Display designers at Symbolic Displays Inc. of Santa Ana, Calif., needed reliable active-matrix liquid crystal display glass to build multifunction displays for an F-16 jet fighter simulator. They found what the needed in the CT4040 HiRel from OIS Optical Imaging Systems Inc. of Northville, Mich. OIS will deliver 45 displays to Symbolic.
The CT4040 HiRel is a 4-by-4-inch display that OIS designers also are supplying for the Lockheed Martin F-16 jet cockpit. "We chose it because it is the same AMLCD used in the aircraft," says Roger Gottfried, sales director at Symbolic Displays. "We need to have the same fidelity in the simulator as pilots have in the aircraft. It is a very-high-resolution LCD."
Manufacturing the F-16`s 4-by-4-inch multifunction display with OIS glass are designers at the Honeywell Inc. Defense Avionics Systems division in Albuquerque, N.M.
OIS designs, develops, and manufactures products that require fabrication of microelectronics and other structures on glass. The company`s active-matrix displays are designed into the F-22 and F/A-18 tactical jets, as well as into the AH-64 attack helicopter.
Symbolic Displays, whose engineers specialize in simulated avionics systems, integrates the F-16 simulator multifunction displays, which interface to a host image-generation system. "That is a unique application," Gottfried says.
"In aircraft, all symbology is generated by the onboard computer," he explains. "A simulation, however, is all done outside the aircraft, by the ability of software engineers to reproduce weapons, weather, and all the aspects a pilot sees in an aircraft."
Designers at Symbolic integrate the display, backlighting system, and integrated switch bezel, Gottfried says. - J.K.
For more information on the OIS glass, contact OIS by phone at 734-454-5560, by fax at 734-207-1350, or by post at 47050 Five Mile Road, Northville, Mich., 84167. For more information on the integrated display, contact Symbolic Displays Inc. by phone at 714-258-2811, by fax at 714-258-2810, or by post at 1917 Saint Andrew Pl. East, Santa Ana, Calif., 92705.
