text:
|Publication number
|Publication type
|Application number
|Publication date
|Sep 22, 2009
|Filing date
|Oct 1, 2004
|Priority date
|Feb 17, 1998
|Fee status
|Also published as
|Publication number
|Dennis Lee Matthies, Roger Green Stewart, James Harold Atherton, Dennis J. Bechis, Heinz H. Busta, Zilan Shen
|Original Assignee
|Dennis Lee Matthies, Roger Green Stewart, James Harold Atherton, Bechis Dennis J, Busta Heinz H, Zilan Shen
|Export Citation
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Patent Citations (103), Non-Patent Citations (20), Referenced by (29), Classifications (46), Legal Events (6)
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet
This patent application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/250,324, filed Feb. 16, 1999 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,897,855 which claims the benefit of priority from U.S. Provisional application No. 60/074,922 filed Feb. 17, 1998.
The present invention concerns electronic display devices and, in particular, large-area display devices which are formed as an array of tiled display devices.
There is an unmet need for large-area flat displays. No clear solution is apparent in the market place. This unmet need is becoming increasingly critical since the advancement of information results in increasing amounts of data to be displayed. A solution for large-area displays is needed to serve as the human interface for conveying information from sensors, computers, data bases, cameras etc. in this information dominated age. Many critical applications demand large-area displays:
Home theater applications
Applications that require multiple viewers
Applications in which the user needs to move about in an area
Applications where simulation of the real world is needed for training.
The requirements for each application differs in size, shape, total number of picture elements (pixels), and brightness. Requirements that are common to most applications include, a relatively large number of pixels, color, ruggedness, portability (minimum thickness and weight), reliability, low power, and affordable cost. A good display solution does not exist for these needs using present technology.
There are fundamental technical issues that impose scaling-laws and limit the size of displays that can be manufactured. These fundamental limitations are one reason why a technical solution that meets the need for large-area displays has not been achieved.
One measure of the complexity of a display device is its total number of pixels. The evolution of display technology has made newer and more complex pixel formats possible—VGA, SVGA, XGA, SXGA. Increased complexity typically is accompanied by added costs. The underlying cause of this empirical complexity law is yield losses caused by random material or particle defects. These defects cause manufacturing yields to diminish as the number of pixels in the display increases.
The measure of size of the display is its area. Costs increase exponentially with size. Each technology, LCD, PDP, EL, etc., has its own limit on maximum size. The underlying technical cause of this empirical relationship is tolerance. It is desirable to hold tight tolerances in manufacturing displays because, as the size increases, the effects of thermal expansion, humidity, residual stresses, and physical sag become more important.
Building a large-area display out of smaller tiles has been recognized as a desirable solution. Tiling is an approach that provides great flexibility for size and shape. Tiling is not subject to many of the problems that limit the size of monolithic display technologies. The complexity law does not apply because, depending on the size of the tile, the basic unit of manufacture in tiled displays is less complex than a large, monolithic multi-pixel display. The size law is not a limiting factor because the basic unit of manufacture is relatively small. Tiled displays obey a scaling-law which is not exponential but linear with display area. This fundamentally different scaling behavior is one advantage of tile technology. It reduces manufacturing costs.
No practical tiled display system has yet been developed (video walls formed by abutting conventional CRT displays are not considered tiled because of their wide separations between adjacent displays). What has been missing is a fabrication technology that allows a display to be constructed so that pixels can be brought up to the very edge (actually, with in � pixel spacing period of the edge), while at the same time allowing for electronics to address each tile, even those tiles completely surrounded by other tiles. Two barriers to implementing the tiled approach have been: 1) eliminating the visibility of the seams between tiles, and 2) providing electrical access to the pixels.
One type of tiled display is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,327 entitled TESSELLATED ELECTROLUMINESCENT DISPLAY HAVING A MULTILAYER CERAMIC SUBSTRATE to Onyskevych et al., which is incorporated herein by reference for its teaching on tiled displays. This patent describes an electroluminescent display and a combination field emissive and electroluminescent display which are formed as tiles that may be joined together to provide a large-area display device. The exemplary tiles are formed using low-temperature cofired ceramic and metal structures consisting of multiple layers of ceramic circuit-board material laminated to a metal core.
Driving circuitry for the displays is mounted on the back of the structures and vias are passed through the structure from the back to the front in order to make connection with the pixel electrodes on the front of the display device. The vias that make these connections pass between pixel positions on the display. In addition, connections are made on a pixel-by-pixel basis or for a small group of pixels. Thus, a display device according to the referenced patent may need a relatively large number of vias. The described tiles include connectors at their edges through which multiple tiles may be interconnected.
The present invention is embodied in an improved tiled display structure. According to one aspect of the invention, the picture element (pixel) structure on each tile has a relatively small active region such that an electrical via may be formed within the pixel area without interfering with the active region of the pixel.
According to another aspect of the invention, the active region of each pixel is offset from the center of the pixel area in at least one of the horizontal and vertical directions such that connecting vias may be formed through pixels along at least one edge of the tile.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, the active area of each pixel is centered in the pixel area.
According to another aspect of the invention, each tile includes a display section and an electronics section and the connecting vias are coupled to connecting pads on the back side of the display section, the connecting pads being arranged to couple with corresponding connecting pads on the front side of the electronics section.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, each connecting pad is electrically coupled to one row electrode or one column electrode at a plurality of respectively different locations.
According to another aspect of the invention, each tile includes circuitry which receives image data and timing information and which stores the received image data for display.
According to another aspect of the invention, this circuitry also compensates for luminance chromaticity non-uniformities in the tile and among the tiles of the display.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, each tile includes circuitry which periodically adjusts the values which compensate for the luminance and chromaticity non-uniformities to compensate for changes in the operational characteristics of the tile over time.
According to another aspect of the invention, the tiles use a block-wise passive addressing technique.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, the pixels on the tile organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs).
According to another aspect of the invention, the tiles are rigidly coupled to a backpanel structure which provides operational power and data to the tiles and which holds the tiles in position to form a large area display.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, the tiles are physically arranged in a spring-loaded frame which provides operational power and data to the tiles via a flexible connector.
According to another aspect of the invention, each tile includes an electrical connection to receive operational power and an optical connection to receive image data.
According to another aspect of the invention, the frame which holds the tiles to form the large area display includes an optical integrating structure having dark stripes that define a matrix of transparent cells and each tile is mounted in the integrating structure such that each of its active areas is aligned with a respective one of the transparent cells of the optical integrating structure.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, the optical integrating structure includes mullions, coincident with at least a portion of the dark stripes, the mullions defining respective sub-areas on the optical integrating structure into which respective tiles are placed, to mount the tiles to the optical integrating structure.
According to another aspect of the invention, each of the mullions has a "T" shaped cross section and the top surface of the mullion is the same color as the dark stripes while the vertical bar of the mullion is transparent.
According to another aspect of the invention, each of the mullions has a "T" shaped cross section and the top surface of the mullion is the same color as the dark stripes while the vertical bar of the mullion is a color having a reflectivity which approximates the composite reflectivity of the materials which form the tiles.
According to another aspect of the invention, the tiles are respective cathodoluminescent devices having a single cathode which may be controlled to illuminate a plurality of respectively different phosphors.
The invention is described in terms of exemplary embodiments which are illustrated in the drawing figures. The drawing figures are not to scale. Indeed, dimensions of the drawing figures are exaggerated to aid in the description of the invention. Although the invention is described in terms of an optical light emitting diode (OLED) display device, it is contemplated that it may be practiced with other emissive display technologies such as electroluminescent, light emitting diode (LED) or plasma technology; or with reflective display technologies such as Bistable, Reflective Cholesteric (BRC) liquid crystal technology.
The tiles are constructed with pixel forming elements evenly spaced up to the edges of the tiles. As described below with reference to
Although the display 100 is shown as being formed from tiles having 16 pixel forming elements in a four by four array, it is contemplated that each tile may include many more pixels. In one exemplary embodiment of the invention, described below, each tile includes 896 pixel forming elements arranged as a 32 by 28 matrix. These tile sizes are only exemplary. It is contemplated that each tile may include more or fewer pixel forming elements. In addition, it is contemplated that a single display may be, formed from tiles having differing numbers of pixel forming elements. For example, a display may have tiles with relatively large numbers of pixel forming elements near the center and tiles having relatively small numbers of pixel forming elements near the edges.
In one exemplary embodiment of the invention, the pixel forming elements are made from an organic light emitting diode (OLED) material. The basic light emitting structure consists of a thin organic polymer layer sandwiched between a pair of appropriately selected and patterned electrodes. Current flowing from one electrode to the other electrode causes the organic polymer to emit light. At least one of the electrodes is desirably transparent to the emitted light. Indium tin-oxide is the usual material used for this purpose. OLED materials provide high brightness and high efficiency, and are relatively low cost materials.
An exemplary display structure according to the present invention is formed in two parts: a display section and an electronics section. These two parts are made separately and then joined to form a complete tile. The display section consists of a transparent glass layer on which are transparent column electrodes are deposited. The OLED material is deposited onto these layers, as the active (i.e., light emitting) medium. Row electrodes are deposited as the final display layer. Additional layers such as blocking or passivation layers may be present to improve the function or life of the display layers. The transparent electrode is preferably the hole injecting electrode and the other electrode is preferably the electron injecting electrode. The OLED materials between the electrodes are preferably conjugated polymer materials that are applied by thick film processes, however, small molecule materials can alternatively be applied by various thin film deposition techniques. The layers are patterned so that there is electrical access to each row and column at one or more points.
As an alternative to the OLED materials, the pixel forming elements of the tiles may be any of a number of emissive devices such as electroluminescent elements, light emitting diodes, field emissive elements, plasma elements or cathodoluminescent elements.
The electronics section is formed by punching or drilling vias through the circuit board and then printing or otherwise depositing the conductive traces on the circuit board. The conductive ink or paste used to form the conductive traces may also fill the vias. The vias make contact with the row and column electrodes of the display section when the electronics section and the display section are joined to form a tile.
Although it is not illustrated, another exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a pixel forming structure that is appropriate for applications in which either a reflective or low power display is needed. The substrate and the electronics of this new structure are essentially the same as described below for the OLED embodiments. The display layer in this alternative embodiment, however, is a reflective display material. For example, a Bistable, Reflective Cholesteric (BRC) liquid crystal material which provides for a low power, bistable display. The disclosed tile structure enables, for the first time, video-rate displays in large area BRC displays. These materials switch between a planar, reflective state and a relatively transparent focal conic state. Utilizing a black backing, these two states may appear colored and black. The BRC materials offer distinct advantages for large area tiled displays: the operation between a reflecting and transparent state, combined with a black back-plane makes possible bright, high contrast displays under a variety of lighting conditions; and the bistability also allows for maintaining static images with no power applied.
One exemplary tile structure consists of a multilayer ceramic circuit board 132 that serves as a substrate upon which: the display material is mounted on the viewer side while the electronics 134 (active and passive) for drive or other functions are mounted mostly on the back side. Conductor elements 132 are printed on the individual layers to provide interconnections between the electronics and the display material, vias interconnect the conductors in different layers; and connectors are provided on the back surface to connect to external power and signal sources. The tile structure may also have a structural layer(s) such as a high softening point metal or insulator to provide freedom from distortion during the processing of the ceramic materials, and/or thermal management during the operation of the display. The tile structure also contains a transparent layer (e.g. float glass) on the viewer surface to protect or contain the display material. A back panel structure is provided to mount the individual tiles and to provide electrical connection to the power and drive signals needed by each individual tile structure.
The Multilayer ceramic circuit board 130 may be formed of layers of ceramic material. The layers are first formed and processed to form vias, conductors, and other features and then assembled in a stack taking care to carefully align each layer with those layers adjacent to it. Ceramic material here is meant in the broadest sense to include ceramics, glass ceramics, glass, and other high temperature insulating materials. The multiple layers together with the connectors and vias provide the basic function of a circuit board upon which active and passive electrical devices and circuits can be placed.
The conductors 132 may be thin and/or thick film conductors formed by any of the standard processes including, for example plating, evaporation, sputtering, printing and laminating. The materials may be metals or organic conductors. The conductors may be patterned by processes that may include, for example, printing or photolithography. These conductor patterns are formed on the surfaces of the individual layers in the disclosed structure and connect to the vias to provide, according to the design of the device a means of interconnecting the electronics on and external to the disclosed structure to the display material.
Another class of conductors are used to interconnect the layers. These conductors are called vias. Via is used in the broadest sense and includes conductors that go through openings in the layer and those that go around the edge of a layer(s). Vias that go through a layer can be formed, for example, by making a hole in the layer and filling that hole with a conductor. Alternatively, pre-formed physical conductors may be imbedded in the layer. Vias that go over the edge of a layer(s) can be formed by physically placing a wire (round or flat), or array of wires, and wire bonding the ends to the surfaces to be interconnected. Alternatively they can be formed in place by plating or other fabrication process for thick or thin film conductors.
A core layer may also be included in this structure. This layer typically has a higher softening point than the ceramic materials and serves as a substrate for the assembly and processing of the ceramic material. The core layer acts to: eliminate horizontal shrinkage; establish a single coefficient of expansion for the multilayer system, and provide mechanical ruggedness to the multilayer assembly. If the layer is a good electrical conductor it may also provide RF shielding. If the layer is also a good thermal conductor, it contributes to the thermal management of the display. Conductive layers, however, present a special problem for via connections. Via connections through metal layers can be fabricated in several ways: filling the periphery of the hole with an insulating material before putting a metal conductor through the middle, or by putting the conductor only through the middle leaving space separating the conductor from the conductive metal core.
The electronics which form the image processing and pixel driving circuitry are mounted on the layers. Electronics are used in the broadest sense to include both active and passive, and both discrete devices mounted on the layers and devices formed in place by processes such as those now used to make active matrix circuits for displays on various high temperature substrates. While these electronics can be placed anywhere, the most convenient location is the back surface. This permits standard assembly and attachment equipment and processes to be used. In addition, the placing of active or passive devices on the intervening layers or viewer surface permits greater flexibility in the system design.
The display material is applied to the surface visible to the viewer. Because of the flexibility of the construction of the disclosed structure, different display materials can be used.
The edges of the tiles are desirably carefully formed to ensure that the tiled display has no visible seams between the tiles. One criterion for the tiles is that the spacing between the pixels separated by the tile seam is the same as the spacing of pixels on the tile. To satisfy this criterion, the tile edges are desirably dimensionally precise. Furthermore, if the edges are also used for conductors or if mullions are used to join adjacent tiles, it is desirable to account for the thickness of these conductors or mullions in the design and placement of the tiles.
A backpanel may be provided for the physical mounting and interconnection of the tiles to form a display. The mounting of the tiles is done such that there is a continuity in the pixel spacing over the display. The shape of the tiles is most typically square or rectangular, however the shape can be any shape that can be tiled to form a larger display. Also, the tile is typically flat, but may be curved along one or both dimensions to form curved or domed displays. Curved or domed displays can also be made using flat tiles mounted on a curved or domed backpanel. Tiles may be attached to the backpanel either by permanent connection such as soldering or using connectors which allow the tiles to be plugged into the backpanel. This latter method permits the repair and replacement of individual tiles. Different types of tiles may be attached to different areas of the backpanel—for example, higher resolution areas may be placed in the center or other areas of the large display. In addition, different sized or different shaped tiles may be combined in a single display. For example, tiles near the edges of a large panel may be larger and have a lesser pixel density than tiles near the center of the panel.
The back panel may also provide the means for connecting the tiles to the operational power and data signals needed to operate the tile. Matching connectors may be provided on both the backside of the tile and the backpanel to provide this connection. In the case of the data signal connections, optical connection may be used as an alternative to physical connection.
The electrical structure of the backpanel provides for the distribution of power and signals to the tiles, and the electrical structure of the tiles provide for the addressing of the display pixels. Both levels of structure are described. The information needs of a tiled display increase with the size of the display as measured in total number of pixels. A greater number of pixels on a tile translates to greater amounts of data stored on the tile and greater rates of information transfer.
One advantage of the tiled display is that the scan electronics can be internal to the tile and the scan rate of any one tile is the same for a small display or for a large display. This ensures that the brightness and gray scale of the display do not degrade with increasing size. The tiled displays described in detail below have an architecture which connects the signals to the pixels without interrupting the continuity of the pixel spacing, even at the edges of the tiles. The disclosed tiled displays may also have signal processing circuitry which extracts the signal information for that tile from a broadcast information signal and transforms the extracted information into the signals needed to address that tile.
In general, the front-to-back connections include one for each row of pixels and one for each column of pixels on the tile. Tiled displays have relatively few pixels so that the number of interconnects per tile is relatively small and the yield on individual tiles can be high. This is a significant advantage of tiled displays when compared to fabrication of large displays from single substrates. In general, the yield is a function of the number of pixels in the display device.
The final connection to the row or column is made with a via that extends from the back surface of the tile. This via has a diameter less than the spacing of a pixel. To accomplish this, the portions of the vias in the display layer(s) may be made smaller than the vias through the other intervening layers, and, as described below, the connections may be staggered over the area of the tile to provide maximum spacing between the wider interconnects. These connections are the final link in the distribution of the display signals to the pixels.
As shown in
The circuitry shown in
In the exemplary embodiment of the invention, each tile may be separately compensated to ensure that all tiles display pixels having a uniform brightness with uniform colors. The exemplary method for compensating the tiles is described in terms of an OLED display material. It is contemplated, however, that a similar method may be used with other types of emissive and light modulating display materials.
The level of light emitted by a particular OLED pixel is a function of the level of current provided to that pixel. Thus, the brightness of each pixel in the display is controlled by controlling the magnitude of current that is supplied to that pixel during normal operation. In the exemplary embodiment of the invention, each pixel is either turned on or off. Gray scale is achieved by changing the relative amount of time that one pixel is turned on. The amount of light emitted by a pixel when it is turned on is controlled by controlling the level of current applied to the pixel in the on state. In the exemplary embodiment of the invention, the level of current applied to each pixel may be adjusted to match the amount of light emitted by the pixel to the amounts of light emitted by every other pixel in the display device. The pulse width of the pulse which drives the pixel is changed to modulate the brightness of the pixel when an image is being displayed on the tile.
The exemplary embodiment of the invention employs a passive addressing technique within a block in which only one row of pixels is illuminated at any time. The scanning circuitry steps through each row on the tile and illuminates that row for a predetermined interval. Because each tile is individually scanned, all of the tiles may illuminate a row simultaneously. Thus, each time a single tile refreshes its pixels, the entire display device also refreshes its pixels. To minimize display artifacts, it may be desirable to synchronize the scanning signals used by the tiles. For example, it may be desirable to use the same scan timing for all tiles on a row to minimize apparent differences between tiles on the row. In addition, it may be desirable to synchronize all of the tiles on the display to have the same scan timing. In this instance, immediately after one row of tiles completes its scan, the next row of tiles begins its scan. Thus, the scan line appears to move uniformly down the display device while other scan lines are also moving down the tiled display device. In this configuration, the display device would appear to have a number of scan lines equal to the number of rows of addressing blocks in the device. The row selection circuitry 222 may be, for example, a conventional clocked shift register having a number of stages equal to the number of rows in the addressing block. The shift register clocks a single logic-high value through the rows of the addressing block. As the logic-high value is applied to each row, the pixels in that row are selected.
Referring, again, to
As described above, the display of pixel data is controlled by pulse-width modulating the current signals provided to the selected row of pixels. In the exemplary embodiment of the invention, a random access memory 212 stores a number of pixel values which may, for example, correspond to the number of pixels on the tile. When the tile is to display a line of data, the timing and sequence logic 210 selects a row, fetches the line of data corresponding to the selected row and applies the selected data to the pulse width modulator (PWM) 218. The PWM 218 converts the binary values into respective pulse widths and controls the column drivers to apply the current levels provided by the programmable current sources 216 to the column electrodes of the tile. Because only one row is selected, these current values flow through the display materials only on the one row, causing the row to emit light. The memory 212 may hold more or less data than would be required to operate the number of pixels on the tile. If the memory holds less data, then new data may need to be stored into the tile while previously stored data is being displayed. If the memory 212 holds more data, then the circuitry shown in
The timing and sequence logic 210 receives the timing and control signal and decodes the control signal to determine which functions are to be performed. During the manufacturing process, each tile may be calibrated to a nominal brightness value by, for example, mounting the completed tile onto a test fixture which has a photocell corresponding to each pixel position. Each pixel is individually turned on and its brightness is compared to the nominal brightness and a control value for the pixel is applied to the programmable current source 216 for that pixel. When the nominal brightness level is reached, the value applied to the current source 216 is stored into the non-volatile memory 214.
The tile may also include circuitry which automatically adjusts the pixel brightness to compensate for aging of the display material. This circuitry may, for example, allow a viewer to display a predetermined brightness value, select an individual tile and adjust the brightness value up or down to match the brightness of the selected tile to match its neighbors. Alternatively, the tile may include a small light sensor over one or more pixel positions which continually monitors the brightness of that pixel and adjusts the current level applied to that pixel—and the current levels applied to all of the other pixels on the display—to compensate for variations in pixel brightness due to aging of the display. To minimize the visibility of the light sensor, it may be placed away from the active pixel area so that it is responsive to scattered light.
Alternatively, the circuitry 134 may include an all electronic compensation system which continually adjusts the brightness of individual pixels to compensate for aging. The inventor have determined that the decay in the brightness of an OLED pixel that occurs with aging can be predicted by measuring the current and time for a particular pixel, and integrating the product of current and time. This product can be fitted to a characteristic curve and used to adjust the drive current to predict a new drive current which restores the original brightness level of the pixel. As a further improvement, it has been found that the rate of decay for different pixels differs slightly, and the initial decay slope can be measured during burn in and used as a second order correction factor in the algorithm for calculating any change in drive current for that pixel. The exact form of this adjustment depends on the geometry of the pixels and the materials that are used to form the pixels. A suitable adjustment may be readily determined by one skilled in the art of designing OLED displays by monitoring the performance of an exemplary pixel over time.
Another method of compensating for loss in brightness due to aging is to monitor the voltage that is applied to the pixel. For example, at time T0, when the brightness level of the pixels is first adjusted, a current I0 at a voltage V0 produces brightness B0. At some later time T2, two changes occur; it now takes voltage V2 to produce the same constant current I0, and the brightness at this I0 is now B2 (B2<B0). The inventors have determined that the change in voltage dV=(V2−V0) is proportional to the change in brightness dB=(B2−B0). Knowing this proportionality constant allows for electronically calculating a new current I2 that will produce the original B0. This algorithm can be incorporated in the electronics on the electronic drive block, and the result is that the brightness can be maintained at constant brightness automatically without manual adjustments. This proportionality constant varies for different pixel geometries and different OLED materials. It can be easily determined by one skilled in the art of designing OLED displays by monitoring the performance of an exemplary pixel over time.
Alternatively, an external system of reestablishing the brightness uniformity may be employed. Such a system may, for example, incorporate a sensor that detects and measures individual pixel brightness and some means to communicate with the display electronics so that the correct drive voltage needed to establish the desired brightness can be stored in the display tile memory.
While specific examples have been given, it is contemplated that any of these methods for adjusting the current applied to a pixel in order to maintain a predetermined brightness level may be combined with any other method either as a check or to augment the performance of the other method.
The exemplary display device calibrates the brightness of the pixels using a method (i.e. current control) which is orthogonal to the method (i.e. pulse-width modulation) which is used to control the pixels to achieve gray scale. This is advantageous as it allows the individual pixels to be calibrated to display brightness levels which are consistent across the entire dynamic range of the display.
The display section includes a transparent front plate which may be, for example, a float glass plate. Transparent column electrodes 322 are formed on the front plate 320 by forming thin bands of a transparent conductor, such as indium-tin oxide, using well known processes. This may be done, for example, by depositing a film of ITO over the surface of the float glass plate and selectively etching the ITO to form the electrodes. The display materials, red, green and blue OLED materials 324 and 326, including a hole transport layer, a light emitting layer and an electron injecting layer, are deposited on top of the column electrodes to define the active area of the pixel. The hole transport layer is electrically coupled to the column electrodes, and the light emitting layer is electrically coupled to the hole transport layer. The electron injecting layer which may, for example, be formed from metallic calcium is formed on top of the light emitting layer. The row electrodes 328 are formed on top of the electron injecting layer. As described below with reference to
On top of the insulating layer are deposited a plurality of connecting plates 332. The plates 332 may be formed using, for example, vapor deposited aluminum or a metallic ink or paste, such as silver combined with a solvent, which is deposited using thick film processes. As described below with reference to
The electronics section 312 includes image processing and display driving circuitry 134 (not shown in
It is contemplated, however, that other methods may be used to electrically connect the connecting pads to their respective connecting plates. For example, the connecting plates 322 and connecting pads 334 may be made from a deformable material and patterned to include a portion which extends above the plane of the pad or plate. When the electronics section is mated to the display section, the patterned material on the connecting plates 322 and connecting pads 334 comes into contact and deforms, forming an electrical connection between the corresponding connecting pads and plates. The pads 334 and plates 322 may also be connected by bump-bonding techniques or using wires that are implanted in one of the pads 334 or plates 322 and engage the plate 322 or pad 334 when the electronics section 312 is mated to its corresponding display section 310.
The circuit board for the tile shown in
If the tile shown in
The column electrodes 528 are formed on top of the display material 526. The column electrodes are connected to the circuit board through the vias 520 which extend through each level of the display tile from level 510 through level 526. Each column electrode is coupled to a respectively different via 520. As in the tile structure shown in
If the tile shown in
The tile structure shown in
In a separate step, the black matrix or filter 530 may be formed on the float glass cover 532. The combined mask and cover is then aligned with the display device such that the openings in the mask correspond to the active pixel regions of the display material. The glass cover 532 is then sealed to the composite fired ceramic structure using, for example, a frit glass.
As shown in
Although the pixel diagram shown in
The displays described above have been, in general, monochrome displays. The pixels have a single emissive area which is controlled by a single row and column electrode pair. Color pixels may be implemented as shown in
As described above with reference to
Although not shown in
Because each connecting plate makes electrical contact with only one row electrode or column electrode, it is desirable for the number of connecting plates implemented in a display tile to be greater than or equal to the sum of the number of columns and the number of rows in the tile. In an exemplary tile according to the subject invention, there are 28 rows and 32 columns of pixel elements. Thus, there should be at least 60 connecting plates and connecting pads in the tile display section and the tile electronic section. There are a total of 896 pixel positions on the exemplary tile. To allow for good isolation among the respective connecting plates and connecting pads, each connecting plate may cover 12 pixel positions arranged in a 2 by 6 matrix. Because the locations at which connections may be made to the column electrodes are more limited than the locations at which connections may be made to the row electrodes, the exemplary connecting plate may cover 2 row pixel positions by 6 column pixel positions.
Because ITO is not as good a conductor as aluminum or silver, there may be resistive voltage drops along the column electrodes from the locations at which the electronics module 134 is connected to the column electrode. To reduce the magnitude of these resistive voltage drops, it may be desirable to connect the electronics module to each column electrode at several spaced points along the column electrode. Because these points are desirably not adjacent, it may be desirable to allocate two or even three connecting plates 332 for each column electrode 322. Thus, the number of connecting plates 332 and connecting pads 334 may be greater than the sum of the number of row electrodes and column electrodes.
Other tile configurations are contemplated by the subject invention. One desirable configuration is a tile which extends the full length (height) of the display and has a width of, for example, 32 columns. A tile having this shape would require only horizontal (vertical) alignment. In addition, the connecting plates and connecting pads may be made to cover many more columns than rows, providing many more locations at which to make connections to the column electrodes than if the connecting plates and connecting pads were approximately square. It is also contemplated that a display may be formed from different shaped tiles, for example long tiles that span the entire height of the display on the sides and smaller, square tiles near the center of the display. The different tiles may also employ different pixel pitches such that the tiles on the sides of the display may have a relatively large pixel pitch while the tiles near the center of the display have a relatively small pixel pitch.
Furthermore, although the exemplary embodiments of the invention show the electronics sections of the tiles being the same size as the display sections, it is contemplated that these may be different sizes. For example, a single electronics section (not shown) may be as large as two contiguous display sections (not shown). When assembled into a single tile, two display sections would be aligned with and bonded to the single electronics section. In one contemplated configuration, an electronics section is formed which spans the entire display device and individual display section tiles are mounted onto the electronics section. In this configuration, the electronics section may include multiple electronics modules 132.
It is also contemplated that the electronics sections may be smaller than the display sections. Thus, an entire display may consist of a single display section (not shown) that is bonded to multiple electronics sections (not shown). It may be desirable to manufacture the display sections and the electronics sections in different sizes to maximize yield of both components. The assembly of multiple display sections onto a single electronics section should align the pixels such that no seam is visible between contiguous display sections.
As an alternative to the structure shown in
State-of-the-art tiled displays using CRTs or projection displays use a mullion between the individual displays to hide the physical gap, however, these mullions are visible to the observer and are also objectionable to the viewer because they break the continuity of the image. It is, therefore, desirable that any structure used to make the gap invisible does not break the continuity of the larger image.
Another structure commonly found in both tiled and non-tiled displays is a black matrix. A black matrix may be fabricated from black lines. The black matrix is put between the active portions of the pixels to absorb ambient light in these areas in order to increase the display contrast. Black matrix lines may be found, for example between the phosphors on the front screen of a CRT or between the pixel positions defined for a liquid crystal display. In tiled displays, black matrix lines are typically smaller than mullions and are typically placed in the plane of the pixels. Because the black matrix lines are periodic and placed between the pixels, they do not tend to break the continuity of the image.
The present invention employs an optical structure that may be incorporated in a tiled display to make the physical gaps between the tiles indistinguishable from the black matrix and, thus, invisible to the viewer. An illustration of this structure is shown in
Unlike a conventional black matrix, the disclosed optical structure for integrating display tiles is placed above the plane containing the pixels (like mullion structures), on the viewer-side of the tiles 120, with the black line pattern being in contact with the display tiles. Unlike mullions, the black lines on the optical integrator structure 2020 are relatively narrow, so that the black lines which cover the mullions are essentially the same width as the black lines which form the black matrix. Thus the disclosed structure simultaneously provides the functions of the black matrix and the mullions, but the mullion lines are not visible, as such, to the viewer because all lines in the pattern on the optical integrator structure 2020 are essentially the same and are virtually indistinguishable. Accordingly, the viewer simply sees a uniform pattern of black lines. A key feature of this aspect of the subject invention is the precise specification of the pattern of black lines and mullions on the disclosed optical integrator structure so that the physical gaps between tiles are hidden from the viewer, and at the same time so that little or no emitted light is blocked from exiting the display. In addition, the black matrix and the mullions do not disturb the continuity of the larger image, even across the gaps between tiles.
To more easily explain the optical integrator structure shown in
To determine the optimum placement for a black stripe or a mullion on the front surface of the glass substrate of an emissive display, it is helpful to understand the properties of light emitted by the display.
The angle of incidence of the rays 1716 which are at the transition is called the critical angle (Θc). Light reaching the surface 1712 with angles less than the critical angle exits the glass, and light reaching the surface 1712 with angles larger that the critical angle are totally internally reflected. The critical angle is dependent on the index of refraction, nglass, of the glass substrate 320 as shown in equation (1):
Θc=Sin−1(1/n glass) (1)
In the exemplary embodiment of the invention, nglass=1.55 and Θc≈40�.
A tiled display is made of tiles that are placed in an array so that the spacing between pixels across the gap between tiles is substantially the same as the pitch between pixels within the display tiles. Thus, the display tile edge is one half pitch distance (or slightly less) from the center of the last pixel. Because of the critical angle, light emitted from a point within a sheet of glass can travel at most a lateral distance of dc=tglass Tan(Θc), where tglass is the thickness of glass. Therefore, light from any part of a gap region may be blocked by putting a black stripe of width Wm.≧2dc over the gap region. Such a black stripe is shown in
Referring, again, to the structure shown in
The black lines on the optical integrating structure 2020 that form the mullions which are used to cover the inter-tile gap tend to be wider than the typical black matrix line and may block some or all of the light emitted from the pixels near the edge of the tile. To allow the maximum amount of light to pass and yet avoid any artifact distortion in the assembled display device, the display tiles and the black stripes on the integrating structure 2020 are desirably specifically designed to have particular relationships.
There are two width criteria to be met by the black stripes that form the black matrix, and the top bar of the mullions: Wm≧2dc (to hide the gap 2012), and Wm≦P−dp−2dc (to avoid blocking light from the pixels). The most desirable solution is the design point with the largest glass thickness, where both criteria are met. That design point is met when the thickness of the glass is 0.15 times P, the pixel pitch, and the width of the black stripe is 0.25 times the pixel pitch. Designing the display tile and black matrix stripes to meet that condition results in making a large area display by integrating individual tiles behind the optical integrating structure has the result that the individual tiles having inter-tile gaps that cannot be detected.
When the thickness of the glass substrate 320 and the width of the black stripe satisfy the criteria described above, no light that is directed toward a viewer directly in front of the display (e.g. viewing from a normal angle) is blocked, but some light from greater viewing angles may be blocked. Meeting these criteria, however, leads to improved contrast since the fraction of the display occupied by the black matrix is larger. In other words, some blockage of light from wider viewing angles may be considered acceptable as being advantageous for higher contrast at normal viewing angles.
As described above, in the exemplary embodiment of the invention, the pixels on the tiles have an aperture of approximately 25% in order to allow room within the pixel for a via to make electrical contact with a column electrode. Thus, in the exemplary embodiment of the invention, dp is approximately P/2. This relatively small aperture also has advantages by making it easier to hide the inter-tile gap and allowing a relatively large-stripe black matrix to improve the contrast of the display.
It is contemplated that the contrast may be further improved by coating the viewer-side of the integrating structure 2020 with an antireflection coating and/or by adding an ambient light absorber or color filter on that surface or in the bulk of the material (e.g. glass or plastic) from which the optical integrating structure 2020 is constructed.
It is also contemplated that the integrating structure 2020 may include a diffuser coating on the viewer-side surface. This diffuser enlarges the apparent size of the pixels reducing the visibility of the individual pixels and black matrix structure. Thus, a diffuser may act to reduce the graininess of the displayed image. This may be significant, especially for display devices having relatively large pixels or which have smaller pixels but are designed to be viewed at close proximity to the display device. Another method by which the visibility of the pixel structure may be reduced is to use a quad pixel structure, such as that shown in
The integrating structure 2020 also provides a simple way to align and mount the display tiles. In particular the patterns on the integrating structure 2020 may be accurately aligned with the pixels using, for example moir� patterns, to position a tile and then the tile may be mounted onto the structure 2020 with an optically clear adhesive.
Although the embodiments of the invention described above have been in terms of an OLED display device, it is contemplated that similar concepts may be practiced with other types of display tiles. The example described below, with reference to
Current concepts for cathodoluminescent modules that would be tiled together to form a billboard display call for a cathode for each color subpixel. For example, a 4 pixel�4 pixel color module would therefore require an array of cathodes consisting of 4 rows and 12 columns. In turn, this would require 4 leads for 4 rows and 12 leads for 4 triplets of R, G, B columns, for a subtotal of 16 leads. Two additional leads would be required: one of anode potential and one to provide voltage on the control grid. Thus, the total number of leads is 18.
A cathodoluminescent tile according to the present invention would provide for a greatly reduced number of leads and cathodes and would have other performance benefits as well. In the concept disclosed herein, each cathodoluminescent tile includes a plurality of color pixels arranged on a screen, a single cathode and X and Y electrostatic focus/deflection grids that are used to raster a beam across the screen of color pixels. The 4�4 module would have two leads for the X focus/deflection plates, two leads for the Y focus/deflection plates, one lead each for the cathode and control grid, and one lead for the anode. Thus, a 4 by 4 pixel tile according to the present invention would use only seven leads as opposed to 18 leads for the conventional configuration.
Electrostatic deflection may provide a total deflection angle of ≦60�. Larger angles may require higher power and incur more beam distortion, but would also provide for a thinner module, if desired. For example, a 3″ diagonal module according to the present invention would be 2.5 to 3″ deep.
The module may be implemented with either a thermionic source of electrons or array of field emitters. The source could be either elongated or square. A square source is appropriate for use with a screen where each square pixel is divided into 4 square color subpixels consisting of R, G, B, and G regions (i.e. a quad sub-pixel structure). An elongated source would be appropriate for square pixels segmented into elongated regions of R, G, and B phosphor (i.e. a triple sub-pixel structure).
Because the number of cathodes are reduced in the example from 3�4�4 to 1, a cathodoluminescent display according to the present invention represents a significant savings in manufacturing cost. In addition, the use of a single cathode in each module eliminates possible differences in the efficiency of the 48 cathodes.
The square area 2420 illustrates an electron beam that may be provided by an array of field emissive devices. This beam is shaped to the phosphor area and, accordingly, is appropriate for illuminating individual phosphor areas. The beam may be scanned in the same way as the fan beam 2418. In addition, the beam may be deflected in the y direction to illuminate a single phosphor area on the bottom row or on the top row. Finally, the beam may be defocused in either or both of the x and y axes to spread the beam across more than one phosphor area.
One case of deflection and defocusing of a shaped beam is shown as item 2418 in
In The display shown in
Although the dimensions of the cathodoluminescent display devices are much larger than those of the OLED display devices, the same techniques may be applied to join the display elements using an optical integrating structure and to form a black matrix which tends to hide any mullions that are used to couple the display elements together.
Although the invention has been described in terms of an exemplary embodiment, it is contemplated that it may be practiced as described above within the scope of the appended claims.
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|U.S. Classification
|345/1.3, 345/543, 345/1.1, 348/383, 345/39, 345/536, 345/206, 345/204, 345/40
|International Classification
|Cooperative Classification
|European Classification
|Nov 1, 2005
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|Feb 15, 2011
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text:
its all about anthropomorphic dicks doing everyday things like buying shoes for their scrotum-feet
Corgis are totally the white people of dogs
Cognisseur wrote: »Call dad and say:
I know you're in a financial rut dad, and I know that...
In the past, when [your] business was booming, [you] lent our relatives amounts in the thousands, maybe tens of thousands. No questions asked. Now that [you're] in financial trouble [yourself], they refuse to lend [you] money. [I understand that you] feel betrayed, so much that [you] don't seek contact with them anymore.
I don't want this to happen to us. [You're] the closest relative I have, even though I hardly see [you] anymore. I fear if I give in, [you're] going to repeat it again, which will end with us both in financial ruin.
Cognisseur wrote: »o.O; It's one thing to have an appreciation for other cultures and be able to further contribute because of that knowledge, such as your recognition of the widespread prevalence of scams in mainland China right now. It's going a little far when your knowledge of a person's ethnic background makes you 'definitely sure' about anything.
I would if the job market isn't a bitch right now, especially for someone nearing his sixties. I'll ask if it's an option. If he's really in trouble, he will have to come back.SkyCaptain wrote: »Tell him to move back home and get a job here.
If you lend him money till you have nothing and he wastes it on whatever then you BOTH have nothing, and nowhere to go. It's hard to have to be the responsible one at times like this, and he might not understand, but that's what you have to do.if worse comes to worse and he ends up with nothing you could always invite him home as long as you still have one.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
COLT MFG CO INC New Frontier
The legend of Colt continues in the New Frontier, Single Action Army. From 1890 to 1898, Colt manufactured a variation of the venerable Single Action Army with a uniquely different profile. The Flattop Target Model was fitted with an adjustable leaf rear sight and blade front sights. Colt has taken this concept several steps further to bring shooters a reintroduction of a Colt classic. The New Frontier has that sleek flattop design with an adjustable rear sight for windage and elevation and a target ready ramp style front sight. The New Frontier is offered in .357 Magnum, .44 Special and .45 Colt with barrel lengths of 4 3/4 in , 5 1/2 in and 7 1/2 in . The guns are meticulously finished in Colt Royal Blue on both the barrel and cylinder, with a case colored frame. Finishing off the classic package are walnut stocks with a gold Colt medallion.
SPECIFICATIONS:Mfg Item Num: P4840 Category: FIREARMS - HANDGUNS Type :RevolverAction :SingleCaliber :45 ColtBarrel Length :4.75 in Capacity :6 rdSafety :Grips :WalnutSights :Adjustable RearWeight :Finish :Royal Blue


text:
It is a little dated. That loss total when the avatar was done was actually wrong. The total was 305. Add on another 15 losses since.
I don't care what corners he has or has not painted. After 7 seasons he is up to 320 losses.
If he had a plan, he failed.
If he didn't have a plan, well, that was my point.
Either way, change after this season please.... especially if they don't have a pick because suddenly the draft is not as important to prepare for (i.e. no Babcock/Arujo Part Deux).
Kapono..... and now Fields?
Homerun swings with JO and then Turk and if he had his way Nash (by the way, full disclosure I advocated strongly for Nash but Andrea was to be Andrea of early last season and it was always about getting a young point guard to groom with Nash here).
I think BC is safe for 2 reasons:
1) Raptors are second fiddle
2) There are all sorts of reasons not hockey related (re: Luongo trade) that have been bandied about, including illicit relations with a young lady (which was the scuttlebutt a coworker read on a sports site), to the more plausible various execs at MLSE had been bristling at his style and personality for a while, and the Luongo refusal was the final straw. BC strikes me as far too diplomatic and professional to be kicked out, and would do well schmoozing with the suits at Bell/Rogers
"Come back, Lisa, you little love killer...Come back Lisa, Lisa Lisamiller."
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text:
Hello All,
The question that I am attempting to work out is as follows :
"A government research lab has concluded that an artificial sweetener commonly used in diet soda pop
will cause death in lab mice. A friend of yours is desperate to lose weight but can't give up soda pop.
Your friend wants to know how much soda pop it's possible to drink without dying as a result. Write a
program to supply the answer. The input to the program is the amount of artificial sweetener needed to kill
a mouse, the weight of the mouse and the weight of the dieter. To ensure the safety of your friend, be sure
the program requests the weight at which the dieter will stop dieting, rather than the dieter's current weight.
Assume that diet soda contains 1/10th of 1% artificial sweetener. Use a variable declaration with the modifier
'const' to give a name to this fraction. You may want to express the percent as the double value of 0.001.
Your program should allow the calculation to be repeated as often as the user wishes."
I have completed the first draft of the code which is attached. My question is :
1) Is the logic of the program correct ? For example the cin values ;
SweetnerMouse = 0.080
WeightMouse(grams) = 50grams
WeightDieter(grams) = 65000grams
Yields the value '104000' for the variable (DietSodaPopCans); meaning that it takes 104000 cans
to kill the dieter at his/her given dieting weight. Does it sound sensible ? I feel that the two
equations written on the C++ code is logical. But I would need some checking on that please.
2) The question above requires that the program be repeated as many times as the user wishes. For this,
what type of looping mechanism could I use ? Would a while looping suffice or should I go for
do..while ?
ThanksCode:The Source Code of the program is shown below : //Author: Andy8 //Soda Pop Death //Date: 23 August 2011 #include <iostream> using namespace std; int main() { const double DIET_SODA_SWEETNER = 0.001; int DietSodaPopCans; double SweetnerMouse; double WeightMouse; double SweetnerDieter; double WeightDieter; cout << "This program calculates how many cans of soda it will take to kill you !\n"; cout << "Each can contains 0.001 (0.1%) of artificial sweetener\n" << endl; cout << "Enter the amount of Artificial Sweetner needed to kill a mouse: \n"; cin >> SweetnerMouse; cout << "Enter the weight of the mouse in grams: \n"; cin >> WeightMouse; cout << "Enter the weight of the dieter in grams at which dieting activity will be stopped: \n"; cin >> WeightDieter; SweetnerDieter = (SweetnerMouse/WeightMouse) * WeightDieter; DietSodaPopCans = (SweetnerDieter/DIET_SODA_SWEETNER); cout << "The amount of Diet Soda Pop Can's that would kill the dieter is: " << DietSodaPopCans; return 0; }


text: Series: Enterprise - Season One Episode: "Terra Nova" Trek Installment # 5 Grade: D- Date: September 16, 2009 Because the caverns sets from "Strange New World" just weren't awesome enough for one episode, we needed to have them in TWO! The episode pushes the limit on the plausibility scale. I can not imagine a civilization falling apart so much in just 70 years and that fact alone kills the already clichéd characters (stubborn grandma, cautiously trusting middle-aged man, angry youth) and boring plot. Again, Enterprise simply does not take advantage of the potential here. Just with "Unexpected," the episode could have been so much better. It could have been a great story about the dangers and politics of colonization. The backstory about Captain Mitchell and Mark Logan would have been made for a more interesting and intriguing story than what was delivered.


text:
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Comes with Surefire handguards, GG&G rear flip up sight, EoTech optical sight, two stage trigger, Hogue grip, cleaning kit, tac sling, Surefire M9 light, case, six postion collapsible stock, 1 30 round mag, and A2 flash suppressor.
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text:
So when this thing goes haywire...
We can just quarantine the island right?
London will be a guinea pig for future smart city technology after Intel pledged to spend a slice of £25m ($40m) on a new lab in the capital. The chipmaker will also plough millions into research centres dotted around Blighty. Intel will set up the unwieldily monikered Collaborative Research Institute for Sustainable Connected …
We can just quarantine the island right?
No, we must take off, and nuke the site from orbit... It's the only way to be sure.
Surely that lab will very, very quickly be christened CRISCo? Is this really what they want?
Exactly my thought! I'm too busy to think of a witticism involving frying, though.
"to make the city more aware" - I wasn't aware (sorry) that the city is a sentient being.
"use real-time data to predict the effect of weather" - cold means trafic's going to be a mess, wet means traffic's going to be a mess, hot means traffic's going to be a mess.
Job done.
Dear intel
please locate the new labs in places with reasonable access to beaches, hills, countryside, ...
This makes for a more accurate development environment yes?
St Andrews
seem spot on to me
...or does anyone else get the impression that there are unnamed corpses out there in the woods, whose last view of this world was the cold depths of George Osborne's soulless eyes?
Thought they were Fujitsu now. does this mean that Intel are going to relaunch DRS6000? Any one else in Local Gov will get that reference.
Beer because the above server will drive you to drink
You didn't start the article with 'RotM'
Yet another reason to avoid London at all costs, and seriously think of emigrating to somewhere nice like, oh I don't know... Syria maybe.
...."that the London Olympic games would give the firm a great opportunity to look at a city under pressure and figure out where the weak points are."
News item on 1st Sept 2012.
We looked at London during the Olympics and decided there was too much risk of failure, so we decided to go with Mogadishu in Somalia as they seem to have a more stable population. We would also pay less in taxation than in the UK.
P.S. Is this the same Rattner that said their products were crap and only fit for chavs?
PS. It was Gerald Ratner, CEO of the eponymous tat-bazaar.
Once again the Reg takes pride of place in the use of autological terms. To cite Gilbert and Sullivan, «the very model of a modern Major-General»....
""We are determined to make the UK the best place to do business in the world and a great place for technology companies to invest and build new business. It is encouraging to see major tech partners like Intel investing in this country as a result of the policies that the Government has put in place," he self-congratulated."
What was missing in this statement?
Ah yes...Nothing there about serving public interests, protecting citizen rights and freedoms, improving the quality of life for residents, ensuring that privacy isn't invaded in the pursuit of profit, enabling an opt-out facility for those who don't want to be part of the mass surveillance, remaining in accord with EU and International Law....
Smash the cameras. Take back your freedom.


text:
Gutierrez still in time share in center field
By Greg Johns / MLB.com
SEATTLE -- Mariners center fielder Franklin Gutierrez played in all seven of the team's games on its season-opening road trip, but in two of those he came off the bench for one at-bat and to play defense in the later innings.
Gutierrez is off to a good start, hitting .304 with two home runs and six RBIs going into Monday's home opener, but manager Eric Wedge said he's still not ready to commit to starting the 30-year-old every day due to his history of health issues.
Gutierrez played just 40 games last season and 92 in 2011. When will he get the full go this season?
"I can't give you a straight definition with it, but it's watching him play and having conversations," said Wedge. "I do feel like he's moving around better and getting better. I think we're on a good path right now.
"I don't want to get complacent with it. I want to make sure we take care of him. It's evident we're a better ballclub when he's in the lineup. But as you guys have seen, he hasn't done a whole lot of that in the last 2 1/2 years. So we want to be smart with it."
Gutierrez was in the lineup on Monday, batting second behind Michael Saunders. That's the top of the order Wedge will go with against right-handed starters, with the two flip-flopping against lefties.
But Wedge will also work Jason Bay and Raul Ibanez into the lineup at times to keep them sharp and to keep Gutierrez fresh.
"We have other players we feel can help us win ballgames," said Wedge. "So we'll keep moving forward with it and when it's time to push it a little more, that's what we'll do."
Vastly improved Morse returns to Seattle
SEATTLE -- Michael Morse returned to Safeco Field on Monday for the first time as a Mariner since Seattle traded him to the Nationals in 2009. He comes back a different player, having hit more home runs (5) in his first week with the Mariners than he hit in his first four seasons combined in Seattle (3).
For Morse, the color and pageantry of the home opener meant a little more than normal.
"It goes a little deeper than just the game," said the 6-foot-5, 245-pound left fielder. "When I first got a callup here in 2005, I was a young kid and this was the biggest stadium I'd ever been in. There were a lot of 'oohs' and 'ahhs' coming from me.
"I feel like there's so much history here. I was turning double plays at second with Bret Boone, that's one of the greatest memories I've got. Besides all that, I get to come back here and now I have a role, a bigger part, and I get to try to help this team become a championship ballclub."
Morse was tied with Atlanta's Justin Upton for the Major League lead in home runs after the first week, so you'd figure he'd be more interested than anyone in Safeco Field's shorter outfield dimensions. He does recall hitting a ball against the Yankees' CC Sabathia in his first tenure in Seattle that clanked off the yellow line on the center-field fence.
"I swear that was the hardest ball I'd ever hit," he said with a smile. "I remember it stayed in, yeah."
But the big man has hit some bombs this year, including a 446-foot blast to dead center in Oakland, and the size of the park shouldn't matter if he gets hold of a pitch. Morse hit his fifth long ball in Sunday's 4-3 loss to the White Sox, but was more concerned about the four strikeouts that followed.
That is why he said he wasn't concerned about testing the new fences in batting practice on Monday.
"I'm not worried about that kind of stuff," said Morse. "But I'll try to hit some ground balls up the middle. Those score runs."
Mariners ready to test Safeco's shorter fence
SEATTLE -- While the most noticeable change to Safeco Field is the mammoth new video board in center field, the biggest difference for ballgames will be the new dimensions of the outfield with the shorter fences in left field.
As they prepared for Monday night's home opener against the Astros, Mariners hitters were interested to see how that will affect things over the course of time, particularly the left-center gap, where the fence is as much as 17 feet closer at one point.
"Without a doubt, I think it'll make a difference, not only for us but anybody who comes in here," said Mariners outfielder Michael Saunders. "Everyone around the league knows this is notoriously a pitchers' park. With the fences coming in, it's probably at the very best going to play fair."
Mariners assistant general manager Jeff Kingston has said studies of previous seasons estimated that about 40 more home runs would carry out over the course of the 81 games for both teams. The Mariners hit 56 home runs at Safeco last year, so an additional 20 would have put them at 76.
They hit 93 homers on the road in 2012, so that estimate still makes Safeco a tough park. And that doesn't surprise anyone who has played in Seattle for any length of time.
"It's really due to the weather we have, being right on the water," said Saunders, a native of Victoria, British Columbia. "It's cool and damp and the ball just doesn't carry very well. But it also depends on what kind of summer we have. Last year we had a great summer and the ball obviously carries better during those months.
"But ultimately, as a psychological point it's going to help us as hitters take a foot off the pedal, if you will, and not feel like we have to muscle up 500 feet. It's probably going to play more fair now. And as an offensive guy, I'd be lying if I said I didn't care about that."
First baseman Justin Smoak hit only four of his 19 home runs at home last year, but 10 of his 15 2011 homers came at Safeco. So he knows things even out over time with any park and different times of year.
"It's still early," Smoak said Monday. "Once it heats up, it'll be a little different. It's still chilly, so it'll play pretty much the same. But hopefully a couple of those flyouts to the warning track will be a little different, maybe off the wall or a homer.
"At the same time, we lose some ground out there so there could be balls that could be caught that used to get over guy's heads. But I think for us, it's all psychological. It's the fact you might not fully get one, but it still has a chance to go out. You add that to getting two-three RBIs for your team and it changes the whole ballgame."
One guy not that worried about it is manager Eric Wedge.
"I'm not that curious about it, quite frankly," Wedge said. "You still have to go out and play the game. It's more of a fair ballpark now. But the changes you'll see in our ballclub this year are within the players themselves. Even if the fences were the same, we were going to be a better offensive ballclub."
Worth noting
• Morse had at least one hit in each of the Mariners' first seven games, the first Seattle player to do so since Gutierrez opened with an eight-game hit streak in 2010.
• The Mariners went into Monday's game with home runs in six straight games after not going long in their opener in Oakland. The team had only two streaks of six-plus games with a homer in 2012.
• The Mariners have not made a move with outfielder Casper Wells, who was designated for assignment on March 31. The team has until Wednesday to either trade, release or option him to the Minors if he clears waivers.
Greg Johns is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregJohnsMLB as well as his Mariners Musings blog. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


text: "Kendall honors Webster's crucial contributions to early American nationalism, which extended far beyond his primary obsession, the written word. Kendall paints a complex portrait of Webster (17581843), a man he claims 'housed a host of contradictory identities: revolutionary, reactionary, fighter, peacemaker, intellectual, commonsense philosopher, ladies' man, prig, slick networker and loner.'... An intriguing look at one of America's earliest men of letters that is sure to appeal to lovers of both words and history."Publishers Weekly


text:
Hawaii - Oahu > Diamond Head (Le' Ahi Mountain) > Climber's Log
Diamond Head (Le' Ahi Mountain) Climber's Log
[ Sign the Climber's Log ]
|main trail
Date Climbed: Jun 7, 2007
|Very fun little walk. It was crowded, but still enjoyable. One girl at the top had about 3 inch heels on... lol. We ran down after the stairs. Met a 77 year old lady along the way, she did the whole thing. At the top they were selling $2 certificates with a little seal on it and everything. It costs one dollar just to walk-in. Great views, even if it is a tourist trap.
|Posted Jun 9, 2007 7:18 pm
Date Climbed: Jun 4, 2007
|Awesome place and amazing views...but I've never felt like one of the heard more so that hiking this mountain...moooooooooo
|Posted Jun 5, 2007 3:45 am
|Honeymoon Hike
Date Climbed: Jun 13, 2005
|During our honeymoon on Oahu my wife and I decided to take a break from the city life and hike Diamond Head. Beautiful views from the top.
|Posted May 31, 2007 8:09 pm
|Arthur Digbee
|fun hike
|Saw whales from the top. Great birdwatching along the trail if you take the time because you go through several different habitats.
|Posted Feb 4, 2007 9:31 pm
|Great peak
Date Climbed: Dec 28, 2006
|Love this little peak and its view of southern Oahu.
|Posted Jan 4, 2007 9:46 am
|Lot O Stairs
Date Climbed: Dec 31, 2000
|New Years Eve and it was a great day to hike! But everyone else thought so too! Almost a many poeple hiking up as there were stairs.
|Posted Nov 16, 2006 9:47 pm
|Joerg Marretsch
|Main Trail
Date Climbed: Oct 12, 2006
|Only a small hike with a fantastic view to Honolulu!
|Posted Oct 28, 2006 3:23 pm
|ok, other peaks in hawaii were less touristy
|Posted Oct 17, 2006 9:31 pm
|Rocky Alps
|Main Trail
Date Climbed: Jul 23, 2006
|Fun little hike, with nice views of Honolulu and the ocean from the top.
|Posted Sep 9, 2006 9:40 pm
|Main trail
|After sailing to Oahu I stayed there for a few weeks and got a chance to hike to the top of Diamond Head. Now that I think about it, it seems that it was one of my first summits, as at that time I wasn't into climbing / hiking. Glad to see that it's got its own page here on SP. Very nice peak.
|Posted Jul 8, 2006 4:13 am
|Brian Jenkins
|Neat crater
Date Climbed: Jun 21, 2006
|Jogged from Waikiki but it took longer than expected and got to the tunnel as they gates were closed. Came back on 6/24 and hiked up from the parking area. Very hot. nice views and interesting crater. Inside it, the vegetation seemed more African than Hawaiian.
|Posted Jun 27, 2006 2:17 am
|Main Trail
|Nice views of the city and the Pacific. Worth doing in spite of the crowds given how quick and easy it is.
|Posted Jun 16, 2006 10:46 pm
|Main Trail (Stairs)
Date Climbed: Jun 15, 2005
|Amazing Views of all around Southern Arc of eastern Oahu. Great pleasure to "climb" the main trail, which is actually mostly the stairs and well-marked trail. The summit is the WW2 concrete hut -- very breath-taking, nice relaxing and comfortable. The feel of World War is there as shown lot of bunkers, tunnels, and yes, the stairs. Excellent opportunity to go there before/after suntanning on beach -- all in one day. The hike is easy. On my summit day, the weather is sunny, 80's, almost all blue with little clouds, little breezy. From bottom (middle of bottom crater/trailhead) to top is from elev 220 (appx) to 761. So perfect for all kinds of people to hike/climb. Next time, I will try to go hiking from sea level somewhere in Waikiki, straight to this summit.
|Posted Apr 25, 2006 6:41 pm
|Route Climbed: main trail
Date Climbed: Dec 21, 2001
|A fun climb. My brother and I did it in 20 minutes. The view form the top is great. I wish I would have known to bring a flashlight though.
|Posted Apr 1, 2006 7:04 pm
|Route Climbed: Standard Date Climbed: January 3, 2006
|Nice view of the island. Get up early and go to avoid the crowds.
|Posted Jan 23, 2006 7:42 pm
|Route Climbed: The Trail (Steps) Date Climbed: December 23, 2005
|Nothing real exciting here beyond the fact that I spent Christmas in Hawaii. Worth the short hike to view Waikiki.
|Posted Jan 4, 2006 8:49 am
|Route Climbed: the stairs Date Climbed: January 2004
|Proudly, or not, this is the only route I have ever done from sea shore to summit. Best bet is to start at Waikiki before sunrise and have the crater to yourself. Jog.
|Posted Dec 30, 2005 11:19 pm
|Route Climbed: The trail Date Climbed: 25 April 2005
|A nice easy walk in the heat of Hawaii with beautiful views.
|Posted Dec 26, 2005 5:33 am
|Route Climbed: Main Trail Date Climbed: June 11,1999
|Loved the view from the top! Made it to the summit in 25 minutes...fun little climb. We even splurged for the "Made it to the Top" certificate ;-) Absolutely great views of Waikiki and the coast. Natural Born Hikers
|Posted Aug 31, 2005 8:26 pm
|Ed F
|Route Climbed: Standard Date Climbed: August 22, 2005
|Very easy, very crowded, but great views of Waikiki and the Ko'olau Range. It only takes about 45 min to go up and down, so it's worth a quick trip.
|Posted Aug 23, 2005 8:51 pm