LCD Driver Redundancy for Aircraft Cockpit Displays
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Solution Overview
Problem
Large Area Displays (LAD) in aircraft cockpits lack redundancy, leading to a failure of the entire display if a single LCD panel fails, as existing redundancy schemes do not provide adequate protection at the LCD level.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a dual driver system with mutually exclusive primary and secondary switches for each row and column of LCD cells, ensuring that if one driver set fails, the secondary set can bypass the failure and maintain full display functionality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If a single Large Area Display is installed in the cockpit, then the display area is maximized and dynamic allocation is enabled, but the system loses redundancy and any single LCD failure results in complete display failure
Solution Approach 1:
The display system is segmented into multiple independent driver sets, each capable of driving the entire LCD panel. Each driver set includes row drivers and column drivers that can independently control the display, allowing the system to function even if one driver set fails.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the operational state of switches connecting driver sets to the LCD panel. By toggling switch states (connected/disconnected), the system can dynamically reconfigure which driver set is active, enabling seamless failover from a failed driver set to a standby driver set.
2Reliability
If multiple separate displays are used in the cockpit, then redundancy is provided, but the layout becomes rigid and additional images cannot be added
Solution Approach 1:
The invention creates a universal display system where a single Large Area Display can perform multiple functions: it provides full redundancy like multiple displays while maintaining the flexibility and dynamic allocation capabilities of a single display. The multi-functional driver sets enable the same physical display to adapt to different operational requirements.
3Reliability
If advanced redundancy schemes divide the display area into two separate electronic matrices, then partial redundancy is achieved, but only half the display surface remains functional upon failure
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of dividing the display into separate functional areas upon failure, the invention inverts the approach by designing driver sets that can each independently drive the entire display area. This allows the full display surface to remain functional even when one driver set fails, as the standby driver set can take over complete control.
Data Source
AI summary
A display that supports full redundancy on its array of pixels is provided herein. The display includes an array of wired rows and columns of liquid crystal display (LCD) cells; a primary driver set that includes a plurality of LCD drivers each connected via a respective primary switch to a first end of the wired row or a first end of the wired column; and a secondary driver set that includes a plurality of LCD drivers each connected via a respective secondary switch to a second end of the wired row or a second end of the wired column, wherein the primary switches and the secondary switches are mutually exclusive so that whenever the primary switches are open the secondary switches are closed and vice versa.