5. LCD Display Technology

In a first of two chapters on display technology, this chapter introduces Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs). We review some of the reasons this technology has become the dominant display technology within the world-wide market, as well as the possible threat to this dominance. This conversation includes the basic structure and function of these displays, including their important performance characteristics. We see at their heart LCDs are light modulators, manipulating the light provided by a backlight to impart an image. The robustness of this process affects many of the performance parameters of this technology. Finally, we look at advances in integrating high performance backlights into these displays to create higher quality images, improving the quality and power consumption of these displays. These innovations permit LCDs to compete with the LED-based displays we will discuss in the upcoming chapter.