Field-emitter displays for future high-requirements applications

Modern avionics systems are required to impart very large volumes of information about the aircraft's external environment, subsystems, operations, and navigation in real time with minimal impact on the pilot's ability to perform duties and minimal requirements for power and space. To achieve this, high resolution, high brightness displays are required, most often also requiring full color and full video rate. These displays should not demand much space or power and must be reliable, long-lived and able to operate in extreme environments, such as wide temperature ranges, large brightness ranges, and high acceleration and shock. Field emitter array based displays (FEDs) present the avionics community with an opportunity to obtain CRT-like performance in a thin, lighter weight, and more power efficient package. While cathodoluminescent is energy efficient, beam blocking shadow masks, heated filaments, and electromagnets waste most of the CRT's power. Row at a time addressing in FEDs lowers the peak current per pixel, decreases flicker, and increases phosphor life. There are also other opportunities made possible by FEDs such as built-in electronics subsystem capability, true matrix formatting, and an ability to distort arrays to correct for optics systems. Flat-panel displays utilizing field emission array-based technology offer such characteristics, and promise to do so with reduced cost when compared to alternative solutions.