A vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) is a display device

Display device

A display device is an output device for presentation of information in visual or tactile form...

 used commonly on consumer-electronics equipment such as video cassette recorders, car radio

Car audio

Car audio/video , auto radio, mobile audio, 12-volt and other terms are used to describe the sound or video system fitted in an automobile. While 12-volt audio and video systems are also used, marketed, or manufactured for marine, aviation, and buses, this article focuses on cars as the most common...

s, and microwave oven

Microwave oven

A microwave oven is a kitchen appliance that heats food by dielectric heating, using microwave radiation to heat polarized molecules within the food...

s. Invented in Japan in 1967, the displays became common on calculators and other consumer electronics devices. Unlike 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, a VFD emits a very bright light with high contrast and can support display elements of various colours. VFDs can display seven-segment

Seven-segment display

A seven-segment display , or seven-segment indicator, is a form of electronic display device for displaying decimal numerals that is an alternative to the more complex dot-matrix displays...

 numerals, multi-segment alpha-numeric characters or can be made in a dot-matrix to display different alphanumeric characters and symbols.