Fail-Operational Emissive Display with Redundant Drive Circuits
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional aircraft display systems face challenges in maintaining optimal functionality and readability when a primary display fails, as backup displays are often located sub-optimally, leading to increased weight, clutter, and visual search difficulties for pilots, especially in high-workload situations, and there is a need for single large displays to be fail-operational without adjacent backups.
Innovation Solution
A display device with interleaved light-emitting elements and redundant control circuits that can selectively enable or disable sets of control circuits to maintain operation even in case of failures, utilizing interleaved drive circuits and optical/image sensors for failure detection and periodic switching between redundant sets to ensure continuous functionality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple displays are positioned horizontally across the instrument panel with adjacent displays serving as backups, then fail-operational capability is achieved, but the backup display location becomes sub-optimal leading to increased visual search time and pilot workload
Solution Approach 1:
The display device is segmented into multiple independently controllable display regions (first display region and second display region) within a single physical display unit. Each region can be independently activated or deactivated, allowing the functional segmentation of backup capabilities while maintaining a single optimal display location.
Solution Approach 2:
The single display device is designed to perform multiple functions: it can operate as a primary display showing primary flight information, and simultaneously or alternatively function as a backup display showing backup flight information. The display device universally handles both primary and backup display roles, eliminating the need for separate dedicated backup displays.
2Reliability
If multiple displays are equipped to allow adjacent displays to serve as backups, then fail-operational capability is achieved, but instrument panel weight and clutter increase
Solution Approach 1:
The invention merges the primary display and backup display functions into a single physical display device. Instead of having separate primary and backup display units, one display device contains both functional capabilities, reducing the total number of display units required and thereby reducing weight and panel clutter.
Solution Approach 2:
The single display device is designed to universally perform both primary display and backup display functions. By making the display device multi-functional, the system eliminates the need for additional dedicated backup displays, directly reducing the weight and clutter on the instrument panel.
3Device complexity
If a single large display is used without adjacent backup displays, then instrument panel clutter is reduced, but fail-operational capability is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The single large display is functionally segmented into multiple independent display regions that can be independently controlled. This internal segmentation provides redundancy and fail-operational capability within the single physical display, maintaining reliability while avoiding the clutter of multiple separate display units.
Solution Approach 2:
The display device dynamically switches between displaying primary flight information and backup flight information based on operational needs and failure conditions. This dynamic reconfiguration capability allows the single display to adapt its function, providing fail-operational capability without requiring permanent dedicated backup displays.
4Reliability
If redundant control circuits are implemented within a single display device, then fail-operational capability is achieved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The control circuit is designed with redundant copies of critical control functionality. Instead of completely independent dual control systems, the invention uses copied control circuit paths that can take over if the primary control path fails, providing redundancy while minimizing the increase in overall device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
Redundancy is applied selectively to specific critical control functions rather than duplicating the entire control system. The control circuit incorporates local redundancy only where necessary for fail-operational capability, optimizing the balance between reliability and complexity by avoiding unnecessary duplication of non-critical control elements.
Data Source
AI summary
Fail-operational display devices and methods for controlling such fail-operational display devices are disclosed. More specifically, emissive displays having independently addressable (controllable) light emitting elements fitted with redundant control circuits may be utilized. In the event of a failure, one set of redundant control circuits may be disabled while another set of redundant control circuits may be enabled to keep the display device fail-operational.