Network Centric Operations (NCO) is placing severe demands on crew members beyond their ability to perform the mission. Links within the Global Information Grid (GIG) provide immense volumes of data from off-platform sensors and information bases that must be transformed into knowledge. This transformation requires extensive processing while displaying information to the operator for rapid assimilation. Demonstrations have shown the operator overload occurs when utilizing the current human-machine interface (HMI) and adding new functions such as those proposed for the new battlespace. In many cases the operator must perform his current duties which severely task the workload while controlling unmanned platforms which may be operating in a different environment than the manned platform operates. The overload precludes increasing situation awareness which is the primary reason for NCO. Managing the flow of data using the current crew station design also reduces heads-up and eye-out operations with an adverse impact on flight safety. A radical change is needed in the design of HMI, making the interfaces more intuitive, to resolve these problems. A target platform has been selected for analysis and demonstration. NCO requirements, both current and projected, for that platform are in analysis. We are evaluating five potential candidates to reduce operator workload in the NCO environment. These are advanced software technologies, large displays, enhanced graphics processing, and voice recognition technology. Combinations of these technologies will be merged in a demonstration which builds upon previous work.

Future military crewmen may have more individual and shared tasks to complete throughout a mission as a result of smaller crew sizes and an increased number of technology interactions. To maintain reasonable workload levels, the Warfighter Machine Interface (WMI) must provide information in a consistent, logical manner, tailored to the environment in which the soldier will be completing their mission. This paper addresses design criteria for creating an advanced, multi-modal warfighter machine interface for on-the-move mounted operations. The Vetronics Technology Integration (VTI) WMI currently provides capabilities such as mission planning and rehearsal, voice and data communications, and manned/unmanned vehicle payload and mobility control. A history of the crewstation and more importantly, the WMI software will be provided with an overview of requirements and criteria used for completing the design. Multiple phases of field and laboratory testing provide the opportunity to evaluate the design and hardware in stationary and motion environments. Lessons learned related to system usability and user performance are presented with mitigation strategies to be tested in the future.

Significant progress has been made in the development of large area, cost-effective, high performance circuitry on flexible substrates. Several semiconductor and process technologies have been investigated for their potential to achieve the Macroelectronics goals.

Displays for military vehicles have very distinct operational and cost requirements that differ from other military applications. These requirements demand that display suppliers to Army and Marine ground-environments provide low cost equipment that is capable of operation across environmental extremes. Inevitably, COTS components form the foundation of these “affordable” display solutions. This paper will outline the major display requirements and review the options that satisfy conflicting and difficult operational demands, using newly developed equipment as an example. Recently, a new supplier was selected for the Drivers Vision Enhancer (DVE) equipment, including the Display Control Module (DCM). The paper will outline the DVE and describe development of a new DCM solution. The DVE programme, with several thousand units presently in service and operational in conflicts such as “Operation Iraqi Freedom”, represents a critical balance between cost and performance. We shall describe design considerations that include selection of COTS sources, the need to minimise display modification; video interfaces, power interfaces, operator interfaces and new provisions to optimise displayed video content.

When first deployed in the mid 1950s, the U-2 had an inverted periscope (Drift Sight) to provide the pilot a view of the area below the aircraft. During a recent glass cockpit upgrade, this periscope was removed. This paper discusses: • The development activity leading up to flight test of an Electro Optical Viewsight System (EOVS) replacement for the Drift Sight. The impact and design consideration of using an inexpensive Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) cameral module, originally designed for small hand held video cameras, • The process used to develop the basic requirements and how early input from the user community lead to an effective design (e.g.., Hand Grip), • The ruggedization techniques necessary to ensure the camera would meet the vibration, thermal, and Electro Magnetic Interface (EMI) environment, • Actual system performance data, • Growth “hooks” and how they were accommodated in a firm fixed price contract.

Avionic AMLCD Displays employ backlights for the illumination of the AMLCD device for viewing under all ambient conditions. Backlight illumination is typically achieved by the use of fluorescent lamps. Fluorescent lamps offer high efficacy, but need special conditioning for operation under all environmental conditioning. This conditioning requires a disproportionate amount of aircraft power and relatively long warm up time. The use of LED based backlights overcomes these characteristics. This paper presents comparison of the two technologies. A LED backlight for a fighter aircraft avionic display is briefly described.

Current military activity has made great use of small Special Tactics / Special Forces teams operating on the ground in forward areas of battle, directing Battlefield Air Operations (BAO), which include close air support, air traffic control management, and target identification and designation. A recent National Priority has been identified to improve the BAO Kit used by these Special Tactics Groups to reduce errors that may lead to unintended ground casualties. The primary objectives of the upgraded BAO Kit are to 1) improve the range and accuracy of target information; 2) eliminate opportunities for error in weapon delivery; 3) link target coordinate information directly into the weapons computer; and 4) reduce the weight carried by the warfighter by 50%. For these warfighters, L-3 Communications Display Systems and its technology partner, Universal Display Corporation, are utilizing advanced OLED display technology to create a powerful flexible display-based communication device. This will reduce the weight carried by the fighter by combining functions of the present computer, GPS equipment, and radio gear carried into the forward areas of battle. This will give the soldier a larger, higher resolution, increased battery life, and much lighter capability for the viewing of tactical information such as battlefield maps, GIS imaging data, command/control plots, and GPS-assisted navigational maps. Further integration of the device with voice and video messaging options will be explored. Both hand-held roll-up devices and wrist-worn devices are envisioned for the final product.

OLED display foils fitted conformally to goggles or cockpit canopies are of considerable interest. As films integrated onto pre-existing lenses or canopies they could provide visual information while adding little weight. However, the conformal shaping of a displays to its mechanical support causes large deformation strain, in contrast to flexible displays whose bending to cylindrical shape can be managed with little strain. The deformation strain may easily exceed the critical strain of OLED materials, which then rupture and damage or destroy the OLED function. New fabrication techniques and OLED circuit architectures are required to prevent such rupture. We report an experimental phosphorescent OLED array made on a dome shaped transparent plastic substrate. The pixellated array of OLEDs was fabricated and interconnected while flat. Late in the process sequence the array was shaped to a dome. The OLEDs are protected from rupture by their placement on ITO islands. These ITO islands are sized such that the shear strain developed along them does not reach the critical value. Most of the deformation strain is taken up by the plastic substrate that is exposed between the rigid islands. The metal interconnects do undergo this large deformation and must be designed to withstand it. The substrate was shaped to a dome of 6-cm diameter at its base, with a 10-cm radius of curvature. The radial strain at the apex of the dome is 1.5%. The process produces bottom emitting phosphorescent OLEDs radiating into the hollow of the dome. OLED yields above 95% were achieved for up to 120-μm islands at area fill factors ranging from 4% to 44%.

The benefits of stereo vision are numerous and quickly become apparent when attempting to perform simple tasks without the aid of stereo cues. The proliferation of remotely operated vehicles and indirect viewing applications has resulted in an increased need to see the operational environment in stereo. Several approaches to the display of stereo imagery have been demonstrated. Stereoscopic displays typically require the user to wear special headgear. Autostereoscopic displays require no headgear but typically have tight limitations on the position of the viewer's head. Previous papers have described a new type of stereoscopic display based on dual liquid crystal displays. The new display provides a stereo view without temporal or spatial multiplexing. Several prototype displays have been built and demonstrated to potential users with favorable reviews. With a successful proof-of-principle prototype completed, the effort is focusing on improvements to the image quality, consolidating the electronics, and packaging the display for use in rugged environments. The results of this effort should produce a rugged, compact, multiuse stereo display.

A prototype for a Multi-layered Display with variable depth has been successfully constructed. The consiquences with regard to the application space are explored and a preliminary study on the reaction time as a function of depth is explored. Initial results indicate that the reaction time is independent of amount of depth so long as it is greater than zero.

Most state-of-the-art commercial, industrial, and military display technologies require some type of backlight illumination. Optimization of such lighting systems with respect to brightness, uniformity, and viewing angle is critical to achieving technical specifications and overall performance of display applications. Considering the substantial cost and risk factors involved in developing advanced displays it becomes important to utilize superior design tools that accurately model the radiometric performance of illumination systems including the behavior of all optical components (quasi-homogeneous sources, optical films, micro-prisms, etc.). To this end, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) has been successfully using an internally developed design platform called R2T to perform radiometric ray tracing (R2T) of backlights and general lighting applications that incorporate non-Lambertian (elliptic) diffusers and other weakly diffracting optical components. For years POC has been involved in the design of illumination systems for advanced displays including manufacturing expertise in large size web replication of optical films and injection molding of microstructures for display technology.

A key challenge to defense science and technology programs is the identification of areas ripe for focused government investment so as to make impossible things possible on an accelerated schedule. The creation, transfer to commercial products, and transition to operational military systems of the Texas Instruments (TI) digital micromirror device (DMD) projection display technology from 1987-2005 is a case study in how DoD seeks invest in S&T for warfighting advantage while renewing the civil economy and enabling domestic production of key electronic components. The DoD investment in DMD reduced the risk enough to merit TI productization and resulted in the first VGA single ship color wheel prototype in 1992 (introduced as first commercial product in 1996) and in the first 2.36 Mpx 3-chip color demonstration system in 1995 (a resolution that is only now being introduced as a mass production product). The 1995 demonstrator was the world’s first 100% digital display system. The tenth anniversary of this 2005 achievement presents an appropriate occasion to review and document the success of this prior Air Force and DARPA investment as measured by the subsequent adoption in a wide range of civil and, especially, defense applications.

This paper highlights recent advances toward flexible cholesteric displays including new night vision applications for military use and full color. Particular emphasis is paid to recently developed encapsulated cholesteric liquid crystals that are necessary for printing and coating the materials as well as prevent erasure of the image during flexing or handling the display. The paper presents recent results from encapsulation of cholesteric materials using polymerization induced phase separation and their progression towards thin flexible plastic based cholesteric displays. Several other key issues in the transition from smooth rigid glass substrates to flexible plastic substrates including spacing control and preparation of surfaces are discussed. Lastly, the night vision mode and night vision applications of cholesteric displays are also presented.

We report recent advances in the development of low power consumption, emissive, flexible active matrix displays through integration of top emitting phosphorescent OLED (T-PHOLED) and poly-Si TFT backplane technologies. The displays are fabricated on flexible stainless steel foil. The T-PHOLEDs are based on UDC phosphorescent OLED technology, and the backplane is based on PARC's Excimer Laser Annealed (ELA) poly-Si TFT process. We also present progress in operational lifetime of encapsulated T-PHOLED pixels on planarized metal foil and discuss PHOLED encapsulation strategy.

We report the fabrication of photonic crystal phosphors by atomic layer deposition and the subsequent removal of self-assembled opal templates. ZnS:Mn and TiO₂ inverse opals as well as ZnS:Mn/TiO₂ composite inverse opals were formed. Shifts in the G-L photonic band gap positions were confirmed by reflectivity and transmission measurements and were consistent with photonic band structure calculations. The peak positions confirm that filling terminates at ~86% of the pore volume in agreement the maximum possible filling fraction for the “shell” infiltration of an opal structure. For TiO₂ depositions, SEM and AFM analysis reveals ultra-smooth highly conformal films. In addition, infiltration control to < 1 nm was achieved, making fine-tuning of PC properties possible. Significant changes were observed in the emission characteristics for composite ZnS:Mn/TiO₂ photonic crystals. This work demonstrates that precisely controlling the placement of materials is possible by ALD, enabling the fabrication of “optimized” structures, including those which modify emission properties.

The military display market is analyzed in terms of one of its segments: avionics. Requirements are summarized for 13 technology-driving parameters for direct-view and virtual-view displays in cockpits and cabins. Technical specifications are discussed for selected programs. Avionics stresses available technology and usually requires custom display designs.

Display Aging has been shown to be present in all displays to one degree or another. We will discuss some recent information on Display Aging discussing aging issues in Fluorescent, short arc and Plasma (PLANON) Lamps, LCDs, PDPs, CRTs, and FEDs. This is a very large subject and we will highlight only some of the more important aging issues. In each case, we will briefly describe the display (and or component) and then review some aging aspects of the display (or component). When possible we will compare the aging characteristics in different displays.

The U.S. Air Force is currently in the process of developing a revision to MIL-STD-1553 that will provide additional digital communication bandwidth beyond MIL-STD-1553B's 1 Megabit per second (Mbps) rate. The proposed revision to MIL-STD-1553 (referred to as MIL-STD-1553C) is targeting 200 Mbps as a baseline data rate. This paper explores the feasibility of the U.S. Air Force's proposed revision to MIL-STD-1553 based on studies conducted by Data Device Corporation (DDC). A combination of empirical and theoretical methods is used to determine if a MIL-STD-1553B network contains sufficient capacity to support the proposed 200 Mbps data rate. The results of DDC's analysis is that for some MIL-STD-1553 buses there is sufficient bandwidth to implement a broadband system in which legacy 1 Mbps 1553B waveforms could coexist with new 200 Mbps waveforms, thus providing an incremental high speed communication channel to existing MIL-STD-1553 buses.

High fidelity visual display capability has long been a critical element in successfully training war-fighters. This paper presents the results of a project to develop an affordable, ergonomically designed, augmented reality, Advanced Helmet Mounted Display (AHMD) system. AHMD blends computer-generated data (symbology, synthetic imagery, enhanced imagery) with the actual and simulated visible environment. Critical requirements included ability to be used on the user’s own unmodified helmet, rapid self fitting and alignment, with a wide (100° x 50°) field of view (FOV), low mass and balanced center of mass (CM), maximized see-through (>60%) with image quality (>0.5 cy/mr resolution and >30:1 ANSI contrast ratio) that supports training. This paper will outline the design, incorporating a number of innovative concepts, manufacture and performance of the resulting AHMD. This innovation in visual display technology can be used to support deployable reconfigurable training solutions, traditional simulation requirements, UAV augmented reality, air traffic control and Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) applications.

Imaging Systems Technology (IST) is engaged in the research and development of large flexible displays using Plasmaspheres as the pixel element. Plasma-spheres are hollow spheres formed of glass containing an ionizable gas. Plasmaspheres are ultra rugged and lightweight. Thus displays made with Plasma-spheres may be made ultra rugged and lightweight. Plasma-sphere displays can be economically mass-produced with low cost roll-to-roll process. They can also be economically produced in low quantities using batch process. Because these displays are lightweight, rugged, and low cost they will find application in rugged military and industrial environments. Additionally, because they can be very large and flexible, they will find future applications in emergent technologies such as large conformable displays for simulators, large command and control centers, or field deployable systems. Currently, IST has successfully demonstrated small flexible monochrome and color Plasmas-sphere displays. In this paper, IST will report on current research progress including the development of a 20” flexible prototype.

This paper describes the development of a 3.5 inch diagonal Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode Display on flexible metal foils. The active matrix array had the VGA format and was fabricated using the polysilicon TFT technology. The advantages that the metal foil substrates offer for flexible display applications will first be discussed, followed by a discussion on the multilayer coatings that were investigated in order to achieve a high quality insulating layer on the metal foil substrate prior to TFT fabrication. Then the polysilicon TFT device performance will be presented as a function of the polysilicon crystallization method. Both laser crystallized polysilicon and solid phased crystallized polysilicon films were investigated for the TFT device fabrication. Due to the opaque nature of the metal foil substrates the display had a top emission structure. Both small molecule and polymer based organic material were investigated for the display emissive part. The former were evaporated while the latter were applied by spin-cast. Various transparent multi-layer metal films were investigated as the top cathode. The approach used to package the finished AMOLED display in order to protect the organic layers from environmental degradation will be described. The display had integrated polysilicon TFT scan drivers consisting of shift registers and buffers but external data drivers. The driving approach of the display will be discussed in detail. The performance of the finished display will be discussed as a function of the various materials and fabrication processes that were investigated.

Organic light emitting diode (OLED) based displays are well suited for fabrication on flexible polymer substrates. In order to achieve the vision of a highly flexible, rollable display, significant progress must be made in understanding and overcoming the mechanical limitations of the component materials. Methodologies and metrics for evaluating thin film components as well as full devices on flexible substrates need to be developed and standardized. A new technique for bend testing is described here and compared to a more traditional technique. One thin film component of flexible OLEDs that must be very mechanically robust is the permeation barrier. It is desirable to have a rapid method to characterize the onset of cracking upon bending of a barrier-coated substrate. We have developed a convenient method that allows characterization of mechanical cracking of flexible permeation barriers. In addition, transparent conductors with mechanical properties superior to those of ITO are desired for improved flexibility of displays. We report dramatically improved mechanical properties of multilayer ITO-Ag-ITO films that also exhibit excellent electrical and optical properties. Finally, we show preliminary results from bend tests of complete OLED devices on polymer substrates. The results demonstrate that in addition to evaluating component materials, other factors must be considered for integrated devices, and further investigation on this subject is needed.

The synthesis, properties and applications of a number of conjugated polymers and multi-component materials which provide a range of optical states that can be accessed for electrochromic and electroluminescent devices will be addressed. Results will be presented examining absorption and emission characteristics in the visible and near - infrared regions of the spectrum. Variable gap conjugated electrochromic polymers show high oxidative switching stabilities ( related to high HOMO levels for facile oxidation to the doped state) and narrow gap polymers exhibit three distinct colors as they can be both p-and n-type doped. The complementary nature of the electrochromic behavior of these polymers is demonstrated using reflection and transmission devices constructed using sandwich and lateral geometries ,along with new methods of patterning electrodes. Mutli-component polymer and organic LEDs that exploit energy transfer among emitting chromophores distributed within the active matrix allow precise control of emission. We will discuss near-IR photoluminescence (PL) and electroluminescence (EL) from blends of polymers and non-conjugated thermoplastics with a variety of lanthanide complexes.

Complementary coloring conducting polymer based electrochromic devices have been designed, fabricated and tested for possible application as a variable attenuation combiner element for a see-through head mounted display or a variable trasnsmissive sand wind dust goggle lens. Electrochromic cells fabricated on both glass and polycarbonate substrates have been demonstrated to meet closely the desired goals of low power consumption, wide transmission range, fast switching speeds and long lifetime. Photopic transmissions of 34% in colored state and 67% in bleached state were achieved in a reproducible manner. The measured switching times are 0.6 sec (colored to bleached state) and 1.9 sec (bleached to colored state). The life cycle testing showed stability up to 92,000 switches. The measured power consumption of the fabricated devices was < 1 mW/cm . The electrochromic technology design effort has identified processes for obtaining the optimum layer thickness and selecting polymers and gel electrolytes necessary to obtain the widest transmission range, fastest switching speed and longest lifetime. Early environmental testing has been performed by subjecting prototype electrochromic cells to temperatures varying from -30°C to + 40°C with the results reported herein. Follow on work includes further optimization of electronic drive schemes as well as field testing of electrochromic lens equipped sand, wind dust goggles.

We present a two-step two-frequency up-conversion (TSTF-UC) fluorescent material based crossed-beam display (CBD) apparatus. 3D voxels are addressed by two IR laser beams, which are driven by fast acousto-optic light deflectors (AOLD). The compact scanning system can cover a display volume of 100mmx100mmx100mm. Initial demonstration was carried out with a piece of 0.5-mol % Er³⁺-doped ZBLAN glass (23mmx23mmx17mm). It was found that the 3D image brightness dropped dramatically when refresh rate was increased. Also “ghost” voxels appeared with increasing refresh rate. A simplified rate-equation analysis was performed to address the issues.

True 3D displays, whether generated by volume holography, merged stereopsis (requiring glasses), or autostereoscopic methods (stereopsis without the need for special glasses), are useful in a great number of applications, ranging from training through product visualization to computer gaming. Holography provides an excellent 3D image but cannot yet be produced in real time, merged stereopsis results in accommodation-convergence conflict (where distance cues generated by the 3D appearance of the image conflict with those obtained from the angular position of the eyes) and lacks parallax cues, and autostereoscopy produces a 3D image visible only from a small region of space. Physical Optics Corporation is developing the next step in real-time 3D displays, the automultiscopic system, which eliminates accommodation-convergence conflict, produces 3D imagery from any position around the display, and includes true image parallax. Theory of automultiscopic display systems is presented, together with results from our prototype display, which produces 3D video imagery with full parallax cues from any viewing direction.

In this paper, a new color LCoS(liquid crystal on silicon)-based holographic full-color 3D display system is proposed. As the color LCoS SLM can produce a full-color image pattern using a color wheel, only one LCoS panel is required in this approach for full-color reconstruction of a 3D object. In the proposed method, each color fringe-pattern is generated and tinted with each color beam. R, G, B fringe-patterns are mixed up and displayed on the color LCoS SLM. And then, Red fringe-pattern can be diffracted at the red status of a color wheel and at the same manner Green/ Blue fringe-patterns can be diffracted at the green/ blue status of a color wheel, so that a full-color electro-holographic 3D image can be easily reconstructed by using some simple optics. From some experiments, a possibility of implementation of a new compact LCoS-based holographic full-color 3D video display system is suggested.

A unique MEMS based spatial light modulator has been developed by INO and its partners for projection display applications. This unique device incorporates a linear array of micromirrors. Each micromirror is a 25 μm x 25 μm microbridge. Electrostatic actuation allows the control of the curvature of each micromirror independently. Combined with appropriate optics, this allows display of images with well over a thousands columns at a frame rate of 60 Hz. Operation and performance of this modulator have already been reported in the literature (SPIE Proceeding, Vol. 4985, p. 44-55; SPIE Proceeding, Vol. 5289, p. 284-293). In the latter paper, a brief description of various possible operation modes of this modulator has been presented. The objective of the present article is to provide an in-depth study of these operation modes. The study is done using numerical simulations. Several methods are employed to propagate the laser beam illuminating the micromirrors through the optical system. The gaussian beam superposition method is used to propagate the laser beam from the system input to the micromirrors. The reflexion on the micromirrors is computed by ray tracing. Finally, the angular spectrum of plane waves method is used to propagate the reflected coherent beam through Schlieren optics which converts the curvature of the micromirror into gray levels. The simulated optical response of the system as a function of the micromirror curvature is provided for various operation modes.

AM OLED continues to show promise for being the next generation display technology capable of replacing AM LCD in several of its present applications, including displays for aerospace applications. Commercial products such as DSCs (digital still cameras) and PDAs (personal digital assistants) using AM OLED displays have already been introduced. Technology demonstrators as large as 40-in diagonal AM OLED displays have been shown. We evaluated the performance of present COTS AM OLEDs with respect to avionics display requirements. In this paper we will review the current status of AM OLED technology by considering the performance capabilities of COTS and technology demonstration displays, and recent OLED device research results and make an assessment of AM OLED technology towards meeting the performance requirements of avionics displays. The technology gaps for achieving the desired performance for avionics display applications are identified.

We developed a novel technology for the fabrication of reflective cholesteric liquid crystal displays coatable on a single substrate using a layer-by-layer approach. Encapsulated cholesteric liquid crystals serving as an electro-optical layer and transparent conducting polymer films serving as electrodes are coated and printed on a variety of unconventional substrates, including ultra-thin plastic, paper, and textile materials to create conformable displays. The displays are capable of offering excellent electro-optical properties of the bulk cholesteric liquid crystals, including full-color, IR capability, bistability, low power, high brightness and contrast, combined with the ruggedness and pressure insensitivity of the liquid crystal droplets embedded in a polymer matrix. Durability of encapsulated cholesteric liquid crystals and single substrate approach allows for display flexing, folding, rolling and draping during image addressing without any image distortion. Our single substrate approach with natural cell-gap control significantly simplifies the fabrication process of the LCDs especially for large area displays. This paper will discuss the development, status, and merits of this novel display technology.

The ground soldier of the future will benefit from current developments in electronics, lightweight ballistic materials, and importantly, displays and sensors. The Army's Future Force Warrior program is taking advantage of initiatives in both government and industry labs as well as human factors information to demonstrate the advantages they can provide. This paper will discuss the Integrated Headgear System, a synthesis of protection and information for the infantry soldier.

Human factors engineering (HFE) professionals complain that they are often called in after-the-fact to help correct human interface problems. They believe many design flaws can be avoided if design teams involve them early on. However, in the case of innovative technology, such post hoc human factors may not be avoidable unless the inventor is also a human factors engineer or the prospective user. In rare cases an inventor of a new technology has an intuitive understanding of human engineering principles and knows well the capabilities and limitations of operators. This paper outlines the importance of focusing on the user-system interface and encouraging engineers to develop their own intuitive sense of users through mental imagery. If design engineers start with a clear mental picture of a specific user and task rather than generalities of use, fewer interface problems are likely to be encountered later in development. Successful technology innovators often use a visual thinking approach in the development of new concepts. Examples are presented to illustrate the successful application of intuitive design. An approach is offered on how designers can improve their non-verbal thinking skills. The author shares the view that the mission of HFE should not be to make system developers dependent on the small community of HF experts but rather to help them learn the value of applying user-centered design techniques.

The U.S. Army, Arizona State University (ASU) and commercial industry have joined forces to create the Flexible Display Center (FDC) at Arizona State University, a large-scale collaborative venture designed to rapidly advance flexible display technology to the brink of commercialization. The Center has completed its startup phase and is now engaged in an intensive and aggressive applied research and development program that will produce high quality, high performance active matrix reflective and emissive flexible display technology demonstrators (TDs). Electrophoretic ink and cholesteric liquid crystals have been selected as Center reflective imaging layer technologies; these technologies are attractive because they are fully reflective and bistable (extremely low power) and because the materials are environmentally robust and intrinsically rugged. Organic light emitting devices (OLEDs) have been chosen as the emissive imaging layer technology. These three electro-optic subsystems will be integrated with a flexible a-Si thin film transistor active matrix backplane platform. We have created the integrated design, backplane fabrication, display assembly, test and evaluation capability to enable rapid cycles of learning and technology development. Backplane fabrication is currently accomplished on a 6” wafer scale pilot line linked to a Manufacturing Execution System and supported by a comprehensive suite of in-fab metrology tools. We are currently installing a GEN II pilot line, with qualified operation slated for 2006. This line will be used to demonstrate process and display form factor capability, while providing high yield low volume manufacturing of pilot-scale levels of technology demonstrators for the Army and our commercial partners.