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Did You Know? 6 Fun Facts About LCD Technology

LCD Technology Spawned from Carrots
Carrots (yes, the vegetable) played a major role in the development of liquid-crystal display (LCD) technology. According to historical documents, Friedrich Reinitzer discovered that cholesterol extracted from carrot was in liquid crystal form in the late 1800s; thus, it could be used to used to produce and manipulate images. Of course, it wasn’t until many years later when LCD was actually used for this purpose, but carrots nonetheless played a key role in the development of LCD technology.
LCD Doesn’t Suffer from Image Burn-In
Unlike their plasma counterpart, LCD doesn’t suffer from image burn-in. Because plasma TVs and displays contain phosphorus compounds, they are susceptible to image-burn in, a phenomenon that occurs when an image is left stationary for a long period of time, causing it to “burn in” to the display. Thankfully, this isn’t a problem with LCD, as the phoshors necessary for this phenomenon are not present.
2007: the Year of the LCD
Conventional CRT-style televisions remained the most popular type of television up until 2007. During the fourth quarter of 2007, however, LCDs had surpassed CRTs in terms of global sales for the first time ever. Fast forward to 2008, and more than 50% of all TVs shipped were LCD.
LCDs are Energy-Efficient
One of the reasons why LCDs have become so popular is because they are energy-efficiency. While the exact energy usage of an LCD varies depending on a number of different factors (e.g. brightness, contrast, power settings, etc.), it’s estimated that an average LCD is roughly 30-50% more energy-efficient than a CRT monitor of the same size. This can translate into hundreds of dollars in savings throughout the life of the LCD display.
Liquid Crystals Don’t Produce Light
It’s a common assumption that the liquid crystals within an LCD display produce light, but this isn’t entirely true. Instead, they propagate light that’s produced by a backlight. A typical LCD TV or device has a backlight, such as LED, that projects light through the liquid crystals. Without this backlight present, the display would be dim, dark and difficult to see.
Blue Phase Mode LCDs
A relatively new form of LCD technology is known as Blue Phase mode. First introduced back in 2008, they are characterized by short switching times (1 ms or less), eliminating the need for expensive color filters while introducing time sequential color control.