LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY PANELS

FOR COMMERCIAL AIRPLANES

SHIRAHATA Haruo *1 ITAGAKI Michihisa *1 KOUSAKA Fusao *1 ISHIDA Takashi *1

We have been developing and manufacturing liquid crystal display (LCD)

panels of aircraft intended for Defense Agency of Japan. Recently, these LCD
panels have been employed not only in military aircraft but also in commercial
airplanes, thereby increasing demand for the LCD panels.
This time, we have developed LCD panels for commercial airplanes, based
on the experience accumulated in LCD technology for the defense business. We
have optimally designed the LCD panels to meet the optical characteristics and
environmental conditions required in the cockpits of commercial airplanes, so that
the panels have achieved good viewability performance at wide viewing angles both
day and night.

INTRODUCTION CHARACTERISTICS REQUIRED OF COCKPIT

LCD PANELS

F or the recent cockpits of aircraft, the conventional CRT

displays have been being replaced by liquid crystal display
(LCD) panels. The LCD panels are superior to CRT display units
Optical Characteristic Requirements
Figure 2 shows an example of the configuration of cockpit
with regard to space, viewability both in sunlight and at night, displays for commercial airplanes. Generally, the cockpit has six
weight, reliability, power consumption, and others. Thus, they
have been employed in the military aircraft field and are also
beginning to be adopted in the commercial airplane field. In the
current new passenger airplanes, LCD panels are about to become
mainstream. The construction of LCD panels used for aircraft is
basically the same as those for LCDs used in personal computers
and others, but the LCDs for aircraft are subjected to severer
environments as to temperature, barometric pressure, vibration,
impact, etc. Moreover, they are also required to demonstrate
display performance specific to the cockpits of aircraft. This time,
we have taken measures to meet the requirements of these
characteristics and have developed LCD panels suitable for
commercial airplanes. This paper outlines the cockpit
environments of commercial airplanes, the characteristics
required of display devices, and the performance of the LCD
panels.
Figure 1 shows one of our recently developed LCD panels for
commercial airplanes (Screen shows a display example).
Figure 1 Liquid Crystal Display Panel
*1 Aerospace Products Business Div. (Screen shows a display example)

Liquid Crystal Display Panels for Commercial Airplanes 1

 PFD ND ECAM ND PFD Display unit Display unit
Instrument
panel

Systems Display

Captain's Co-pilot's
design eye design eye
Captain Co-pilot

Figure 3 Required Horizontal Viewing Angle

ECAM: Electronic Centralized Aircraft Monitor
PFD: Primary Flight Display
ND: Navigation Display
viewability in environments ranging from low-light
conditions at night to bright conditions where sunlight
Figure 2 Configuration of Cockpit Display for
streams through the windows in the daytime. At night, an
Commercial Airplanes
LCD panel can achieve optimum brightness in relation to the
surrounding environment by reducing the luminance of the
displays and the captain and co-pilot are seated right and left to backlight at the rear of the LCD panel. During the daytime,
manipulate devices and equipment. The following describes what the luminance of the backlight can be raised to increase the
LCD panels must take into account in order to accurately convey display brightness. However, if sunlight streams directly onto
information to the pilots in this configuration. the display, its viewability becomes poor due to reflections on
(1) Wide Viewing Angle the display surface. Therefore, it is essential to secure a
The captain and co-pilot mutually check (crosscheck) display surface with a low reflection coefficient so that the
information indicated on the displays as shown in Figure 3. In displayed items can be recognized accurately.
this case, the captain and co-pilot are required to accurately
recognize indications on displays on both sides, half of which Environment Requirements
are on the opposing side of each pilot. Therefore, the displays The displays for aircraft are subjected to operation in
are required to provide high contrast (brightness of the white environments more severe than those of general-purpose LCDs
display against the black display) at a wide viewing angle. It for office automation equipment, etc.
is especially important to reduce the brightness of the black (1) Temperatures
display to achieve high contrast. Because commercial airplanes are used worldwide, the
(2) Chromaticity required temperature range must include all temperature
Accurate color identification and recognition are important environments encountered, ranging widely from low to high
aspects of flight information, and the displays for aircraft are temperatures. The cockpits are air-conditioned during flights.
required to ensure highly accurate chromaticity. Each display However, the displays for aircraft must provide accurate
must consistently show the same colors in full color, indications in low-temperature environments experienced if
especially for halftone colors. Thus, it is necessary to control air-conditioning fails due to an accident, etc. or if start-up
variations in the chromaticity on a display basis. occurs in cold climates, or in high and low temperature
(3) Chromaticity Change environments.
Color information is also recognized as an important (2) Barometric Pressure
parameter during crosscheck. If the chromaticity of a display The cockpit is pressurized, but may be subject to abrupt
viewed from the front is different from that of the display on decompression or pressure rises should pressurization be
the co-pilot side when viewed by the captain, flight interrupted due to an accident, etc. Thus, the display panels
information can be mistakenly identified, presenting a must provide accurate display even under decompressed or
significant problem in terms of flight safety. Thus, it is pressurized conditions. The requirements in a combined
important that the chromaticity does not vary at wide viewing environment, including the altitude (barometric pressure) as
angles. Therefore, changes in the chromaticity have been well as the temperature as mentioned in item (1) are also
specified in detail in the SAE Standards ARP4256, an important to consider.
international LCD display standard for aircraft. In general, (3) Vibration and Impact
the LCD panels for aircraft are developed in compliance with In addition to the vibration and impact during landing which
this standard. are encountered during the normal operations of an aircraft,
(4) Low Reflection Coefficient the display panels are also required to withstand the stresses
In the cockpit, the displays are required to deliver good of conditions occurring during accidents, such as the bursting

2 Yokogawa Technical Report English Edition, No. 35 (2003)

 Table 1 Specifications for Environmental Testing
AR coating
Front glass
Operating Temperature -15°C to +55°C
Storage Temperature -55°C to +85°C Polarizing AR coating
plate
Altitude (barometric pressure) 15,000 ft
LCD panel
Pressurization 170 kPa
Humidity 38°C/85% ⇔ 50°C/95% Polarizing
plate
Vibration Random: 1.48 Grms
Figure 5-1 Figure 5-2
Frequency range: 10 to 2000 Hz
Impact 6 G., 11 msec. AR coating AR coating

Polarizing film Bonding

agent
of a wheel or the breakage of engine blades. Under these AR coating

circumstances, it is essential for the LCD panels of aircraft to

meet the requirements of testing specified in RTCA DO160
(in Table 1). Figure 5-3 Figure 5-4

CONFIGURATION OF LIQUID CRYSTAL

Figure 5 Reflection Coefficient
DISPLAY PANEL MODULES

An example of the configuration of an LCD panel module is make up liquid crystal cells, including chromaticity errors in
shown in Figure 4. The LCD panel module consists of an LCD color filters, and have analyzed the effects of cell-gap
panel, the front glass, and the driving circuit, and it is illuminated variations on the chromaticity, etc. These studies have
by a backlight module from the back of the panel. allowed us to develop LCD panels with small changes in the
chromaticity at wide viewing angles.
LCD Panel (4) Low Reflectivity
The advantages of the currently developed LCD panels are as In order to reduce the reflection coefficient within the liquid
follows. crystal cells, we have made improvements in terms of
(1) High Aperture Ratio materials such as using black matrix masks with a low-
In order to alleviate loads on the backlight, LCD panels are reflection multi-layer Cr coating to achieve low reflectivity.
required to have a high aperture ratio. For this, thin-film (5) Liquid Crystal Materials
transistors (TFT) were employed and wiring patterns were Generally, there are few liquid crystal materials that satisfy
optimally designed to reduce the electrode areas thus operation requirements at both high and low temperatures. In
achieving a high aperture ratio. our current development, we have adopted new liquid crystal
(2) Wide Viewing Angle materials to meet the requirements of the LCD panels for
The LCD panels use an optical compensation film to address aircraft and have achieved a wide operating temperature
the challenge of wide viewing angles. We have analyzed the range.
characteristics of optical compensation films and also the
optimum design conditions achievable by a combination of Front Glass
the films with the LCD panels. This allows the LCDs to Unlike general LCD panels, LCD panels for cockpits have a
achieve high contrast at the required wide viewing angle, with layer of front glass on the front face of an LCD panel to protect
±60 degrees or more horizontal angle. the LCD. This prevents the LCD panels from being damaged by
(3) Chromaticity Change direct contact or from spillage of liquids such as coffee, etc.
We have conducted spectral analyses on the materials that However, when the reduction of the reflection coefficient is
considered, the LCD panels must be optimally designed to
Front glass minimize the reflection from the front glass in addition to that of
LCD panel the LCD panel.
Driving circuit Figure 5-1 shows the factors responsible for reflection.
Backlight Reflection occurs at an interface between media of different
module density. For LCD panels with front glass, both faces of the front
glass and the surface of the polarizing plate on an LCD panel will
be the major factors responsible for the reflection coefficient. We
have newly developed LCD panels based on the following
measures to achieve the characteristics necessary to meet the non-
reflective requirements.
(1) Surface Treatment for Low Reflection (see Figure 5-2)
Figure 4 Configuration of an LCD Panel Module Generally, anti-glare (AG) and anti-reflection (AR) coatings

Liquid Crystal Display Panels for Commercial Airplanes 3

 Table 2 Specifications of the LCD Panels differences caused during production, we have employed a
method of correcting the gamma values of individual panels
Display Range Approx. 160 mm × 160 mm
using a driving circuit to solve chromaticity errors between
Pixel Configuration RGB stripes
each LCD panel.
Pixel Pitch 70 µm (× RGB) × 210 µm
Gray Scale RGB full color SPECIFICATIONS OF LCD PANELS FOR
Liquid Crystal Mode Normally white COMMERCIAL AIRPLANES

The specifications of the currently developed LCD panels are

summarized in Table 2. The pixel dimensions are 70 µm (× RGB)
are used as surface treatments for limiting surface reflection × 210 µm of fine pixels to support the high grade, high precision
to a low level. AG coating is capable of minimizing specular display required of the displays for aircraft. By optimization of
reflection, but diffuses deflection increases, causing the entire cell gaps and adoption of high-voltage driving, we have achieved
screen to appear whitish under sunlight. This results in the necessary high contrast within the required viewing angle
significantly diminished viewability. On the other hand, AR range of commercial airplanes. As to the environment-resistance
coating is a treatment that vapor-deposits a reflection- characteristics, we have conducted the noted RTCA DO160
preventive thin film on the surface. For the LCD panels of testing with satisfactory results.
aircraft, this AR coating is generally employed. Application
of an AR coating to the front glass and to the polarizing plate PROCESS OF CONVERSION INTO LCD PANEL
allows a significant lower reflection coefficient to be MODULES
achieved.
(2) AR Coating plus Polarizing Film (see Figure 5-3) The currently developed LCD panels have display dots as
Adhesion of a polarizing film to the rear of the front glass small as 70 µm × 210 µm to deliver high precision. The reliability
causes the quantity of light to be reduced by half. The of fine pitch connections between an LCD panel and TAB also
reflection from the polarizing film surface itself is thereby becomes important from the viewpoint of environmental-
also reduced to half, allowing the reflection coefficient to be resistance performance on temperatures, vibration, etc. TAB and
further minimized. LCD panels are thermo-compression bonded using an anisotropic
(3) AR Coating plus Front Glass Bonding (see Figure 5-4) conductive film (ACF).
Bonding of the front glass to a polarizing plate using an In the current project, we have proceeded with the
optical bonding agent in which the refractive index has been development of a high-precision TAB bonder in parallel with the
considered, allows a configuration with the lowest reflection development of the LCD panels to achieve high precision,
coefficient to be achieved. However, production costs and reliable TAB.
reliability must be thoroughly evaluated.
Apart from these measures against surface reflection, we CONCLUSION
have achieved a design that realizes a low reflection coefficient
by taking the internal construction and LCD panel materials into This paper has introduced the characteristics required of LCD
consideration, thereby achieving good viewability even under panels for aircraft and outlined how to achieve these
sunlight. characteristics and the special requirements of the LCD panels
developed for commercial airplanes. Currently, the development
Driving Circuit of new display devices to replace LCD panels is being conducted
(1) High-voltage Driving increasingly. However, the thus far achieved new devices have
To achieve high contrast, the brightness of the black display both merits and demerits and it is still too early to adopt them as
needs to be minimized. Increasing the voltage applied to an display devices for aircraft. Therefore, we believe that LCD
LCD panel causes the liquid crystals to cut off light, thereby panels will remain in the mainstream for aircraft displays for the
limiting the brightness of the black display to a low level. time being.
Thus, we have adopted a high-voltage driver IC for driving These currently developed LCD panels are scheduled to be
the LCD in order to achieve high contrast. This driver IC is used aboard the new Airbus A340-600 and others. In future, we
connected to the LCD panel using the tape automatic bonding hope to further enter the commercial aircraft market and to
(TAB) method. expand our product share therein, starting with this product.
(2) Gamma Control
In order for each LCD panel to display the same chromaticity REFERENCES
in halftone display (amber, magenta, etc.), each gamma value
must be the same. However, it is difficult for LCD panels to (1) Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics RTCA DO160
achieve the uniform gamma values due to variations in cell (2) SAE Standards AEROSPACE RECOMMENDED
gaps and the ∆n value (optical anisotropy) of liquid crystal PRACTICE ARP 4256 Design Objectives for Liquid Crystal
materials. Therefore, as a means of smoothing out individual Displays for Part 25 (Transport) Aircraft

4 Yokogawa Technical Report English Edition, No. 35 (2003)