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Liquid Crystal Displays

 

LCD is like a monitor. It, too, is a type of screen used to display all sorts of programs, information, and applications you use in your computer! LCD is an acronym for Liquid Crystal Display. It is commonly found in laptop computers, but it is now slowly making an entrance into the personal computer world.

LCD screens have two sheets of glass. Sandwiched between these two sheets is a type of liquid containing crystalline structures. These crystals can move around by sending in electrical pulses. They either let light through, or they block light, depending on their location. This can create images and pictures.

There are two main types of LCD displays: passive matrix screens and active matrix screens. Both these screens have a table-like display. Like with cathode-ray monitors, the LCD screens are divided into tiny sections called pixels. The pixels are arranged in a system of rows and columns. There are transistors at the beginning of every row and every column. To activate a pixel, the transistors send electric pulses down the rows and columns to that pixel. The main difference between the passive matrix screens and the active matrix screens is that the active matrix screens use more transistors for each pixel than passive matrix screens. This is what allows the former to have the brightest overall picture and the widest viewing angle. This is also what makes the active matrix screen much more expensive than the passive matrix screen!


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