLSI ICs

Intel 80486
Produced from 1989 – 2007
Max clock 16 MHz to 150MHz
ULSI ICs (Semiconductor memory)
Memory Cell
 Logic Gates
• Are digital combinatorics components used for designing
combinatorics and non-combinatorics circuits electronic IC circuits
• These include AND, OR, NOT, NAND, NOR, EXOR and EXNOR gates
AND gate
OR gate
NOT gate
NAND gate
NOR gate
EXOR gate
EXNOR
ULSI ICs (digital memory)
Memory Cell
 Magnetic Disk
• A disk is a circular platter constructed of nonmagnetic material, called
the substrate, coated with a magnetizable material.
• The substrate used to be aluminum/aluminium alloy but now its
mostly made of glass
 Benefits of Using glass
substrate
• Improvement in the uniformity of the magnetic film surface to increase disk
reliability
• A significant reduction in overall surface defects to help reduce read-write errors
• Ability to support lower fly heights (described subsequently)
• Better stiffness to reduce disk dynamics
• Greater ability to withstand shock and damage
 Magnetic Read and Write
Mechanism
• Data is written on a magnetic disc using the Read/Write head
• A typical Read/Write head a rectangular doughnut with a gap along
one side and a few turns of conducting wire along the opposite side
• Magnetic field is created between the gab on the Read/Write head
due to winding on the other side of the Read/Write head
• In writing, magnetic patterns are created on the disc relative to HIGH
(1) and LOW (0) current input to the coil
• Same process is repeated in reading, LOW patterns on the magnetic
platter denotes 0 and HIGH patterns on the platter denotes 1
Read/Read Mechanism of a
Magnetic Disk Conn’d
 Read/Write: Hard drive type
• Read head is separate from the write head positioned closely though
• The heads are shielded with Magnitoresistive (MR) sensors
• When current is passed to the MR, data is written on the magnetic
platter due to the HIGH (1) and LOW (0) current input to the MR
• To read from the platter, HIGH (1) and LOW (0) current is read from
the magnetic platter by the MR
Data Organization and
formatting
 Data Organization and
Formatting Conn’d
• Intersector or track gap: prevents, or at least minimizes, errors due to
misalignment of the head or simply interference of magnetic fields.
• Track: concentric circles in which data is written and read from the disc
• Sector: Is the number of block each track is divided into separated by
intersector gap
• Constant Angular Velocity (CAV): This enable the reading or writing from
sectors near the middle of a disc at the same rate with those further from
the middle of the disc
• Multizone Recording: surface of a disc is divided into a number of
concentric zones (16) (commonly found on HDD) with higher bits
concentration at the middle and space towards the outside of the disk
 Physical Characteristics
• Fixed-head Disk: there is one read-write head per track
• Movable-head disk: there is only one read-write head.
• Nonremovable disk: is permanently mounted in the disk drive
• Removable disk: can be removed and replaced with another disk
• Cylinder: set of all the tracks in the same relative position on the
platter
• Tradeoff: The narrower the head the high density of data written
which increases chances of error
Components of a Disk Drive
Typical Hard Disk Drive
Parameter
• Seek time: is the time it takes to position the head at the track
• Rotation delay or rotational latency: is the time it takes for the
beginning of the sector to reach the head
• Access time: is the sum of the seek time, if any, and the rotational
delay
• Transfer time: is the time taken for the Read/Write head travers from
the beginning of a sector where it is suppose to read or write to the
end of the sector. Hence,
 Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) Display

• CRT is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, and a

phosphorescent screen used to view images
• It is a visual display that uses fluorescence and x-ray technology to
display processed input to a computer on the screen
• Raster Scan: is the form of which images and text are drown on the
screen by beam of photons from the electron gun
 Components of CRT
• Three electron emitters (for red, green, and blue phosphor dots)
• Electron beams: streams of electrons observed in vacuum tubes
• Focusing coils: A coil that produces a magnetic field parallel to an
electron beam for the purpose of focusing the beam.
• Deflection coils: an assembly of one or more coils through which a
controlled current is passed to produce a magnetic field for deflecting
a beam of electrons, as in a picture tube.
• Anode (collector): is the positive which attracts electrons pouring off
the cathode
• Mask: used to separate beams for red, green, and blue part of
displayed image
• Phosphor Coated Screen: layer on the screen that separates red,
green, and blue zones by reason of florescence
 Optical Memory
• Optical Memory is any device, mostly made of variety of plastics,
that enables data to be stored on it or data read from it with the aid
of lesser radiation
• These include Compact Disk (CD), Compact Disk Read Only Memory
(CD-ROM), CD Recordable (CD-R), CD Rewritable (CD-RW), Digital
Versatile Disk (DVD), DVD Recordable (DVD-R), DVD Rewritable (DVD-
RW), Blue-ray DVD
 Compact Disk (CD)
• CD is a nonerasable disk made of plastic (resin such as polycarbonate)
that can store more than 60 minutes (780MB of data) of audio
information on one side. It was designed primarily for storing audio
files
• CD-ROM: this is almost same as CD except that it is more rugged and
have error correction devices to ensure that data are properly
transferred from disk to computer
• Data is printed in form of land and pit, 1 and 0 respectively
• Data is read from the polycarbonate surface by reflected lesser rays
on the surface. Reflected rays from land is high, 1, and reflected rays
from pit is low, 0.
• They are made of single spiral track which spirals from near the
middle of the CD to outer edge of the disk
• Multiple zoning is made to achieve Constant Angular Velocity (CAV)
• Data can be randomly accessed
Organization of Data on CD
 Organization of Data on CD
Conn’d
• Sync: The sync field identifies the beginning of a block. It consists of
a byte of all 0s, 10 bytes of all 1s, and a byte of all 0s.
• Header: The header contains the block address and the mode byte.
Mode 0 specifies a blank data field; mode 1 specifies the use of an
error-correcting code and 2048 bytes of data; mode 2 specifies 2336
bytes of user data with no error-correcting code.
• Data: User data.
• Auxiliary: Additional user data in mode 2. In mode 1, this is a 288-
byte error-correcting code.
Advantage of CD over Magnetic Disk
• The optical disk together with the information stored on it can be
mass replicated inexpensively—unlike a magnetic disk. The data on a
magnetic disk has to be reproduced by copying one disk at a time
using two disk drives
• The optical disk is removable, allowing the disk itself to be used for
archival storage. Most magnetic disks are nonremovable. The
information on nonremovable magnetic disks must first be copied to
another storage medium before the disk drive/disk can be used to
store new information
 Disadvantages of Optical Disk
Over Magnetic Disk
• It is read-only and cannot be updated. 2048 bytes Data
• It has an access time much longer than that of a magnetic disk drive,
as much as half a second.
 CD-R
• It’s also made of polycarbonates however coated with dye which
changes reflectivity with high intense lesser radiation
• Data is written once on it subsequently with lesser beam of modest
intensity
 CD-RW
• It is made of material that has two significantly different reflectivities
in two different phase states called amorphous and crystalline such
that a beam of lesser light can change the material from one form to
another.
• Amorphous State: in which the molecules exhibit a random
orientation that reflects light poorly
• Crystalline State: it has a smooth surface that reflects light well
• Data can be erased and written to the disk over and again
• The only disadvantage is that the material eventually loses it
property permanently with time due to usage.
 Digital Versatile Disk
• Bits are packed more closely on a DVD. The spacing between loops of a
spiral on a CD is 1.6 µm and the minimum distance between pits along the
spiral is 0.834 µm.
• The DVD uses a laser with shorter wavelength and achieves a loop spacing
of 0.74 µm and a minimum distance between pits of 0.4 µm. The result of
these two improvements is about a seven-fold increase in capacity, to about
4.7 GB.
• The DVD employs a second layer of pits and lands on top of the first layer. A
dual-layer DVD has a semireflective layer on top of the reflective layer, and
by adjusting focus, the lasers in DVD drives can read each layer separately.
This technique almost doubles the capacity of the disk, to about 8.5 GB. The
lower reflectivity of the second layer limits its storage capacity so that a full
doubling is not achieved.
• The DVD-ROM can be two sided, whereas data are recorded on only one
side of a CD. This brings total capacity up to 17 GB.
• As with the CD, DVDs come in writeable as well as read-only versions
CD-ROM and DVD-ROM
Compared
 High Definition Optical Disk
• They are higher bit density optical disk that laser of short
wavelengths are used to write on the blue-violet on the surface
• The pits and lands are smaller compared with DVD
• They are used for storing high-definition videos and provide
significantly greater storage capacity compared to DVDs
Common and competing ones are:
• High Definition DVD: HD DVD scheme can store 15 GB on a single
layer on a single side
• Blue-ray Disk: it positions the data layer on the disk closer to the
laser which enables a tighter focus and less distortion and thus
smaller pits and tracks
• Blue-ray Disks are available in: read only (BD-ROM), recordable once
(BD-R), and rerecordable (BD-RE).
 Magnetic Tape
• Magnetic tape is a flexible polyester coated with particles of pure
metal in a special binder or vapor-plated metal film
• It has width range between 0.38cm (0.15inch) – 1.27cm (0.5inch)
• They are commonly housed in cartridges
• Tracks mostly 9 per tape and are laid lengthwise parallel
• Recording used to be parallel
• Serpentine Recording: the first set of bits are recorded along the
whole length of the tape When the end of the tape is reached, the
heads are repositioned to record a new track, and the tape is again
recorded on its whole length, this time in the opposite direction
Commonly Available Linear Tape-
Open (LTO) Drives
 Printers
A printer is a peripheral device which makes a persistent human-
readable representation of graphics or text on paper
 Mechanism of Printing
1. Charles Babbage printer
2. Electric typewriter and teletypewriter machine
3. Daisy while system
4. Dot Matrix system
5. Laser system
6. Ploter
 Types of Printers
• Toner-based Printer: it works similar to photocopair. However, the
difference is that image is produced by the direct scanning of a laser
beam across the printer's photoreceptor
▪ A variant of this uses LED to cause toner adhesion to the printer drum
• Liquid inkjet: it propels ink on paper to produce text and graphic
• Solid ink printer: it uses use solid sticks of CMYK-coloured ink similar
to candle wax which is fed to piezo crystal operated print-head and
the print-head spray the ink on an rotating oil coated drum
▪ High energy consumption
▪ Long warm-up time from cold state
▪ Difficult to write on print
• Dye-sublimation printer: employs a printing process that uses heat
to transfer dye, laying a colour at a time, to a medium such as a
plastic card, paper or canvas
 Types of Printers Conn’d
• Thermal printer: it works by selectively heating coated thermocromic
paper, heated areas turn black
 Obsolete and Special Purpose
Printing Technologies
• Impact printers: these types of printers work by reason of the
cartridge ribbon impacting directly on the paper or some sort of
pushing the paper to have a direct impact with the cartridge ribbon
• Teletypewriter-derived printer: Some models used a "typebox" that
was positioned, in the X- and Y-axes, by a mechanism and the
selected letter form was struck by a hammer while others used a type
cylinder in a similar way as the Selectric typewriters used their type
ball
• Daisy wheel printer: A hammer strikes a wheel with petals, the
"daisy wheel", each petal containing a letter form at its tip. The letter
form strikes a ribbon of ink, depositing the ink on the page and thus
printing a character
 Obsolete and Special Purpose
Printing Technologies Conn’d
• Dot matrix: it uses a matrix of small pins (normally had either 9 or 24
pins on the print head) uses to transfer ink to the page. It produces
both text and image
▪ Ballistic dot matrix: the print-head has a drilled hole such that when dot is
need to be made from the hole, pawls actuated by solenoid hit the wires
causing them to strike the ribbon and creates a dot.
▪ Stored energy dot matrix: it uses the energy stored in a spring or magnetic
field to push a hammer through a ribbon to print a dot.
• Line printer: Line printers print an entire line of text at a time
▪ Print drum from drum printer: Drum printers, where a horizontally mounted
rotating drum carries the entire character set of the printer repeated in each
printable character position
▪ IBM 1403 line printer: Chain or train printers, where the character set is
arranged multiple times around a linked chain or a set of character slugs in a
track traveling horizontally past the print line
 Obsolete and Special Purpose
Printing Technologies Conn’d
▪ Bar printers: where the character set is attached to a solid bar that moves
horizontally along the print line
▪ Comb printer: this type of printer uses a comb of hammers prints a portion of
a row of pixels at one time, such as every eighth pixel
• Liquid ink electrostatic printer: it uses a chemical coated paper,
which is charged by the print head according to the image of the
document. The paper is passed near a pool of liquid ink with the
opposite charge. The charged areas of the paper attract the ink and
thus form the image
• Plotter: uses a mechanical process using pen to create an image on a
pager by reason of contact
 Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
• A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other
electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-
modulating properties of liquid crystals and backlight to display
image or text in monochrome or coloured
• Fixed image content types: could be used to display preset words,
digits and seven-segment display
 General Characteristics of LCDs
• Each pixel of an LCD typically consists of a layer of molecules aligned
between two transparent electrodes, and two polarizing filters
(parallel and perpendicular), the axes of transmission of which are (in
most of the cases) perpendicular to each other
• Ideally, light passing through the first filter should be blocked by the
second filter due to polarization
• Before an electric field is applied, the orientation of the liquid-crystal
molecules is determined by the alignment at the surfaces of
electrodes
• In a Twisted Nematic (TN) device, the surface alignment directions at
the two electrodes are perpendicular to each other, and so the
molecules arrange themselves in a helical structure, or twist
• This induces the rotation of the polarization of the incident light, and
the device appears gray
 General Characteristics of LCDs
Conn’d
• If the applied voltage is large enough, the liquid crystal molecules in
the center of the layer are almost completely untwisted and the
polarization of the incident light is not rotated as it passes through
the liquid crystal layer. This light will then be mainly polarized
perpendicular to the second filter, and thus be blocked and the pixel
will appear black
• By controlling the voltage applied across the liquid crystal layer in
each pixel, light can be allowed to pass through in varying amounts
thus constituting different levels of gray
• Color LCD systems use the same technique, with color filters used to
generate red, green, and blue pixels.
 A Casio Alarm Chrono digital
watch with LCD
• It is in other words called passive-matrix because it is made by
individually fixed symbols (as in digital watches and pocket
calculators) which can be implemented with independent electrodes
for each segment
 Implementation Backlight
Technologies
• Cold Cathode Florescent Lamp (CCFL): the LCD panel is lit either by
two cold cathode fluorescent lamps placed at opposite edges of the
display or an array of parallel CCFLs behind larger displays. A diffuser
then spreads the light out evenly across the whole display
• Edge-Lit White LED (EL-WLED): the LCD panel is lit by a row of white
LEDs placed at one or more edges of the screen. A light diffuser is
then used to spread the light evenly across the whole display
▪ Pulse-width modulation: a technology where the intensity of the LEDs are
kept constant, but the brightness adjustment is achieved by varying a time
interval of flashing these constant light intensity light sources
• White LED (WLED) Array: The LCD panel is lit by a full array of white
LEDs placed behind a diffuser behind the panel. LCDs that use this
implementation will usually have the ability to dim the LEDs in the
dark areas of the image being displayed, effectively increasing the
contrast ratio of the display.
 Implementation Backlight
Technologies Conn’d
• Read Blue Green LED (RBG-LED) Array: the panel is lit by a full array
of RGB LEDs giving it a better gamut (higher definition of colours)
than WLED. One of the recent days technologies
• Viewing Efficiency of LCD: optical films such as prismatic structure
are deployed to gain the light into the desired viewer directions and
reflective polarizing films that recycle the polarized light that was
formerly absorbed by the first polarizer of the LCD
• Latest LCDs: fine wires, or pathways, form a grid with vertical wires
across the whole screen on one side of the screen and horizontal
wires across the whole screen on the other side of the screen. To this
grid each pixel has a positive connection on one side and a negative
connection on the other side. So the total amount of wires needed is
3 x 1920 going vertically and 1080 going horizontally for a total of
6840 wires horizontally and vertically
Passive and Active Matrix LCD
• Passive Matrix LCD: they employ Super-Twisted Nematic (STN) or
double-layer STN (DSTN) technology and Color-STN (CSTN) in which
color is added by using an internal filter
▪ STN LCDs have to be continuously refreshed by alternating pulsed voltages of
one polarity during one frame and pulses of opposite polarity during the next
frame. Individual pixels are addressed by the corresponding row and column
circuits
• Active Matrix LCD: it consists of matrix of thin-film transistors (TFTs)
added to the electrodes in contact with the LC layer. Each pixel has its
own dedicated transistor, allowing each column line to access one
pixel. It used rewriting instead of refresh for change in picture
(creating moving pictures)
 In-Plain Switching LCD
• Electrical field is applied through opposite electrodes on the same
glass substrate, so that the liquid crystals can be reoriented
(switched) essentially in the same plane, although fringe fields inhibit
a homogeneous reorientation
• It requires two transistors for each pixel instead of the single
transistor needed for a standard thin-film transistor (TFT) display
Advanced Fringe Field Switching
(AFFS)

• AFFS-applied notebook applications minimize color distortion while

maintaining a wider viewing angle for a professional display. Colour shift
and deviation caused by light leakage is corrected by optimizing the
white gamut which also enhances white/gray reproduction
 Vertical Alignment LCDs
• They are a form of LCDs in which the liquid crystals naturally align
vertically to the glass substrates. When no voltage is applied, the
liquid crystals remain perpendicular to the substrate, creating a black
display between crossed polarizers. When voltage is applied, the
liquid crystals shift to a tilted position, allowing light to pass through
and create a gray-scale display depending on the amount of tilt
generated by the electric field. It has a deeper-black background, a
higher contrast ratio, a wider viewing angle, and better image quality
at extreme temperatures than traditional twisted-nematic displays
 Blue Phase Mode LCD
• The physics of blue phase mode LCDs suggest that very short
switching times (~1 ms) can be achieved, so time sequential colour
control can possibly be realized and expensive color filters would be
obsolete, aimed at reducing expensive color filters
 Quality Control
• Some LCD panels have defective transistors, causing permanently lit
or unlit pixels which are commonly referred to as stuck pixels or dead
pixels respectively
 Zero-Power" (Bistable) Display
• ZPD: the crystals may exist in one of two stable orientations ("black"
and "white") and power is only required to change the image.
• Cholesteric Liquid Crystal (ChLCD): it uses polymer stabilized
Cholesteric Liquid Crystal enabling it cover the entire surface of a
mobile phone, allowing it to change colors, and keep that color even
when power is removed
 LCD Resolution
• Resolution The resolution of an LCD is expressed by the number of
columns and rows of pixels (e.g., 1024×768). Each pixel is usually
composed 3 sub-pixels, a red, a green, and a blue one
 LCD Performance
• Spatial performance: this explains the ability of an LCD to be viewed
from any angle without presentation of blued image
• Temporal performance: this determines how well it can display
changing images, or the accuracy and the number of times per
second the display draws the data it is being given
• Colour performance: this determines the colour gamut (ability to
identify all millions of different colours) of an LCD
• Brightness and Contrast ratio:
▪ Contrast ratio is the ratio of the brightness of a full-on pixel to a full-off pixel
▪ Brightness is usually stated as the maximum light output of the LCD, which can
vary greatly based on the transparency of the LCD and the brightness of the
backlight
 Advantages of LCD
• Very compact, thin and light, especially in comparison with bulky, heavy CRT
displays.
• Low power consumption. Depending on the set display brightness and
content being displayed, the older CCFT backlit models typically use less
than half of the power a CRT monitor of the same size viewing area would
use, and the modern LED backlit models typically use 10–25% of the power
a CRT monitor would use.
• Little heat emitted during operation, due to low power consumption.
• No geometric distortion.
• The possible ability to have little or no flicker depending on backlight
technology.
• Usually no refresh-rate flicker, because the LCD pixels hold their state
between refreshes (which are usually done at 200 Hz or faster, regardless of
the input refresh rate).
 Advantages of LCD Conn’d
• Sharp image with no bleeding or smearing when operated at native resolution.
• Emits almost no undesirable electromagnetic radiation (in the extremely low
frequency range), unlike a CRT monitor.
• Can be made in almost any size or shape.
• No theoretical resolution limit. When multiple LCD panels are used together to
create a single canvas, each additional panel increases the total resolution of the
display, which is commonly called stacked resolution.
• Can be made in large sizes of over 60-inch (150 cm) diagonal.
• Masking effect: the LCD grid can mask the effects of spatial and grayscale
quantization, creating the illusion of higher image quality.
• Unaffected by magnetic fields, including the Earth's.
• As an inherently digital device, the LCD can natively display digital data from a DVI
or HDMI connection without requiring conversion to analog. Some LCD panels have
native fiber optic inputs in addition to DVI and HDMI.
 Advantages of LCD Conn’d
• Many LCD monitors are powered by a 12 V power supply, and if built
into a computer can be powered by its 12 V power supply.
• Can be made with very narrow frame borders, allowing multiple LCD
screens to be arrayed side-by-side to make up what looks like one big
screen.
 Disadvantages of LCD
• Limited viewing angle in some older or cheaper monitors, causing color, saturation, contrast
and brightness to vary with user position, even within the intended viewing angle.
• Uneven backlighting in some monitors (more common in IPS-types and older TNs), causing
brightness distortion, especially toward the edges ("backlight bleed").
• Black levels may not be as dark as required because individual liquid crystals cannot
completely block all of the backlight from passing through.
• Display motion blur on moving objects caused by slow response times (>8 ms) and eye-
tracking on a sample-and-hold display, unless a strobing backlight is used. However, this
strobing can cause eye strain, as is noted next:
• As of 2012, most implementations of LCD backlighting use pulse-width modulation (PWM) to
dim the display, which makes the screen flicker more acutely (this does not mean visibly) than
a CRT monitor at 85 Hz refresh rate would (this is because the entire screen is strobing on and
off rather than a CRT's phosphor sustained dot which continually scans across the display,
leaving some part of the display always lit), causing severe eye-strain for some people.
Unfortunately, many of these people don't know that their eye-strain is being caused by the
invisible strobe effect of PWM. This problem is worse on many LED-backlit monitors, because
the LEDs switch on and off faster than a CCFL lamp.
 Disadvantages of LCD Conn’d
• Only one native resolution. Displaying any other resolution either requires a video scaler,
causing blurriness and jagged edges, or running the display at native resolution using 1:1 pixel
mapping, causing the image either not to fill the screen (letterboxed display), or to run off the
lower or right edges of the screen.
• Fixed bit depth (also called colour depth). Many cheaper LCDs are only able to display
262,000 colors. 8-bit S-IPS panels can display 16 million colors and have significantly better
black level, but are expensive and have slower response time.
• Low refresh rate. All but a few high-end monitors support no higher than 60 or 75 Hz; while
this does not cause visible flicker due to the LCD panel's high internal refresh rate, the low
input refresh rate limits the maximum frame-rate that can be displayed, affecting gaming and
3D graphics.
• Input lag, because the LCD's A/D converter waits for each frame to be completely been
output before drawing it to the LCD panel. Many LCD monitors do post-processing before
displaying the image in an attempt to compensate for poor color fidelity, which adds an
additional lag. Further, a video scaler must be used when displaying non-native resolutions,
which adds yet more time lag. Scaling and post processing are usually done in a single chip on
modern monitors, but each function that chip performs adds some delay. Some displays have
a video gaming mode which disables all or most processing to reduce perceivable input lag.
 Disadvantages of LCD Conn’d
• Dead or stuck pixels may occur during manufacturing or after a period of use. A stuck
pixel will glow with color even on an all-black screen, while a dead one will always
remain black.
• Subject to burn-in effect, although the cause differs from CRT and the effect may not
be permanent, a static image can cause burn-in in a matter of hours in badly designed
displays.
• In a constant-on situation, thermalization may occur in case of bad thermal
management, in which part of the screen has overheated and looks discolored
compared to the rest of the screen.
• Loss of brightness and much slower response times in low temperature environments.
In sub-zero environments, LCD screens may cease to function without the use of
supplemental heating.
• Loss of contrast in high temperature environments.
 Assignment
1. Write on the general characteristics of OLED and QLED
2. Compare and contrast between QLED and LED LCD
3. Write on working characteristics of analogue to digital and digital
to analogue operational amplifier