The Invention of the

Liquid Crystal Display

Due March 15, 2010

By:

Tam Chau

Greg Landis

Chris Williams

Geoff Ryan

Patience Woolridge
History of Liquid Crystal Display

Between the year 1850 and 1888, researchers in different fields of science discovered that

with increasing temperature, certain materials behaved differently[ CITATION Unk10 \l 1033 ] . In

1888, an Austrian botanist by the name of Friedrich Reinitzer, discovered liquid crystal extracted

from the cholesterol in carrots. He observed the melting behavior of the organic substance and

noticed that the substance melted to a cloudy liquid at 145.5 degree Celsius and became a clear

liquid at 178.5 degree Celsius[ CITATION Unk03 \l 1033 ]. Intrigued by this behavior he attempted

several observations before realizing that upon cooling the clear liquid, a brief appearance of

blue color could be seen at the transition temperature, and that a blue violet color appeared just

before crystallization. This led to the discovery of a new phase of matter called liquid crystal

phase.

After the discovery of the liquid crystal phase leading into the year of 1958, many

researchers thought they understood all there is to know about the knowledge of that

phenomenon and decided to leave that area alone. However, in 1958 an American chemist by the

name of Glenn Brown, published an article on the liquid crystal phase and it sparked an

international interest yet again in the liquid crystal research [ CITATION Unk06 \l 1033 ]. It helped
to spark the curiosity of many researchers including Richard Williams that in 1962, he achieved

some interesting electro-optical effects in liquid crystal by applying electricity to it. He saw the

change in properties of light when an external electrical charge passed through the crystals.

In 1964, George Heilmeier expanded the work of Richard Williams and managed to turn

the clear liquid, milky by applying electricity. Heilmeier along with Williams and others decided

to use the liquid crystal materials for display. However, his invention failed to be durable for

practical use but it still paved the way for the digital world of alarm clocks, calculators, and

small devices. Advancing the technology even further was James Fergason who discovered the

twisted nematic field effect. This allowed the display to be used in LCD TV and was patented

under his name. By 1972, he went on and own a company called The International Liquid

Crystal Company (ILIXCO). There, they produced the first modern LCD watch based on his

patent. Thereafter, liquid crystal displays began to take off and new products were being

invented. Sharp produced the first portable calculator using DSM LCD screen. By 1979, Walter

Spear and Peter LeComber made the first color display using lightweight thin film transfer LCD.

The innovation of LCD technology really took off and many companies began investing

in it. Sharp has become an industry leader since they first displayed their full color 14” in 1988.

The LCD phenomenon is evolving even to this day. They became more refined, more practical,

more responsive, and gave way to accurately display colors than imaginable.

Key Inventors

The main inventor of the Liquid Crystal Display, James Fergason, was born on January

12, 1934 and died on December 9, 2008. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in physics;

which he received from the University of Missouri in 1956. The following year after graduation
he landed a research position with Westinghouse Research Labs in Pennsylvania. While

working there he organized America’s first research team to study liquid crystals. As mentioned

earlier, Fergason did not discover liquid crystals; they were discovered years earlier in Germany.

He did however discover how to manipulate them so they were useful and practical. In the

1960’s he was the Associate Director of Kent State University’s Liquid Crystal Institute.

(mit.edu) While at Kent State he was trying to develop a breast cancer screening apparatus using

liquid crystal when he made his break through discovery.

This discovery made in 1967 was the basis for his greatest invention, the “twisted

nematic field effect”. This allowed Fergason to efficiently channel current flow through the

liquid crystals. LCD’s had been created in other laboratories using a different approach to

manipulate the crystals called “Dynamic Scattering Method”. The downfall to this method in

comparison to Fergason’s was it required large amounts of power and issued poor results. James

Fergason has over one hundred patents and his first three consisted of, 1963 use of cholesteric

liquid crystals in temperature sensing applications, 1968 LCD, and 1971 for “nematic liquid

crystal twist cell display”.(mit.edu) He founded a company named ILIXCO which manufactured

his displays, his first customer was a German watch company. From then on LCD’s have

expanded in every market.

George H. Heilmeier was born 1936 in Philadelphia, and earned a B.S. in Electrical

Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. After getting his B.S. he went to Princeton

and received several degrees including M.A., M.S.E, and a Ph.D. in solid-state electronics.

George then went to work for RCA Laboratories, where he was promoted to Head of Solid State

Device Research in1966.

 In 1963 while working at RCA’s research center with colleague Richard Williams,

together they published a report suggesting the use of liquid Crystal materials for display.

(mit.edu) He and a group looked at using LCD for television, but knew that they needed more

research before it would be a reality. They then moved their focus towards clocks and watches.

The reason Heilmeier and Fergason were both accredited with the invention of LCD’s was they

had two seprate approaches to aligning the liquid crystals. Heilmeier used the Dynamic

Scattering Method (DSM), which an electrical charge is applied which rearranges the crystals so

they can scatter light to make numbers and other shapes. While this concept worked it was

replaced with Fergason’s method, but Heilmeier was considered the man behind liquid crystal

displays. He received many prestigious awards and asked to work on several projects, some with

the white house and other well known companies.

John L. Janning was from Dayton, Ohio made a large impact on the manufacture of

LCD’s. He invented the liquid crystal molecular alignment invention. This allowed for

profitability in large scale production of Liquid Crystal Displays. There is not much published

on him, but he is credited by many sources for having a large impact on the on improvement of

LCDs.

How It Works

The technology behind how a liquid crystal display works is very sophisticated. The

most impressive aspects is how tiny all the circuitry and components are. The LCD works based

on several layers of technology. The liquid crystals, the polarizing filter, the transparent

electrodes, the fluorescent lamp, the front panel, and the color filter. All these layers are needed

to watch your favorite movie or play your favorite game.

 The main layer of the LCD is the liquid crystals. Liquid crystals are cylindrical or rod

shaped molecules. These molecules are naturally twisted. When a current is passed through

them they begin to untwist. The more current they receive the more they untwist until they

become flat. When the molecules are twisted they allow light to pass through them displaying

whites. As the current increases they untwist and restrict light rays from passing through

resulting in blacks. By controlling the current through the crystal the intensity of the light can be

varied from extreme brightness to blackness. Though the crystal is completely untwisted some

light will still get through making true black impossible (LCD Analyst 1). This is one of the

weaknesses of LCD technology. Depending on the resolution of the LCD monitor the number of

liquid crystals could be in the tens of thousands.

The Liquid crystals are sandwiched between two transparent electrodes and then between

two polarizing filters. It’s the electrodes that deliver the current to the crystals. Once they are in

the electrode grid they can have their current regulated. The job of the polarizing filter is to

diffuse the light to attain uniform brightness. One filter diffuses the light horizontally and the

other diffuses vertically. The crystals produce no light themselves. There is a fluorescent lamp

behind the rear diffusion layer to supply the light for the picture.

The front panel of an LCD is a grid work of wires that are connected to each pixel of the

monitor. This allows each pixel to be controlled separately. Inside each pixel are sub pixels. A

red, blue, and green sub pixel makes up one pixel of the color filter. The filter filters the colors

from the spectrum to produce any number of combinations of the red, blue and green sub pixels

to represent the needed color for the picture (LCD Analyst 1). With light behind all these liquid

crystals sandwiched in between these layers they act as a media to alter the light that passes
through them. With every pixel working independently to create their color and crystal to allow

through the correct amount of light they collectively produce a picture.

There are two basic ways of controlling current in LCDs, the use of a passive matrix

structure or the use of active matrix structure. With a passive matrix structure of electrodes only

one pixel can be controlled at a time. This is used for devices with a lower resolution like mobile

phones and watches. The refreshing rates with this technology are much slower and results in

poor picture clarity. Most of the large LCD displays are active matrix structured. This allows all

the pixels to be controlled independently and simultaneously (LCD Analyst 2). The result is a

picture of great clarity and vibrant color.

Some of these layers vary based on the age and technology of the LCD. For example

most people have heard about or seen the LED TVs’. This simply means that the traditional

fluorescent lamp is replaced by LEDs or light emitting diodes. This advancement allows for the

light traveling through the liquid crystals to be much more controllable. One very obvious

change is the size of the LCD displays now. They have shrunk down considerable due to smaller

components and the replacement of lamps with LEDs as talked about before.

Current Uses

Currently this technology is used in many of our everyday activities. Most of us have

cell phones all of which use the technology. Some of these phones have a simple LCD screen

only for displaying the number you are caller or the number calling you. Others of the more

advanced new phones are designed to be much more than a phone. The screens of these phones

are much bigger and have an active matrix electrode screens. They are able to play videos that
are looked up on YouTube or play games downloaded from the web. The phones have taken full

advantage of the ever improving LCD technology.

The ATM is a great example of how the LCD has made us less dependent on bank tellers.

Without the LCD screen there is no way of translating the state of your bank account without a

person to tell you or wasting loads of paper. The LCD has also changed the way we tell time.

Most of us have look to the microwave of stove to see what time it is. Do you know how dumb

an analog clock looks on a stove? It’s bulky and still hard to read from a distance. When you

tune into your favorite radio station in the car, you’re doing it with the LCD display of the

frequency. Cars are another place where analog clock just look silly.

The place that people relate with LCD technology the most is in televisions. This is

because the televisions are marketed directly as LCDs. Most people have one of these in their

home and can attest to the level of quality. Over the years the technology has advanced and the

picture is becoming better than ever. There are still some problems inherent to the technology

but it has held its own against its rival the plasma. One of the great products made possible by

the innovation of LCD technology is the ability to build laptop computers. All laptops use LCD

displays of different resolution to give the user the ability to visually see the information. They

come in standard definition, high definition, wide screen, true vision, and THX quality.

LCDs play an important part of the American way of life. Most of us couldn’t do our

jobs without it. The reason it has become so integral is the technologies versatility. It can be

applied to any application it is needed. The use of LCD in America and the world is ongoing and

will only expanded until it has been eclipsed by and newer and more effective technology.

Compared To Other Technologies

 The Liquid Crystal Display is one of the most common of all the display technologies

used today. This is due to many reasons such as, in expensive (compared to other newer display

technology), compact, versatile, has a lower power and energy consumption, and it is a proven

working technology that many industries depend upon [ CITATION Gre08 \l 1033 ]. However, like

many technologies it is not perfect or superior to all of the other display technologies in every

aspect. The following will take a look at how the LCD measures up to some of the other

commonly used display technologies.

The most common, up until the past five to ten years, of display technologies was the

Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) display. This technology can be associated with most all television

sets and computer monitors up until approximately the past five years. Although the LCD

display technology has taken over both of these industries, the CRT display is still used

frequently in printing and broadcasting. The LCD has many advantages over the CRT, such as

being much more compact, versatile, lighter, requires a lower amount of energy consumption,

and has a much faster digital performance. However, the LCD is not completely superior to the

CRT. The CRT is sometimes preferred due to its ability to provide wider viewing angles, since

the CRT typically has a spherical or curved face while the LCD is a flat face. The CRT may also

be preferred because of its excellent color range that standard LCD does not measure up, or

simply because the CRT typically costs less than LCD televisions and computer monitors

[ CITATION Hed03 \l 1033 ] .

One of the LCD’s biggest competitors is the Plasma display. The reason for this is

because the LCD and Plasma display have some very similar qualities. Like the CRT and LCD

the plasma display is most commonly used for television. Similar to the CRT, the biggest

advantage that plasma has over the LCD is that it has more accurate color reproduction and has a
wider range of viewing angles. Although the plasma display does use a flat screen, it uses a glass

medium that minimizes the degradation of the image at a wide viewing angle. This glass

medium, however, does present a disadvantage as compared to the LCD. Since it uses a glass

screen, images (or video) that is being viewed is more susceptible to glare from external sources

such as windows (sunlight) and other lights. Since the Plasma display requires power based on

the brightness of the image or video being displayed, on average it uses more power than the

LCD. Another disadvantage of Plasma screens compared to LCD is that due to manufacturing

complications, the Plasma screen televisions cannot be made available in screen sizes under 32

inches[ CITATION Eug05 \l 1033 ].

Another technology that can be compared to the LCD is the Digital Light Processing

(DLP) display. This technology is mainly used in small projection units as well as television

displays. The DLP is, on average, less expensive that both LCD and Plasma displays televisions.

Life the CRT, it has a better picture quality than standard LCD. Also like the CRT, it does not

use a liquid as medium, therefore it is not susceptible to “color decay” like the LCD is and it

does not have the size limitations that the LCD has. Therefore it can be used on much large

display screens such as theatres and large venue screens [ CITATION Jam05 \l 1033 ].

One new display technology that may possibly make the LCD a thing of the past is the

Field Emission Display (FED). Although there is still much research to be done on the FED

technology many advantages can be foreseen. This technology uses much more efficient means

of emitting the image of video, to create a higher resolution picture than an LCD. The FED uses

very similar technology as does the CRT however it requires much less complex electrical

supply therefore it uses much less power. The FED, on average, uses only a fraction of the
amount of power as the LCD. Along with this, the FED units are expected weight much less and

will be much more compact that LCD screens that are used today [ CITATION LCD07 \l 1033 ].

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