THIAGARAJAR POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE, SALEM - 636005

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CourseCode : 21O- 3209 Course Name: Measurements, Instruments and Transducers

Unit III Measurement of Inductance and Capacitance and Waveforms

3.2 Digital Monitors:
LCD & LED Monitors – Block Diagram – Working Principle – Applications – Digital Storage
Oscilloscope – Block Diagram – Working Principle – Advantages – Applications.

LED Monitors:

Light Emitting Diodes

LED is short for Light Emitting Diode. An LED emits light as a result of electric luminescence. The
diode, emits light when flowing through two specially coated silicon semiconductors under
foeward bias. It is one of the most energy-efficient and power-saving ways to produce light.

An LED consists of solid materials and is often moulded into transparent plastic. This ensures
high durability. LED produces infrared, red, blue, green ,white and yellow lights.With proper
maintenance, a display can certainly last for more than ten years.

LED Displays/ Monitor

 An LED display consists of red, green and blue LEDs mounted in a fixed pattern. Full-color
screens have small groups of high intense green, red and blue light-emitting diodes to make
pixels. A normal screen consists of thousands of red green and blue or RGB color pixels.
  By adjusting the intensity of the diodes, billions of colours can be formed. Blue-green and
red are basic colors when merging with each other in different percentage is used to make any
color existing in visible range.
 The light production from every one of the 3 diodes can be changed autonomously by changing
the quantity of forward current.
 When you look at the LED screen from a certain distance, the array of coloured pixels
are seen as an image.
RGB
RGB is short for Red, Green and Blue. It is a colour scheme that exploits the fact that all visible
colours can be mixed from these three basic colours. It is used in almost all types of displays,
including LED displays.

Pixel pitch and Display resolution:Each group of three LEDs forms a pixel. Distance between
two adjacent pixels is called Pixel Pitch.

Resolution of the screen: Resolution of a monitor is how densely pixels are arranged on the screen.
 Polarizing Vertical
Dispaly Colour LCD TFT LED
Screen
film
filter Crystal electrodes
Polarizin backlight
Horizontal g film

LED Backlight: It is the Basic Light Source for the Monitor to get Visibility of Images anf Contrast

Vertical Polarizer: It changes the direction of light passing through it to Vertical Orientation

TFT Electrodes: Thin Film Transistor give the the screen information in the pixel information from a
Memory to drive the LCD Crystal

LCD Crystal: They are organic compounds made of Carbon , Nitrogen and Oxygen which has the
property polarizing the input light.

When a voltage is given across Liquid Crystal , its molecules are vertically polarized and changes the
light direction.

When no voltage is given across Liquid Crystal , its molecules are not disturbed and no changes the
light direction.

Colour Filter:

It is used for generating the required colour for each pixel as a combination of Basic Colours

Horizocal Polarizer: It changes the direction of light passing through it to Vertical Orientation

Display Screen: It is a specially coated glass plate with flourocent materials to produce the displa

Advantages of LED Monitors:

 Slim Design
 Brighter and sharper Images
 Better Color
 Flicker-Free Images
  Better Picture Quality(true black picture)
 No motion delay and lags
 Longer lifespan and less environmental impact
 Lower Power Consumption
 Wider Viewing angle(typically 175 degree)

Disadvantages of LED Monitors:

 LEDs are more expensive than conventional lighting technologies

 LEDs can shift color due to age and temperature
 LED is a lot thinner than the LCD or Plasma.
 Contrast ratios not consistent
 Much higher price

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)

Definition: LCD is an acronym used for Liquid Crystal Display. It is basically a display technique
in which liquid crystals are used in order to produce an image on the screen.

Unlike an LED, an LCD does not hold the property of producing light. However, it allows some
regions to appear either bright or dark by controlling the light energy emitted by an external
source.

Liquid Crystals – Construction and Working

They are neither solids nor liquids. But they possess the properties of crystal and holds the
ability to flow or move like liquid. In their crystalline structure, the molecular orientation
resembles like solid. However, these molecules also show movement in various positions.
Thereby holding the property of solid as well as liquid. Therefore known as liquid crystal.

This liquid crystal displays the images or characters as the light emitted by the source can be
either passed or obstructed by the molecular movement of the crystal.

The liquid crystal having a thickness of nearly about 10 to 20 micrometres is placed between
two glass sheets. On the inner surface of the two glass sheets, conductors are inserted. These
conductors form electrodes.

The two electrodes show positive and negative polarity to be applied. The external potential is
provided to the display unit with the help of these two electrodes.

These are basically formed by materials like indium oxide (IN2O3) and stannic oxide (SnO3).

A fluorescent light source is used.

The light emitted by this source is then fed to the polarizer

In LCD Monitor two types of Polarizers are used , one Vertical near the Back light and another
Horizontal near the screen.

The figure represented below will help you to have a better understanding of the working of an
LCD

Polarizing Vertical Fluorescen

Dispaly Colour TFT
Screen
film
filter
LCD Crystal
electrodes
Polarizing t
Horizontal film backlight

Fluorescent Backlight: It is the Basic Light Source for the Monitor to get Visibility of Images anf Contrast

Vertical Polarizer: It changes the direction of light passing through it to Vertical Orientation

TFT Electrodes: Thin Film Transistor give the the screen information in the pixel information from a
Memory to drive the LCD Crystal
LCD Crystal: They are organic compounds made of Carbon , Nitrogen and Oxygen which has the
property polarizing the input light.

When a voltage is given across Liquid Crystal , its molecules are vertically polarized and changes the
light direction.

When no voltage is given across Liquid Crystal , its molecules are not disturbed and no changes the
light direction.

Colour Filter:

It is used for generating the required colour for each pixel as a combination of Basic Colours.

Horizontal Polarizer: It changes the direction of light passing through it to Vertical Orientation

Display Screen: It is a specially coated glass plate with flourocent materials to produce the images.

Advantages of LCD

1. The heat generated during operation is less as compared to CRT and LED display.
2. The power consumption by an LCD is very less in comparison to other display devices.
3. LCDs can be suitably used with MOS integrated circuits.
4. The overall cost of the device is low.

Disadvantages of LCD

1. It needs an external source of light for displaying the image.

2. Its operating temperature range is limited that lies in between 0 to 60°C.
3. LCDs are less reliable display units.
4. The image visibility relies on light intensity.

Applications of LCD

LCD finds its major applications in displaying the images on the screens of various electronic
gadgets like television, calculator, computer monitor etc. These are also used in digital watches
and mobile screens. These are also used in visualizing RF waves in transmission through
waveguides and in medical applications like in liquid crystal thermometers etc.

Digital Storage Oscilloscope

Digital oscilloscope displays a graphical representation of the signal voltages , time ,phase and
frequency . Digital Storage Oscilloscope is an instrument that analyses the signal
digitally and stores the data in the electronic digital memory. By examining the stored traces in
memory, it can display visual as well as numerical values.
It digitizes the input signal in order to have subsequent digital signals. The input is stored in
digital memory in the form of 0 and 1. This stored digitized signal is then viewed on LED/LCD
Monitor Screens, after the signal reconstruction in analog form.

Here, the digital copy of input waveform is stored and further analysed using Digital Signal
Processing techniques.

Block Diagram of Digital Storage Oscilloscope

The figure below shows the block diagram of the digital storage oscilloscope-

Amplifier/Attenuator:
The first stage attenuates or amplifies the signal voltage in order to optimize the amplitude of
the signal;

ADC:
The analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is used to sample the signal voltage and convert it in a
digital format value.

DeMUX:
DeMUX is used for handling more than one input signals at a time and display them based on
Channel Selection

DAS Memory:
The Signal (Sample Data) to be displyed are stored in the Acquisition Memory

Intelligent Controller- MP/MC:

Microprocessor / Microcontroller or any other Intelligent Controller which converts sampled
digital signal in XY format. That is Time in X Axis and Signal Amplitute in Y Axis

Display Memory:
Whenever the signal is to be displayed , the MP/MC places the Signal Information in this
Memory.
Display Screen: It is a specially coated glass plate with flourocent materials to produce the
images.

A typical waveform measured shows the instantaneous Amplitude of the signals measured with
respect to time.
Applications

The applications of the DSO are

 It checks faulty components in circuits
 Used in the biomedical instrumentation for ECG, EEG and body signals
 Used to measure capacitor, inductance, time interval between signals, frequency, phase and
time period
 Used to observe transistors and diodes V-I characteristics
 Used to analyze TV waveforms
 Used in video and audio recording equipment’s

Advantages

The advantages of the DSO are

 Portable
 Have the highest bandwidth covering all frequency ranges
 The user interface is simple
 Speed is high