TT-01- 3359 Notice and Caution The content of this specification is subject to change for improvements without notice. We do not authorize the use of any patents that may be inherent in these specifications. The application and circuit examples in these specifications are for better product understanding only. The examples are illustrated for general use. We do not guarantee these examples to be suitable for your particular application. It is your responsibility to determine their appropriateness for your use. We take no responsibility for circuitry problems in your application. Neither whole nor partial copying of these specifications are permitted without our approval. This product is not designed for military, aerospace, medical or other life-critical applications. If you choose to use this product for these applications, please ask for our prior consultation. This product is not designed to work in a high radiation atmosphere. Warrantee Period: The specifications or purchase contract will provide details of our warrantee. The basic warrantee period is one year from purchase. Handling and Usage Precautions: Please follow the available appropriate product application notes for proper usage, safety and for operation standards within maximum performance. Safety: The edge of the glass is not perfectly smooth so handle with caution. The exhaust pipe is not designed for high stress so be careful to avoid breakage. If disposing of this product, do not break for safety concerns. Assembly: Please handle carefully to avoid surface scratching and breakage of the exhaust pipe during the assembly process. We recommend the use of gloves and finger shields to keep the product clean and the solder surface smooth at the lead pins. Please provide enough space around the process area to avoid accidentally breaking the exhaust pipe and avoid applying too much stress to your fixture that may also break the exhaust pipe. Please use shock absorbers when the product is secured with stands inside the fixture to avoid cracking the glass. The lead pins should not be touched by conductive material because they are the display electrodes. When designing your application, please consider the sealing glass paste that surrounds the vacuum fluorescent display. When cutting the lead pins after soldering avoid applying shock and vibration that exceeds specifications. When bending the lead pins, avoid stress to the corner of the glass where the pins are bent. Overstress may cause glass cracking or breakage and unstable conductivity. When securing the circuit board to the application, avoid warping of the circuit board that may cause damage to the glass or pins. The sealing glass materials may be damaged by acid and alkaline substance. Please carefully select chemicals and fluxes. When chemicals and flues are applied, please provide a sufficient washing process. Do not apply ultrasonic cleaning that may cause damage to the filament wires and phosphor materials. Drive: Please follow the rating in the specifications to maximize performance. Filament voltage (Ef) is the most important factor to drive the display properly. Exceeding the recommended conditions will result in a severe reduction in life expectancy and possibly cause other damage. Please refer to the power design applying the typical voltage recommendations in the specifications. We define the recommended operating conditions to guarantee the operation, performance and quality of the product. If the product is operated outside the maximum and minimum ratings, the product may be damaged. When designing the circuit, please apply the typical conditions in the specifications as your design center. The absolute maximum rating is defined as the value that cannot be exceeded. You cannot apply conditions that exceed the maximum absolute value. When you exceed conditions that are greater than the maximum absolute value, damage may occur to the product. When designing the circuitry, please closely consider the variation of power voltage, the variation in components, environmental temperatures, surge, and spikes. Brightness controls (dimming) by the filament voltage, anode and grid voltage, or display driving voltage, the display may appear with uneven brightness. If brightness control is required, please adjust the blanking pulse width of anode and grid voltage, or blanking control (BK) in BD series. See the application note. Due to the product characteristics, there may appear a brightness difference between the segments that are frequently used and those that are less frequently on. Please try to design your display patterns where there is an even distribution of segments that are turned on. Try to avoid using some segments that are excessively or permanently on when compared with the rest. If this cannot be avoided, please consult us. Storage: Please follow the environmental conditions described in the specifications. Please avoid storing in high humidity, saline and sulfur rich environments. These environmental factors may result in deterioration of the characteristics for soldering lead pins and insulation between lead pins. Extended time storage may result in initial dimming due to the characteristics of the product. We recommend using the product within three months of receipt. The brightness level returns after tuning the product on for several hours ( one to two hours) under typical conditions. Precaution for disposal: Some of the phosphor material excluding blue-green, contain a very small quantity of cadmium. Also part of the display glass package contains lead glass. Please follow the prescribed related regulation and legislation for industrial wastes.