Chapter 6

Display Devices & Recorders

 Introduction

• The final stage in a measurement system comprises an indicating

and /or a recording element, which gives an indication of the input
being measured.

• These elements may also be of analog or digital type, depending on

whether the indication or recording is in a continuous or discrete
manner.
• Conventional voltmeters and ammeters are the simplest examples of
analog indicating instruments, working on the principle of rotation of a coil
through which a current passes, the coil being in a magnetic field.

• Digital voltmeters (DVMs) are commonly used as these are convenient for
indication.

• Cathode ray oscilloscopes (CROs) have also been widely used for
indicating these signals.
 Recording instruments may be galvanometric, potentiometric, servo types
or magnetic tape recorder types. In addition to analog recorders, digital

recorders including digital printers, punched cards or tape recording

elements are also available.

• In large-scale systems, data loggers incorporating digital computers

are extensively used for data recording. The present day availability of
memory devices has made the problem of data storage simpler than
was previously possible.
The display device may be any of the following types:
1. Analog indicators, comprising motion of a needle on a meter scale.
2. Pen trace or light trace on chart paper recorders.
3. Screen display as in cathode ray oscilloscopes or on large TV screen
display, called visual display unit (VDU).
4. Digital counter of mechanical type, consisting of counter wheel, etc.
5. Digital printer, giving data in printed form.
6. Punches, giving data on punched cards or tapes.
7. Electronic displays, using light emitting diodes (LEDs) or liquid
crystal displays, (LCDs) etc.
• In LEDs, light is emitted due to the release of energy as a result of the
recombination of unbound free electrons and holes in the region of the
junction.

• The emission is in the visible region in case of materials like Gallium

Phosphide. LEDs get illuminated ON or OFF, depending on the output
being binary 1 or 0. In a microcomputer, the status of data, address
and control buses may be displayed.
8. The storage of data may be on cards, magnetic tapes, disks core
memories, etc.

• The digital data on the disk is recorded in concentric-circles, known as tracks.

• The disk is divided into sectors which are numbered and can hold a number of
characters.

• The formatting of the disk is done to identify the tracks and the sectors.

• A reference hole is shown for numbering the start of the tracks.

 Display devices
• Display devices are used for the visual presentation of information.

1. Analog display devices (cathode-ray tubes)

• Oscilloscope tubes

•TV CRTs
2. Digital display devices
• LED (including OLED) displays
• VF (vacuum fluorescent ) displays
• LCD (liquid crystal) displays
• Nixie tube displays and PDPs (plasma display panels)
• Electroluminescent displays (ELDs)
3. Others:
• Electronic paper
• Using principles of Nano electronics (carbon nanotubes, Nano
crystals)
• Laser TV
Electronic display devices based on various principles were developed.

1. Active display devices are based on luminescence.

• Luminescence is the general term used to describe the emission of

electromagnetic radiation from a substance due to a non-thermal
process.

• Luminescence occurs from a solid when it is supplied with some form

of energy.

• Photo luminescence arises as a result of absorption of photons.

• 
• In the case of cathode luminescence material is excited by bombardment with a
beam of electrons.

• Electro luminescence is a result of excitation from the application of an electric

field.

• Fluorescence persists for a short lifetime of the transition between the two energy
levels.

• Phosphorescence persists for much longer time (more than s).

• Passive display devices reflect or modulate light…

 Cathode ray tubes contains:

1. Electron gun

2. Principles of focusing

3. Deflection of the beam

4. Cathodoluminescence

5. Oscilloscope tubes

6. Picture tubes
 Flat panel displays

1. LED displays

2. Vacuum fluorescent displays

3. Gas discharge displays and plasma display panels

4. Electroluminescent displays

5. Liquid crystal displays

6. Field emission displays

 Cathode-ray tubes

• The cathode ray tube (CRT), invented by German physicist Karl Ferdinand Braun
in 1897, is an evacuated glass envelope containing an electron gun(a source of
electrons) and a fluorescent screen, usually with internal or external means to
accelerate and deflect the electrons.

• When electrons strike the fluorescent screen, light is emitted.

• The electron beam is deflected and modulated in a way which causes it to display
an image on the screen.

• The image may represent electrical waveforms(oscilloscope), pictures (television,

computer monitor), echoes of aircraft detected by radar, etc.
cathode ray tube (CRT) contains four basic parts:

1. electron gun,

2. focusing and accelerating systems,

3. deflecting systems, and

4. evacuated glass envelope with a phosphorescent screen that glows

visibly when struck by the electron beam.
Electron gun:

• An electron gun consists of a series of electrodes producing a narrow beam of

high-velocity electrons.

• Electrons are released from the indirectly heated cathode.

• The intensity of the beam is controlled by variation of the negative potential of

the cylindrical control grid surrounding the cathode.

• This electrode is called the modulator.

• The control grid has a hole in the front to allow passage of the electron beam.

• The electrons are accelerated and focused.

 Cathode-ray tubes
• The deflected and accelerated electron beam strikes a phosphorescent
material on the inside face of the tube.

• The phosphor glows and the visible glow can be seen at the front of the
tube. So cathodoluminescence is used in cathode ray tubes.

• Cathodoluminescent efficiency increases with increasing beam

voltage.

• As a result of the screen bombardment free electrons are knocked out.

• To collect these electrons the inside surface of the glass balloon is coated by

conducting a quadag layer. Usually this layer is connected to the accelerating

anode.

• The screen of the CRT may be coated with aluminum on the inside and this
coating is held at anode potential. Such an aluminized screen prevents the
accumulation of charge on the phosphor and improves its performance increasing
the visible output and reducing the effects of ion bombardment.
 Picture (TV) tubes (kinescopes)
• Electrostatic focusing and electromagnetic deflection are usually used in picture
tubes.

• Due to the rectilinear scanning the electron beam traverses the screen area in
both the horizontal and vertical directions.

• The electron beam is intensity modulated by the transmitted video signal that is
applied to the modulator.
• The horizontal direction is termed the line and the vertical direction the field.

• Saw-tooth current waveforms are used to produce the deflection of the beam.

• The fly-back period is blanked out.

• The number of lines traversed per second is the line frequency.

• The number of vertical scans per second is the field frequency.

• A method of scanning that produces the entire picture in a single field (or raster)
is termed sequential scanning.
• Most broadcast television systems use a system of interlaced scanning. In this
system the lines of successive raster's are not superimposed on each other but are
interlaced.

• Two raster's constitute a complete picture or frame.

• The number of complete pictures per second is the frame frequency which is
half the number of raster's per second, i. e. half the field frequency.

• The field frequency needs to be relatively slow to allow as many horizontal lines
as possible but sufficiently fast to eliminate flicker.
 Color picture tubes
• The colored image is produced varying the intensity of excitation of the three
different phosphors that produce the three primary colors (red, green and blue)
and reproduce the original colors of the image by an additive color process.

• The triangular arrangement of electron guns are used. The phosphors are
arranged as triangular sets of colored dots.
• A metal shadow mask is placed directly behind the screen in the plane
of intersection of the electron beams to ensure that each beam hits the
correct phosphor.

• The mask acts as a physical barrier to the beams as they progress from
one location to the next and minimizes the generation of spurious
colors by excitation of the wrong phosphor.
 FLAT PANEL DISPLAYS
• CRTs are relatively fragile and bulky.
• Other types of thinner displays were developed. They are often called flat panel
displays.
• Most flat-panel displays form digits or characters with combination of
• segments or dots.
• The arrangement of these elements is called the display font.
• The most common format for numeric display is the seven-segment font.
• Graphic displays are like very large dot matrices. Each dot in a graphic
• display is called picture element, pixel or pel.
• The capabilities of a graphic display depend on number of pixels horizontally and
vertically.
 LED displays

• Light emitting diodes are used in LED displays.

• Operation of the LED displays is based on the injection luminescence.

• LED displays are available in many different sizes and shapes.

• Usually LED displays radiate red, orange, yellow or green light.

• They have a wide operating temperature range, are inexpensive, easily interfaced to
digital logic, easily multiplexed, do not require high voltages and have fast response time.

• The viewing angle is good and display of arbitrary numbers of digits is easily assembled.
Thank you!!!