Claims
- 1. A color capable electroluminescent flat panel display comprised of:
- an optically thin dielectric spacer;
- an active light emitting linear electroluminescent panel comprised of a phosphor screen having a plurality of vertical color phosphor stripes with a plurality of opaque horizontal stripe electrodes on the back side thereof and a common transparent electrode on the front side thereof wherein said common transparent electrode is contiguous with an input side of said optically thin dielectric spacer and wherein said active light emitting electroluminescent panel produces a horizontal scan pattern of various color dots therefrom in accordance with incoming video signals;
- vertical scan electronic means for selectively activating said opaque horizontal stripe electrodes in sequence with said incoming video signals entering said vertical scan electronic means;
- a passive light transmitting portion on an output side of said optically thin dielectric spacer for modulating said video signals emitted from said active light emitting portion through said optically thin dielectric spacer, said passive light transmitting portion comprised of an electrically induced birefrengent material plate having a plurality of linear interdigital surface electrodes alternately between a common ground electrode on each side thereof with said plate and electrodes sandwiched between first and second orthogonal linear dichroic polarizer plates on an output side of said optically thin dielectric spacer with said plurality of interdigital surface electrodes optically aligned with said plurality of vertical color phosphor stripes of said active light emitting portion; and
- serial-to-parallel horizontal scan electronic means for applying information on a sequentially scan line basis from one scan line of said incoming video signals into a scan of voltages on all of said plurality of interdigital surface electrodes to vary the transmission of the image from the said one scan line of said active light emitting portion to a display according to the intensity and color information along the said one scan line.
- 2. A display as set forth in claim 1 wherein said optically thin dielectric spacer is a fiber optic faceplate.
- 3. A display as set forth in claim 1 wherein said optically thin dielectric spacer is a thin glass.
- 4. A display as set forth in claim 2 wherein said plurality of vertical color phosphor stripes are divided into stripes of different color phosphor with each of said vertical stripes being one-third the horizontal width of a PIXEL and the vertical height of each of said horizontal electrode stripes being equal to the vertical dimension of a PIXEL.
- 5. A display as set forth in claim 2 wherein said plurality of vertical phosphor stripes is a three color component P-22 type phosphor for color operation.
- 6. A display as set forth in claim 5 wherein said electronically induced birefrengent material plate is a PLZT plate.
- 7. A display as set forth in claim 6 wherein said plurality of interdigital surface electrodes are made of gold.
- 8. A display as set forth in claim 7 wherein said first and second orthogonal linear dichroic polarizer plates are Polaroid brand HN-32 sheets.
- 9. A display as set forth in claim 8 wherein said scan of voltages on said plurality of interdigital surface electrodes is at ground potential during inactivation and is at +25 DC volts during activation and each of said interdigital surface electrodes are parallel to said common ground electrodes on each side thereof and are approximately 40 micrometers apart for 500 horizontal PIXELs and wherein said first orthogonal linear dichroic polarizer plate is aligned at +45.degree. angle to the electric field produced between the activated interdigital surface electrode and the adjacent common ground electrodes and said second orthogonal linear dichroic polarizer plate is aligned at -45.degree. angle to said electric field whereby transmission of the image from said electroluminescent panel is blocked where said interdigital surface electrode is inactivated and the electrically induced birefrengence between the activated interdigital surface electrode and adjacent common ground electrodes causes the linearly polarized output from said first dichroic polarlizer to become circularly polarized whereby transmission of the image from said active display will vary along the horizontal scan line according to the signal on the video scan line that is activating voltages on all of said plurality of interdigital surface electrodes.
- 10. A display as set forth in claim 9 wherein said serial-to-parallel horizontal scan electronic means is comprised of two charge coupled device shift registers having sample and hold amplifiers for each location wherein said sample and hold on each charge coupled device activates said interdigital surface electrodes simultaneously as the next horizontal video scan line is being fed into the other set of sample and hold amplifiers by the other charge coupled shift register.
- 11. A display as set forth in claim 10 wherein said plurality of opaque horizontal stripe electrodes are made of copper.
- 12. A display as set forth in claim 10 wherein said plurality of opaque horizontal stripe electrodes are made of aluminum.
- 13. A display as set forth in claim 10 wherein said plurality of opaque horizontal stripe electrodes are made of nickel.
- 14. A display as set forth in claim 10 wherein said common transparent electrode is made of tin oxide.
- 15. A display as set forth in claim 10 wherein said common transparent electrode is made of indium oxide.
Government Interests
The invention described herein may be manufactured, used, and licensed by the U.S. Government for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalties thereon.
US Referenced Citations (4)