What Is a Thin-Film Transistor LCD?
Liquid-crystal display (LCD) is one of the leading display technologies powering TVs, smartphones, tablets and other devices. LCDs work by using liquid crystals to create images. As a backlight illuminates the liquid crystals in the appropriate color, it creates a visual image on the device's display. While all LCDs use this same basic design, there are several different types of LCD technology, one of which is thin-film transistor.
The Basics of Thin-Film Transistor LCDs and How They Work
A thin-film transistor LCD is a type of LCD display that's characterized by the use of thin-film transistor technology. Basically, it's an active-matrix LCD in which each pixel is given its own dedicated transistor. Passive-matrix LCDs, on the other hand, have fewer transistors.
The transistors used in the construction of thin-film transistor LCDs are usually made of crystalline silicon wafers, which is the same material from which solar panels are made. The crystalline silicon wafers are deposited onto a glass substrate to create the thin-film transistor film. It's important to note that the transistors themselves are relatively small, consuming only a fraction of the space in which a pixel is placed. The space-saving properties of these transistors allows light to pass through.
