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Chrysler Corporation's new 1981 Imperial introduces an unprecedented totally electronic digital instrument cluster, which features five vacuum fluorescent displays and nine low-travel push buttons for function selection. It is the intention of this paper to present the innovative aspects of the Imperial Instrument Cluster design and how Chrysler met the challenges of utilizing electronics in the automotive environment.

The normal procedure for automotive electronic product development is a slowly evolving process, that is placed by the development of components that are used in the product. Seldom does the normal evolution of components have the potential to cause a breakthrough in products as the application of High Performance CMOS technology (HCMOS) to microcomputers. This paper shows how such a microcomputer has affected the design of a 12 function trip computer. Although the features of this trip computer are not new, progress is made in many areas. A method of accomplishing a day-date clock that does not need an external clock chip will be presented. The implementation of a new A/D converter chip is discussed. A hardware dimming technique for vacuum fluorescent displays will be presented and the application of a new high-efficiency display power supply is examined.

The use of a switching power supply to provide the anode, grid and filament power for a vacuum fluorescent display has been the recent subject of numerous papers, periodicals and manufacturers' application notes. This paper, however, develops a math modeling technique that can be used to evaluate many different types of supplies. The results show that none of the power supplies available truly regulate both filament and display power. A control method that could be used to regulate both is evaluated. A simple pulse width modulation control design driving a miniature autotransformer, which results from use of the math modeling technique, will also be evaluated. The electromagnetic interference (EMI) properties missing from most of the evaluations for the other switching regulator power supplies shall be given along with a discussion on designing for low EMI properties.