advantages of flat panel display screens quotation

When one hears the term “flat-panel display,” the first thing that may come to mind is a modern 21st-century classroom where a teacher gives lessons on an interactive flipchart to students using smart whiteboards. And this vision would not be wrong. However, this technology is being adopted into many other industries, such as:

In fact, the flat-panel display market is booming. In a recent ResearchAndMarkets.com report, the global market for this technology was valued at $116.80 billion in 2018 and is projected to reach $189.60 billion by 2026.

Flat-panel displays are electronic viewing technologies used to enable people to see content (still images, moving images, text, or other visual material) in a range of entertainment, consumer electronics, personal computer, and mobile devices, and many types of medical, transportation and industrial equipment. They are far lighter and thinner than traditional cathode-ray tubes (CRT)  television sets and video displays and are usually less than 10 centimeters (3.9 in.) thick.

The LCD is comprised of millions of liquid pixels (picture elements). The picture quality is described by the number of pixels. For example, the “4K” label indicates that the display contains 3840×2160 or 4096×2160 pixels. Each pixel is made up of three subpixels: red, green, and blue (called RGB for short). When the RGBs in a pixel change color combinations, a different color is produced (e.g., red and green produce yellow). With all the pixels working together, the display can make millions of different colors. And finally, a picture is created when the pixels are rapidly turned off and on.

LED displays are the second most common display technology. In essence, the LED display is an LCD as it uses the same liquid diode technology but uses light-emitting diodes to backlight instead of cold cathode fluorescent (CCFL) backlighting.

The “O” in OLED stands for “organic,” as these flat-panel displays are made of organic materials (like carbon, plastic, wood, and polymers) that are used to convert electrical current into light. With OLED technology, each pixel is capable of producing its own illumination. Whereas both LCD and LED technology uses a backlighting system.

PDPs contain an electrically charged gas (plasma) that is housed between two panels of glass. PDPs are known for their vivid colors and have a wider viewing angle. However, one disadvantage with this technology is that it tends to “burn” permanent images onto the viewing area. In addition, when compared to an LCD, the PDP tends to be heavier and thicker because of the two glass panels, and it typically uses more electricity.

EL Technology places electroluminescent material (such as gallium arsenide or GaAs) between two conductive layers. When an electric current is introduced to the layers, the electroluminescent material lights up, thus creating a pixel. EL displays are most typically used for instrumentation for rugged military, transportation, and industrial applications.

In today’s world, interactivity is king. Devices like mobile phones and tablets are everywhere, and people are looking for similar experiences in their workplace and as they go about their daily lives. As a result, multi-video walls, kiosks, and interactive flat-panel displays are cropping up in almost any place you can think of.

Automobile dealerships are installing interactive flat-panel displays that allow shoppers to view their line-up of cars. These panels have touchscreen features that enable customers to view a vehicle from all angles and even zoom in on different parts. With this technology, buyers can order a fully customized car by choosing the upholstery, trim, accessories, and even some of the engine features of their new car.

Doctors have many non-invasive diagnostic tools in their toolkits—things like x-rays, MRIs, CT scans, ultrasound, PET, etc. These days, new techniques have been developed that combine multiple scans into 3D renderings. These images require high-quality (medical-grade) flat-panel displays that provide the highest resolution possible. And because these displays are in constant use, they must be durable and long-lived. LCDs with edge-lit LED backlights are currently the industry standard with about 93 percent penetration.

One of the best weapons in peace and war is information. The Pentagon is placing flat-panel displays on almost every surface they can think of—war rooms, control rooms, ships, planes, trucks, and even helmets, rifle sights, and radios. The displays used by the military must be:

Brick and mortar retail stores’ biggest competition is e-commerce sites. Interactive flat-panel displays combine in-store and online selling with the use of self-service kiosks. Salespeople are using these kiosks to personalize customer service and enhance their product availability beyond what they stock in the store. This technology can also help retailers customize their products for their customers and are particularly helpful to boutiques and luxury retailers.

As we have demonstrated, there are many uses for flat-panel displays in a multitude of sectors.  Flat-panel displays produce high-quality images, are stylish, consume less power, and give a maximum image in a minimum space. Best of all, they disperse information and help make our lives easier and safer.

Versa Technology’s objective is to keep our customers fully informed about a broad array of communication and networking technologies. We sincerely hope you found this article informative. Versa has over 25 years of experience in networking solutions. To learn more about our products and services, please visit ourhomepage.

The first engineering proposal for a flat-panel TV was by General Electric as a result of its work on radar monitors. Their publication of their findings gave all the basics of future flat-panel TVs and monitors. But GE did not continue with the R&D required and never built a working flat panel at that time.[1] The first production flat-panel display was the Aiken tube, developed in the early 1950s and produced in limited numbers in 1958. This saw some use in military systems as a heads up display, but conventional technologies overtook its development. Attempts to commercialize the system for home television use ran into continued problems and the system was never released commercially.[2] The Philco Predicta featured a relatively flat (for its day) cathode ray tube setup and would be the first commercially released "flat panel" upon its launch in 1958; the Predicta was a commercial failure. The plasma display panel was invented in 1964 at the University of Illinois, according to The History of Plasma Display Panels.[3] The first active-matrix addressed display was made by T Peter Brody"s Thin-Film Devices department at Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1968.[4] In 1977, James P Mitchell prototyped and later demonstrated what was perhaps the earliest monochromatic flat panel LED television display LED Display. (As of 2012), 50% of global market share in flat-panel display (FPD) production is by Taiwanese manufacturers such as AU Optronics and Chimei Innolux Corporation.

Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are lightweight, compact, portable, cheap, more reliable, and easier on the eyes than cathode ray tube screens. LCD screens use a thin layer of liquid crystal, a liquid that exhibits crystalline properties. It is sandwiched between two electrically conducting plates. The top plate has transparent electrodes deposited on it, and the back plate is illuminated so that the viewer can see the images on the screen. By applying controlled electrical signals across the plates, various segments of the liquid crystal can be activated, causing changes in their light diffusing or polarizing properties. These segments can either transmit or block light. An image is produced by passing light through selected segments of the liquid crystal to the viewer. They are used in various electronics like watches, calculators, and notebook computers.

Some LCD screens are backlit with a number of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). LEDs are two-lead semiconductor light source that resembles a basic "pn-junction" diode, except that an LED also emits light. This form of LCD (liquid crystal display) is the most prevalent in the 2010s. The image is still generated by the LCD.

A plasma display consists of two glass plates separated by a thin gap filled with a gas such as neon. Each of these plates has several parallel electrodes running across it. The electrodes on the two plates are at right angles to each other. A voltage applied between the two electrodes one on each plate causes a small segment of gas at the two electrodes to glow. The glow of gas segments is maintained by a lower voltage that is continuously applied to all electrodes. In the 2010s, plasma displays have been discontinued by numerous manufacturers.

An OLED (organic light-emitting diode) is a light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound which emits light in response to an electric current. This layer of organic semiconductor is situated between two electrodes; typically, at least one of these electrodes is transparent. OLEDs are used to create digital displays in devices such as television screens, computer monitors, portable systems such as mobile phones, handheld game consoles and PDAs. A major area of research is the development of white OLED devices for use in solid-state lighting applications.[1][2][3]

QLED- QLED or Quantum Dot LED is a flat panel display technology introduced by Samsung under this trademark. Other television set manufacturers such as Sony have used the same technology to enhance the backlighting of LCD Television already in 2013.[5][6] Quantum dots create their own unique light when illuminated by a light source of shorter wavelength such as blue LEDs. This type of LED TV introduced by Samsung enhances the color gamut of LCD panels, where the image is still generated by the LCD. In the view of Samsung, quantum dot displays for large-screen TVs are expected to become more popular than the OLED displays in the coming years; they are so far rare, but seem potentially on the cusp of more widespread consumer take-up, with firms like Nanoco and Nanosys competing to provide the QD materials. In the meantime Samsung Galaxy devices such as smartphones are still equipped with OLED displays manufactured by Samsung as well. Samsung explain on their website that the QLED TV they produce can determine what part of the display needs more or less contrast. Samsung also announced a partnership with Microsoft that will promote the new Samsung QLED TV.

Volatile displays require that pixels be periodically refreshed to retain their state, even for a static image. As such, a volatile screen needs electrical power, either from mains electricity (being plugged into a wall socket) or a battery to maintain an image on the display or change the image. This refresh typically occurs many times a second. If this is not done, for example, if there is a power outage, the pixels will gradually lose their coherent state, and the image will "fade" from the screen.

Amazon"s Kindle Keyboard e-reader displaying a page of an e-book. The Kindle"s image of the book"s text will remain onscreen even if the battery runs out, as it is a static screen technology. Without power, however, the user cannot change to a new page. https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?curid=1075027

Static flat-panel displays rely on materials whose color states are bistable. This means that the image they hold requires no energy to maintain, but instead requires energy to change. This results in a much more energy-efficient display, but with a tendency towards slow refresh rates which are undesirable in an interactive display. Bistable flat-panel displays are beginning deployment in limited applications (Cholesteric displays, manufactured by Magink, in outdoor advertising; electrophoretic displays in e-book reader devices from Sony and iRex; anlabels).

A flat–panel display is a type of display device that uses thin, flat, electronic technologies to create images. They are found in a variety of devices, including televisions, computers, mobile phones, and tablets. Flat-panel displays have many advantages over traditional cathode ray tube (CRT) displays, including lower power consumption, thinner form factors, and better image quality.

Flat-panel displays have many advantages over their older counterparts, cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors. They are thinner, lighter and consume far less power. They also offer a much wider viewing angle and generally provide a sharper, more vibrant image.One of the biggest advantages of flat–panel displays is their size. They are significantly thinner and lighter than CRT monitors, making them much easier to transport and install. This also means that they take up far less space, which is ideal for use in small offices or homes.Flat-panel displays also consume far less power than CRTs. This is due to the fact that they do not require the high-voltage electron beams that are used in CRTs. This reduced power consumption not only saves money, but also helps to reduce the strain on the environment.Another advantage of flat–panel displays is their viewing angle. CRTs have a very narrow viewing angle, which can make it difficult to see the screen from certain angles. Flat-panel displays, on the other hand, have a much wider viewing angle, making them much easier to use.Finally, flat–panel displays generally provide a sharper, more vibrant image than CRTs. This is due to the fact that they use a technology called active matrix, which allows each pixel to be controlled independently. This results in a much higher level of image quality.

It is a well-known fact that flat–panel displays have a number of advantages over their older CRT counterparts. However, there are also some disadvantages that should be considered before making a purchase.One of the biggest disadvantages of flat–panel displays is their cost. While prices have come down considerably in recent years, they still tend to be more expensive than CRTs. This is particularly true of larger displays.Another downside of flat–panel displays is that they can be more difficult to view in brightly lit rooms. This is because they tend to reflect more light than CRTs. If you plan to use your display in a room with lots of windows or overhead lighting, you may want to consider a CRT.Finally, flat–panel displays tend to have shorter lifespans than CRTs. This is due to the fact that they contain a number of delicate parts, such as the backlight. If one of these parts fails, it can be very expensive to repair or replace the display.

A flat–panel display is a type of display device that uses a thin, flat piece of electric crystal to show images. They are typically used in devices such as computers, cell phones, televisions and portable media players. Flat-panel displays can be made in different ways, using various technologies. The most common types of flat–panel displays are liquid crystal displays (LCDs), light-emitting diode displays (LEDs) and plasma displays. LCD flat–panel displays work by placing a layer of liquid crystal between two polarized sheets of glass. The liquid crystals are arranged in a pattern that allows them to twist and turn when electric current is applied. This twisting and turning allows the crystals to block or pass light, which is used to create the images on the screen. LCDs are the most common type of flat–panel display, and are used in a variety of devices, including computers, televisions, and cell phones.LED flat–panel displays work in a similar way to LCDs, but use light-emitting diodes (LEDs) instead of liquid crystals. LEDs are small, electrically charged devices that emit light when electric current is passed through them. The LEDs are arranged in a pattern on the flat–panel display, and can be used to create images in the same way as liquid crystals in LCDs. LED displays are becoming increasingly common, as they offer a number of advantages over LCDs, including better power efficiency and brighter images.Plasma flat–panel displays work by using a gas that is electrically charged to create images on the screen. The gas is contained in small cells between two pieces of glass. When electric current is applied, the gas is ionized and creates ultraviolet light. This ultraviolet light then excites phosphors on the inside of the cells, which emit visible light to create the images on the screen. Plasma displays are typically used in larger devices, such as televisions, and offer a number of advantages over LCDs and LEDs, including better image quality and wider viewing angles.

Flat-panel displays are thinner and lighter than traditional cathode ray tube (CRT) televisions and computer monitors. They use less electricity, which not only saves you money on your energy bill, but also helps reduce your carbon footprint. And because they don’t have any moving parts, they’re less likely to break.There are two main types of flat–panel displays: liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and plasma displays. LCDs are found in most laptops, desktop monitors, and televisions. Plasma displays are typically found in larger televisions.Here’s a quick comparison of the two types of displays:LCD Displays• Thinner and lighter than CRTs• Use less electricity• No moving parts• Available in a wide range of sizes• Can be difficult to read in direct sunlightPlasma Displays• Thinner and lighter than CRTs• Use less electricity• No moving parts• Available in larger sizes• Better for watching movies and playing video games• Can be difficult to read in direct sunlight

Responsible for performing installations and repairs (motors, starters, fuses, electrical power to machine etc.) for industrial equipment and machines in order to support the achievement of Nelson-Miller’s business goals and objectives:

• Provide electrical emergency/unscheduled diagnostics, repairs of production equipment during production and performs scheduled electrical maintenance repairs of production equipment during machine service.

It’s been 30 years since interactive whiteboards were first introduced to school classrooms in 1991, and while many of those earlier models (and even some newer models) struggled with performance and affordability, today’s interactive flat panels (IFPs) are advanced teaching tools that are becoming a mainstay in classrooms from elementary to university levels.

This adoption of interactive flat panels has led to blackboards, traditional whiteboards, interactive whiteboards, and projectors firmly becoming devices of the past, as IFPs have become the go-to presentation tool for modern educators. Of all U.S. classrooms,87% have at least one form of display installed, with a continued increase in adoption expected over the next couple years.

Educators are turning to interactive displays for good reason, as their numerous advantages over more outdated alternatives enables an elevation of lesson plans and an increase in student engagement.

But before we get to the key benefits of interactive displays, it’s important to note the distinction between interactive whiteboards and interactive flat panels. While both are popular learning tools, there are a number of distinct differences between the two.

Interactive whiteboards are typically projectors that display images on a special screen with sensors that respond to fingers, pens, styluses, erasers, and more. In many ways, interactive whiteboards are an outdated technology that have long suffered from needing to be precisely aligned with the projector, from bulbs growing dim over time, and more.

Interactive flat panels (also often referred to as IFPs, interactive flat panel displays, interactive touchscreen displays, or simply interactive displays) are large touchscreen monitors with a built-in Android OS – and in almost every way, they are a better option than interactive whiteboards.

IFPs provide flexibility and usability to help educators take their lesson plans to the next level, and the right option for you will depend on the unique goals and dynamics of your classroom. The Trafera team is here to help you determine the best way forward.

Here are four of the key advantages interactive flat panel displays can provide within classrooms of any grade level, with a specific focus on the features and benefits ofNewline Interactive’s line of IFPs.

Interactive displays equip teachers with seemingly endless possibilities when compared to more traditional options. They can be used to share and present content, highlight important information, engage students in group activities, and more. Teachers can also use interactive displays to lead Q&A sessions, instruct using diagrams and videos, and lead educational game sessions. Newline Interactive’s IFPs are platform-agnostic and are capable of working seamlessly within Google, Microsoft, and iOS environments.

In addition to IFPs themselves becoming more advanced, the widespread growth of apps, online educational content, and digital curriculum has furthered their impact in the classroom, helping to more effectively bridge the gap between such content and the learning environment.Digital curriculum has become especially critical in times of remote and hybrid learning, and IFPs help bring this content to life through interactive content, videos, games, and more. Teachers can instruct dynamically in front of an IFP to both in-person and remote students with the addition ofAV solutions. Newline Interactive’s non-proprietary nature also allows teachers to utilize their preferred tools, apps, and digital content easily on the display.

This flexibility makes it easier for students to learn in the way that best suits them. Auditory, visual, and kinetic learners can watch and listen to material and follow along on their own synced devices in real-time. With Newline Interactive’s freeBroadcast software, teachers can share the panel with up to 199 users on any network, while the freeCast software enables moderation and the ability for students to share their own screens to the IFP.

In addition to their flexibility, interactive displays also help facilitate a more interactive and engaging learning experience for students – and they’re simply more fun! Students can write, draw, and edit directly on the display with intelligent touch to recognize fingers, styluses, palms, markers, and more. Real-time collaboration and idea-sharing is also brought to life in high-definition.

The importance of this cannot be overlooked, as studies showinteractivity and engagement are positively linked to student performance. Increased student engagement canimprove test scores, with 99% of students in one study reporting they felt they learned better when an interactive display was used during class.

The performance issues of earlier interactive display models are firmly in the rearview, as today’s devices are easy for both educators and students of any age to learn how to use. Clicking on links and buttons, highlighting text, dragging and dropping items, and sharing content wirelessly are all highly intuitive and designed for streamlined use.

IT staff can also centrally manage all Newline IFPs remotely via the freeDisplay Management tool, capable of configuring display settings, deploying and installing apps and broadcast messages from the desktop, and more.

Trafera’s team of experts offer setup and training to help you take full advantage of your interactive flat panel display without missing out on any features or benefits.

Budgeting for schools is always a top-of-mind concern for educators and administrators, and interactive displays serve to benefit these initiatives. IFPs represent a singular upfront expense that won’t eat into future budgets, providing a low cost of ownership over time.

Newline Interactive offers a five-year advance replacement warranty, including the cost of shipping defective panels and the delivery of replacement panels. This warranty also helps contribute to the reduced cost of ownership over time.

With Trafera on your team, we’ll work together to navigate the complexities of today’s learning environment in a supportive and empowering way.Contact us todayto learn more about providing your students with a more engaged and a more connected experience this school year and beyond.

IFPD is short for interactive flat panel displays. It is comprised of a large touch screen display, Android motherboard, OPS(Open Pluggable Specification), speakers, camera, and a few interfaces. They are designed for collaborative activities, such as business meetings, products presentation, teaching in schools, coaching and training, and so on.

Interactive flat panel displays are big touchscreen displays that are designed for education in classrooms, distance learning, remote collaboration, and meeting in business activities.

The regular sizes of the touch screen are 55” 65” 75” 86” 98” 110”. It adopts infrared touch screen technology, which allows you to write and mark on the screen without any delay.

The resolution supports high-quality 4K, which ensures legible displays for every detail of the files. However, if your application only requires simple representation, 2K resolution is also a cost-effective solution for you.

Projecting your screen to the interactive flat panel display can be one of the salient features, because, most of the time, you need to share your screen with others in an interactive activity.

Scanning the QR code shown on the IFPD – after installing some specific software, you can transfer your data within the LAN through the wireless route

OkDigitalSignage’s interactive flat panel display supports devices with any OS in the market, such as devices with windows, android, macOS, iOS, and so on.

OkDigitalSignage’s interactive flat panels have brackets to secure to the wall. But most of our customers prefer fixing them to a movable floor stand so that they can adjust the position and viewpoint according to various scenarios

Compared with obsolete projectors in schools and offices, IFPD’s connectivity and interactivity make it more convenient for a nowadays fast-paced lifestyle.

An interactive flat panel display can connect to the network via wifi or LAN, and it is integrated with the camera, speaker, and microphone, this allows it to distribute real-time teaching to students from different locations.

There are a lot of APPs compiled for IFPD. The APPs have functions to utilize cameras and touchscreens, so the IFPD works as a hub, and your team members can highlight and mark on your screen from their own devices.

Projectors, whiteboard & projector combos were popular, but today they have to give way to new technologies because IFPD not only can realize all the functions that old-fashion models can do but also has lots of advantages. Let’s talk in the following section.

No matter whether projectors or whiteboard projector combo displays content by reflecting lights emitted by projector, they require the wall or whiteboard to have a high reflective rate, but most of the time, we only get 75%, so the images lost their real color and look as if they are tinged with greyish.

The software can be common software for computers, as well as specially designed ones to enhance collaboration and efficiency. These software can help you seamlessly integrate with other existing technology platforms.

Over 100 years ago an Austrian botanist, Reinitzer (1888), discovered a fourth state of matter, with properties intermediate between solids and classical liquids. This was a liquid that showed long-range order, though only over a limited temperature range. On melting from the frozen state, the long-range order made the liquid cloudy, but as the temperature was increased, it became clear. The molecules of the liquid were long and thin, and the long directions followed an ordered pattern. Further research revealed three types of order. Smectic crystals are similar in their order to crystalline solids, in that the molecules form equally spaced layers, all pointing in the same direction, though with little positional order within a layer. In nematic crystals, there are no layers, the molecules pointing in the same direction locally, though that direction, called the director, changes over a distance (figure 5). Cholesteric crystals are layered, but the molecules lie along the layers, all those in a layer pointing in the same direction, with that direction changing gradually and regularly with distance, so that the director follows a helix.

Liquid crystals (LCs) remained an academic curiosity until 1962, when Williams (1963), at the Radio Corporation of America’s (RCA) Sarnoff Research Center, discovered changes in the optical transmission of thin films of para-azoxyanisole held between two glass slides on the application of 12 V. Williams subsequently left the laboratory, but his lead was followed by George Heilmeier, who persuaded the RCA management to start an LC project. There was, at that time, no room-temperature LC, but the RCA chemists devised a mixture of three Schiff’s bases that had a nematic range from 22 to 105°C (Goldmacher & Castellano 1967). The effect that RCA wished to exploit in displays was called the dynamic scattering mode (DSM), in which the mixture turns from transparency to white opalescence over a range of a few volts (Heilmeier et al. 1968). LCs are anisotropic in almost all their physical characteristics. The values of refractive index, dielectric constant, conductivity, elasticity and viscosity are very different when measured along the long molecular axis or the short axes. Because of the dielectric anisotropy, the molecule will turn in an electric field, and nematics divide into two classes, positive crystals, which align along the field, and negative crystals, which try to lie across it. DSM can be generated in negative nematics, because charges build up along the molecules, giving rise to a field at right angles to the applied field. At higher fields, turbulence occurs. RCA publicized their discoveries in 1968, and, amid some excitement, many companies set about exploiting liquid crystal displays (LCD) in digital watches and calculators. Curiously, RCA was an exception.

RCA had little interest in small instruments. Their display involvement was in CRTs, and here their position was almost unique. Harold Law and Al Schroeder had invented the shadow-mask tube some 10 years earlier, and this was now being made in quantity at plants in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Harrison, New Jersey (Law 1950, 1976). The company had early adopted the principle of licensing their inventions, and shadow-mask tubes were now produced worldwide.1962a,b) would be the solution. In any case, they did not see the virtue in trying to replace their own world-leading display, and did not accept the moral, ‘If you don’t do it, someone else will’.

Looking back, it is obvious that RCA held most of the assets needed to forge and preserve world leadership in flat-panel displays, but they opted out. The management set a target of a 1200 pixel integrated display panel to be made early in 1968, but when no panel was made by the end of the year, the project was cancelled. In the next year they abandoned all work on LC TV, though some work on small displays continued until 1972.

It would not be an overstatement to say that US industry lost its way on displays in the 1970s. We have seen that the early running on LCs was made by RCA. That laboratory had not been in the forefront of discovery on transistors and chips, relying mainly on licensing from Bell Telephone Laboratories (BTL), but it had a proud record of innovation in vacuum tubes, culminating in the invention of the shadow-mask CRT. RCA led in the early research on TFTs and LCDs, but the belief that flat-panel displays were against their long-term interests led them to withdraw from the field in 1972. The other potential industrial leader, BTL, had stayed curiously aloof from the frenzied search for novel display technology, partly because of their increased involvement in semiconductor lasers for communications, but also because senior figures in their laboratory were unconvinced that new displays were required. They said (Gordon & Anderson 1973):Prospects for new display technologies are clouded by the fact that there exists a device, the familiar CRT, that has long provided a versatile, elegant, functional, economical, and largely satisfactory solution.

In circumstances where industry was unwilling to lead in long-term research programmes, defence funding had previously filled the gap, and we have seen that this indeed happened in the UK. In the USA, however, the Department of Defense (DoD) was also unconvinced about flat panels. The opposition was led, strangely, by the scientist who had contributed much to the earlier enthusiasm at RCA for LCs, George Heilmeier. He had left RCA in 1970, and within two years was holding a senior post in the US DoD with responsibility for electronic device research contracts. He told the main US Displays Conference (Heilmeier 1973):How many realistic scenarios are there in which we win because we have a flat-panel, matrix-addressed display in the cockpit? We must feed on existing technologies.

The lack of management interest in LCDs certainly led to a number of the RCA scientists leaving, and one of their best theorists, Wolfgang Helfrich, joined Hoffmann-La Roche (H-LR), the Swiss chemical and pharmaceutical company, in 1970. There he suggested to Martin Schadt, the LC group leader, that he should work on a new display effect that exploited positive nematics. Helfrich’s idea was to make a thin LC cell that rotated the plane of incident polarized light by 90°. It was known that nematic molecules would lie down on a glass substrate that had been rubbed with a polishing cloth in one direction. If that direction was orthogonal on the two surfaces, a 90° twist would be induced, and when the cell was put between parallel polarizers, no light could pass. However, if a field was applied across that cell, the molecules would align themselves along the field, the twist would disappear, and light could pass. Schadt made the cell, it worked, and the twisted nematic (TN) display was born (figure 6).

There were some curious features to this invention. Helfrich left RCA in October 1970, made the first TN cells in November, submitted a patent with Schadt on 4 December (Helfrich & Schadt 1970) and a letter to Applied Physics Letters 3 days later (Schadt & Helfrich 1971). Such a rapid sequence of conception and construction is unusual. In fact, as Helfrich admitted 20 years later, he had thought of the TN effect in 1969, and other ex-RCA staff confirmed this. However, he made little attempt to attract management interest, since, as he explained, he was there to help theoretical understanding, not to invent devices. RCA made no attempt to invalidate the patent or to claim ownership, possibly because there were further legal complications (Kawamoto 2002).

James Fergason was a scientist who had worked on cholesteric LCs at Westinghouse in the early 1960s, but left in 1966 to join Kent State University. Two years later he formed his own company, ILIXCO, to manufacture LC displays. In 1968 and 1970 he published two papers that effectively contained descriptions of the TN display (Arora et al. 1968; Fergason et al. 1970). He made no attempt then to patent the concept, and was surprised, and probably irritated, when a colleague reported back after a visit to H-LR that Schadt and Helfrich had invented a new form of LCD. In fact, it was as a result of this inadvertent disclosure that H-LR had rapidly taken the patenting and publishing actions. Fergason himself set about composing patents and, after an abortive attempt in February, submitted in April a patent, which was granted in 1973 (Fergason 1971). No mention was made in this patent of his earlier publications. Though the validity of Fergason’s patent could have been queried because of those disclosures, there could be no doubt that he had made and shown a device in April 1970, because he had recorded the invention in witnessed notebooks. He therefore had good grounds for contesting the H-LR patent, and after protracted legal proceedings this was withdrawn. However, H-LR regained legal ownership of TN rights by buying the Fergason patent from ILIXCO, which were in financial difficulties. A compromise agreement shared royalties amicably between all the interested parties except RCA.

Though the way was now legally clear for companies to exploit TN displays, the commercial position was unclear. A number of companies had taken licences from RCA to exploit dynamic scattering, and they were reluctant to adopt an untested technology. However, problems soon arose because of the LC material. DSM effects need negative nematics, and though RCA had now demonstrated a suitable Schiff’s base that was nematic at room temperature, it did not have an adequate working range. Sharp developed a eutectic mixture of three Schiff’s bases that worked over the range 0–40°C, but were then frustrated when their devices failed after only a few weeks of operation. It became apparent that there was no stable LC available, and LCDs were acquiring a poor reputation for reliability.

Up to then, the UK had played little part in LC development, though one or two university chemistry departments were involved in research, and one company, Marconi, had patented an LCD before the war (Levin & Levin 1934). Now events took a curious turn, because a politician became involved. Much UK semiconductor research had been carried out in government defence laboratories, and early development of LEDs and diode lasers had taken place at the Services Electronics Research Laboratory (SERL), Baldock, and at the Royal Radar Establishment (RRE), Malvern. One of the aims of the Labour Government elected in March 1966 had been to forge a ‘white-hot technological revolution’, and the next year they established a Ministry of Technology. This assimilated some of the defence laboratories, including RRE, and in March 1967 the Minister of State for Technology, John Stonehouse (figure 7), came to Malvern.

He was surprised to hear that royalties to RCA on the shadow-mask tube cost the UK more than Concorde, and after overnight deliberation authorized the Director of RRE, Dr (later Sir) George Macfarlane, to start a programme on flat-panel electronic displays. Surprised at this rapid decision, and informed by senior staff that there was no expertise within RRE to mount a meaningful development programme, he set up a committee to study the field. This recommended in December 1969 that the UK Government should fund research on flat-panel electronic displays, with LCs as the first priority (Hilsum 1969).

Though formal approval of this recommendation would normally have taken some months, and, indeed, was never granted, RRE had anticipated approval, and justified their action on the urgent need for displays for the portable radar sets they had invented. They established two consortia, one for materials, involving RRE, Hull University and BDH, and one for devices, involving RRE, SERL, Marconi, Rank and STL. The Plessey Research Laboratory at Caswell were also involved, specializing in electrophoretics. Though most of these organizations were ‘the usual suspects’ from the semiconductor R&D programmes, Hull University were unknown. They had come to the attention of RRE during a meeting held to probe UK expertise on LCs, when it became clear that Hull, led by Professor George Gray, were clear leaders in the understanding of LC chemistry. This trust was rewarded manifold. Gray was given the task of finding a stable LC, because RRE, schooled in defence requirements for reliable components, appreciated that consumers also would not tolerate short-lived equipment. All available LCs had serious shortcomings. Schiff’s bases gave erratic results, and stilbenes, more recently proposed, were degraded when exposed to ultraviolet radiation.

The solution did not come immediately. Hull worked first on carbonate esters, then on sulphonate and carboxylic esters. They tried purifying samples of Schiff’s bases, to see if the short device life was linked with impurities, and, when this failed, moved to stilbene esters and cyano-Schiff’s bases. All efforts were leading nowhere, and Gray was now becoming frustrated. He decided to take a step back and see if the materials had a common fragile feature. Table 1 shows the position in mid-1972.

R was chosen to be an alkyl or an alkoxy, essentially the cyano-Schiff’s bases they had worked on earlier, minus the central linkage. After deciding on the way forward, and making some of the necessary precursors, in August 1972 Gray and his colleague John Nash left to attend the International Liquid Crystal Conference at Kent State University, in the USA.

They left with some reluctance, for their recently qualified PhD graduate, Ken Harrison, was ready to attempt the preparation of pentyl-cyano-biphenyl (5CB) and pentyloxy-cyano-biphenyl (5OCB). They returned to a scene of great excitement, for both materials had been made and found to be LCs. 5CB showed a nematic phase from 22 to 35°C, and 5OCB worked from 48 to 69°C. Even more exciting were the results of stability tests at Malvern. The resistivity and the transition temperatures of both materials were unaffected by long exposure to a damp atmosphere, whereas Schiff’s bases became unusable after a few hours. However, this was just the start, because now they must find a mixture that met the temperature requirements, −10 to 60°C. Six alkyls and six alkoxys were then synthesized, and a number of mixtures of these were tried, but the best combination had a range only from −3 to 52°C. They needed to design complicated eutectic systems, but it would have taken far too long to plot eutectic diagrams for all promising combinations.

A crucial contribution was then made by Peter Raynes, who had joined the RRE Displays Group a year earlier, fresh from a PhD on superconductivity. He realized that the Schroeder–Van Laar equation for binary eutectics might be extended to predict mixture properties from thermodynamic data for the individual materials. However, the accuracy was not high enough, and Raynes then developed a more accurate semi-empirical method, which proved ideal. This was so useful commercially that it was not put into print for some years (Raynes 1980). Melting points of eutectic mixtures were then predictable to within 5°C, and clearing points, the change from nematic to isotropic behaviour, to within 2°C (Hulme et al. 1974). Raynes predicted that no mixture of biphenyls would operate well below zero. Gray then reasoned that adding a terphenyl component would give a wider range mixture, and though terphenyls were difficult to make, they proved to be the solution.

Meanwhile, production processes of pure biphenyls had been perfected at Poole, where Ben Sturgeon, the Technical Director of BDH, had made inspired contributions, and before long BDH was selling biphenyl eutectics widely, for though their temperature range was not ideal, their stability was very attractive. Late in August 1973, Raynes made a four-component eutectic that had a range of −9 to 59°C. It was called E7, and the composition is shown in figure 8. In almost all respects it met the specifications put to RRE by manufacturers of watch displays (table 2).

E7 could be said to be the saviour of the LC industry, for it was invented at a time when LCDs were suspected of being inherently unreliable, and it remained the preferred material for many years. The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) chose a restricted licensing strategy, and originally only BDH and H-LR could sell biphenyls. Rapidly they dominated the market. By 1977 BDH were the largest manufacturers of LCs in the world (figure 9), and biphenyls had become their largest-selling product. Less than five years earlier, the company had never made an LC.

There are many physical parameters of LCs that control the electro-optical behaviour, but the most important for displays are the elastic constants and the rotational viscosity. Table 3 gives the room-temperature values for E7 for the splay (k11), twist (k22) and bend (k33) elastic constants and the viscosity (η).

The visual appearance of a TN cell depends strongly on the angle of view, and both the viewing angle and the contrast ratio came under criticism as the possibility of major markets became apparent. Major advances were made, both in the cell configuration and in the LC materials. A big step forward was the idea of increasing the twist from 90° to 270°. This supertwist nematic display (STN) was proposed and patented in 1982 by Waters & Raynes (1982) at RRE, and independently patented a year later by the Brown Boveri group, led by Terry Scheffer (Amstutz et al. 1983), afterwards ably assisted by Jurgen Nehring. STN gave the steep threshold necessary for passive matrix displays, and the response time and angle of view were similar to the simple TN device (Scheffer 1983; Waters et al. 1983). It became the preferred display for instruments and lap-top computers, and lost ground only when the production of TFTs over large areas was perfected. The STN display was patented and widely licensed by the MoD, and yielded royalties of over £100 million, the largest return for any MoD patent.

More radical changes to the TN mode were also introduced. Soref (1972, 1973), at Beckman Instruments and Sperry Rand, had proposed in 1972 displays using circular polarizers with interdigitated electrodes on just one of the glass surfaces. The concept of interdigitated electrodes was improved by the Freiburg Fraunhofer Institute, which invented the in-plane switching (IPS) display in 1990 (Baur et al. 1990; Kiefer et al. 1992).

The electrodes are on the same cell surface, and, in the absence of a voltage, the LC molecules lie parallel to the surfaces, which have the same rubbing direction, so there is no effect on polarized light. Application of a field between the electrodes induces a rotation on that cell surface, and a twist between the two surfaces. However, fringe fields and the effect of tilt make the operation more complicated, and can lead to increased response time. Moreover, each pixel needs two switching TFTs, and in early versions this reduced the transmittance. IPS was studied by a number of laboratories in the 1990s, notably Hosiden, NEC and, particularly, Hitachi (Ohe & Kondo 1995; Ohta et al. 1996). There are now a number of variants in commercial production.

Though TN mode devices showed clear advantages over dynamic scattering, several laboratories pursued other LC effects in the 1970s. Fred Kahn at BTL proposed in 1971 a switching effect based on negative nematics aligned homeotropically, i.e. at 90° to the cell walls, so that the electric field was parallel to the long axis of the molecules, the cell being placed between crossed or parallel polarizers. Application of the field will then cause the molecules to rotate through 90°, and the transmission through the cell will change (Kahn 1971, 1972). Kahn showed that VT was given by equation (4.1), with k=k33. For the LCs he used, VT was 3 V, and the birefringence increased steadily as the voltage was increased to 20 V. Though this seems a simple mode, the alignment requirements are severe. The homogeneous alignment used in TN cells is readily obtained by rubbing the glass surface in one direction. This creates microgrooves, and the long molecules lie in them. For Kahn’s vertical alignment (VA) mode, it is necessary not only to persuade the molecules to lie at 90° to the surface, but also to impose a slight tilt, to give a source of defined anisotropy. This proved difficult to achieve over areas practical for displays, and exploitation of VA awaited the sophisticated control over LC that developed during the next 20 years. A number of improvements were then proposed, one of the most effective being the Fujitsu multi-domain vertical alignment (MVA) mode (figure 10).

In the off state, the molecules adopt a more-or-less homeotropic structure. When voltage is applied, within each domain the molecules align orthogonally to the raised structures, which are actually pyramids, so the light is channelled into a cone, giving a wide angle of view.

The early thirst for LCs shown in figure 9 has not diminished. In 1979 world sales were £5 million. In 2006 Merck, the dominant supplier, had sales of £500 million (figure 11) and their provisional figures for 2007 exceeded £700 million. Two other large suppliers, Chisso and Dai Nippon Ink, are anticipated to have sales of over £300 million, making a sales total of at least £1 billion in 2006. In 1979 sales were measured in grams. Today the measurement unit is tonnes.

Naturally, this growth has had to be served by much R&D on materials to give better display performance. As I noted earlier, the most important parameters to consider in designing an LC for displays are the temperature range of the nematic phase, the magnitude of the elastic constants, the ratio of the bend constant k33 to the splay constant k11, and the viscosity η. Also relevant are the magnitude and sign of the dielectric anisotropy Δε, and the magnitude of the birefringence Δn.

Though biphenyls and phenyl-cyclohexanes served the LCD industry well during the first 15 years of development, there were obvious deficiencies in the display appearance and multiplexing capability. One serious problem was the resistivity, insufficiently high for large displays. LCs are insulating, but that is a relative term, and to ensure that the pixel voltage does not drain away in active matrix applications, the resistivity must be very high, above 1012 Ω cm, and that rules out some otherwise promising families. Another problem was the slow switching speed, with a failure to follow fast-changing images. The simple remedy of reducing viscosity led to both a smaller operating temperature range and a reduction in the dielectric anisotropy, giving a higher switching voltage. After much research at Hull University and Merck, the inclusion of fluorine groups was shown to give much improved performance (Gray et al. 1989; Reiffenrath et al.1989a,b; Coates et al. 1993). It should be noted that commercial LCs now are mixtures of from 10 to 30 individual molecules, but a typical core material is shown in figure 12. This material has a high Δε of over 17, satisfactory for both IPS and TN modes (Kirsch 2004).

The design of materials for vertically aligned nematic (VAN) mode poses new problems, since they must have a large negative Δε. It was known that lateral polar substituents would lead to a dipole moment orthogonal to the long axis, and again fluorine was the preferred substituent. The most useful materials are difluorophenyl derivatives and more recently the difluorindanes have been invented, giving a Δε as large as −8. VAN switching times are longer than for IPS or TN, and the cell spacing has to be as small as 3 μm. This, in turn, calls for a larger value of birefringence, and this often results in high viscosity. A good compromise is found in the terphenyl shown in figure 13, which has Δε=−2.5, Δn=0.23 and η=90 cP (Pauluth & Tarumi 2004). Additional fluorine substituents give larger negative values of Δε, but the viscosity is increased by a factor of three or more.

The IS&S 10” Flat Panel Display is a self-contained display unit with a built-in Symbol Generator, offering superior performance with a high resolution XGA multi-color LCD flat panel display.  The 6×8 inch viewing area (10.4” diagonal) provides enhanced readability, an 80 degree viewing angle, NVIS compliant display lighting, and a non-glare, anti-reflective display surface. The […]

The IS&S 15” Flat Panel Display is a self-contained display unit with a built-in Symbol Generator, offering superior performance with a high resolution XGA multi-color LCD flat panel display. The 9” x12” viewing area (15” diagonal) provides enhanced readability, an 80 degree viewing angle, NVIS compliant display lighting, and a non-glare, anti-reflective display surface. The […]

IS&S has developed a highly flexible flat panel display for commercial and military aircraft. The 17” LCAC Flat Panel Display Unit is a self-contained analog display unit. It is capable of taking in digital and analog RGB computer video as well as RS343 video. The Display Unit will automatically display video when a valid signal […]

The 20” Flat panel display utilizes AMLCD glass. Designed to last for 20+ years, IS&S flat panel display systems accept changing technology as a fact, and builds its architecture around this. The display is light weight, has a shallow depth, sunlight readable and has low power requirements, utilizing natural convective cooling. The Multifunction Display (MFD) […]

The IS&S Engine Instrument Display System (EIDS) is designed specifically as a value-added, low-cost upgrade of the engine instrument cluster.  This easily retrofitted replacement system is compatible with existing cockpit configurations.  It provides all existing engine related parameters and surface position indicators.

When I’m talking with staff at ambulatory surgery centers or hospital surgical departments, one question I typically get is about the technology at the center of the C-arm system:

While that might sound like a simple question on the surface, the answer is somewhat complicated once you dig a little deeper. The fact is, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution that can be applied to every facility. Every office-based lab, clinic and healthcare system has very specific needs that must be taken into account.

From system features to equipment size, there are strengths for each of these technologies. If you’re in the market for a mobile surgical C-arm, I hope the following information will help inform your research and your purchase decision as you look to expand the size or scope of your practice.

While the technology powering both types of systems has progressed dramatically over the years, with each new iteration designed to reduce the amount of radiation the patient and the healthcare team may be exposed to, there is a limit to what an image intensifier can accomplish. The simple fact is that flat panel technology will almost always give you a lower dose than an image intensifier.

You can really see this come into play when working with the magnification modes available on each system. In order to get down to the Zoom 3 setting on an image intensifier, you’ll need to increase the dose by five times as much as you would in the normal full field mode. The same magnification on a flat panel detector, on the other hand, involves an increase of about half the II increase.

If keeping dose low is your primary concern, then your decision is an easy one: flat panel technology. But that’s only one factor of many to take into consideration.

Most C-arm operators have years of experience working with image intensifiers, so they know the quirks of the systems and can pretty quickly ascertain what to do if they experience some kind of error. It’s also fairly easy to find parts when a portion of the system breaks down; the widespread availability of image intensifiers means you’re never too far from a vendor who can provide you with the part you’re looking for.

The other side of that coin, however, is that while parts may be easier to find, the need for those parts is greater on an image intensifier because of degradation resulting from heightened radiation dose and other issues. An image intensifier just has more parts that will likely require service. That’s problematic when you have high volume or a variety of complex procedures.

Service on a flat panel detector can be more complex than on an image intensifier, which seems like a disadvantage, but the point is moot if you opt to rely on an Original Equipment Manufacturer-certified service provider. It’s true that your technologists on site may be able to troubleshoot some issues inherent to image intensifiers, but this may not be the case with critical errors, which is why many facilities opt to go with a service contract. In these instances, the flat panel detector may make more sense. That way, the regularity of repairs can be reduced and, when repairs do need to occur, you receive care you know you can rely on.

This comparison is short (literally) and sweet. A flat panel detector is shorter than the image intensifierbecause, well, it’s a flat panel rather than an extended tube structure.

If, however, you’re handling simpler cases such as pain management rather than more complex procedures requiring precise movements and measurements, the size of the machine may not be a deciding factor.

Let’s start with field of view. For the comparison, I want you to think about a flat screen television versus a telescope. The flat screen provides a wide image that allows you to cover wide swaths of the patient’s anatomical structure as needed. The telescope can provide a fantastic image too, but you have to point it precisely or pull back sufficiently far in order to get the image you need within the viewer.

That’s a simplistic comparison, but I’ve found that it helps when trying to visualize the difference between the two. Flat panel technology can provide up to a 50% greater field of view than a similar class of image intensifier.

There’s also a difference when imaging smaller structures of the patient’s body. Flat panel detectors have a higher contrast resolution than image intensifiers, with the extra benefit of additional grayscale. These two things combine to provide precise views of anatomical structures that might appear out of focus using an image intensifier, especially if the latter system has been in commission for a few years and already experienced significant fatigue.

An image intensifier will most likely be the lower cost option in comparison with flat panel technology. The flat panel is newer, whereas image intensifiers have been around since the 1950s (a testament to both their longevity and their somewhat outdated technological foundation). Plus, flat panel detectors, as described above, tend to have better image quality thanks to field of view and precision imaging capabilities, and their development reflects the more recent evolution of technology.

When it comes to cost, image intensifiers will almost always cost less than flat panel detector technology. However, that cost doesn’t necessarily take into account the need for service (image intensifiers may experience increased downtime due to degradation and the need for parts replacement) or the fact that the technology that drives flat panel detectors has matured and become more readily accessible every year. As more options have been introduced, the cost of many flat panel detectors has come down considerably compared to even just a couple years ago.

Flat panel detectors and image intensifiers each have their strengths. It’s up to you to determine what your needs are and which system has the right qualifications for your facility.

Remember, too, that in addition to outright purchases, C-arm systems all come with a variety of implementation options. These include renting, leasing, financing and other creative means of securing the technology that will drive surgical volume and an effective patient and technologist experience at your organization.

There are two types of flat screens to choose from when shopping for a flat-screen TV. Both types, commercial and consumer, produce outstanding quality pictures. They are engineered in different ways and have general differences to take into consideration. The end use of the display screens will help with the decision. When the customer is a business who will be using Flat Panel Displays to disseminate information to the public, Commercial Audiovisual systems can be a good choice. It is important to know the differences between the two types of flat-screen displays.

Professional AV Design and Engineering companies such as CCS Presentation Systems will guide their clients through the process of choosing the correct flat panel displays for their advertising or information dissemination. These companies will help customers design a whole advertising or information presentation program to display on the flat panel display screens.

Generally, commercial kinds of screens are designed and made to work well with PCs and the accompanying architecture for long hours of use. Consumer type flat screens are designed for use with video and TV that are used for shorter periods of time. Some of the other differences include:

Warranties are longer for commercially rated flat panel displays. Commercial screens have multi-year warranties, while consumer displays used for commercial purposes have only 90-day warranties.

Commercial screens have VESA compliant mounting devices but consumer type screens don’t always have VESA-compliant mounting brackets and may need special optional ones.

Pertaining to heat and operating hours, the consumer type screens are not recommended for 24-hour use, while the commercial ones are designed to be used for long operating hours with superior heat dissipation technology.

The commercial screens and consumer screens have slight differences in backlight and grayscale levels. The commercial screens show all 255 levels of luminance or brightness. Consumer type screens are more geared to the bright white end of the scale and the vivid saturated colors that are wanted for TV motion.

There are differences in internal Scalier/algorithm and connector interface features between commercial and consumer screens. The commercial type screens have more advantages in these areas.

Each type of flat display screen has many successful uses. It is important to match the type screen with the end user and consumer needs. If a company uses the device to give lectures and sales presentations that last short periods of time, the consumer type flat screen will work as will the commercial type screen. But, if the information will be displayed on the screen for long periods of time, the commercial style flat panel display screen will be better.