This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art. Vehicles, such as automobiles, buses, trucks, and trains, can be equipped with one or more display modules for conveying information to an occupant. Display devices include, for example, infotainment centers with liquid crystal displays (LCDs), head-up displays (HUD), and/or instrument panels.
A display device can include multiple thin-film transistors (TFTs) which are field-effect transistors that have thin films of an active semiconductor layer, a dielectric layer, and metallic contacts over a supporting non-conducting material, such as glass. As part of a pixel, a given TFT is connected to a printed circuit board (PCB) which may control the operation the pixel via the TFT. The display device may include equal number of red, blue, and green pixels.
The TFTs can control the intensity of the color emitted by the pixel. For example, a TFT that produces a low intensity color may be referred to as a least significant bit (LSB) and a TFT that produces a high intensity color may be referred to as a most significant bit (MSB). A MSB may affect the color of an image generated by the display device more than a LSB. Accordingly, when a LSB is not properly connected to the PCB (e.g., an open or short connection), the image displayed by the display device may not appear abnormal to a user. However, when a MSB is not properly connected, the image displayed by the display device may appear abnormal to the user. Therefore, it is difficult to determine whether all of the TFTs are connected to the PCB by simply looking at the image displayed by the display device.