The history of LCD technology
When Friedrich Reinitzer first observed the liquid crystal structure and cholesterol behavior of carrots in 1888, a world of liquid crystal technology opened up. He discovered that these liquid crystals had two melting points : one where the crystals melt and create a cloudy liquid and one where it melts a second time to become transparent. These crystals were also found to have color generating properties . However, this was a far cry from what our modern LCD (liquid crystal display) screen consists of.
Twenty-three years after Reinitzer, Charles Mauguin was the first to begin placing thin layers of liquid crystals between plates, an idea that would later found the structural concept of LCD displays. A man named Georges Friedel first classified liquid crystal structures in 1922, separating them into nematic, smectic, and cholesteric. It was also discovered in 1962 by Richard Williams of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) that these liquid crystal structures have electro-optical effects that can be controlled through an applied voltage.
Who invented the LCD screen and when?
Liquid crystal research of the 1960s was characterized by the discovery and experiments on the properties of liquid crystals . RCA’s George H. Heilmeier based his research on Williams’, delving into the electro-optical nature of crystals. After many attempts to use liquid crystals to display different colors, he created the first functional LCD screen using something called Dynamic Dispersion Mode (DSM) which, when voltage is applied, turns the transparent liquid crystal layer into a more translucent state. . Therefore, Heilmeier was considered the inventor of the LCD screen.
LCD evolution and important milestones
In the late 1960s, the UK’s Royal Radar Establishment (RRE) discovered cyanobiphenyl liquid crystal , a type that was well suited to LCD use in terms of stability and temperature. In 1968, RCA’s Bernard Lechner came up with the idea of a TFT-based LCD, and later that year, he and several others brought that idea to life using Heilmeier’s DSM LCD.
After the LCD screen’s entry into the field of display technology, the 1970s were filled with expansive research to improve the LCD screen and make it suitable for a greater variety of applications. In 1970, the twisted nematic field effectit was patented in Switzerland with credited inventors such as Wolfgang Helfrich and Martin Schadt. This twisted nematic (TN) effect was soon attached to products entering international markets such as Japan’s electronics industry. In the US, James Fergason filed the same patent in 1971. His company, ILIXCO, known today as LXD Incorporated, produced TN-effect LCDs that grew to eclipse the DSM models. TN LCD displays offered better features such as lower operating voltages and power consumption.
From there, the first digital watch, or more specifically a quartz electronic wristwatch, using a TN-LCD and consisting of four digits, was patented in the US and released to consumers in 1972. Sharp Corporation of Japan, in 1975, began mass production of TN LCD pocket watches and calculators and eventually other Japanese corporations began to rise in the wristwatch display market. Seiko, for example, developed the first six-digit TN-based LCD quartz watch, an update to the original four-digit watch.
However, the DSM LCD did not become completely useless. A 1972 development by the North American Rockwell Microelectronics Corp integrated the DSM LCD into calculators marketed by Lloyds Electronics. These required a form of internal light to display the screen, and so backlights were also incorporated into these calculators. Soon after, in 1973, the Sharp Corporation introduced the DSM LCD pocket calculators. A polymer called polyimide was used as the orientation layer for the liquid crystal molecules.
Thin-film transistor LCDs had been introduced in 1968 by RCA, but the active matrix TFT LCD panel that consumers are most familiar with today for high-resolution displays was not prototyped until 1972. However, throughout In the 1970s, the TFT struggled to resolve many problems with composition. materials, so the technologies of the 70s did not use the TFT.
In the 1980s, there was rapid progress in creating usable products with this new LCD research. Color LCD television displays were first developed in Japan during this decade. Due to the limit in response times due to the large screen size (correlated to a large number of pixels), the first televisions were portable or pocket televisions. Seiko Epson, or Epson, created the first LCD TV and released it to the public in 1982, which was soon followed by its first full color screen pocket LCD TV in 1984. Also in 1984 was the first commercial TFT LCD screen: Citizen Watch’s2.7-inch color LCD television. Soon after, in 1988, Sharp Corporation created a 14-inch full-color TFT LCD display that used an active matrix and had full-motion properties. Large LCD displays have now made it possible to integrate LCDs into large flat panel displays such as LCD displays and LCD monitors. LCD projection technology, first created by Epson, became available to consumers in compact and full color modes in 1989.
The growth of LCD displays in the 1990s focused more on the optical properties of these new displays in an attempt to improve their quality and capabilities. Hitachi engineers were integral to in-plane switching (IPS) analysis on TFT active matrixes, a concept that would broaden the viewing angles of devices using this technique, especially large-screen LCDs. Another technique that was developed in the 1990s was multidomain. vertical alignment (MVA), developed by Samsung. Both the IPS and MVA techniques have gained popularity due to their ability to widen viewing angles, making displays more desirable and useful. As this investigation progressed,the LCD industry, formerly centered in Japan, began to expand and move into South Korea, Taiwan, and later China as well.
When did LCD monitors become popular?
As we entered the new century, the prominence of LCD screens skyrocketed. They surpassed the previously popular cathode ray tube (CRT) displays in both image quality and sales worldwide in 2007. Other developments continued, such as making even larger displays, adopting transparent materials, and flexible for LCD hardware. and creating more methods to widen viewing angles (O-film).
How does an LCD screen work?
To this day, LCD screens have developed quite a bit, but they have remained consistent in their structure. Illuminated by a backlight, the screen consists, from the outside to the inside, of two polarizers, two substrates (typically glass), electrodes, and the liquid crystal layer. Closer to the surface there is sometimes also a color filter, using an RGB scheme. As the light passes through the polarizer closest to the backlight, it enters the liquid crystal layer. Now, depending on whether there is an electric field directed by the electrodes, the liquid crystal will behave differently. Whether you use a TN, IPS, or MVS LCD, the electric field from the electrode will alter the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules to then affect the polarization of the light that passes through. If the light is correctly polarized, it will pass completely through the color filter.and surface polarizer, showing a certain color. If it is partially polarized correctly, it will show a medium level of light or a less bright color. If it is not polarized correctly, the light will not pass through the surface and no color will be displayed.
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