lcd displays in calculators manufacturer

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The type of display used in a calculator depended on the technology available at the time, the cost of the display, the power consumption of the display if being used in a portable machine, and the legibility of the display.

- (1) Cold-cathode numerical display tubes, such as the "Nixie" tube, (2) cathode ray tubes (CRTs), and (3) incandescent filament lamps were the only display technologies available.

The cold-cathode display tubes of an Anita 1011LSI calculator in use. Note also the small neon lamps used to indicate the decimal point (the third from the right is energised).

Cold-cathode display tubes were developed in the early 1950s and were used in the first electronic desktop calculator, the Anita Mk VII of 1961. Requiring high voltages and having a high power consumption they continued to be used into the early 1970s in AC powered calculators. Their use in battery powered calculators is rare; one example is the Anita 1011B LSI.

contains neon gas at very low pressure together with a small percentage of mercury vapour. They are often used in AC power sockets to indicate that a socket is switched on.

as the voltage between the anode and cathode is increased then initially practically no current flows. However, a little of the gas in the tube will be ionised by naturally occurring cosmic rays, radioactivity, or ambient

light, into positive ions and negative electrons. The electric field being applied to the electrodes will cause the positive ions to move towards the cathode and the electrons towards the anode. As the applied voltage

that an avalanche of further ions and electrons is produced by all the collisions. This leads to a high current flow, which is kept in check by an external resistor in series, and an amber glow at the cathode.

The cold-cathode display tube is a neon lamp with multiple cathodes. Each cathode is shaped like one of the digits 1 to 9, and they are mounted in a closely spaced stack.

open mesh grid visible in the photograph above. When the striking voltage is applied between the anode grid and any of the cathodes a discharge is formed and the gas around the cathode glows. Since the cathode is shaped

The life performance of a numerical display tube depends to a great extent on the length of time the discharge is maintained on a single cathode (ie. number). This is because in any gas-discharge device the cathode is

subjected to constant ion bombardment which removes material from the cathode and deposits it elsewhere in the tube. This "sputtering" is unavoidable, but is limited by keeping the peak current as low as possible, consistent

If a display tube is kept with one cathode constantly glowing (ie. one number displayed all the time) then material is sputtered from that cathode. This only affects the glow of that cathode

a little, but the sputtered material lands on the other cathodes and affects the current required to make them glow, and can lead to uneven illumination.

Around 1970 the Philips company marketed the first generation of its "Pandicon" display which consists of the "Nixie" type assemblies of several digits mounted in a single horizontal tube.

Several Sanyo models of the early 1970s use a type of discharge tube, shown above and below, which at first sight appear to be filament lamps. However the shiny wires are actually electrodes, with

the surrounding black metal being the other electrode, arranged as 7-segment displays and decimal point. Each segment operates in the same way as a small neon lamp, so with an applied voltage of about 60v an amber discharge

is generated around that energised wire electrode. Shown below is part of a display where segments and a decimal point are energised to display the digits "000088.66".

The cost of a Burroughs Nixie tube in 1971 was about $2 each for lots of 10,000, which made them very competitive. However their size, high power and voltage requirements were

Around this time Burroughs introduced the "Panaplex" display providing multiple digits in a single planar tube, see below. Also based on cold-cathode technology, it used the familiar 7-segments to produce

each digit, and required less manual assembly during manufacture and so was cheaper per digit. It also made more efficient use of space so that more digits could be packed into a smaller size. Although more common in

Above is a Burroughs "Panaplex" display in use in a Keystone 88 hand-held calculator of about 1974. The digits are larger than those of LED displays of the time.

for hand-held calculators that offers large characters in a small, inexpensive package should give light-emmitting-diode displays a run for their money. At least that"s what Burroughs Corp. hopes to do with the latest addition to its Panaplex II line, an eight-digit model with each digit measuring 0.2 inch—twice the size of the most popular LED display, says Burroughs" Electronic Components division.

The latest models in the Panaplex II line, which includes panels with 0.25-, 0.4-, and 0.7-in. digits, comes close to the magic dollar-a-digit figure—Burroughs quotes a price of $1.10 per digit in quantities of 50,000 eight-digit monolithic displays.

This eight-digit panel, furthermore, measures 2.65 in. long, 0.69 in. high, and is only 0.197 in. thick—not including the tubulation projecting from the rear, a relic of the process of evacuating the individual digit tubes and filling them with neon gas.

The panel is also quite economical in its power dissipation. It requires only 0.35 to 3.0 milliwatts per segment, depending on the brightness needed, and typically will use less than 1 mw per segment. This corresponds to a maximum of 7 mw per digit or 56 mw for the entire panel, when everything is lighted; but on the average, perhaps no more than five digits of five segments each are on, reducing the average dissipation to 5 mw per digit or 25 mw for the panel. At this rate, four standard carbon-zinc batteries, AA size, would last about 200 hours.

In one test, Burroughs engineers purchased a small calculator and replaced its LED display with the new Panaplex unit. This reduced the calculator"s total power requirements for display and computation from 800 mw to 350 mw.

In most hand-held calculators made with metal-oxide-semiconductor circuits, no interface drivers are necessary. Even though the Panaplex II panels are 170-volt gas-discharge devices, their anodes can be driven with voltage swings and current that conventional MOS circuits can provide—sometimes even through passive components instead of transistors.

Panaplex technology is basically the same as that of the old familiar Nixie cold-cathode tubes, differing primarily in their low-cost mode of construction. Their life is expected to be as good—some Nixie tubes are known to have operated continuously for over 120,000 hours, or 14 years. They contain no wire bonds—the interconnections that are most likely to fail first in some LED designs.

Like Nixies, the Panaplex panels emit an orange-red light, which is spread over a relatively broad part of the visible spectrum and is centered near the middle of the perception range of the human eye. Therefore, the panels can be viewed continuously for long periods without discomfort, and are not difficult for color-blind persons to read, as are some bright-red LED displays, which cover a narrow spectral range."

Above is shown the sandwiched glass plates of a Panaplex display. The rear has a sealed glass nipple where the vacuum was achieved during manufacture.

on how the ambient light falls on an unlit Pananplex display it characteristically shows the individual 7 segments of each digit or the cell of each digit.

Above is another, less common, amber gas-discharge display showing the digits "12345678". This example is made by NEC (Nippon Electric Company) and is in a Sanyo ICC-809 hand-held calculator.

The cathode ray tube has been in use since the 1920s and was commonly used until recently in televisions, radar displays, and oscilloscopes. Its first use in a desktop calculator was in the Friden EC-130 (early 1964) and EC-132 (with square root).

Although CRTs can display several lines of a calculation they are bulky and have high power requirements, which restricted their use to a few AC powered desktop calculators of the mid to late 1960s.

The photograph above shows the typical bottle shape of the early instrument type CRT and its metal shielding casing. Anyone who has seen inside a modern television or computer monitor (danger - very high voltages present when in use)

On the right of the tube is the electron gun, where a heated filament produces a cloud of electrons. These are focused into a beam and accelerated towards the fluorescent display screen on the left by an anode with a high

Each digit makes use of 7 separate filaments arranged in the familiar pattern so that all numbers 0 to 9 can be displayed. Very few calculators used this type of display which can easily

Each digit consists of a stack of clear, flat plastic sheets each with one digit (0 to 9) inscribed. When a sheet is illuminated at its end by a small

The photographs below are of a similar, though larger, "light-pipe" display module to those in the Canon Canola 130S, which are of a more compact design but work in an identical way.

Removing the cover reveals the stack of plastic light-pipe sheets, one for each number 0 to 9 in this module. Decimal points sheets could also be fitted.

pits in its surface. When a light is shone into the edge of the short side of a sheet the light is piped round the corner, as with fibre optics, and illuminates the pits and so the number is seen.

The bottom of the module can be removed to allow replacement of the tiny filament lamps. There is one lamp to illuminate each "light-pipe" sheet. This arrangement allows the numbers to be stacked closely together

problem in an AC-powered calculator), short operating life, and a slow response. They were only used in a handful of AC powered desk calculators in the late 1960s early 1970s.

In June 1967 the journal "Electronics" reported that Japanese calculator manufacturers were battling the high royalties that Burroughs Corporation was asking when they produced copies of

its Nixie tubes[2]. This resulted in the first generation of Vacuum Fluorescent Display tubes (VFDs) being developed in Japan jointly by Hayakawa (Sharp)

and the Ise Electronics Co. These individual "Digitron" tubes were used first in the Sharp Compet CS-16A calculator, launched at the end of 1967, and can also be seen in the Sharp QT-8D, Sharp EL-8 and other Sharp calculators manufactured around 1970. The early VFD tubes used in Sharp calculators produce very stylised digits as shown below:

Here the number "123.4567" is being displayed. Note that the calculator electronics do not implement leading-zero suppression and so the half-height zero is used to make the display more

"0", for example, has only half the height of other digits. That way, the string of "0"s" before the first significant number in the display is no longer a nuisance and there"s no need to blank

Applying a suitable voltage between the cathode wires and the appropriate anode segments causes electrons emitted by the cathode wires to be attracted at high speed to those anode

segments. Since the segments have a fluorescent coating those which attract and are struck by the electrons glow brightly. The colour of the glow is typically green or blue, though modern displays for Hi-Fi systems

arranged in the typical 7-segment pattern so that all numbers 0 to 9 can be generated. However, some early VFD displays have 8-segment digits (as below), with an extra mini-segment to give a better looking "4", which better

First-generation VFD tubes were soon produced with less stylised digits, as shown above. Note that each of the tubes here has a digit made of 8 fluorescent anodes arranged in the

might be present in the tubes of a calculator it was often left unused, which has little effect on the readability of the "4" and simplifies the electronics.

The Royal IC-130 desktop calculator is unusual since it has first-generation tubes with 10-segment digits. These extra segments are not used in this calculator to display digits, but could be used to display the "+" sign.

In the first-generation VFDeach digit of the display required a separate display tube—these were used in both AC and battery powered models, with the latter often using small and narrow tubes.

The next development, the second-generation, was to reduce costs and overall size of the display by squeezing all the digits into one long horizontal tube. These tubes were widely used in early hand-held calculators.

Another second-generation VFD with all the digits in a single round tube. This display has 8-segment digits with the extra mini-digit for the enhanced "4", though this was not always used.

A third-generation vacuum fluorescent display with the digit assembly sandwiched between sealed glass plates. A single vertical cathode wire can be seen mounted vertically above each digit. These are also 8-segment

were very widely used in both desktop and hand-held calculators. However, from the mid-1970s VFDs started to be replaced in hand-held calculators by Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) which used much less power and so gave

A fourth-generation VFD in a flattened package made by pressing and welding a domed piece of glass over the digits which are supported on a flat piece of glass. A pair of cathode wires can be seen

VFDs continue to be used to this day in calculators, video recorders, Hi-Fi systems, and other equipment where the display glows. These displays are quite bright and their power/voltage requirements

The LED (Light Emitting Diode) display appeared commercially in the late 1960s. American Calculator Corp., of Dallas, announced the first use of LED displays in a calculator in late 1970. "Electronics" journal stated

that it "employs eight Monsanto gallium arsenide phosphide light emmitting diodes in its display". However, in April 1971 it was announced that the company had gone bankrupt, so it may never have sold any

Being based on semiconductor materials, the LED display is very compatible with calculator integrated circuits and has a moderately low power consumption.

characters. With large scale production the price rapidly reduced. The small character size was alleviated by placing moulded plastic magnifying lenses in front, as can be seen below, however this gives a narrow viewing

The LED eventually lost out to the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD, see below) which has a much lower power consumption (it is passive and does not emit light) and has a larger size at little extra cost.

Early 8-digit LED display in a Commodore Minuteman 2 using individual 7-segment array modules. The ninth module on the far left provides "-" sign and overflow indication.

Early 8-digit LED display. This has nine bare 7-segment array LED chip dice mounted on two carriers, and does not use magnifying lenses. The die on the far left provides "-" sign and overflow

LED module showing the number 12345678 being displayed. The array on the left is used for displaying the minus sign and other characters, such as to indicate overflow.

Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) were developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Thomson-CSF of France was one company involved in their development and demonstrated a calculator with a 16-digit LCD

in early 1971 (photograph in "Electronics", May 24 1971). However, they were selling the display at a price of $10 per digit at that time so it would have been expensive and was probably not sold commercially. Busicom

The first successful use of LCD displays in calculators were in models made by Rockwell for Lloyds (Accumatic 100), Rapid Data (Rapidman 1208LC), and Sears in 1972. These use DSM (Dynamic Scattering Mode) LCDs where the liquid crystal is normally clear but turns opaque white when a voltage is

The true COS calculator has a circuit board which is made of a glass-like ceramic, as shown on the left, viewed from the rear of the calculator. The LCD display is formed directly

on this circuit board, which also carries at least two layers of conductive tracks and the electronic components. The user actually looks through the circuit board when viewing the display.

The main board is made of a glass ceramic with the DSM LCD formed under another sheet of glass. The glass circuit board is noteworthy in that there are no holes in it for mounting components; they are all surface-mounted. Conductors are printed on both sides of the circuit board and are covered with a white layer. Connections between the conductors on both side of the circuit board are made by the connector at lower right and the small conventional circuit board attached at lower left.

The use of the glass-like ceramic circuit board was a dead-end in the development of calculators and the COS technology was only used in a small number of Sharp calculator models of the mid-1970s. Subsequent models from Sharp with

LCD displays have conventional circuit boards, though the LCD display modules have a similar construction to the display section on the glass circuit boards.

LCDs have the great advantage of very low power consumption since they are passive displays, altering the reflection of ambient light rather than actively generating light. However, a DSM LCD does require a small current to

When LCDs were first introduced in calculators there was a lot of discussion about the stability of the early liquid crystal material. This may be justified since calculators with DSM LCDs often have defective displays, though

often the defect appears to caused by the display elements leaking rather than the liquid crystal ageing. Storage away from high temperatures is recommended.

Nematic (TN) type in the Casio pocket-LC. Here the liquid crystal assembly is held between crossed polarising filters. With no voltage applied the liquid crystal rotates

the polarisation of light so that it passes through the filters and shows the reflective surface behind. When an appropriate voltage is applied the liquid crystal stops rotating the plane of polarisation of the light and that

region appears black. Since the TN LCD is a field-effect device the current consumption is extremely small, which is highly desirable for a battery-powered calculator.

Calculators with early TN LCDs usually have a yellow filter in front to remove Ultra Violet (UV) rays from the ambient light which might damage the liquid crystal.

Second-generation LCD. An example of a TN LCD with black digits and a yellow background - the yellow is actually a filter in front of the display to absorb damaging Ultra Violet light and prolong

During the late 1970s advances in the liquid crystal material greatly improved its stability, removing the need for the yellow, ultra-violet absorbing filter. These third

generation LCDs are used for the displays of modern hand-held calculators and in conjunction with modern integrated circuit techniques result in calculators running for years on one button cell or just on solar power.

During the late 1960s and 1970s there was much discussion about the best type of display for calculators, especially as new technologies were introduced and the resulting economies of scale led to price

However, around 1967 Japanese calculator manufacturers were in dispute with Burroughs Corp., the patent holders of the Nixie tube technology, over the amount of royalties to be paid for using the tubes[2]. Burroughs wanted a royalty of about 45 cents a tube, whereas the Japanese manufacturers wanted to pay no more than about 16 cents per tube. This

led to the development in the late 1960s jointly by Hayakawa (Sharp) and the Ise Electronics Co in Japan of vacuum fluorescent displays (VFDs), with a green/blue colour. Having a

reduced power/voltage requirement and a bright display these took over from the cold-cathode, "nixie"-type, tubes, especially among Japanese manufacturers, in the 1970s. Displays of this type were also widely used in

displays were introduced commercially in 1967, but were initially very expensive, costing about US$60 a digit. By 1971, in quantities of 1,000, 1/8 inch high LED displays could be bought for US$3.95 each[3].

appearing miniature pocket calculators. Although expensive at first, the price of LEDs soon dropped as production quantities increased and competitors entered the market. Within a year or two of their introduction in

calculators in 1971 they were used extensively in hand-held calculators until the late 1970s when they were largely replaced by liquid crystal displays (LCDs).

All of the light emitting displays have the disadvantage that they are difficult to read in bright ambient light. They must also use energy to generate light, but power consumption could often be

materials than the LED, and so could be made much cheaper. It also had tiny power requirements, and being reflective was easily readable at all normal office lighting levels and in full sunlight. However, early

manufacturing problems, the slow response speed of early liquid crystals, and concerns about the life and temperature stability of the liquid crystal material held up its wide acceptance till the mid 1970s with the introduction of

the TN (Twisted Nematic) type. Then there was no stopping the LCD and by 1978/9 it dominated the hand-held calculator market and allowed credit card-sized calculators to be produced.

One of the more interesting things about old calculators is how they displayed their numbers. As easy as it seems today, in the late 60s and early 70s it was quite hard to devise a display system for a calculator, especially a

The Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) was developed for television in the 40s. The CRT shoots a focused electron beam from the back of the tube to the front of the tube. The front of the tube is coated

with phosphors that glow when they are struck by the electron beam. An image is created by moving the electron beam back and forth across the back of the screen. The beam moves in a

pattern from left to right, top to bottom and then it repeats. Each time the beam makes a pass across the screen, it lights up phosphor dots on the inside of the glass tube, thereby illuminating

the active portions of the screen. The intensity of the beam is modulated thus causing the screen phosphors to glow with different intensities or to even not glow at all. The desired images to be

displayed are actually retraced between 30 to 70 times each second. This keeps the images continually refreshed in the glowing screen phosphors without a flicker being perceivable to the eye.

The electron beam is generated from a filament and electrically charged cathode in the back neck of the CRT. The electron beam is first passed through a control grid. The control grid modulates

the intensity of the electron beam. The higher the intensity the brighter the phosphor dot it strikes will glow. Next the beam passes through an accelerating electrode, this will speed up the

electron beam. Then the beam passes through a focusing anode. This will focus or tighten the stream of electrons. All of these elements comprise the electron gun structure housed in the neck of the CRT.

The structure on the neck of the CRT is the yoke. The yoke contains four electromagnets placed around the neck of the CRT in 90 degree increments. By varying the voltage of these four

electromagnets, the electron beam can be deflected or bent to reach any location on the phosphor coated screen. A final stage of acceleration is achieved with the high voltage anode.

The familiar suction cup wire that attaches to the side of the CRT is connected to this anode. This anode is often a metalized surface on the inside of the picture tube. Many thousands of volts are

screens. Additional circuitry in the calculator can create numbers, letters, and other symbols by using the control grid to turn the electron beam on and off, while simultaneously using the

electromagnets to deflect the beam to the desired locations on the screen. Many early desktop calculators like the Friden EC-130 and the Hewlett Packard 9100A used CRTs.

In a Nixie Tube display each numeral is a complete, lighted cathode in the shape of the numeral. The cathodes are stacked so that different numerals appear at different depths, unlike a planar

display in which all numerals are on the same plane relative to the viewer. The anode is a transparent metal mesh wrapped around the front of the display. The tube is filled with the inert

The name Nixie came about accidentally. A [Burroughs] draftsman making drawings of the device labeled it NIX I, for Numeric Indicator eXperimental No. 1. His colleagues began referring to it as "Nixie," and the name stuck (

Interestingly enough the Nixie design is considered "failsafe". If a filament (cathode) fails, the numeral is not illuminated. Whereas, in a seven-segment display if one segment fails, a number

An Incandescent Filament display is usually housed in a vacuum tube like the either the Nixie tube or the early Vacuum Fluorescent tubes. This display is typically a seven segment style of

display where each display segment is formed with a conductive anode tungsten filament. A small voltage placed across a filament will cause it to heat to incandescence. They emit a yellowish

-white light that can be filtered to any desired color. The filament voltage (3-5vdc) can also be varied to change the brightness level of the display. The biggest problem with Incandescent

displays is they have a slow response time and they consume a large amount of current. A popular version of this type of display was the RCA Numitron. Some early electronic kits used the Incandescent Filament display.

A Planar Gas Discharge or Plasma Display Panels (PDP) display utilizes the same principle the Nixie tube does. It"s construction consists of sandwiching a hollow center layer filled with neon

and a small amount of mercury between a glass front and a ceramic back. A thick conductive paint forms the Cathodes on the inside of the ceramic back. The Cathodes form the segments of each

digit. Each digit is covered by a separate Anode that is deposited on the inside of the glass front. The Anodes are formed from a thin transparent layer of tin oxide. When a sufficient voltage is

applied between a cathode segment and it"s anode, the gas around the cathode segment breaks down and begins to glow. Like the Nixie tube, the digits glow with a orange-red color. Voltage

The Vacuum Fluorescent display (VFD) consists of a vacuum tube in which there are three basic types of electrodes, the filament (cathode), the anode (segment), and the grid. The VFD is

essentially a small Cathode Ray Tube. The filament (or filaments) is a very fine wire that is heated to a temperature just below incandescence. At that temperature it remains virtually

invisible but it emits electrons. A transparent metal mesh grid covers each digit and controls the electrons emitted from the filament toward that digit. Seven phosphor coated anodes, arranged in

emitted by the cathode filament are accelerated and attracted to the positive anode segments which in-turn glow. If the grid has a negative potential then it will block the electrons from

VFDs were developed in Japan in 1967. Early versions of VFDs were individual digits housed in vacuum tubes like the Nixie tube and Incandescent Filament displays. VFD Phosphors can be

formulated to emit red, yellow, and green as well as the more common blue-green color. Later versions would house all of the digits (and other graphics and indicators) in one large glass

assembly. Currently VCRs account for 30% of the VFD market and Audio/Video products account for another 30%. Many early series of calculators like the Commodore 412F, Brother 310, and the

MITS 816 used the individual digit VFD tubes. Later manufacturers such as TI and Rockwell used the integrated multidigit VFDs in both handhelds and desktops.

Thin-film Electroluminescent Displays (ELDs) use a thin film of phosphor (zinc sulfide (ZnS); ZnSe; ZnSMn or other fluorescent materials) sandwiched between a dielectric layer that is

sandwiched between two glass plates. Transparent electrodes (tin-oxide) are deposited on the insides of the glass plates. When a sufficient AC voltage (>100 volts) is applied to any of these

electrodes the phosphors will be excited and will emit light. ELD phosphors can be mixed with pigments to emit many colors of light including green, blue-green, lemon-yellow, orange, red as well as white light.

This type of solid state display can endure extreme conditions with exceptional tolerance to shock, vibration, temperature, and humidity, while response times remain less than one millisecond. I

have not seen ELDs used in calculators but they are used in some laptops, office machines and in the cockpit of the Spaceshuttle. They are also used to backlight LCD panels.

A Light Emitting Diode (LED) is an special type of diode that emits light when electricity applied to it"s anode and cathode. A typical LED requires about 1 1/2 volts DC at 10 milliamps to begin

emitting light. LEDs usually produce red light but yellow, green and blue versions are also now available. The LED was first marketed by Texas Instruments around 1962. LED displays (7 or more

individual LEDs) were introduced around 1967 but were very expensive. Calculators used LEDs that were arranged to form either a seven-segment display or a dot-matrix display.

Early seven segment displays formed each segment with many LEDs, later seven-segment displays would use one LED per segment with a light pipe to spread it"s light across the segment.

Also early LED displays were made small in order to keep power consumption down. A clear plastic bubble lens was fabricated into the package to magnify the display for easier viewing.

The dot-matrix style of display would form characters shaped similarly to that of a dot-matrix printer. A dot matrix of 4x7 or 5x7 is typically used. Notice how the 4x7 matrix makes up for the

missing 5th column by slightly slanting the columns. LEDs require much more power than LCDs and are more expensive to manufacture. This is the simple reason for their demise from being used in calculators.

The Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) was first developed at RCA around 1971. LCDs are optically passive displays (they do not produce light). As a result, LCDs require all most no power to

operate. Many LCD calculators can operate from the power of a solar cell, others can operate for years from small button cell batteries. LCDs work from the ability of liquid crystals (LC) to rotate

polarized light relative to a pair of crossed polarizers laminated to the outside of the display. There are two main types of LCD displays used for calculators today: Twisted nematic (TN) and

supertwisted nematic (STN). TN displays twist polarized light to 90 degrees and have a limited viewing angle. STN displays were developed to twist polarized light between 180 to 260 degrees

A LCD consists of two plates of glass, sealed around the perimeter, with a layer of liquid crystal fluid between them. Transparent, conductive electrodes are deposited on the inner surfaces of the

glass plates. The electrodes define the segments, pixels, or special symbols of the display. Next a thin polymer layer is applied on top of the electrodes. The polymer is etched with channels in

order to align the twist orientation of the LC"s helix shaped molecules. Finally, polarizing films are laminated to the outer surfaces of the glass plates at 90 degree angles. Normally, two polarizing

films at 90 degrees should be dark, preventing any transmission of light but due to the ability of LC to rotate polarized light the display appears clear. When AC voltage is passed through the LC,

the crystals within this field align so that the polarized light is not twisted. This allows the light to be blocked by the crossed polarizers thus making the activated segment or symbol to appear dark.

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Sharp had been the first to bring electronic calculators incorporating ICs or LSIs to the market but further miniaturization would only be possible if the display could be made smaller. The fluorescent elements, or LEDs (light emitting diodes), used in displays up to that time consumed a lot of electricity, so calculators had to be equipped with bulky batteries. Sharp set out to find a new display that would use less energy and take up less space. After examining the problem from every angle, it was finally decided to begin research into LCD (liquid crystal display) technology in 1970.

Though the superior characteristics of LCDs had already been recognized by researchers throughout the world, the technology was generally dismissed as impractical for commercial use due to the difficulty of selecting and combining the necessary materials. But through the unrelenting efforts of Sharp"s engineers, the company succeeded in 1973 in introducing a calculator with the world"s first practical LCD unit. The electronic calculator that incorporated this breakthrough, the EL-805, was a COS type unit in which the LCD, CMOS-LSI circuitry and wiring were all accommodated on a single glass panel.

The new unit was 1/12th as thick, 1/125th as heavy, used 1/250th as many individual components, cost 1/20th as much and consumed 1/9,000th as much power as Sharp"s first calculator model. Able to operate for 100 hours on a single AA-size battery, it was truly a landmark product and sold very well.

Since the launch of the EL-805, advances in LCD technology have continued. Today, the LCD is one of the most widely used electronic devices, finding applications in all sorts of fields from calculators and watches to audio-visual and data processing equipment and beyond. The LCD is now one of Sharp"s key products.

The oil crisis of 1973 gripped the whole world. Prices in Japan rocketed and raw materials of all sorts became scarce. Government measures designed to decrease overall demand resulted in a sudden downturn in the business outlook. Sharp pressed ahead with new energy-efficient products to improve its cost competitiveness, and established a new design center to emphasize innovative design as the key to stronger product appeal.

This was also the year that Sharp"s business creed, "Sincerity and Creativity", made its appearance. The company"s corporate philosophy and direction for future business activities were henceforth to be based on these ideas.

The oil crisis caused prices to rise sharply, and in 1974 Japan"s GNP dropped 0.5% from the level of the previous year. This was the first instance of negative growth since the end of World War Ⅱ. The market for electrical goods was in a depression more severe than that of 1965.

Sharp, while striving to make its management system more efficient and strengthen the company as a whole, decided to concentrate on developing a new line of energy-efficient products, such as color TVs and refrigerators, to meet the new demands of society. This line of products, dubbed "ELM," emphasized savings in Energy, Labor and Materials.

The same year, Sharp also introduced the EL-8010, an ultra-thin calculator only 9 mm thick, and the EL-8009, a compact folding calculator. A major technological advance was the successful development of a thin-film EL (electroluminescent) element.

The establishment of Sharp Electronics of Canada Ltd. (SECL) to market Sharp products brought to five the number of advanced industrialized countries in which Sharp maintained overseas sales subsidiaries. In addition to Canada, these included the US, UK, former West Germany and Australia.

And in Malaysia, Sharp set up its first "re-export" production base for audio equipment, Sharp-Roxy Corporation (M) Sdn. Bhd. (SRC). Sharp was to later establish additional manufacturing and sales bases in that country. This was the first step in a series that eventually resulted in Malaysia being Sharp"s largest overseas base.

Though the level of personal consumption remained flat, in 1975 Sharp introduced several distinctive new products. Among these were a radio-cassette player unit featuring a unique automatic song selector function, and an ultra-thin electronic calculator only 7 mm thick. This was also the year Sharp produced its 10 millionth electronic calculator. In addition, a color TV production plant was set up by SCA to coincide with the introduction of color television broadcasting in Australia.

Designed with unique features to allow you to enter more than one calculation, compare results and explore patterns, all on the same screen. Enter and view calculations in common Math Notation via the MATHPRINT Mode, including stacked fractions, exponents, exact square roots and more. Quickly view fractions and decimals in alternate forms by using the Toggle Key. Scroll through previous entries and investigate critical patterns as well as viewing and pasting into a new calculation. Explore an x, y table of values for a given function, automatically or by entering specific x values. Power Source(s): Battery; Solar; Display Notation: Numeric; Number of Display Digits: 16; Display Characters x Display Lines: 16 x 4.

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12-digit business calculator is perfect for the home or office. Features an extra large, easyt-to-read angled LCD display. This calculator is engineered with an antimicrobial agent to reduce the growth of microbes and bacteria on the product that can cause discoloration and odors. Manufactured with recycled plastic. Cost/sell/margin keys for quick and easy profit calculations (enter two variables and the third automatically appears). Other functions include: item count, selectable decimal and rounding slide switches, backspace key, percent key, square root key, change sign key, 3-key independent memory, and automatic constants. Operates on hybrid power (solar with battery backup).

Handheld calculator offers a punctuated, eight-digit liquid crystal display (LCD) and nonslip rubber keys. Large display has 14mm digits. Four basic functions include three-key memory, percent and square root keys. Calculator runs on solar and battery power.

Large, easy-to-use keys are silent in operation and have separate 0 and 00 keys for convenience. Its low-reflection liquid crystal display tilts to give users an optimum view of their calculations, while a non-slip rubber base means it won"t slide around on a desk. Machine is finished in a smooth imitation metal body for a professional look.

New: A brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item in its original packaging (where packaging is applicable). Packaging should be the same as what is found in a retail store, unless the item was packaged by the manufacturer in non-retail packaging, such as an unprinted box or plastic bag. See the seller"s listing for full details.See all condition definitionsopens in a new window or tab