Description:

This project is about the development of a CMY-based reflective display system. All kinds of physical properties aside, the pixels of these displays require to be driven by individual 40V PWM signals running between 50 and 100Hz. White Bream has been asked to develop the electronics for the prototypes of this display.

Solution:

The display elements of this technology consists of small 8x12-pixel 'tiles'. These tiles fit seamlessly together to form a larger display element. Because of this modular approach, we have come up with a solution to add the necessary electronics on the back of each tile. Next these tiles are interconnected by a serial pixel bus and an RS485 control bus.

This electronics must be added to each of these tiles because the technology calls for individual PWM control of each display cell. For a tile consisting of 8x12 pixels, this involves 288 PWM drivers operating at a voltage between 30 and 40V. Obviously, this generates a massive amount of interconnections between the glass substrates of the tile and the electronics, and also a significant amount of electronics required for each of these tiles...

Realization:

The electronics for the tiles is designed such that it can be used in subsequent steps of development of the display. In order to produce images at current stage of development, a demo controller is added. This controller can execute various display sequences and animations. This allows for extensive demonstration, evaluation and characterization of the display technology.

Cooperation:

Part of this project has been subcontracted to EmDev from Ridderkerk. Particularly they have written the software for this demo controller.