liquid crystal display

liquid crystal display (LCD), electronic display device that operates by applying a varying electric voltage to a layer of liquid crystal, thereby inducing changes in its optical properties. LCDs are commonly used for portable electronic games, as viewfinders for digital cameras and camcorders, in video projection systems, for electronic billboards, as monitors for computers, and in flat-panel televisions.

Electro-optical effects in liquid crystals

Liquid crystals are materials with a structure that is intermediate between that of liquids and crystalline solids. As in liquids, the molecules of a liquid crystal can flow past one another. As in solid crystals, however, they arrange themselves in recognizably ordered patterns. In common with solid crystals, liquid crystals can exhibit polymorphism; i.e., they can take on different structural patterns, each with unique properties. LCDs utilize either nematic or smectic liquid crystals. The molecules of nematic liquid crystals align themselves with their axes in parallel, as shown in the figure. Smectic liquid crystals, on the other hand, arrange themselves in layered sheets; within different smectic phases, as shown in the figure, the molecules may take on different alignments relative to the plane of the sheets. (For further details on the physics of liquid crystalline matter, see the article liquid crystal.)

The optical properties of liquid crystals depend on the direction light travels through a layer of the material. An electric field (induced by a small electric voltage) can change the orientation of molecules in a layer of liquid crystal and thus affect its optical properties. Such a process is termed an electro-optical effect, and it forms the basis for LCDs. For nematic LCDs, the change in optical properties results from orienting the molecular axes either along or perpendicular to the applied electric field, the preferred direction being determined by the details of the molecule’s chemical structure. Liquid crystal materials that align either parallel or perpendicular to an applied field can be selected to suit particular applications. The small electric voltages necessary to orient liquid crystal molecules have been a key feature of the commercial success of LCDs; other display technologies have rarely matched their low power consumption.

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Twisted nematic displays

The first LCDs became commercially available in the late 1960s and were based on a light-scattering effect known as the dynamic scattering mode. These displays were used in many watches and pocket calculators because of their low power consumption and portability. However, problems connected with their readability and the limited lifetime of their liquid crystal materials led to the development during the 1970s of twisted nematic (TN) displays, variants of which are now available in computer monitors and flat-panel televisions.

A TN cell, as shown in the figure, consists of upper and lower substrate plates separated by a narrow gap (typically 5–10 micrometres; 1 micrometre = 10⁻⁶ metre) filled with a layer of liquid crystal. The substrate plates are normally transparent glass and carry patterned electrically conducting transparent coatings of indium tin oxide. The electrode layers are coated with a thin aligning layer of a polymer that causes the liquid crystal molecules in contact with them to align approximately parallel to the surface. In most currently manufactured displays, the alignment layers consist of a layer of polymer a few tens of nanometres thick (1 nanometre = 10⁻⁹ metre) that has been rubbed with a cloth in only one direction. In assembling the cell, the top and bottom substrate plates are arranged so that the alignment directions are perpendicular to each other. The whole assembly is then contained between a pair of sheet polarizers, which also have their light-absorption axes perpendicular to each other. In the absence of any voltage, the perpendicular alignment layers cause the liquid crystal to adopt a twisted configuration from one plate to the other. With no liquid crystal present, light passing in either direction through the cell would be absorbed because of the crossed polarizers, and the cell would appear to be dark. In the presence of a liquid crystal layer, however, the cell appears to be transparent because the optics of the twisted liquid crystal match the crossed arrangement of the polarizers. Application of three to five volts across the liquid crystal destroys the twisted state and causes the molecules to orient perpendicular to the substrate plates, giving a dark appearance to the cell, as shown in the diagram. For simple displays, the liquid crystal cell is operated in a reflective mode, with a diffuse reflector placed behind the display, and the activated parts of the electrode pattern appear as black images on a gray background provided by the diffuse reflector. By patterning the electrodes in segments or as an array of small squares, it is possible to display alphanumeric characters and very low-resolution images—for example, in digital watches or calculators.

More-complex images can be displayed using a technique known as passive-matrix addressing (described below). However, even with this technique, 90° TN displays can produce images consisting of only about 20 rows of picture elements, known as pixels.