space engineer lcd panel brands

The various LCD Panel blocks are a great way to add a human touch to a ship or base by displaying useful images or text. For LCD configuration and usage, see LCD Surface Options.

Note: Some functional blocks, such as Cockpits, Programmable Blocks, Custom Turret Controllers, and Button Panels, have customizable LCD surfaces built in that work the same way as LCD Panel blocks, which are also discussed in detail under LCD Surface Options.

LCD Panels need to be built on a powered grid to work. Without power, they display an "Offline" text. While powered without having a text, image, or script set up, they display "Online".

LCD Panel blocks come in a variety of sizes from tiny to huge (see list below) and are available for large and small grid sizes. Note that LCD Panel blocks all have connections on their backs, and very few also on a second side.

All LCD Panels and LCD surfaces work with the same principle: They are capable of displaying dynamic scripts, or few inbuilt static images accompanied by editable text. Access the ship"s Control Panel Screen to configure LCD Panels or LCD surfaces; or face the LCD Panel block and press "K".

A Text Panel, despite its name, can also display images. On large grid, it is rectangular and does not fully cover the side of a 1x1x1 block. On small grid it is 1x1x1, the smallest possible LCD block in game.

On large grid, you choose the Text Panel when you need something that has rectangular dimensions that make it look like a wall-mounted TV or computer screen. If you want to display images, this one works best with the built-in posters whose names end in "H" or "V" (for horizontal or vertical rotation). On Small grid, you place these tiny display surfaces so you can see them well while seated in a cockpit or control seat, to create a custom display array of flight and status information around you.

Corner LCDs are much smaller display panels that typically hold a few lines of text. They don"t cover the block you place them on and are best suited as signage for doors, passages, or containers. They are less suitable for displaying images, even though it"s possible. If you enable the "Keep aspect ratio" option, the image will take up less than a third of the available space.

These huge Sci-Fi LCD Panels come in sizes of 5x5, 5x3, and 3x3 blocks, and can be built on large grids only. These panels are only available to build if you purchase the "Sparks of the Future" pack DLC.

They work the same as all other LCD Panels, the only difference is that they are very large. In the scenario that comes with the free "Sparks of the Future" update, they are used prominently as advertisement boards on an asteroid station.

This LCD panel can be built on large and small grids. The transparent LCD is basically a 1x1x1 framed window that displays images and text. It is part of the paid "Decorative Blocks Pack #2" DLC.

What is special about them is that if you set the background color to black, this panel becomes a transparent window with a built-in display. In contrast to other LCD Panels it has no solid backside, which makes it ideal to construct transparent cockpit HUDs, or simply as cosmetic decoration.

While configuring an LCD Panel, the GUI covers up the display in-world and you can"t see how the text or images comes out. In the UI Options, you can lower the UI Background opacity to be translucent, so you can watch what you are doing more easily.

After many requests, we have decided to release our internal Replay Tool that we use to create our trailers. It allows you to record the movement and actions of multiple characters in the same world. You can use your video recording software of choice to capture these moments for cinematic purposes! It’s also super useful for epic screenshot creation. The tool allows you to be the director of your own Space Engineers film where you can carefully position and time different engineers with their own specific roles. We are extremely excited to see what the community will create with this!

Important: because it’s an internal tool, it has a very basic user interface and required advanced users to be used. We believe this is OK, because most video creators who would want to use it to create epic cinematic Space Engineers videos are advanced users.

There are now Steam trading cards to collect for Space Engineers! Collect a full set of cards to earn items that help you customize your Steam profile including backgrounds and badges.

There are fourteen new decorative blocks for people who want to buy them and support the development of Space Engineers, which are available on the Space Engineers Steam Store page. Within the package you will get following new blocks:

Beds can preserve characters’ inventory and toolbar while they"re offline and keeps them alive as long as there is oxygen available. Is considered to be the same as the Cryo Chamber Block, except oxygen is used from the environment. Space Engineers don’t work from nine to five, they work whenever they’re needed: day or night, during peace and war. But when it’s time to call it a day, every engineer looks forward to resting in these beds.

Standard and Corner Desks can be used as seats, which allow players to sit on the chair attached to it. Combine these blocks to produce various designs and sizes, creativity has no limitation. Whether designing new schematics or charting a fresh course to another world, desks are essential for any engineer looking to get some work done.

Kitchens are purely decorative. The kitchens in Space Engineers come well-equipped and include stunning visual details. Space Engineers overcome challenges everyday when they’re working on new planets or among the stars.

Planters are purely decorative, but they make outer space a bit warmer by housing life in a special glass container. Build your own garden on the space station. Planters not only help to liven up spaces, but the flora housed inside these capsules also remind many engineers of the homes they’ve left behind in order to explore the universe.

Couchescan be used as seats, so take your time to relax and take a break. You don’t need to always run, fly or work, you can enjoy your cozy room and enjoy the view. The last thing anyone would ever call a Space Engineer is ‘couch potato’, but who wouldn’t like to relax after a hard day’s work on this comfy furniture?

Armory and Armory Lockers can be used to decorate interiors and store weapons, ammunition, tools and bottles; both are small storages (400L), where you can keep your equipment. Space Engineers use lockers in order to ensure that keepsakes from home, toiletries and other items are kept safe.

Toiletscan be used as a seat. The latest and greatest interstellar lavatory technology has made many earth dwellers jealous of the facilities enjoyed by Space Engineers.

Toilet Seat that can be used as a seat and is fit for the creator of the legendary Red Ship; most engineers don’t want to get up after ‘taking care of business’.

Industrial Cockpits are used to control your ships. This industrial cockpit in both small and large grid versions will make your creations look much better. Offering unmatched visibility, the industrial cockpit enables engineers to experience stunning vistas while traversing landscapes and space.

Console blocks project blueprints for downscaled ships and stations, as well as display pictograms or customizable text. They are fantastic functional LCD panels where you can project your creations and show them to your friends. The sleek and crystal clear picture offered by this console allows Space Engineers to display designs and other important information.

Keen Software House needs to stay profitable in order to continue development and support of Space Engineers, and to take risks, to invest into experiments that may not pay off in the short term, and to develop innovative concepts.

A:Actually, even this update isn’t paid. The major part of this update (LCD screens, Replay Tool, new music tracks, smaller improvements) is free for everyone. Only the smaller and not mandatory part is paid - Decorative Pack, which you can purchase here.

A: To support future development of Space Engineers and other leading-edge projects we plan to work on at Keen Software House. Players kept asking us for something they could buy to support the development of Space Engineers, and the Decorative Pack is a great option for them.

A: Right after Space Engineers left early access and all hot issues were resolved. Most of the work was done by the Art team, the rest of the developers is working on other long-term updates.

A: We want more people to play Space Engineers, which means we must lower the barrier of entry. When the Space Engineers community grows, everyone benefits from this - more content on Workshop, more mods, more new ideas, more people to play with. This means that all non-mandatory features should be optional, so only those who really want them can pay for them. That’s why we decreased the price of Space Engineers, and made the Decorative Pack an optional purchase.

The LCD Panel is a thin panel that takes an entire block face and can display a variety of messages and textures that can be displayed constantly or triggered by the Programmable Block, Sensor, Timer Block, or any other block capable of triggering.

The "Color" sliders allow setting the text colour using RGB slider and "Backgr." allows setting background fill colours (default black). If using a transparent LCD then the text will be against transparency unless fill colour is added.

"Loaded Textures" has a list of the available default and modded (where applicable) images available for display on the screen. Select the desired image and select "Add to selection". The selected image will then show in the second "Selected textures" panel.

When multiple images are applied they can be set to cycle between with the duration between images being set by the "Image change interval" slider. To remove an image from display select it in the second panel and select "Remove selected".

The "Preserve aspect ratio" checkbox can be used to prevent the image being stretched if it does not fit the screen properly such as when using a wide LCD.

To set the LCD to display a script, choose "Script" from the dropdown. Choosing Script allows the display of information such as weather, artificial horizon for vehicles, Energy and Hydrogen level etc.

The panel"s title and text can be made public, private, or a combination of both. Textures applied can be selected from a list or custom textures can be selected. Textures can be set to rotate on a timer, changing from one to the next. GPS coordinates shown in the GPS format in the text panel will appear in the GPS and can be activated (=shown on HUD).

The LCD Panel could be accessed with the programmable block as IMyTextPanel. It could work in ´Texture Mode´ in which the selected textures are shown or the ´Text Mode´ in which the text is shown. The following methods are available:

Steam Workshop: Space Engineers. Thanks to Dr. Novikov for permission to use his mod "Eyes Just Got Clear" http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1157796670...

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From cinema content to motion-based digital art, Planar® Luxe MicroLED Displays offer a way to enrich distinctive spaces. HDR support and superior dynamic range create vibrant, high-resolution canvases for creative expression and entertainment. Leading-edge MicroLED technology, design adaptability and the slimmest profiles ensure they seamlessly integrate with architectural elements and complement interior décor.

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Whether from the BRILLIANT™, BOLD™, or EMPIRE™ product series, our LED screens come in a vast array of sizes and pixel pitches for numerous indoor and outdoor applications. Whether you need an LED display screen for a conference room or one big enough to cover a skyscraper, SNA Displays has the custom-engineering knowledge and experience to make your vision come to life. We also have all-in-one, out-of-the-box LED screens perfect for on-the-go messaging.

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The Space Engineers – Sparks of the Future includes the Sci-Fi LCD, the Neon Tubes, the Sci-Fi Ion Thrusters, the Sci-Fi Atmospheric Thrusters, the Sci-Fi Interior Wall, the Bar Counter, the Sci-Fi Control Panel, the Sci-Fi 1-Button Panel, the Sci-Fi 4-Button Panel, the Sci-Fi Sliding Door, the Sci-Fi Armor Skin, the 2 Neon Armor Skins, the 8 new character emotes.

Again, IPS is the clear winner here. The vertical viewing angles are very similar to the horizontal ones on both IPS and VA panels. Unfortunately, this is one area where TN panels are usually much, much worse. TN monitors degrade rapidly from below, and colors actually inverse - resulting in a negative image that can be distracting. For this reason, if you decide to buy a TN monitor, look for one with an excellent height adjustment, or consider buying a VESA mounting arm, as you should mount TN monitors at eye level. Even when mounted properly, larger TN displays can appear non-uniform at the edges.

There"s usually not much difference between VA and IPS panels in terms of gray uniformity. It"s rare for monitors to have uniformity issues, and even on monitors that perform worse than average, it"s usually not noticeable with regular content. TN monitors tend to perform a bit worse than usual, though, and the top half of the screen is almost always darker than the rest, but that"s an artifact of the bad vertical viewing angles.

Black uniformity tends to vary significantly, even between individual units of the same model, and there"s no single panel type that performs the best. It"s rare for monitors to have good black uniformity, and almost every monitor we"ve tested has some noticeable cloudiness or backlight bleed. IPS and TN panels can look slightly worse due to their low contrast ratios, as the screen can take on more of a bluish tint when displaying dark scenes. Like with contrast, black uniformity issues usually aren"t very noticeable unless you"re looking at dark content and you"re in a dark room. If you only use your monitor in a bright environment, generally speaking, you don"t need to worry about black uniformity.

Historically, TN panels used to have the worst colors, as many of them were cheaper models that only supported 6-bit colors or used techniques like dithering (FRC) to approximate 8-bit colors. Most displays today, including TN models, are at least 8 bit, and many of them are even able to approximate 10-bit colors through dithering. New technologies, like LG"s Nano IPS and Samsung"s Quantum Dot, add an extra layer to the LCD stack and have significantly improved the color gamut of modern IPS and VA displays, leaving TN a bit behind. Between them, NANO IPS is slightly better, as it tends to offer better coverage of the Adobe RGB color space. Although the difference is minor, IPS panels still have a slight edge over VA and TN displays.

Although TN panels have caught up a bit in the SDR color space, they"re far behind when it comes to HDR, so if you"re looking for a good HDR color gamut, avoid TN panels. Between VA and IPS panels, the difference isn"t as significant; however, IPS panels still have a slight edge. The best VA panels top out at around 90% coverage of the DCI P3 color space used by most current HDR content. IPS panels go as high as 98% coverage of DCI P3, rivaling even some of the best TVs on the market. Due to the very high coverage of DCI P3 on both VA and IPS, the difference isn"t that noticeable, though, as most content won"t use the entire color space anyway.

Although not necessarily as noticeable to everyone as the differences in picture quality, there can also be a difference in motion handling between IPS, VA, and TN displays. TN panels historically offered the best gaming performance, as they had the highest refresh rates and extremely fast response times. Manufacturers have found ways to drastically improve the motion handling of VA and IPS panels, though, and the difference isn"t as pronounced.

LCD panel technology has changed drastically over the last few years, and the historical expectations for response time performance don"t necessarily hold anymore. For years, TN monitors had the fastest response times by far, but that"s started to change. New high refresh-rate IPS monitors can be just as fast.

VA panels are a bit of a strange situation. They typically have slightly slower response times overall compared to similar TN or IPS models. It"s especially noticeable in near-black scenes, where they tend to be significantly slower, resulting in dark trails behind fast-moving objects in dark scenes, commonly known as black smear. Some recent VA panels, such as the Samsung Odyssey G7 LC32G75T, get around it by overdriving the pixels. It results in much better dark scene performance but a more noticeable overshoot in brighter areas.

Within each of the three types of LCD we mentioned, other related panel types use the same basic idea but with slight differences. For example, two popular variants of IPS panels include ADS (technically known as ADSDS, or Advanced Super Dimension Switch) and PLS (Plane to Line Switching). It can be hard to tell these panels apart simply based on the subpixel structure, so we"ll usually group them all as IPS, and in the text, we"ll usually refer to them as IPS-like or IPS family. There are slight differences in colors, viewing angles, and contrast, but generally speaking, they"re all very similar.

There"s another display technology that"s growing in popularity: OLED. OLED, or organic light-emitting diode, is very different from the conventional LCD technology we"ve explored above. OLED panels are electro-emissive, which means each pixel emits its own light when it receives an electric signal, eliminating the need for a backlight. Since OLED panels can turn off individual pixels, they have deep, inky blacks with no blooming around bright objects. They also have excellent wide viewing angles, a near-instantaneous response time, and excellent gray uniformity.

OLED panels aren"t perfect, though. There"s a risk of permanent burn-in, especially when there are lots of static elements on screen, like the UI elements of a PC. There aren"t many OLED monitors available, either, but they"ve started to gain popularity as laptop screens and for high-end monitors, but they"re very expensive and hard to find. They"re also not very bright in some cases, especially when large bright areas are visible on screen. The technology is still maturing, and advances in OLED technology, like Samsung"s highly-anticipated QD-OLED technology, are promising.

As you can probably tell by now, no one panel type works best for everyone; it all depends on your exact usage. Although there used to be some significant differences between panel types, as technology has improved, these differences aren"t as noticeable. The two exceptions to this are viewing angles and contrast. If you"re in a dark room, a VA panel that can display deep blacks is probably the best choice. If you"re not in a dark room, you should focus on the other features of the monitor and choose based on the features that appeal to your exact usage. IPS panels are generally preferred for office use, and TN typically offers the best gaming experience, but recent advancements in VA and IPS technology are starting to change those generalizations. For the most part, the differences between each panel type are so minor now that it doesn"t need to be directly factored into your buying decision.

If you’ve ever tried to connect an LCD display to an Arduino, you might have noticed that it consumes a lot of pins on the Arduino. Even in 4-bit mode, the Arduino still requires a total of seven connections – which is half of the Arduino’s available digital I/O pins.

The solution is to use an I2C LCD display. It consumes only two I/O pins that are not even part of the set of digital I/O pins and can be shared with other I2C devices as well.

True to their name, these LCDs are ideal for displaying only text/characters. A 16×2 character LCD, for example, has an LED backlight and can display 32 ASCII characters in two rows of 16 characters each.

At the heart of the adapter is an 8-bit I/O expander chip – PCF8574. This chip converts the I2C data from an Arduino into the parallel data required for an LCD display.

If you are using multiple devices on the same I2C bus, you may need to set a different I2C address for the LCD adapter so that it does not conflict with another I2C device.

An important point here is that several companies manufacture the same PCF8574 chip, Texas Instruments and NXP Semiconductors, to name a few. And the I2C address of your LCD depends on the chip manufacturer.

So your LCD probably has a default I2C address 0x27Hex or 0x3FHex. However it is recommended that you find out the actual I2C address of the LCD before using it.

Connecting an I2C LCD is much easier than connecting a standard LCD. You only need to connect 4 pins instead of 12. Start by connecting the VCC pin to the 5V output on the Arduino and GND to ground.

After wiring up the LCD you’ll need to adjust the contrast of the display. On the I2C module you will find a potentiometer that you can rotate with a small screwdriver.

Plug in the Arduino’s USB connector to power the LCD. You will see the backlight lit up. Now as you turn the knob on the potentiometer, you will start to see the first row of rectangles. If that happens, Congratulations! Your LCD is working fine.

To drive an I2C LCD you must first install a library called LiquidCrystal_I2C. This library is an enhanced version of the LiquidCrystal library that comes with your Arduino IDE.

The I2C address of your LCD depends on the manufacturer, as mentioned earlier. If your LCD has a Texas Instruments’ PCF8574 chip, its default I2C address is 0x27Hex. If your LCD has NXP Semiconductors’ PCF8574 chip, its default I2C address is 0x3FHex.

So your LCD probably has I2C address 0x27Hex or 0x3FHex. However it is recommended that you find out the actual I2C address of the LCD before using it. Luckily there’s an easy way to do this, thanks to the Nick Gammon.

But, before you proceed to upload the sketch, you need to make a small change to make it work for you. You must pass the I2C address of your LCD and the dimensions of the display to the constructor of the LiquidCrystal_I2C class. If you are using a 16×2 character LCD, pass the 16 and 2; If you’re using a 20×4 LCD, pass 20 and 4. You got the point!

In ‘setup’ we call three functions. The first function is init(). It initializes the LCD object. The second function is clear(). This clears the LCD screen and moves the cursor to the top left corner. And third, the backlight() function turns on the LCD backlight.

After that we set the cursor position to the third column of the first row by calling the function lcd.setCursor(2, 0). The cursor position specifies the location where you want the new text to be displayed on the LCD. The upper left corner is assumed to be col=0, row=0.

There are some useful functions you can use with LiquidCrystal_I2C objects. Some of them are listed below:lcd.home() function is used to position the cursor in the upper-left of the LCD without clearing the display.

lcd.scrollDisplayRight() function scrolls the contents of the display one space to the right. If you want the text to scroll continuously, you have to use this function inside a for loop.

lcd.scrollDisplayLeft() function scrolls the contents of the display one space to the left. Similar to above function, use this inside a for loop for continuous scrolling.

If you find the characters on the display dull and boring, you can create your own custom characters (glyphs) and symbols for your LCD. They are extremely useful when you want to display a character that is not part of the standard ASCII character set.

CGROM is used to store all permanent fonts that are displayed using their ASCII codes. For example, if we send 0x41 to the LCD, the letter ‘A’ will be printed on the display.

CGRAM is another memory used to store user defined characters. This RAM is limited to 64 bytes. For a 5×8 pixel based LCD, only 8 user-defined characters can be stored in CGRAM. And for 5×10 pixel based LCD only 4 user-defined characters can be stored.

After the library is included and the LCD object is created, custom character arrays are defined. The array consists of 8 bytes, each byte representing a row of a 5×8 LED matrix. In this sketch, eight custom characters have been created.

Well first of all, text panels and LCDs are the same, they are IMyTextPanel blocks and thus share the same features, work the same but merely got different names and models.

It is commonly held that a team at the RCA David Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton, NJ under the leadership of George H. Heilmeier did the initial development of liquid crystal displays (LCDs), in particular of the Dynamic Scattering Mode (DSM) LCD.

In 2002, a comprehensive history of LCDsSharp Corporation, a major competitor of Casio Computer Co., and some "survivorship bias" concerning persons and institutions still engaged in LCD work, had an influence on the sources used.

As the very first Member of Technical Staff doing work on LCDs at the Brown, Boveri Research Center in Baden, Switzerland, I have recently become personally motivated to give my account of less known events that took place while I was employed by BBC from 1969 to 1980. First, some personal background:

In 1959 I started my studies in electrical engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich). There were only two tracks to choose from at that time: power electrical engineering and what was called Schwachstromtechnik, which translated means low-current technology. This was basically an electronics curriculum and my preference. Part of the program was a mandatory internship in industry of at least half a year through which I was to gain some practical experience. I fulfilled this requirement as well as military service during my vacations. That way I did not have to sacrifice an entire year in order to accomplish the internship and military service, which is still compulsory for all Swiss men up to this day. In hindsight, my thesis was very much at the forefront of ultrasound medical instrumentation. My thesis partner and I had to develop the circuitry for a device to measure the flow in blood vessels with pulsed ultrasonic waves. This work was done within the high-frequency electronics department of Fritz E. Borgnis. I graduated as Diplomingenieur at the end of 1963.

Later that year, I joined Beckman Instruments in the East Bay across from San Francisco as a design engineer working on electronic measuring equipment. My choice had to do with the proximity of UC Berkeley (Cal), where I took extension classes in the evenings to improve my English and learn FORTRAN programming.

A new facility for its research center was opened in the Stanford Industrial Park at Hillview Avenue in Palo Alto. I moved to Palo Alto and drove across the Bay Bridge to attend classes at CAL. While I was studying at Berkeley from 1966 to 1968, political student activities on the campus were in full bloom, but these were for me not more than a sideshow. At Friden I conceived a potential electronic replacement for the magnetic wire memory in the desktop electronic calculator. Transistors were relatively expensive. Therefore, using flip-flops with two transistors to store bits was not an option. I proposed a type of dynamic shift register using basically one transistor and capacitor per stage in 1967. Unlike the concept of a Bucket Brigade for analog voltages as first published by Philips researchers in 1969 and later implemented as Charge-Coupled Devices, my circuit was intended to shift digital bit information in a serial memory. This is when I learned about the US custom of writing an invention report. It made me aware of the importance of patent notebooks and filings during my later work on LCDs (see section Patents).

Brown, Boveri & Cie (BBC)] was a traditional Swiss electrical engineering company founded by two immigrants in the 19th century. Their equipment and services for electric power generation and distribution as well as plant engineering for industries were well known and sold worldwide. A newer electronics division was active in process control, power semiconductors and telecommunications. The Swiss headquarters had difficulties managing the mighty German subsidiary which was much bigger than the Swiss operations. In order to strengthen R&D as well as underscore their local position, BBC opened a new research center based in Switzerland. Ambros P. Speiser was hired for this task. He had already founded and managed the IBM Zurich Research Center from 1956 to 1966, which had been the first research facility of IBM in Europe.

In May 1969 BBC entered a formal cooperation with Hoffmann-La Roche (Roche) entitled Medical Electronics, in which various common projects were studied, such as a new mobile intensive care unit. I was asked by F. K. von Willisen to look into display technologies as part of the BBC side of the cooperation. On December 11th 1969 I gave an overview of state-of-the-art display technologies including RCA"s work on LCDs at an internal BBC symposium. At the same venue Gerhard Meier of the Fraunhofer Institute in Freiburg, Germany, explained liquid crystals in detail. This institute already had a tradition of LC research. There was an exchange of staff and knowledge between this institute and a team at the Kent State University LC Institute, where Alfred Saupe and Juergen Nehring worked at the time.

In following with the conclusions of internal reports by both sides, LCDs were established as a common research project. I became the very first person at BBC to work full time on LCDs, while Roche assigned organic chemists and hired additional physicists. Roche concentrated on the synthesis of LC substances suitable for LCDs and the physics of electrooptical effects in LC structures. BBC developed the corresponding cell technology, explored applications and driving electronics. It was a truly interdisciplinary effort. I set up a small team with a young electrical engineer and a couple of technical assistants to develop a suitable cell technology. We used a pyrolytic process to deposit metaloxyd transparent electrodes on glass substrates. The disadvantage of this approach was that edging of electrode patterns was difficult. It was exiting to work with our first LCDs exhibiting the Dynamic Scattering Mode (DSM) discovered by RCA. A common project with ROCHE called for patient monitoring to indicate crucial measurements as part of new life support equipment, so we studied bar graph displays.

We found that we needed an array of several quasi-analog bar displays side-by-side, which led us to study simple matrix displays. We certainly were among the first to study the limitations of matrix-addressed LCDs, and I disclosed some of the results at conferences later-on. In an experimental unit we connected a discrete capacitor in parallel to each LC segment and decoupled the segment with a diode from the driving electronics when not selected.TFT) and a storage capacitor at each pixel.

Early on I did measurements of the electrooptic threshold voltage in LCDs. As a simple matrix LCD requires sequential addressing of rows (scanning, multiplexing) with a periodic refresh, pulsed voltages have to be applied to the segments/pixels. In 1972, I found by varying the pulse width that the threshold, measured as RMS voltage, remains nearly constant.

A major milestone was the discovery of the 90-degree Twisted Nematic field effect (TN cell) and its properties by Wolfgang Helfrich and Martin Schadt, physicists at Roche. The corresponding patent application was filed on December 4th, 1970 (see section Patents). When new LC substances were developed for TN LCDs by chemists at Roche, we demonstrated the good cooperation by publishing the result together.

I probably did the first public demonstration of a working Twisted Nematic LCD, at least in Europe, at the IEE Conference on Displays organized by the University of Loughborough, UK, in September 1971. It was a transparent, quasi-analog bar TN LCD that I put on an overhead projector to show it to the audience. By varying the voltage applied, the bar moved up and down. It aroused much interest, and a I received a question from a participant about small, noticeably inhomogeneous areas, which were later identified as domains of reverse twist.

Unfortunately the common projects with Roche came to an end as early as March 1972. Roche had bought Electro-Médicine Dassault, France, which maintained some activities that were directly competing with some of the work at BBC (not related to LCDs). Our management considered this as a breach of confidence. Thereafter Roche became a supplier of LC substances to BBC. I played a role in evaluating Roche mixtures for our displays.

Early on Georges Keller, head of the electronic components division of BBC, became interested in LCDs. He provided the support of his glass technology experts at the tube division. Since initially we used a Schiff-base LC mixture for our TN displays, we had to hermetically seal our cells with glass frit bonding along the edges at high temperatures to avoid humidity entering the cell. This prevented us from using the common technique of orienting the LC molecules by rubbing an organic layer (a surfactant) on the glass surface. We employed a vacuum-deposited layer of SiO instead, where the structure for orientation is defined by the evaporation angle. The electrodes were manufactured with a new vacuum deposition process optimized by Balzers Ltd. in the neighboring Principality of Liechtenstein.

Prototype displays were made for a joint-effort wristwatch project that we did together with Ebauches SA, the major Swiss watch movements manufacturer (now part of the Swatch Group) and Faselec, the Swiss IC subsidiary of Philips. A working quartz digital wristwatch was shown at the MUBA fair in March 1973. It contained chips made by Faselec and our 8-digit TN LCD.

Georges Keller asked me to provide the technology part for a business plan to industrially manufacture LCDs. The main customers envisioned were wristwatch manufacturers. A pilot line was set up at the BBC tube factory in Birrfeld during 1973. Top management approved the business plan and credit to construct a brand new plant in Lenzburg.

As far as I know, it was the first dedicated factory worldwide, built from scratch, measuring 39,000 square feet, exclusively to manufacture TN LCDs in volume. ILIXCO had a small-scale operation in the US (comparable to a pilot line), and Sharp of Japan started with DSM LCDs for their calculators about at the same time. BBC built an additional LCD factory of 47,000 square feet in 1978.

Nobody knew in 1973 whether the new LCDs would have a sufficient operating life expectancy. I was charged to set up and supervise accelerated tests at elevated temperatures and voltages to get some clues. As a result, we improved our cell technology. I left the research center and joined the new LCD division in the capacity of deputy head to develop applications and manage part of the activities such as custom design of new LCDs, contacts with LC substance suppliers, IC manufacturers, testing and patent matters.

During the following years a lot of effort was needed to automate manufacturing. Labor costs in Switzerland were (and still are) high. The process chosen initially was not well suited for larger substrates and low-cost manufacturing. BBC was not any more willing to finance expansion in an area not important to its basic business. Therefore, a 50/50 joint venture was set up with Philips of The Netherlands at the beginning of 1980, called Videlec AG. Philips had a strong interest in display technologies for their consumer products, in particular the potential use of LCDs in TV sets.

The Japanese officer of Oki Electric from Germany, who was with us on that day, took a bow nearly to the ground when he greeted this influential man from the center of his Keiretsu. OKI Electric was interesting for us as a partner because they had a CMOS fab in Japan and were in line to become an LSI supplier for Casio wristwatches. Casio planned to diversify into quartz watches, where similar components were needed as in electronic pocket calculators. After many discussions and the evaluation of our LCD samples, we were chosen to be the LCD supplier for the new wristwatches. On one occasion we had the honor of being invited for dinner at a typically Japanese restaurant in Tokyo by Mr. Kashio, one of the founding brothers. In 1974 our new factory for TN LCDs became operational. The Casiotron digital wristwatch with some interesting new features was released with our custom made LCD in October 1974. Not everything went smoothly. We encountered yield and delivery problems which required several trips to Tokyo to see Casio people.

Due to price pressure and the fact that customers were mainly in Asia, BBC started an LCD assembly line in Hongkong. I had to travel to HK to instruct local employees, first for final testing, then for doing custom designs.

We probably were among the first to develop backlit TN LCDs. Since LCDs do not emit light themselves, they need ambient light or a dedicated light source for viewing. Wristwatches in particular cannot be read in the dark without some form of illumination. Therefore, at our laboratory we developed a suitable backlighting scheme, taking into account the limited space available in a wristwatch with a digital liquid crystal display. Our patented solution included a thin plastic diffuser plate behind the LCD with a miniature incandescent light bulb at its side.edge-lit in present-day flatscreen LCD television sets using LEDs as light sources.

The major difference is that the backlight is continuously on during the operation of an LCD TV set, whereas in wristwatches the backlight is only used while pushing a button in order to save battery power. When enough ambient light is available, the display is used in its reflective mode. This combination is called a transflective display.

A different solution was developed for panel-mounted meters that were proposed by BBC for power and industrial control centers. Reflective TN LCDs were conceived as bargraph replacements for conventional electromechanical meters, but were difficult to read under low ambient light, as they are mounted vertically. Therefore, we used a cold-cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) and a diffuser to backlight our bargraph display as shown on the right-hand side of the picture. This was much easier to read than the purely reflective type on the left.

Switzerland. The Swiss authorities only examined strictly new developments in the watch and textile machine sectors. Otherwise patents were granted rather freely, but could be challenged later-on at a trial. When RCA defended their patent application with a broad claim for digital electronic wristwatches containing a battery, quartz crystal, frequency divider and LCD, I was asked by the Bulova Watch Co. to testify against this claim. We showed that, based on the disclosed information, it was not possible to make a wristwatch with an adequate temperature range on the priority date. Therefore the patent was not granted in Switzerland.

USA. In the US, the examination process was not public and the duration unpredictable until a patent was granted and published. In addition, priority could be established before the filing date, if relevant patent notebook entries or other evidence was presented by the inventor. This opportunity did not exist in Europe. A famous case was the invention of the twisted nematic, field effect LCD. Roche filed this patent application on December 4th, 1970 in Switzerland establishing thereby a priority. James Fergason followed more than four months later filing a similar patent application in the US on April 22nd, 1971. However, Fergason presented patent notebook entries, witnessed by colleagues, predating the priority date of Roche. In my opinion this gave unfair advantage to US filers.

For Roche as well as BBC (which after the merger with ASEA from Sweden in 1987 changed their name to ABB) royalty income from their LCD patents became a substantial source of income.

Working at the forefront of a new technology is exciting. I could attend many conferences, learned to make presentations and was invited to lecture on topics relating to my work on LCDs. Early recognition was evident in that I received invitations to make presentations at UC Berkeley, at the IEEE EUROCON conference and organize a panel discussion at the École Polytechnique de l"Université de Lausanne (EPUL) in 1972. During several years I gave a lecture at the Technische Akademie Esslingen near Stuttgart, Germany. As the only Swiss among many German lecturers, it was gratifying to get good ratings by participants from industry.

I left BBC in 1980 to work in the field of telecommunications. In 1983 my former colleagues from the BBC Research Center invented the Super-Twisted Nematic LCD (STN-LCD), which made it possible to have passive-matrix flat-panel displays with many pixels and reasonably high resolution for the first time.Game Boy, cellular phones, viewfinders of cameras, etc. I like to believe that this invention was a successful follow-up of our earlier focus on improving matrix addressing of LCDs. The corresponding patent brought in millions from licenses. Shortly thereafter Videlec in Lenzburg ceased operations, and the LC staff at the BBC Research Center was reduced to a skeleton.