Electronic design for high speed liquid crystal display shutter

Abstract

The main objective of this thesis is the electronic design and driving of a high speed liquid crystal display shutter. This is one of the main components in a 3D display system developed by Setred® AS. The thesis can be divided into two main subjects: electronic design and VHDL implementation of a liquid crystal display shutter firmware, and a study in operation and configuration of this shutter. The implementation of the LCD shutter electronics consists of several modules, where the main objectives are the design of communication interfaces to different external components and the main operation and functionality of the LCD shutter. All firmware implemented are done in VHDL and is simulated and tested. The shutter firmware is intended for the new generation of shutter electronics in the Setred® 3D display. However all testing of the firmware in this thesis was performed with a development board due to manufacturing of the new board. The testing of transferring data from the FPGA board and to the computer via the implemented communication protocols revealed several issues both due to hardware and firmware. Solutions to the firmware issues obtained in these tests are presented in this thesis. However, the hardware problem will not be given much consideration since this is most likely a problem which is due to a design fault in the development board. The design and structure of shutter sequences is the second main subject of the thesis where the main focus is to look at different shutter setups. The target is to document some guidelines and constraints which could be a basis for a good shutter sequence design. In the construction and testing of new sequences are there especially focused on a new scanning technique which is non sequential and not currently used on the display. The study and design of these new sequences revealed some problems and challenges which need attention in order for the sequences to be usable. Due to time constraints there is not presented any final solution to these issues, but possible reasons are documented for further study. The majority of the work performed is of practical character and only the most important and essential results will therefore be presented in this thesis.