Display Ruggedization

Active matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCD) that integrate environmental protection, sunlight readability, and enhanced visual definition are some of the base requirements in defense and aerospace applications. These same requirements are quickly becoming the fundamental cornerstones for successful and high-efficiency commercial display applications. Because of the convergence of these market landscapes, defense and aerospace designers now have a choice between specifying a display that is custom designed to meet full defense ruggedization specifications, or choosing a commercial display that can be ruggedized to meet almost all of the military environmental specs, driving how displays are integrated into ruggedized military and aerospace applications.

As high volume, commercial display manufacturers improve performance and expand production capacity, they are increasingly turning to non-laptop markets for areas of growth. Many of the requirements of these consumer, industrial, medical, transportation and commercial markets have similarities to the needs of military and aerospace display users, but do not fully encompass the full dimensions of display ruggedization for defense and aerospace applications. Each defense/aerospace application will have its own dimension of ruggedization. The ruggedization process must accommodate temperature extremes both operating and storage over repeated cycles, extreme vibration and shock levels and high altitude while the optical processes must minimize front surface and inner structure reflections while optimizing contrast and color saturation. Over time, even the best gasket can wear and crack. If this happens in an environment that is dusty or dirty, foreign particles can work their way into the air gap between the protective window and the polarizer of the LCD. Tiny particles and moisture degrade the product and can result in costly replacements. As light passes through an uncoated glass substrate, over 4% will be reflected at each surface due to the differing indices of refraction. These losses are additive for each surface and can approach 15% of incident light. Applying an AR coating on each surface will reduce the losses but may add significant cost to the system.

One display enhancement that can effectively address all dimensions of ruggedization is glass lamination. Glass lamination, also known as optical bonding, is a means of optimizing the contrast in high ambient light conditions while at the same time protecting the AMLCD from the environment by filling the air gap that can accumulate moisture and other visible contaminants. Optical bonding provides ruggedization solutions such as:

• No air gap
• No internal condensation or particulate contamination
• Improved light transmission and reduced reflections
• Solid bond improves mechanical performance
• Shock protection
• Increased display stiffness and strength

Our Display System Division specializes in the development and manufacture of rugged display solutions for use in environmentally demanding applications. Many of our display systems have been developed to meet extremely challenging military and commercial specifications.

To support these critical applications, we work with leading edge materials and processes and apply over 20 years of experience in the field of display engineering to deliver solutions that provide outstanding performance and long term reliability.

We understand that when a more rugged product is desired, the goal is to increase the product’s reliability, not to add cost. While stronger materials and construction usually come at a premium, we believe that working in a collaborative development with our client and thoughtfully designing reliability in from the outset is the optimal approach to improved reliability.

Our standard product line has been designed with reliability in mind, but should you need a more rugged display please contact us and we can discuss further reliability enhancements.

Since the requirements for your particular LCD display application may be unique and require further development, we have provided a display design consideration form that can help you in assessing and refining your rugged display requirements and operational expectations. The completion of this form will allow us to accurately and efficiently match your ruggedized display requirements with our host of LCD enhancement capabilities, ensuring the rapid development of a successful LCD display module solution.

You can also phone 503.690.2460 to be connected with one of our LCD display enhancement engineers to discuss your particular application and to find out how our LCD enhancement capabilities can help provide options for your design challenges or you can simply fill out the Contact Us form.