High reliability display
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A display circuit comprising:
- (a) a substrate on which is defined a circuit comprising a plurality of conducting traces;
(b) a plurality of segments electrically coupled to the plurality of conducting traces and configured in a predefined pattern on the substrate, said pattern being capable of visually representing a character from a set of predefined characters, specific segments being electrically coupled to selected ones of the plurality of conducting traces, said conducting traces thus coupled being selected so that a failure of any one of the conducting traces to electrically actuate a single segment to which it is electrically coupled in response to an externally supplied electrical signal that should have actuated the segment, does not cause a different character of the set of predefined characters to be visually represented by the display circuit than would have been, absent the failure.
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Abstract
A character display in which failures are evident. Selected segments of a seven-segment LCD are activated by control signals supplied through selected fore plane and back plane traces. By coupling specific ones of the fore plane and back plane control signals to selected segments, any failure in the control signal or circuitry providing the signal to the segments of the display character becomes immediately evident to an operator when the character represented by the display is not one of a predefined set of characters.
55 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A display circuit comprising:
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(a) a substrate on which is defined a circuit comprising a plurality of conducting traces; (b) a plurality of segments electrically coupled to the plurality of conducting traces and configured in a predefined pattern on the substrate, said pattern being capable of visually representing a character from a set of predefined characters, specific segments being electrically coupled to selected ones of the plurality of conducting traces, said conducting traces thus coupled being selected so that a failure of any one of the conducting traces to electrically actuate a single segment to which it is electrically coupled in response to an externally supplied electrical signal that should have actuated the segment, does not cause a different character of the set of predefined characters to be visually represented by the display circuit than would have been, absent the failure. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A display circuit, comprising:
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(a) a substrate having at least two layers, including a back plane and fore plane, and a circuit comprising conducting traces formed on the back plane and the fore plane; (b) a liquid crystal layer disposed between said at least two layers of the substrate, visually perceptible properties of portions of the liquid crystal layer changing in response to an electrical field applied across the liquid crystal layer to visually represent a selected alphanumeric character from a predefined set of alphanumeric characters as a plurality of segments; and (c) a plurality of electrically conductive electrodes applied to the substrate that are electrically coupled to the conducting traces, the electrical field being developed between selected ones of the electrically conductive electrodes in response to a voltage being applied thereto through the conducting traces, the conducting traces coupled to specific electrically conductive electrodes being selected so that a failure of any one of the conducting traces does not cause a different alphanumeric character of the set of alphanumeric characters to be visually represented than would have been, absent the failure. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A display circuit, comprising:
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(a) segment means for visually indicating a desired character from a set of alphanumeric characters, the desired character being activated by an applied voltage; (b) control means, coupled to the segment means, for supplying a voltage to the segment means to cause a character to be visually perceptible; and (c) means for indicating that a failure has occurred in supplying the voltage to the segment means by at times, causing a character to be visually perceptible that is not in the set of alphanumeric characters and is not the desired character. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification