U.S. patent number 3,656,146 [Application Number 05/109,136] was granted by the patent office on 1972-04-11 for integrated circuit character generator.
Invention is credited to Carver A. Mead.
United States Patent |
3,656,146 |
Mead |
April 11, 1972 |
INTEGRATED CIRCUIT CHARACTER GENERATOR
Abstract
Deflection and intensity control signals suitable for forming
characters on the face of the cathode ray tube are derived from
suitably shaped charge pick-up plates capacitively spaced from a
sequentially excited conductor grid.
Inventors: |
Mead; Carver A. (Pasadena,
CA) |
Family
ID: |
22325984 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/109,136 |
Filed: |
January 25, 1971 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
345/13; 345/25;
315/30 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G09G
1/12 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
G09G
1/06 (20060101); G09G 1/12 (20060101); G06f
003/14 () |
Field of
Search: |
;340/324A,166EL,206
;315/18,30,169TV |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Caldwell; John W.
Assistant Examiner: Curtis; Marshall M.
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A character generator for generating voltages for application to
a cathode ray tube to establish a character display on the face
thereof comprising:
a grid of a plurality of parallel spaced substantially coplanar
conductors,
means for charging to a predetermined voltage the conductors of
said grid,
means for sequentially discharging the plurality of parallel spaced
conductors in said grid,
shaped conductive area means capacitively spaced from said grid of
conductors,
said shaped conductive area means being shaped for deriving
voltages from said grid for forming a character display on the face
of a cathode ray tube to which they are applied, and
means for applying the voltages derived by said conductive area
means to a cathode ray tube for forming a character display on the
face thereof.
2. A character generator as recited in claim 1 wherein said shaped
conductive area means comprise a complimentary shaped pair of areas
shaped for providing horizontal deflection voltages,
a complimentary shaped pair of areas shaped for providing vertical
deflection voltages, and
a complimentary shaped pair of shaped areas for providing electron
beam control voltages.
3. A character generator for generating voltages for application to
a cathode ray tube to establish a character display on the face
thereof comprising:
a grid of a plurality of parallel spaced substantially coplanar
conductors,
means for charging up the conductors of said grid,
means for sequentially discharging the plurality of parallel spaced
conductors in said grid,
a plurality of sets of shaped conductive plate means capacitively
spaced from the wires of said grid,
each set being shaped for deriving voltages from said grid required
to establish a different character display when applied to the face
of a cathode ray tube, and
means for selectively applying the voltages derived by one of said
plurality of sets to a cathode ray tube for forming a character
display on the fact thereof.
4. A character generator as recited in claim 3 wherein each of said
plurality of sets of shaped conductive plate means includes three
pairs of complimentary shaped plates,
a first pair being shaped for providing horizontal deflection
voltages,
a second pair being shaped for providing vertical deflection
voltages,
a third pair being shaped for providing electron beam control
voltages.
5. A character generator as recited in claim 3 wherein said means
for sequentially discharging the conductors of said grid
includes:
first normally inoperative means connected to one end of each grid
wire for discharging said wire when rendered operative,
second normally inoperative means connected to the other end of
each grid wire and to the first normally inoperative means of a
succeeding grid wire for rendering said first normally inoperative
means operative in response to the grid wire to which it is
connected being discharged, and
means for rendering operative the first normally inoperative means
of a first of said grid wires.
6. A character generator as recited in claim 4 wherein said means
for selectively applying the voltages derived by one of said
plurality of sets to a cathode ray tube includes for each pair of
plates in each set,
a first, second and third pair of bus lines
a first normally inoperative switch means respectively connecting
one plate of each first pair of plates in each set to one of said
first pair of bus lines,
a second normally inoperative switch means respectively connecting
the other plate of each first pair of plates in each set to the
other of said first pair of bus lines,
a third normally inoperative switch means respectively connecting
one pair of each second pair of plates in each set to one of said
second pair of bus lines,
a fourth normally inoperative switch means respectively connecting
the other plate of each second pair of plates in each set to the
other of said second pair of bus lines,
a fifth normally inoperative switch means respectively connecting
one pair of each third pair of plates in each set to one of said
third pair of bus lines,
a sixth normally inoperative switch means respectively connecting
the other plate of each third pair of plates in each set to the
other of said third pair of bus lines,
a first, second and third differential amplifier each having input
and output,
means connecting said first and second normally inoperative switch
means to said first differential amplifier input,
means connecting said third and fourth normally inoperative switch
means to said second differential amplifier input,
means connecting said fifth and sixth normally inoperative switch
means to said third differential amplifier input, and
means connecting the output of said first, second and third
differential amplifiers to a cathode ray tube, and
means for rendering operative the first, second, third, fourth,
fifth and sixth switch means for a set of plates which produce a
desired character representation on the face of said cathode ray
tube.
7. Apparatus as recited in claim 6 wherein said first and second
differential amplifiers are of the integrating type and said third
differential amplifier is of the current sensitive type.
8. Apparatus as recited in claim 6 wherein said first, second and
third differential amplifiers are of the current sensitive
type.
9. Apparatus as recited in claim 6 wherein there is included an
operative grounding switch means for each plate in each set of
plates,
a ground potential point,
means connecting each plate in each set of plates to said ground
potential point through a different one of said ground switch
means, and
means for rendering inoperative the ground switch means connected
to a set of plates whose inoperative switch means have been
rendered operative.
10. A character generator for generating deflection and beam
control voltages for application to a cathode ray tube to establish
a character display on the face thereof comprising:
a grid of parallel spaced substantially coplanar conductors,
means for charging in parallel to a predetermined voltage the
conductors of said grid,
means for sequentially discharging the conductors of said grid,
a first pair of conductive plate means capacitively spaced from
said grid,
said first pair of conductive plate means having complimentary
shapes for deriving from said discharging wire grid voltages which,
when applied to a cathode ray tube constitute the horizontal
deflection voltages required for displaying a character,
a second pair of conductive plate means capacitively spaced from
said grid,
said second pair of conductive plate means having complimentary
shapes for deriving from said discharging wire grid voltages which,
when applied to a cathode ray tube constitute the vertical
deflection voltages required for displaying a character,
a third pair of conductive plate means capacitively spaced from
said grid,
said third pair of conductive plate means having complimentary
shapes for deriving from said discharging wire grid voltages which
when applied to a cathode ray tube constitute the beam control
voltages required for displaying a character, and
means for applying the voltages derived by said first, second and
third pair of conductive plate means to a cathode ray tube.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to character generators and more
particularly to an improved electrostatic character generator.
The cathode ray tube is presently finding extensive use for
displaying changing information to the public. Numbers and letters
from data sources such as computers can be presented more easily
and at lower cost on a cathode ray tube than in any other manner. A
present widely used approach for displaying information provided in
a standard code, such as ASCII, into a character recognizable by a
human observer is the dot matrix display. This entails causing the
electron beam of the cathode ray tube to be swept in a raster scan
similar to that used in television. The beam is gated on and off at
appropriate places to form a dot display. The 5 wide .times. 7 high
matrix is one industry standard. However, it is conceded that the
legability of letters generated by this method is marginal and the
aesthetic quality is not very good.
The technical drawback of this approach will become clear from the
following. For the usual 10 megacycle or less video bandpass, only
10.sup.7 dots may be written per second with any clarity, allowing
for horizontal and vertical spacing between characters and retrace
time. This means that in a practical system only a hundred thousand
characters may be written per second. In order to prevent serious
visible flicker, the display must be refreshed at least 50 times
per second. Therefore, a maximum of 2,000 characters may be
displayed on a screen at one time using the raster scan dot matrix
approach, even with a 7 .times. 5 format.
More legible characters can be generated using a larger number of
dots. This permits the display of lower case letters, not possible
in a 5 .times. 7 format, but is possible in a 10 .times. 14 format.
However, it is clear, that any attempt to increase legability by
increasing the number of dots would of necessity reduce the number
of displayable characters and/or require a more sophisticated video
system at greatly increased cost.
The basic problem with the dot matrix approach is that characters
are basically styled after cursive motions of the hand and are
inherently not suited to an on/off approach. The eye is very
insensitive to small or even large deviations of a character shape
from that expected so long as they are essentially plastic
deformations of the idealized character. Discontinuities however
are very objectionable and of course are part and parcel of any
strictly digital technique. It is thus apparent that character
generation is fundamentally an analog function which should be
selected digitally by a character code rather than a strictly
digital synthesis. A partial step in this direction has been used
in the trade and is known as the stroke method of character
generation. In this technique a character is represented by drawing
straight line segments from point to point to give an approximation
to the character shape. While such an approach is basically capable
of producing high quality characters it has in the past not been
possible to implement such an approach at low cost. Typical systems
now on the market will generate characters by the stroke method in
5 microseconds, allow strokes only in eight directions, weigh 44
pounds and cost in excess of $5,000.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of this invention to provide a low cost character
generator which affords a character display having excellent
aesthetic quality.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a character
generator having a low video bandwidth requirement while providing
an aesthetically improved character display.
Yet another object of the invention is the provision of a character
generator which can be fabricated using standard integrated circuit
technology and therefore is a low cost and low power system.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a new and novel
character generation system.
These and other objects of the invention may be achieved in a
character generator wherein a parallel grid of conductors are
provided in one plane. These conductors may be charged in parallel
with a suitable voltage and then discharged sequentially. For each
character desired to be displayed, there are provided capacitively
spaced from the conductor grid conductive plates or areas.
One pair of these conductive plates provide horizontal deflection
signals hereafter called X deflection. A second pair of these
conductive plates provide vertical deflection signals hereafter
called Y deflection. A third pair of these plates provide electron
beam on/off control signals, hereafter called Z signals. As a
result of the capacitive spacing from the wires, a charge induced
in the plates as the wires sequentially are discharged. The
sequential discharge of the wires effectively causes a sequential
scan of the plates and the voltage derived from the plates at any
instant is determined by the size of the plate. Changes in the
voltages derived from the sequentially scanned plate are controlled
by changes in the shape of the plate as it is being scanned. The X
and Y voltages are integrated and are applied to the deflection
system of the cathode ray tube which provides the pedestal X and Y
voltages which determine at which location of the CRT the character
is displayed. The Z voltage is applied to the cathode ray electron
beam control to gate the beam on and off as required for the
particular character or symbol being displayed.
When the word "character" is used herein, it is intended to cover
besides a character, a symbol or sign or any free form design for
which this invention can be used to generate signals which when
applied to a CRT will cause a desired display on the fact
thereof.
The novel features of the invention are set forth with
particularity in the appended claims. The invention will best be
understood from the following description when read in conjunction
with the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an embodiment of the
invention.
FIG. 2 is an isometric view illustrating how a portion of the
invention may be fabricated.
FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram illustrating the charging and
discharging arrangement for the drive lines.
FIG. 4 is a waveform diagram showing the voltages which occur on
the sequence of lines as a function of time, and
FIGS. 5 and 6 are illustrative of forms for pick-up plates which
may be used to generate X, Y and Z signals for displaying the
letters M and A for example.
Referring now to FIG. 1 of the drawing, a character generator will
include, a plurality of drive lines, here designated by reference
numerals 1 through 21, by way of illustration. The number of drive
lines is determined by the resolution desired for a particular
character as well as the time allotted for its generation. These
drive lines are preferably all in the same plane. At both ends of
these drive lines are "line charge and discharge" circuits
respectively 30, 32. The details of these will be shown in FIG. 3
herein.
Capacitively spaced from the drive lines are conductive plates or
areas respectively designated as X1, Y1, Z1 and X2, Y2, Z2. There
are three of these conductive plates required to provide horizontal
deflection signals, (X), vertical deflection signals and electron
beam control signals (Z), for each character or symbol desired to
be displayed. Actually each plate consists of two conductive areas,
details of which will be shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. Thus, plates
X.sub.1, Y.sub.1, Z.sub.1 are one set and are assigned to one
character. Plates X.sub.2, Y.sub.2, Z.sub.2 are a second set,
assigned to a second character. More sets of plates are added for
each character or symbol desired to be displayed.
These sets of plates are all connected to a multiplexer circuit
which includes, for the X1 plate, for example, two transistors
respectively 34, 36, which have their source electrodes connected
to the respective portions of the X1 plate and their drain
electrodes connected to a pair of X signal busses respectively 38,
40. The gate electrodes of transistors 34 and 36 are connected
together and to a decoder 42 having its output terminal designated
by the letter A, (assuming that X1, Y.sub.1 and Z.sub.1 will
generate signals corresponding to the letter A). The X collecting
bus lines 38, 40 are connected to an X differential amplifier 44,
whose output is applied to the horizontal deflection circuit of the
cathode ray tube upon which the character A is to be displayed.
Transistors 44, 46, have their source electrodes connected in
parallel with the respective source electrodes of transistors 34
and 36. Their gate electrodes are connected to ground. Their bases
are connected to the decoder 42 by a terminal designated as A.
The Y1 plates are similarly connected to the source electrodes of
two transistors respectively 46, 48. The gate electrodes of these
two transistors are connected to the two Y deflection bus lines 50,
52. The Y deflection bus lines are connected to a Y differential
amplifier 54.
Two additional transistors respectively 56, 58, have their source
electrodes connected in parallel with the source electrodes of
transistors 46, 48, their drain electrodes connected to ground, and
their gate electrodes connected to the A terminal of the decoder
42.
The Z.sub.1 conductive plates are connected to the source
electrodes of transistors 60, 62, whose gate electrodes are
connected to the "A" terminal of decoder 42 and whose drain
electrodes are connected to the Z bus lines respectively 64, 66.
The Z bus lines are connected to a current sensitive Z differential
amplifier 68, whose output is applied to the cathode ray tube beam
control circuit. Transistor 70, 72 have their source electrodes
connected in parallel with the source electrodes of transistors 60
and 62, their drain electrodes connected to ground, and their gate
electrodes connected to the A terminal of the decoder.
The conductive plates assigned to other characters such as X2, Y2,
Z2, are connected to transistors in the multiplexer which are
connected to terminals in the decoder such as B, B, in a similar
manner as has been described in connection with X.sub.1, Y.sub.1
and Z.sub.1.
In operation, code signals representative of a desired character
are applied to the decoder. Before the character is applied to the
decoder, all the NOT terminals (A, B, etc.) are high thus
effectively connecting to ground the source electrodes of all of
the transistors whose drains are connected to the X, Y, and Z bus
bars. This grounds all of the bus bars. All of the lines 1 through
21 are charged to a predetermined voltage when the code signals are
applied to the decoder by a signal applied to a precharge enable
signal source 73, which enables the line charge and discharge
circuits 30, 32.
A selected character, such as "A" would cause the A terminal of the
decoder to go high and the A to go low while all of the other "NOT"
terminals remain high. This unclamps transistors 34, 36, 46, 48 and
60, 62 whereby they can respond to any signal applied to them from
the sets of plates such as X1, Y1 and Z1 to which they are
connected. When a selection is made via the decoder 42, such as the
one just discussed, a strobe circuit 74 is enabled after the lines
1 through 21 have been charged up. This applies a signal to the
line charge and discharge circuit 40. The strobe signal causes
these lines to sequentially discharge.
In response to the discharging lines, voltages are capacitively
induced in the sets of plates X1, Y1, Z1, X2, Y2, Z2, etc. However,
in view of the clamping action caused by the transistors connected
to the "NOT" terminals of the decoder, the only transistors which
can respond to the voltages induced in the plates are those which
have been selected by the decoder. Thus, the voltages induced in
plates X1, Y1, Z1 are selected by transistors 34, 36, 46, 48 and
60, 62, and are applied to the respective X, Y, and Z pick up bus
bars. The outputs of these busses, as previously indicated, are
applied to the respective X, Y and Z differential amplifiers 44, 54
and 68, from whence they are applied to the respective horizontal
and vertical deflection circuits and the beam control circuit on
the cathode ray tube.
From the foregoing it should be clear that any arbitrary function
of time may be generated by varying the width of the conductive
area over each driven line, and hence the capacitive coupling
between that particular driven line and the conducting area.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating, by way of example, one
way of implementing the drive lines and the plates. In FIG. 2,
there is shown, by way of example, three drive lines respectively
1, 2, 3, which are deposited on one surface of an insulator 76.
Upon the other surface of the insulator there is deposited an
X.sub.1 plate designated as X.sub.1 +, and X.sub.1 -. The reasons
for this double conductive area for a plate will be provided
subsequently herein.
Of course, printed circuit or integrated circuit techniques may be
employed for this arrangement.
FIG. 3 illustrates an arrangement for charging and discharging the
lines in the grid employed in this invention, P channel, MOS
technology may be employed in the arrangement for charging and
discharging the lines. The lines are initially precharged to a
negative voltage of, for example, 15 volts through transistors 80,
82, 84, and 86, when the gates of these transistors have an
enabling signal applied thereto from the precharge enable signal
source 73. Current from a source of potential designated as -V, is
applied through the respective bus lines to the drain electrodes of
the transistors 80, 82, 84 and 86. The source electrode of
transistor 80 is connected to one end of line 1, the source
electrode of transistor 82 is connected to one end of line 3. The
source electrode of transistor 84 is connected to one end of line 2
and the source electrode of transistor 86 is connected to one end
of line 4. The other end of line 1 is connected to the gate
electrode of a transistor 88 whose source electrode is connected to
ground and whose drain electrode is connected through a resistor 90
to the potential source -V. The drain electrode of transistor 88 is
also connected to the gate of a transistor 92, whose source
electrode is connected to ground and whose drain electrode is
connected to the one end of line 2 as well as to the source
electrode of transistor 84. The drain electrode of transistor 84 is
connected to the -V potential source. The other end of line 2 is
connected to the gate electrode of a transistor 94, whose source
electrode is connected to ground and whose source drain electrode
is connected to a resistor 96 and to the gate electrode of
transistor 98. The other end of resistor 96 is connected to the -V
potential source. Transistor 98 has its source electrode connected
to ground and its drain electrode connected to the one end of line
3 and to the source electrode of transistor 82. The drain electrode
of transistor 82 is connected to -V potential source.
The other end of line 3 is connected to the gate electrode of a
transistor 100, whose source electrode is connected to ground and
whose drain electrode is connected to a resistor 102 and to the
gate electrode of a transistor 104. The source electrode of
transistor 104 is connected to ground and the drain electrode is
connected to the one end of line 4 and also is connected to the
source electrode of transistor 86. The drain electrode of
transistor 86 is connected to the -V potential source and the other
end of resistor 102 is connected to the -V potential source
also.
It is believed that the circuitry shown and explained for four
lines is adequate to exemplify the structure required for a
multiplicity of lines.
The lines are charged in parallel when a "precharge enable" signal
from the source 73, which is merely a gate, is enabled to apply an
enabling voltage to the gate electrodes of all of the transistors
80, 82, 84, 86, etc. to enable them to apply voltage from the -V
potential source to the lines. The precharge enable signal source
may be activated in any number of ways such as by the discharging
last line, or when a character code is applied to the coder, with
the strobe signal being delayed long enough to permit the circuits
to settle. These techniques are well known to those skilled in the
art.
Once these lines have been charged and the multiplexer has settled,
a character code which is applied to the decoder and a strobe
signal is applied to the gate electrode of a transistor 79.
Transistor 79 has its source electrode connected to ground and its
drain connected to one end of line 1 and also to the source
electrode of transistor 80, whose drain electrode is connected to
the -V voltage source. In response to the strobe signal transistor
79 discharges the voltage of line 1 to ground. When the voltage of
line 1 drops to the threshhold of transistor 88, transistor 88 is
turned off and the voltage at its drain electrode begins to rise.
When the voltage has risen to the threshhold of transistor 92, it
is turned on and commenced to discharge line No. 2 to ground. The
voltage on line No. 2 drops until transistor 94 is rendered
non-conductive. The voltage at the drain of transistor 94 rises
until it attains a value which turns on transistor 98. Transistor
98 discharges line 3.
From the foregoing it will be seen that the lines are charged in
parallel and are sequentially discharged in response to the strobe
input. The voltage on the lines plotted as a function of time as is
shown in FIG. 4. This is shown for six lines. It is clear from FIG.
4, that the time of rapid voltage change for each line (and
consequently the time when capacitive current is flowing to the
overlying conducting areas) is later for higher numbered lines than
for the low numbered lines, being delayed by the propagation delay
through the drive electronics of each line. Thereby the sequential
nature of the deflection of each displayed stroke which the
character generator creates is assured.
The charge induced in any overlying conducting area is proportional
to the capacitance between the driven line and the overlying area
and the voltage excursion of the particular driven line. It is
independent of the rise or fall time of the particular circuit
involved. Since the capacitance between an overlying area and the
driven line is proportional to the area overlapping between the
two, it is essentially a geometrical quantity and easily controlled
as by using the high quality photolithographic technique used to
make ordinary integrated circuits.
This invention may be operated in either of two modes. One is the
current sensitive mode and the other is the integration mode where
charge added to each overlying conducting area is integrated by the
total capacitance of the area and by the input stage of the
amplifier into which the conducting area feeds. The disadvantage of
the current sensitive mode is that the device will be sensitive to
the rise time of the drive electronics. The advantage is that the
output is directly proportional to the width of the conductive area
over a line at a particular time and hence the layout of the plates
is easier. Both systems are workable, but the integrated mode is
preferred for the X and Y plates, since higher precision may be
achieved. The current sensitive mode is preferred for the Z
plate.
FIG. 5 shows an arrangement of conductive areas or plates for the
integrated mode for producing signals for the letter "M". Two
complimentary shaped plates are provided for X, two complimentary
shaped plates for Y and two complimentary shaped plates for Z.
Plates 110 and 112 respectively generate -X and +X signals. Plates
114 and 116 respectively generate -Y and +Y signals. Plates 118 and
120 respectively generate "Z off" and "Z on" signals. Originally,
the deflection system of the cathode ray tube being used for
display positions the electron beam at the lower left-hand corner
of character space. The letter M is then formed by holding the X
coordinate constant and sweeping the Y coordinate with the passage
of time until it reaches the top of the left stroke of the letter
M. At that point the X coordinate is swept in the positive
direction, (to the right), at a rate somewhat slower than the Y
coordinate is swept in the negative direction, (downward). When the
beam reaches the center of the letter M, at the cusp, the direction
of Y is reversed while the direction of the X sweep is maintained
constant. When the beam reaches the upper right-hand corner or
right stroke of the letter M, X is maintained constant and Y is
swept in a negative direction until it reaches the lower right-hand
end of the letter, when the beam is turned off. At this time the
electron beam is positioned to the lower left-hand corner of the
beginning of the next character and the wires are precharged and
the entire cycle can be repeated.
The sequence described is achieved by the widths of the
differential X and Y conductive areas. At the commencement of the
generation of the letter M, it will be seen that the "Z on" plate
120 is wider than the "Z off" plate 118, as a result of which a
larger "Z on" signal is generated whereby the CRT electron beam is
turned on. For the first leg of the character, the +Y area 116 is
made approximately 10 times as wide as the -Y area 114, resulting
in a large differential positive charge on the +Y area relative to
the -Y area. At the same time the +X and -X areas are equal.
The numbers 1 through 27 at the bottom of the drawing represent, by
way of illustration, 27 drive lines which are sequentially
discharged. By the time the 7th drive line has been discharged, the
top of the left stroke of the letter M has been reached. At this
point the +X area which overlies lines 8 through 19 is made wider
than the -X area, six times as wide, by way of illustration, and
hence the differential output from these two lines sweeps the CRT
electron beam in a positive direction. Over these lines, the -Y
area is made much larger than the +Y area hence the charge on the
-Y line increases with time relative to that of the +Y area,
sweeping the electron beam down to form the downgoing part of the
letter M.
At line 14 the +Y area is again made larger than the -Y area thus
sweeping the beam in the upward direction while X is still being
swept. The +X area is still larger than the -X area and thus the
electron beam continues to be swept to the right. Thus, the upward
going center section of the M is formed. The upper right-hand
corner of the letter M occurs between lines 19 and 20. From this
point onward the +X and -X areas are equal again and hence the
differential X output voltage remains constant. However, the -Y
area is made larger than the +Y area and the electron beam is swept
downward to form the right stroke of the letter M.
During the interval described, the output from the two Z plates 118
and 120 are fed into a low input impedance current sensitive
differential amplifier. As previously indicated since the "Z on"
area is larger than the 37 Z off" area, the output of the
differential amplifier will gate the electron beam on. After line
26, the "Z off" area is made larger than the "Z on" area and the
current sensitive amplifier will then turn the electron beam
off.
The integrating mode of operation just described is one wherein the
charge added to each overlying conductive area of a plate in
response to the discharging conductor adjacent thereto, is
integrated by the total capacitance of the area, the multiplexer
electronics and the input stage of the amplifier into which the
character generator feeds. The total voltage change of each line
incrementally adds a charge to the X, Y and Z lines which changes
the voltage sequentially with time, always in the negative
direction, hence the voltage will be a monatonically decreasing
function of time for all lines.
Referring to FIG. 6, the plates for generating the letter A are
shown. As before, in the case of the Z plates the "Z on" plate 122
is larger than the "Z off" plate 124 in order to turn the beam on.
Since the beam will be moved from the left bottom end of the letter
upward to the top along a diagonal, the +Y plate 126 is larger than
the -Y plate 128 to insure upward motion, and the +Y plate 130, is
larger than the -X plate 132 to assure some motion to the right.
When the electron beam reaches the apex of the letter A, which
occurs about line 7, the +Y plate 126 is made small and the -Y
plate 128 is made large. The ratio of the +X and -X plates is
maintained the same. This causes the electron beam to move downward
from the apex and to the right until it reaches the bottom end of
the letter A at drive line 15.
It now becomes necessary to draw the stroke of the A. Until the
electron beam is moved upward to the position of the stroke, which
will be executed from right to left, the beam is turned off. Thus,
the "Z off" plate over lines 15 through 18 is made larger than the
"Z on" plate. The +Y plate is made larger than the -Y plate in
order to elevate the beam from the bottom of the letter A up until
the location where the stroke begins. The -X plate is made somewhat
larger than the +X plate in order to move the beam backward or to
the left to the location where the stroke is to end. From line 18
through line 21, the "Z on" plate is made large again to turn on
the electron beam. Y deflection is to be maintained constant over
this interval and therefore the +Y and -Y plates are made to have
an equal area. X deflection is to occur from right to left, and
therefore the -X plate 132 is made much larger than the +X plate.
When line 21 is reached the letter A is finished and therefore the
"Z off" plate becomes greater than the "Z on" plate turning off the
electron beam.
As pointed out previously, the design of the character generator
described herein lends itself to integrated circuit technology
wherein the entire character generator including the line charge
and discharge circuits, the multiplexer circuit, the drive lines
and the differential outputs may all be incorporated on a single
silicon chip. Characters may be changed by changing chips. The
character generator size may be changed by adding chips.
There has accordingly been described and shown herein a novel,
useful and improved character generator suitable for manufacture
using integrated circuit techniques whereby the costs and size may
be minimized.
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