LCD Electronics

Theory of Operation
Week 1
20-Sept-2019

1
 Reference Books
E.B. Priestley, P. Wojtowicz, P. Sheng, "Introduction to Liquid
Crystals", Plenium Press, New York, 2e editie, 1979

P.G. de Gennes, J. Prost, "The Physics of Liquid Crystals",

Oxford Science Publications, second edition, Clarendon press
Oxford, 1993
E. Leuder, "Liquid Crystal Displays: addressing schemes and
electro-optical effects", John Wiley & Sonc inc., 2001

Bahadur, B. (Ed.). Liquid Crystals: Applications and Uses, Vol. 1.

Singapore: World Scientific, 1990-.
Bahadur, B. (Ed.). Liquid Crystals: Applications and Uses, Vol. 2.
Singapore: World Scientific, 1990-.
Bahadur, B. (Ed.). Liquid Crystals: Applications and Uses, Vol. 3.
Singapore: World Scientific, 1990-.

2
 Display Panel

Gamma
Vcom
Timing Reference Ref
Data In Voltages
Controller

Column Drivers

Row Drivers
Multi-Source
Power DC/DC Display
In Converter
& LDO

3
 Liquid Crystal Display

George H. Heilmeier was born in 1936 in Philadelphia. He

earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University
of Pennsylvania and then moved on to Princeton where he
earned M.A., M.S.E. and Ph.D. degrees in solid-state
electronics. Heilmeier was working at RCA's David Sarnoff
Research Center in 1963 when he and Richard Williams
published a report suggesting the use of liquid crystal
materials for display.

Heilmeier and a lab group including Nunzio Luce, Louis

Zanoni, Joel Goldmacher, Joseph Castellano and Lucian
Barton began investigating the use of liquid crystal displays
for a television concept. Heilmeier's liquid crystal displays
used DSM or dynamic scattering method, wherein an George H. Heilmeier
electrical charge is applied which rearranges the molecules
so that they scatter light. These were replaced by an
improved version invented by James Fergason in 1969; but
Heilmeier is credited with setting the ball in motion for
LCDs' use in calculators, watches, computers and other
instruments.
http://web.mit.edu/invent/invent-main.html
4
Heilmeier (Guest-Host) LC Display

Ernst Lueder, "Liquid Crystal Displays : Addressing Schemes and Electro-Optical Effects (Wiley
Series in Display Technology)", John Wiley & Sons, 22 June, 2001.
5
 T. Peter Brody Inventor of the Active Matrix

Westinghouse Wasn't Sure; Peter Brody Is

Jun 1, 1981
"The cathode ray tube, like the brontosaurus, will become extinct,"
asserts T. Peter Brody, "and for the same reason: too much bulk,
very little brain."

The CRT -- mainstay of television sets, radar screens, and video display terminal of your
computer -- obsolete? Yes, says Brody, and to replace it he proposes a new display
technology based on thin-film transistors. He and a crew of fellow research scientists
nursed the technology along in Westinghouse Electric Corp. laboratories, but they were
unable to convince corporate higher-ups to develop it for the marketplace. So Brody
formed his own company, Panel-vision, licensed the Westinghouse technology, got venture
capital backing, and expects to be making his own 1/8-inch-thick
prototypes by the end of this year

6
Liquid crystals were actually discovered over 100
years ago, but they did not find commercial
applications until the invention of the twisted nematic
(TN) LCD by Schadt and Helfrich in 1971 (Schadt
and Helfrich, 1971). Nematic liquid crystals have a
short-range order and have some of the properties of
uniaxial crystals. In the natural state, the molecules
have no long-range order and so scatter light. If the
molecules are oriented, however, they can become
transparent with crystalline optical properties. In a
typical LCD, the molecules are aligned by
mechanically rubbing polyimide layers on two pieces
of glass. In the TN cell, the alignment is at right
angles between the two inside surfaces on the glass.
A small amount of cholesteric LC is usually added to
encourage twisting in one direction only. The aligning
layer usually causes a small tilt on the LC molecules
at the surface, typically 1-3 degrees; this effect can
be important in determining maximum contrast ratio
or response time.
http://www.orientdisplay.com/lcds-basis.html
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Twisted Nematic LC Display

http://www.rolic.com/company.htm

http://bly.colorado.edu/lc/tnlc.html
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So…What's a Liquid Crystal?

Liquid Crystals are molecules which

under the right conditions, have the
ability to move with some degrees of
freedom but are constrained in others.

9
 Classes of Liquid Crystals

Liquid crystals are grouped into two

classes, lyotropic and thermotropic.
Lyotropic liquid crystal structures form in a
solvent in proper concentrations.
Thermotropic liquid crystal materials exhibit
unusual melting characteristics and are
the type used to make displays.

10
 Thermotropic Liquid Crystals
Thermotropic LC molecules are characterized as having
rigid heads, usually benzene rings, attached to long
polymer, flexible tails.

Rigid Head Flexible Tail

H H H H
C C C C H H H H H

N C C C C C C C C C C H

C C C C H H H H H

H H H H

Example of a nematic LC (4’-n-pentyl-4-cyanobiphenyl)

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 Dyad Pairing of Molecules
H H H H
C C C C H H H H H

N C C C C C C C C C C H

C C C C H H H H H

H H H H

H H H H

H H H H H C C C C
H
C C C C C C C C C C N
H H H H H
C C C C
H H H H
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Thermotropic Liquid Crystals
• Thermotropic LCs exist in mesophase of
partially solid and partially fluid
properties over a narrow temperature
band.

• Practical liquid crystal displays are

custom eutectic blends of different
materials to optimize display
characteristics such as required voltage,
temperature range, response time etc…

13
Ernst Lueder, "Liquid Crystal Displays : Addressing Schemes and Electro-Optical Effects (Wiley
Series in Display Technology)", John Wiley & Sons, 22 June, 2001.
14
Categories of Thermotropic LCs

smectic A smectic C cholesteric C nematic

There are three categories of liquid crystal order:

(1) smectic (e.g. ferroelectric), (2) cholesteric and (3) nematic.
Nematic liquid crystals are by far the most commercially important
materials and are used in a number of display modes including
twisted nematic, IPS and MVA.
15
Liquid Crystal Nematic Order
free
az Nematic Order:
• Free to translate in
bound x,y and z directions
free
• Free to rotate about
the major (director)
ax free axis
director axis • Restricted rotation
of the director axis
bound

ay
free

16
 Temperature Dependent
Director Distribution
40o
(Typ. T=25oC)

n
average director axis

Distribution is described by the order parameter

17
 Isotropic Dielectric Review
Electrically, liquid crystals are dielectrics. Insulators which
store energy from an electric field through by polarizing.

In the presence of an
electric field, local
-q
regions (molecules)
d
will polarize, that is,
charge will separate
but remain bound. A
+q
polarization moment
forms:

Electric p = dq
Field
Vector 18
 Anisotropic Dielectrics
Electric field parallel
to molecule Electric field perpendicular p az
to molecule

Smaller 
-
p + - p ax
Large 
+ p

p without an E field p ay
Anisotropic dielectrics polarize differently in different axes. Their net polarization is
the 3-dimensional vector sum of the orthogonal polarization moments with respect
to the applied E-vector. In general, the polarization moment does not align with the
E-vector or carry the same magnitude in differing E vector directions.

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 Dielectrics of Nematic Order
Dielectric Property
perpendicular-2 perpendicular

parallel parallel
perpendicular-1 director axis director axis

Nematic Order reduces a 3-dimensional dielectric property to two dimensions.

perpendicular-1 + perpendicular-2
perpendicular = Due to spin about the
2 director axis.

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 Torque Review
(-) (-) (-) (-)
T=F·d
F=qE
Lorenz Force T=2·(qE)·sin()·x

F=qE
F=qE

p x F=qEsin()
F=qE sin()


E-vector
F=qE dd

(+) (+) (+) (+)

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 Torque Depends on VRMS
F|| =q||E T = 2[(½·d||)·q||·E·sin()]-2[(½·d┴)·q┴·E·cos()]
F┴=q┴E
T = [d||·q|| E sin()]-[d┴·q┴ E cos()]

T = [p||·E sin()]-[p┴·E cos()]
d┴
d|| p|| = d||·q|| = ||·o·E·cos()
p
p┴ = d┴·q┴ = ┴·o·E·sin()
F┴=q┴E
r = e+ 1

F|| =q||E T = [|| o E cos() E sin()]-[┴  o E sin() E cos()]

RMS dependency
Temperature dielectric anisotropy
dependency 22
 Spring Properties

equilibrium splay twist bend

K11 K22 K33

23
Order Depend on Springs
Nematic order is maintained
by intermolecular forces
which are macroscopically
characterized as spring
constants for the material.

The bend, twist and splay

spring constants restore
order in a perturbed
system. E-field inducted
torque works against these
springs.

The spring constants also

depend on temperature

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Oseen-Frank Free Energy Equation

W = ½ [K11 (n)2 + K22 (n x n)2 + K33 (nn)2]

Note the similarity to the expression for the energy in a classic spring

W = ∫Kx dx = ½ Kx2

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Summary of Liquid Crystal and
Electrostatic Properties.
• Nematic order means you have cylindrical
molecules arranged with their long axis (directors)
pointed in the same direction.

• The RMS value of an electric field through the LC

will apply a torque on the molecules tending to
align the director with the E-vector.

• Torque has no relationship to any permanent

dipole moment of the molecule.

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 The Optical Effect

Okay, so we can move the

molecules with an electric field,
how do we make a display?

Let's talk Optics…

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Refraction Review
Optical path length

n1d
n0d = n1d = n2d

n0 Faster material (low n) n1 n

0

Slower material (high n) n2

n0d n2d
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Implications of Nematic Order
on Refraction Properties
Refringence Property
nperpendicular-2 nperpendicular

nparallel nparallel
nperpendicular-1 director axis director axis

Three dimensional refringence property… becomes birefringence.

nperpendicular-1 + nperpendicular-2 Due to spin about

nperpendicular =
2 the director axis.

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 Polarization Rotation
-45o -22.5o 0o 22.5o 45o

Resultant Vector
(Actual E-wave)

Birefringence rotates the plane of polariztion.

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Visualization of Rotation

90o Rotation into the plane

31
Linear Polarizer Concept
Unpolarized light has a
randomly oriented
polarity

50%

Linear Polarizer passes

only one polarization
orientation

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Polarizer Function
The sum of all the vertical
components of all the incident
rays are passed with one
polarization (e.g. vertical).

Original
E-polarization
Vertical
E-polarization
(passed)

Horizontal
E-polarization
(absorbed)

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Diagram of the TN LCD Optics
nslow Birefringent LC layer
polarizer
polarizer
Attenuated
Amplitude

nfast

Rotated Plane
of Polarization
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