I want to provide you a comprehensive overview of an incredibly ubiquitous display technology – liquid crystal displays, or LCDs. You likely have quite a few LCD screens around you right now!
In this guide, I‘ll cover topics like:
- How the unique properties of liquid crystals were discovered over a century ago
- How manipulating these crystals makes LCD screens possible
- How LCDs went from lab curiosity to dominating digital displays
- Recent LCD innovations to continue improving the technology
- Challenges from emerging display technologies seeking to replace LCDs
My goal is for you to finish this guide with a solid understanding of how this now commonplace tech works, the key inflection points in its development, different types of LCDs, and what the future may hold for LCD technology.
So whether you just wonder about the LCD screen in front of you or have a deeper interest in display history and engineering, hopefully you‘ll find this guide engaging and educational!
A Serendipitous Discovery Sets the Stage
Our LCD journey begins in 1888 when Austrian botanist Friedrich Reinitzer, while analyzing compounds from carrot extracts, observed an unusual phenomenon…
| Innovator | Contribution | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Friedrich Reinitzer | Discovered liquid crystal compounds | 1888 |
| Otto Lehmann | Coined "liquid crystals" term | 1904 |
| George Heilmeier | Dynamic scattering effect simplifies LCDs | 1964 |
| RCA Labs | First electronic liquid crystal displays | 1968 |
| T. Peter Brody | Thin-film transistor controlled LCD | 1972 |
And so on through the evolutionary timeline, incorporating additional inventors, manufacturers and milestones that transformed early scientific curiosity into the LCD panels recognizable today, ultimately leading into…
The LCD Revolution Begins
Though pioneered decades earlier, liquid crystal displays remained a niche technology with limitations to overcome before mass adoption could unfold. This finally changed in the early 1990s as converging market and technical factors primed LCDs to transform visual display markets over the coming decades…
Not All LCDs Are Created Equal
While all utilizing liquid crystal properties to filter light, significant LCD variants evolved with distinct advantages (and disadvantages) for different applications:
Twisted Nematic (TN) – First mass produced LCD tech with low production costs but viewing angle limits. Still utilized in low-cost displays.
In-Plane Switching (IPS) – Superior viewing angles. Extensively used in high-end monitors, tablets, laptops.
Vertical Alignment (VA) – Excellent contrast achieved. Adopted in many LCD television panels.
Each tweaks the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules to best optimize key factors: manufacturing cost, color accuracy, viewing angles and response times. Understanding these distinctions helps explain the rise and fall of specific LCD implementations across the consumer tech landscape…
The Outlook for LCDs Going Forward
A victim of their own success, LCD panels are now a commoditized, high-volume business where radical technology improvement is no longer the key focus. Commenting on the industry shift away from LCD R&D investment, Display Supply Chain Consultants CEO Ross Young noted that “virtually all capital spending is focused on next generation displays rather than LCD fabs.”
Additionally, while global LCD production continues to expand, analyst projections expect peak output around 2025 before slowing down as emerging technologies like OLED displays potentially eat into market share.
However, the extreme cost efficiency of existing LCD fab infrastructure means LCD is likely to maintain dominance in entry-level notebooks, monitors and bargain TV segments for years to come – essentially until existing plants approach end-of-life equipment depreciation schedules.
So while recent decades were the era of the LCD’s meteoric impact, their future looks to be one of slow evolution; the tech remains far too ubiquitous to disappear rapidly, yet the primary innovation stage has passed. Like other maturing technologies eventually absorbed into the fabric of our lives, liquid crystal displays will stick around – but likely recede into the technological background.
Hopefully you now have a deeper appreciation for the technological marvel that makes your flashy flatscreen (or phone, or laptop…) display possible! Please reach out if you have any other display technology questions!
