Peter Wild

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Peter J. Wild, electrical engineer (2012)

Peter Josef Wild (* 1939 in St. Gallen , legal domicile there ) is a Swiss electrical engineer and inventor . He is a pioneer in the optimized control of matrix-type liquid crystal displays (LCDs ) in flat screens .

education

Peter Josef Wild grew up in the city of St. Gallen. There he first attended the secondary school in Flade and then the canton school at Burggraben, where he passed his Matura in 1959 . He then studied electrical engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich ( ETH Zurich ) and graduated in 1963 with a diploma thesis on blood velocity measurement using ultrasound with Fritz Borgnis as an electrical engineer. After moving to the USA, he went on to study electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California inBerkeley with a Master of Science degree in 1968. For four years he worked in Californian companies as an engineer in electronics development, most recently in Palo Alto in Silicon Valley .

life and work

After his return to Switzerland, Peter J. Wild took up a position as a research assistant in the new corporate research center of Brown Boveri AG (today ABB ) in Baden- Dättwil . The first activity was the development of a phase meter for the laboratory model of a magneto-optical current transformer together with André Jaecklin as project manager. A joint research project for display technologies with Hoffmann-La Roche (Roche) in Basel was decided in 1969. Wild was Brown Boveri's first employee for this project. With liquid crystal displays progress quickly. At Roche, particularly suitable liquid crystal substances for the twisted nematic cell (TN) have been developed and manufactured. This enabled Brown Boveri to manufacture such displays for digital wristwatches .

Wild contributed new insights into the matrix control of liquid crystal displays. In particular, he discovered that when a picture element ( pixel ) is controlled in a pulsed manner in passive matrix displays based on liquid crystals, a non-linear law occurs. Wild noted that when varying the width and height of the effective pixel voltage on a pulse whose effective value (engl. Root Mean Square ) is decisive for the overshooting or undershooting of the electro-optic threshold. These findings were taken up by IBM experts, analyzed further and rules derived from them. These insights allow optimal control for the maximum achievable contrast of such passive matrix displays.

Such a test display, built into a slide frame , was used as a matrix-controlled light valve in a conventional slide projector . This enabled simple, variable graphics with low resolution to be displayed electronically. Wild in 1972 at a conference in San Francisco for the first time demonstrated such a projector, a very early forerunner of video projectors ( beamers ).

Another invention relates to the backlighting of liquid crystal displays. In order to be able to read the time in the dark in wristwatches with liquid crystal displays, background lighting is required. Since such clocks should be as thin as possible, a thin plastic fiber optic plate with a miniature light source attached to the side was developed. With this arrangement it was possible to increase the thickness of the watch only slightly. A comparable solution is used today in flat screens for cell phones , notebooks , monitors and LED televisions and is known as LED edge-lit backlight . However, in these applications, the background lighting is usually switched on continuously during use. In wristwatches, however, according to the invention, when there is sufficient ambient light, the liquid crystal display is read in the reflection mode without background lighting. If the ambient light is insufficient, the background lighting is switched on at the push of a button and the Liquid Crystal Display is shown in transmission mode. In order to achieve good legibility in both cases, the combination of display and background lighting is designed to be transflective .

In 1980, Wild moved from Brown Boveri to Hasler AG, Bern , what later became Ascom AG. There he was initially involved in the development of the innovative Local Area Network ( LAN ) SILK - system for integrated local communication for the transmission of integrated services such as data and telephony. He then worked as head of development in a business unit and later in strategic planning. As part of a consulting mandate at Ascom Consult for a financial investment company, he followed technical developments in the Bay Area from the San Francisco location from 1999 . At the end of 2001 he returned permanently to Switzerland.

Wild is married and has one son.

Publications

  • PJ Wild: A Phasemeter for Photoelectric Measurement of Magnetic Fields. Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 41, No. 8, August 1970, pp. 1163-1167
  • Peter Josef Wild: What was before the cell phone. Telecommunications at the BBC . In: Franz Betschon et al. (Ed.): Engineers build Switzerland - first-hand technology history. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 2013, pp. 408–414, ISBN 978-3-03823-791-4 .
  • Peter Josef Wild: Movable order. The BBC as a pioneer in liquid crystal matrix displays. In: Franz Betschon et al. (Ed.): Engineers build Switzerland - first-hand technology history. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 2013, pp. 415–422, ISBN 978-3-03823-791-4 .
  • DE Huber, W. Steinlin, PJ Wild: SILK: An Implementation of a Buffer Insertion Ring. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, Volume SAC-1, No. 5, November 1983, pp. 766-774
  • For further publications, see individual references.

Patents

A number of patents with Wild as inventor or co-inventor have been registered.

Awards

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Citizens 'Council St. Gallen: Citizens' Register of the St. Gallen local community 1990. Zollikofer AG, p. 1200
  2. ↑ a b c Peter Josef Wild: Movable order. The BBC as a pioneer in liquid crystal matrix displays . In: Franz Betschon et al. (Ed.): Engineers build Switzerland - first-hand technology history. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 2013, biography Wild, p. 522
  3. ↑ a b Liquid Crystal Display Evolution. Engineering and Technology History Wiki, accessed July 5, 2019
  4. ↑ W. Boller, H. Scherrer, M. Schadt , P. Wild: Low Electrooptic Threshold in New Liquid Crystals. Proceedings IEEE, Volume 60, No. 8, August 1972, pp. 1002-1003
  5. ↑ a b Andreas Moglestue: The wristwatch connection. 100 years of ABB Review: Editors' favorites. ABB technology 2 | 2014, p. 12
  6. ^ PJ Wild, J. Nehring: Turn-on Time Reduction and Contrast Enhancement in Matrix-addressed Liquid Crystal Light Valves. Appl. Phys. Lett., Volume 19, No. 9 November 1971, pp. 335-336
  7. ↑ Liquid crystal leads reduced. In Electronics International , October 25, 1971, pp. 33-34
  8. ↑ a b P. J. Wild: Matrix-addressed Liquid Crystal Projection Display. Digest of Technical Papers, International Symposium, Society for Information Display, June 1972, pp. 62-63
  9. ↑ PM Alt, P. Pleshko: Scanning Limitations of Liquid Crystal Displays. IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, Volume ED-21, No. February 1974, pp. 146-155
  10. ↑ US Patent 3895866: Information-bearing Devices and Projection Display Systems therefor. Patent applied for in Switzerland on December 3, 1971, published in the USA on July 22, 1975. Inventors: A. de Quervain and P. Wild
  11. ↑ Slide sandwiched to liquid crystal gives variable display. In: Electronics International , May 8, 1972, p. 78
  12. ↑ Nikki Kahl: LCD Technology its Origins. Projector Reviews, July 11, 2017, accessed May 16, 2019
  13. ↑ Peter Walther: History of the Beamers (video projector) Part 2. In: History Tecnic Journal , Swiss magazine for historical technology, HISTEC 1/2018, p. 17, accessed on May 16, 2019
  14. ↑ US Patent 4096550: Illuminating Arrangement for a Field-Effect Liquid-Crystal Display as well as Fabrication and Application of the Illuminating Arrangement. Application October 15, 1976, published June 20, 1978 in USA. Inventors: W. Boller, M. Donati, J. Fingerle, P. Wild
  15. ^ Inventions by Peter J. Wild . EPODOC, accessed May 16, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Wild, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wild, Peter Josef; Wild, Peter J.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss electrical engineer
DATE OF BIRTH 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Gallen , Switzerland