LCD

An LCD is a display device whose function is based on the fact that liquid crystals influence the direction of polarization of light when a certain level of electrical voltage is applied. The LCD display consists of several segments, which can all change their brightness independently of each other. For this purpose, the alignment of the liquid crystals is controlled by means of an electric voltage in each segment. This changes the permeability for polarized light, which is generated by means of a backlight and polarization filters. A further development of the LCD is the active matrix display, which contains a matrix of thin-film transistors for control. This technology is currently leading for flat screens. LCD displays are nowadays used on many electronic devices in consumer electronics, such as digital clocks, mobile phones, measuring devices, pocket calculators or video projectors.

The origin story: Liquid crystal technology was developed as early as 1888. At that time, a botanist discovered that organic substances had different optical properties at different temperatures. However, it was not until the mid-1970s that LCD technology (Liquid Crystal Display) could be built into digital clocks, telephones and pocket calculators. In the mid-1980s, the first true monochrome monitors were used. Unfortunately, these were not only two-tone (black/green) but were not at all suitable for moving images - the smearing effect was too big. You could still see the pixel glowing for a comparatively long time, although it shouldn`t have been active (black) for a long time. The fact that two pixels (image points) influenced each other led to a very blurry and faulty display. For this reason, people resorted to plasma displays, which, apart from the monochrome display, had no such side effects. The only disadvantage was the excessive power consumption, so that a laptop, for example, had to be plugged into the socket.