Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Display (AMLCD) has been well recognized as a display technology for high-resolution flat-panel and projection displays. As a consequence, ever increasing research efforts have been devoted to improve every aspect of the AMLCD technology, including liquid crystal materials, display optics, color filters, panel fabrications and display drivers. At HKUST, we have developed a novel AMLCD technology in which the active matrix was fabricated on silicon substrate. The advantages of using silicon are its better electronic properties and more matured fabrication technology. Very sophisticated driver circuitry and fine pixels can be integrated into a single chip on which the liquid crystal cell is formed. In this thesis research work, a video interface controller, as...[ Read more ]

Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Display (AMLCD) has been well recognized as a display technology for high-resolution flat-panel and projection displays. As a consequence, ever increasing research efforts have been devoted to improve every aspect of the AMLCD technology, including liquid crystal materials, display optics, color filters, panel fabrications and display drivers. At HKUST, we have developed a novel AMLCD technology in which the active matrix was fabricated on silicon substrate. The advantages of using silicon are its better electronic properties and more matured fabrication technology. Very sophisticated driver circuitry and fine pixels can be integrated into a single chip on which the liquid crystal cell is formed. In this thesis research work, a video interface controller, as a part of the AMLCD system, for driving the silicon based AMLCD panel was developed. By using field programmable gate array (FPGA) as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), system design flexibility and fast prototyping were achieved. The video interface controller was able to display both progressive VGA and interlaced NTSC signals in various data inversion formats by proper configuration of the FPGA. Monochrome VGA and NTSC video images have been demonstrated. This fast prototype video interface controller and the associated silicon based AMLCD panel can lead to a versatile multimedia display system.