Flat panel display
Encyclopedia
Flat panel displays encompass a growing number of electronic visual display
Electronic visual display
An electronic visual display is display technology which incorporates flat panel displays, performs as a video display, output device for presentation of images transmitted electronically, for visual reception, without producing a permanent record....

 technologies. They are far lighter and thinner than traditional television set
Television set
A television set is a device that combines a tuner, display, and speakers for the purpose of viewing television. Television sets became a popular consumer product after the Second World War, using vacuum tubes and cathode ray tube displays...

s and video displays that use cathode ray tube
Cathode ray tube
The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and...

s (CRTs), and are usually less than 10 centimetres (3.9 in) thick. They can be divided into two general display technology categories: volatile and static.

The first-ever flat panel display was invented in 1964 at the University of Illinois. The first-ever active-matrix addressed display was made by T Peter Brody
T Peter Brody
T. P. "Peter" Brody , was a British-naturalised physicist and the inventor of Active Matrix Thin-Film Transistor display technology, having produced the world's first Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Display in 1972 and the first functional AM-EL in 1973 while employed by Westinghouse Electric...

's Thin-Film Devices department at Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1968.

In many applications, specifically modern portable devices such as laptop
Laptop
A laptop, also called a notebook, is a personal computer for mobile use. A laptop integrates most of the typical components of a desktop computer, including a display, a keyboard, a pointing device and speakers into a single unit...

s, mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

s, digital camera
Digital camera
A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...

s, camcorder
Camcorder
A camcorder is an electronic device that combines a video camera and a video recorder into one unit. Equipment manufacturers do not seem to have strict guidelines for the term usage...

s, point-and-shoot cameras, and pocket video camera
Pocket video camera
A pocket video camera is a tapeless camcorder that is small enough to be carried in one's pocket. Most pocket video cameras resemble mobile phones in shape and size, unlike traditional cameras....

s, any display disadvantages are made up for by portability advantages.

Most of the modern flat-panel displays use LCD technologies. Most LCD screens are backlit to make them easier to read in bright environments. They are thin and light. They provide better linearity and higher resolution.

Liquid crystal panels

Liquid crystal display
Liquid crystal display
A liquid crystal display is a flat panel display, electronic visual display, or video display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals . LCs do not emit light directly....

s are lightweight, compact, portable, cheap, more reliable, and easier on the eyes than CRTs. A thin layer of liquid crystal, a liquid that exhibits crystalline properties, is sandwiched between 2 electrically conducting plates.The top plate has transparent electrodes deposited on it, and the black plate is a mirror. By applying proper electrical signals across the plates, various segments of the liquid crystal can be activated, causing changes in their light diffusing or polarizing properties. These segments can either transmit or block light. An image is produced by passing light through selected segments of the liquid crystal and then reflected it back from the mirror to the viewer. They are used in various electronics like watches, calculators, and notebook computers.

Plasma panels

A plasma display
Plasma display
A plasma display panel is a type of flat panel display common to large TV displays or larger. They are called "plasma" displays because the technology utilizes small cells containing electrically charged ionized gases, or what are in essence chambers more commonly known as fluorescent...

 consists of two glass plates separated by a thin gap filled with a gas such as neon. Each of these plates has several parallel electrodes running across it. The electrodes on the two plates are at right angles to each other. A voltage applied between the two electrodes one on each plate causes a small segment of gas at the two electrodes to glow. The glow of gas segments is maintained by a lower voltage that is continuously applied to all electrodes. A similar pulsing arrangement is used to selectively turn points off.

Electroluminescent panels

In an electroluminescent display
Electroluminescent display
Electroluminescent Displays are a type of Flat panel display created by sandwiching a layer of electroluminescent material such as GaAs between two layers of conductors. When current flows, the layer of material emits radiation in the form of visible light...

 (ELD), the image is created by applying electrical signals to the plates which makes the phosphor glow.

Volatile

Volatile displays require that pixels be periodically refreshed to retain their state, even for a static image. This refresh typically occurs many times a second. If this is not done, the pixels will gradually lose their coherent state, and the image will "fade" from the screen.

Examples of volatile flat panel displays

  • Active-matrix liquid crystal display
    Active-matrix liquid crystal display
    An active matrix liquid crystal display is a type of flat panel display, currently the overwhelming choice of notebook computer manufacturers, due to low weight, very good image quality, wide color gamut and response time...

     (AMLCD)
  • Electronic paper
    Electronic paper
    Electronic paper, e-paper and electronic ink are a range of display technology which are designed to mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper. Unlike conventional backlit flat panel displays, electronic paper displays reflect light like ordinary paper...

    : E Ink
    E Ink
    E Ink is a specific proprietary type of electronic paper manufactured by E Ink Corporation, founded in 1997 based on research started at the MIT Media Lab...

    , Gyricon
    Gyricon
    Gyricon is a type of electronic paper developed at the Xerox PARC . It has many of the same properties as paper: It's flexible, contains an image, and is viewable from a wide angle, but it can be erased and written thousands of times....

  • Electroluminescent display
    Electroluminescent display
    Electroluminescent Displays are a type of Flat panel display created by sandwiching a layer of electroluminescent material such as GaAs between two layers of conductors. When current flows, the layer of material emits radiation in the form of visible light...

     (ELD)
  • Digital Light Processing (DLP)
  • Field emission display
    Field emission display
    A field emission display is a display technology that incorporates flat panel display technology that uses large-area field electron emission sources to provide electrons that strike colored phosphor to produce a color image as a electronic visual display...

     (FED), also named nano-emissive display (NED)
  • Interferometric modulator display
    Interferometric modulator display
    Interferometric modulator display is a technology used in electronic visual displays that can create various colors via interference of reflected light...

     (IMOD)
  • Light-emitting diode display
    LED display
    An LED display is a flat panel display, which uses light-emitting diodes as a video display. An LED panel is a small display, or a component of a larger display. They are typically used outdoors in store signs and billboards, and in recent years have also become commonly used in destination signs...

     (LED)
  • Liquid crystal display
    Liquid crystal display
    A liquid crystal display is a flat panel display, electronic visual display, or video display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals . LCs do not emit light directly....

     (LCD)
  • Organic light-emitting diode
    Organic light-emitting diode
    An OLED is a light-emitting diode in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compounds which emit light in response to an electric current. This layer of organic semiconductor material is situated between two electrodes...

     (OLED)
  • Plasma display
    Plasma display
    A plasma display panel is a type of flat panel display common to large TV displays or larger. They are called "plasma" displays because the technology utilizes small cells containing electrically charged ionized gases, or what are in essence chambers more commonly known as fluorescent...

     panel (PDP)
  • Quantum dot display
    Quantum dot display
    A quantum dot display is a type of display technology used in flat panel displays as an electronic visual display. Quantum dots or semiconductor nanocrystals are a form of light emitting technology and consist of nano-scale crystals that can provide an alternative for applications such as display...

     (QLED)
  • Surface-conduction electron-emitter display
    Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display
    A surface-conduction electron-emitter display is a display technology which is currently developing various flat panel displays by a number of companies as a electronic visual displays. SEDs use nanoscopic-scale electron emitters to energize colored phosphors and produce an image...

     (SED, SED-tv)


Only a few of these displays are commercially available today, though OLED displays are beginning deployment only in small sizes, mainly in cellular telephones. SEDs were promised for release in 2006, while , FED-NEDs were in the prototype stage.

Static

Static flat panel displays rely on materials whose color states are bistable. This means that the image they hold requires no energy to maintain, but instead requires energy to change. This results in a much more energy-efficient display, but with a tendency towards slow refresh rates which are undesirable in an interactive display.

Bistable flat panel displays are beginning deployment in limited applications (Cholesteric displays, manufactured by Magink, in outdoor advertising; electrophoretic displays in e-book products from Sony and iRex; anlabels).

See also

  • Computer monitor
  • Electronic paper
    Electronic paper
    Electronic paper, e-paper and electronic ink are a range of display technology which are designed to mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper. Unlike conventional backlit flat panel displays, electronic paper displays reflect light like ordinary paper...

  • Flexible display
  • Large-screen television technology
    Large-screen television technology
    Large-screen television technology developed rapidly in the late 1990s and 2000s. Various thin screen technologies are being developed, but only the liquid crystal display , plasma display and Digital Light Processing were released on the public market...

  • LED-backlit LCD television
    LED-backlit LCD television
    An LED-backlight LCD television is an LCD television, flat panel display that uses LED backlighting instead of the cold cathode backlighting used in other LCD televisions. While not an LED display, it is called "LED TV" by some manufacturers and suppliers...

  • Mobile display
  • On-vehicle display
  • Sony Watchman
    Sony Watchman
    The Sony Watchman is a line of portable pocket televisions trademarked and produced by Sony.-FD-210:The initial model was introduced in 1982 as the FD-210, which had a grayscale five centimeter display. The device weighed around 650 grams, with a measurement of 87 x 198 x 33 millimeters. The device...

  • Stereoscopy
    Stereoscopy
    Stereoscopy refers to a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by presenting two offset images separately to the left and right eye of the viewer. Both of these 2-D offset images are then combined in the brain to give the perception of 3-D depth...

     3D displays requiring no special glasses
  • Touch panel
  • Transparent display

External links


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