7-segment Display (UNIT 3)

An LED or Light Emitting Diode, is a solid state optical pn-junction diode which emits light energy in the
form of photons.

The emission of these photons occurs when the diode junction is forward biased by an external voltage
allowing current to flow across its junction, and in Electronics we call this process electroluminescence.
The actual colour of the visible light emitted by an LED, ranging from blue to red to orange, is decided by
the spectral wavelength of the emitted light which itself is dependent upon the mixture of the various
impurities added to the semiconductor materials used to produce it.

7-segment Display
Light emitting diodes have many advantages over traditional bulbs and lamps, with the main ones being
their small size, long life, various colours, cheapness and are readily available, as well as being easy to
interface with various other electronic components and digital circuits.
But the main advantage of light emitting diodes is that because of their small die size, several of them can be
connected together within one small and compact package producing what is generally called a 7-segment
Display.
The 7-segment display, also written as “seven segment display”, consists of seven LEDs (hence its name)
arranged in a rectangular fashion as shown. Each of the seven LEDs is called a segment because when
illuminated the segment forms part of a numerical digit (both Decimal and Hex) to be displayed. An
additional 8th LED is sometimes used within the same package thus allowing the indication of a decimal
point, (DP) when two or more 7-segment displays are connected together to display numbers greater than
ten.
Each one of the seven LEDs in the display is given a positional segment with one of its connection pins
being brought straight out of the rectangular plastic package. These individually LED pins are labelled
from a through to g representing each individual LED. The other LED pins are connected together and wired
to form a common pin.
So by forward biasing the appropriate pins of the LED segments in a particular order, some segments will be
light and others will be dark allowing the desired character pattern of the number to be generated on the
display. This then allows us to display each of the ten decimal digits 0 through to 9 on the same 7-segment
display.
The displays common pin is generally used to identify which type of 7-segment display it is. As each LED
has two connecting pins, one called the “Anode” and the other called the “Cathode”, there are therefore two
types of LED 7-segment display called: Common Cathode (CC) and Common Anode (CA).
The difference between the two displays, as their name suggests, is that the common cathode has all the
cathodes of the 7-segments connected directly together and the common anode has all the anodes of the 7-
segments connected together and is illuminated as follows.
1. The Common Cathode (CC) – In the common cathode display, all the cathode connections of the LED
segments are joined together to logic “0” or ground. The individual segments are illuminated by application
of a “HIGH”, or logic “1” signal via a current limiting resistor to forward bias the individual Anode
terminals (a-g).

Common Cathode 7-segment Display

2. The Common Anode (CA) – In the common anode display, all the anode connections of the LED
segments are joined together to logic “1”. The individual segments are illuminated by applying a ground,
logic “0” or “LOW” signal via a suitable current limiting resistor to the Cathode of the particular segment
(a-g).
Common Anode 7-segment Display

In general, common anode displays are more popular as many logic circuits can sink more current than they
can source. Also note that a common cathode display is not a direct replacement in a circuit for a common
anode display and vice versa, as it is the same as connecting the LEDs in reverse, and hence light emission
will not take place.
Depending upon the decimal digit to be displayed, the particular set of LEDs is forward biased. For instance,
to display the numerical digit 0, we will need to light up six of the LED segments corresponding to a, b, c, d,
e and f. Thus the various digits from 0 through 9 can be displayed using a 7-segment display as shown.

7-Segment Display Segments for all Numbers.

Then for a 7-segment display, we can produce a truth table giving the individual segments that need to be
illuminated in order to produce the required decimal digit from 0 through 9 as shown below.

7-segment Display Truth Table

Individual Segments Illuminated

Decimal
Digit
a b c d e f g

0 × × × × × ×

1 × ×

2 × × × × ×

3 × × × × ×

4 × × × ×

5 × × × × ×

6 × × × × × ×

7 × × ×

8 × × × × × × ×

9 × × × × ×
Meaning of 3½Digit Display

3.5 digit displays have four digits: one half digit and three full digits. As half digit is the most significant
digit and can either have vale 0 or 1 and full digit can take any value (0 to 9), therefore the range of digital
display will be 0 to 1999.

Since negative sign can be displayed by the readout, the range will be -1999 to 1999. If we want to display
30 on 3.5 digit display, we need to throw out the half digit. The three full digits will be used. Thus the value
displayed will be 300. Now we need to place a decimal. Decimal point in digital display is just a dot symbol
which is manually displayed after appropriate number of segment to show the complete desired number.
This means that the displayed value will be 30.0

Meaning of 4½ Digit Display

4.5 digit display have five digits: 1 half digit and 4 full digit. Thus as discussed in 3.5 digit display, the range
of the display will be 0 to 19999. As negative sign can also be displayed by the instrument, the range will be
-19999 to 19999.

Meaning of 3¾ Digit Display

In 3¾ digit display, the most significant digit may either be 0,1,2 or 3. While the three full digits may have
any value from 0 to 9. Thus the maximum value displayed by such digital readout is 3999. The range of
displayed value will be -3999 to 3999.

Construction of successive approximation type DVM (Digital voltmeter)

Successive approximation type DVM

The successive approximation type DVM is special type of potentiometric DVM in which a digital divider is
used in the place of linear divider. The servomotor replaced by electromagnetic logic. The comparator
compares the output of digital to analog converter with unknown voltage. The digital to analog converter
successively generates the sequence of digits. The signal is sent to the output for display ,when the output of
digital to analog converter becomes equal to the unknown voltage.
It is a special analog to digital conversion technique which is also known as binary regression. The block
diagram of successive approximation type DVM is shown in above figure. The comparator is used to
compare the output of digital to analog converter with unknown input voltage. The comparator output is
given to the sequencer and logic controller. The sequence of code is generated by the sequencer which is
applied to digital to analog converter. The output of DAC is available at position 1 and the
unknown voltage which is to be measured is available at position 2. The logic control is used to drive the
clock. The clock signal is used to connect the switch at position 1 or 2.
Digital Frequency Meter
Digital frequency meter is a general purpose instrument that displays the frequency of a periodic electrical
signal to an accuracy of three decimal places. It counts the number events occurring within the oscillations
during a given interval of time. As the preset period gets completed, the value in the counter display on the
screen and the counter reset to zero. Various types of instruments are available which operates at a fixed or
variable frequency. But if we operate any frequency meter at different frequencies than the specified range,
it could carry out abnormally. For measuring low frequencies, we usually use deflection type meters. The
deflection of the pointer on the scale shows the change in frequency. The deflection type instruments are of
two types: one is electrically resonant circuits, and other is ratio meter.
Operating Principle of Digital Frequency Meter
A frequency meter has a small device which converts the sinusoidal voltage of the frequency into a train of
unidirectional pulses. The frequency of input signal is the displayed count, averaged over a suitable counting
interval out of 0.1, 1.0, or 10 seconds. These three intervals repeat themselves sequentially. As the ring
counting units reset, these pulses pass through the time-base-gate and then entered into the main gate, which
opens for a certain interval. The time base gate prevents a divider pulse from opening the main gate during
the display time interval. The main gate acts as a switch when the gate is open; pulses are allowed to pass.
When the gate is closed, pulses are not allowed to pass that means the flow of pulses get obstructed.
The functioning of the gate is operated by the main-gate flip-flop. An electronic counter at the gate output
that counts the number of pulses passed through the gate while it was open. As the main gate flip-flop
receives next divider pulse, the counting interval ends, and divider pulses are locked out. The resultant value
displayed on a display screen which has the ring counting units of scale-of-ten circuits and each unit couples
to a numeric indicator, which provides the digital display. As the reset pulse generator is triggered, ring
counters get reset automatically, and the same procedure starts again.

The range of modern digital frequency meter is between the range from104 to 109 hertz. The possibility of
relative measurement error ranges between from 10-9 to 10-11 hertz and a sensitivity of 10-2 volt.
Use of Digital Frequency Meter
 For testing radio equipment
 Measuring the temperature, pressure, and other physical values.
 Measuring vibration, strain
 Measuring transducers
CRO THEORY:
The cathode ray oscilloscope is the most versatile measuring instrument available. We can measure
following parameters using the CRO:
1. AC or DC voltage.
2. Time (t=1/f).
3. Phase relationship
4. Waveform calculation: Rise time; fall time; on time; off-time Distortion, etc.
We can also measure non-electrical physical quantities like pressure, strain, temperature, acceleration, etc.,
by converting into electrical quantities using a transducer.

Major blocks:
1. Cathode ray tube (CRT)
2. Vertical amplifier
3. Horizontal amplifier
4. Sweep generator
5. Trigger circuit
6. Associated power supply.

Figure A: BLOCK DIAGRAM OF CRO

1. The cathode ray tube is the heart of CRO. The CRT is enclosed in an evacuated glass envelope to
permit the electron beam to traverse in the tube easily. The main functional units of CRO are as follows.
Electron gun assembly, Deflection plate unit, Screen.
2. Vertical Amplifier is the main factor in determining the bandwidth and sensitivity of an oscilloscope.
Vertical sensitivity is a measure of how much the electron beam will be deflected for a specified input
signal. On the front panel of the oscilloscope, one can see a knob attached to a rotary switch labeled
volts/division. The rotary switch is electrically connected to the input attenuation network. The setting of the
rotary switch indicates what amplitude signal is required to deflect the beam vertically by one division.
3. Horizontal amplifier under normal mode of operation, the horizontal amplifier will amplify the sweep
generator input. When the CRO is being used in the X-Y mode, the horizontal amplifier will amplify the
signal applied to the horizontal input terminal. Although the vertical amplifier mush be able to faithfully
reproduce low-amplitude and high frequency signal with fast rise time, the horizontal amplifier is only
required to provide a faithful reproduction of the sweep signal which has a relatively high amplitude and
slow rise time.
4. Sweep generator and Trigger circuit These two units form the Signal Synchronization unit of the
CRO.
5. Associated Power Supply: The input signal may come from an external source when the trigger
selector switch is set to EXT or from low amplitude AC voltage at line frequency when the switch is set to
LINE or from the vertical amplifier when the switch is set to INT. When set for INT (internal triggering), the
trigger circuit receives its inputs from the vertical amplifier.

MEASUREMENTS USING CRO:-

1.1 Measurement of Voltage Using CRO :

A voltage can be measured by noting the Y deflection produced by the voltage; using this deflection in
conjunction with the Y-gain setting, the voltage can be calculated as follows :

V = (no. of boxes in cm.) x (selected Volts/cm scale)

1.2 Measurement of Current and Resistance Using a CRO :

Using the general method, a correctly calibrated CRO can be used in conjunction with a known value of
resistance R to determine the current I flowing through the resistor.
1.3 Measurement of Frequency Using a CRO :

A simple method of determining the frequency of a signal is to estimate its periodic time from the trace on
the screen of a CRT. However this method has limited accuracy, and should only be used where other
methods are not available. To calculate the frequency of the observed signal, one has to measure the period,
i.e. the time taken for 1 complete cycle, using the calibrated sweep scale. The period could be calculated by
T = (no. of squares in cm) x (selected Time/cm scale)
Once the period T is known, the frequency is given by
f (Hz)= 1/T(sec)

1.4. Measurement of Phase:

The calibrated time scales can be used to calculate the phase shift between two sinusoidal signals of the
same frequency. If a dual trace or beam CRO is available to display the two signals simultaneously (one of
the signals is used for synchronization), both of the signals will appear in proper time perspective and the
amount of time difference between the waveforms can be measured. This, in turn can be utilized to calculate
the phase angleq, between the two signals.
 q
phase shift in cm.
one period in cm.

Figure 1:- PHASE SHIFT BETWEEN TWO SIGNALS

Referring to figure.1, the phase shift can be calculated by the formula;

Phase shift in cm.

q x 360
One period in cm.

Note that the calculation does not involve the actual calibrated time base setting. In fact, the observed
waveforms can be varied using the horizontal amplifier venire adjustment to obtain as many boxes for one
full scale as desired. Another method for fast calculation is to multiply the scale factor by the phase
difference (in cm) where the scale factor is degrees per box or degrees per cm.

1.5 Use of Lissajous Patterns for Frequency Measurements:

If a well calibrated CRO timebase is not available, a signal generator can be used to measure the frequency
of an unknown sinusoidal signal. It is connected to the vertical channel ( or horizontal ) and the calibrated
signal source is fed to the horizontal channel ( or vertical ).The frequency of the signal generator is adjusted
so that a steady Lissajous pattern is obtained. The Lissajous pattern can be very involved to analyze.
However, for the frequency measurement, all that is needed is the number of tangencies (points at the edge
of arcs) along the vertical and horizontal lines.

The frequency relationship between the horizontal and vertical inputs is given by;

fh No. of tangencies (vertical)


fv No. of tangencies (horizontal)

from which fv , the unknown frequency can be calculated.

2. PRELIMINARY WORK:

2.1 The Lissajous pattern shown in figure.4 is observed on the CRT screen. Find the phase shift between the
signals applied to the X and Y inputs of the scope.

y(cm.)
4

x(cm.)
2 4
 Figure.4

2.2. Figure 5 shows a Lissajous pattern observed on the CRT screen. Determine the frequency relationship
between the signals applied to the X and Y inputs of the scope.

Figure.5

2.3 Two sinusoidal inputs having the same amplitudes but different period are applied to the X and Y inputs
of the CRO. Draw the Lissajous pattern which will be observed on the CRT, for Ty  4 Tx .

2.4 The signals given V1 and V2 are applied to the X and Y inputs of the scope. Sketch the Lissajous pattern
and calculate the phase difference between the two signals.

V1  10Cos( wt )
V2  15Sin ( wt  180)