Fourteen-segment display

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LCD fourteen-segment display as used on Hewlett-Packard's HP-41 range of programmable engineering calculators of the 1980s.

A fourteen-segment display (sometimes referred to as a starburst display or a "Union Jack" display) is a type of display based on 14 segments that can be turned on or off according to the graphic pattern to be produced. It is an extension of the more common seven-segment display, having an additional four diagonal and two vertical segments with one horizontal segment broken in half. The sixteen-segment display breaks the other two horizontal segments in half.

Example diagram of 14-segment display. Note unbroken top and bottom segments in comparison with a sixteen-segment display.

Before the advent of inexpensive dot-matrix displays, fourteen and sixteen-segment displays were some of the few options available for producing alphanumeric characters on calculators and other embedded systems. Applications today include displays fitted to car stereo, telephone Caller ID units, gymnasium equipment and DVD players.

A fourteen-segment display may be based on one of several technologies, the most common being optoelectronic ones such as LED and LCD technology. The LED variant is typically manufactured in single or dual character packages, allowing the system designer to choose the number of characters suiting the application.

Fourteen-segment gas-plasma displays were used in pinball machines from 1986 through 1991 with an additional comma and period part making for a total of 16 segments.