twisted nematic tn lcd panel supplier

The Nematic liquid crystal state is a unique state not included in the above 3 states. It is a state between the crystalline (solid) and isotropic (liquid) states. Even in the state of liquid crystals, there are several types of liquid crystal states, as below.

The nematic liquid crystal phase is characterized by molecules maintain the general order of tending to point in the same direction. It has one dimensional order. See Fig.1

In smectic phase, molecules show two-dimensional order not present in the nematic. The molecules maintain the general orientationally of nematic, but also tend to align themselves in layers or planes. It is the state between nematic (one-dimensional order) and solid state (three-dimensional order). See Fig.1.

The cholesteric (or chiral nematic) liquid crystal phase is typically the molecules are directionally oriented and stacked in a helical pattern, with each layer rotated at a slight angle to the ones above and below it. See Fig.1.

TN displays have a 90° or less twist (the rotation of the molecules from one plane of the display to the other). All passive direct drive, active matrix, and most passive low level (x2 to x32) multiplexed LCDs have a 90° twist.

The basic Twisted Nematic (TN) LCD consists of a layer of liquid crystal material supported by two glass plates. The liquid crystal material is a mixture of long, cylindrically shaped molecules with different electrical and optical properties, depending on direction.

The TN technology comes in a single coloration; it is Black characters on a gray background. It is the least expensive, but has the lowest visual quality, primarily in viewing angle.

A type of LCD panel technology. In this type of panel, when no electric current is running through the liquid crystal cells, the cells naturally align in a twisted form between two substrate panes of glass which blocks the transmission of light from the backlight. This renders the crystals opaque and results in a black display screen. When an electric current is applied, the liquid crystal cells untwist allowing light to pass through resulting in a white display screen. TN panels have relatively narrow viewing angles especially in the vertical direction and color reproduction is poor; however, they are economical and suitable for a wide-range of general uses, particularly with office tasks (e.g. word processing).

The point when liquid crystals, in response to application of a magnetic field along the axes of their molecules, become parallel; is being refined to a degree that permits the manufacture of projectors, monitors and or video panels that allow 3-D perceptions by human observation. This enhancement is a necessary improvement to enable remote visual communications that replicate personal interactions. Such a technology will present realistic imagery that conveys all the visual cues entailed in interpersonal associations.

The future of human existence may depend on energy reduction strategies that could incorporate remote 3-D video to provide personal interactions without necessitating travel. Such alternatives would need to accommodate normal mobility issues as commonly provided by smartphones and tablet PCs today. Twisted nematic LCD displays currently produced provide scalable solutions for rudimentary dimensional presentations that require headsets for perception of the 3-D effects.

As scientists perfected polymer buffering and magnetic switching characteristics of the controlling electronics, expectations for greater brilliance and wider viewing angels are achieved at significantly lower production cost. These factors have gradually increased the competiveness of LCD products utilizing active matrix technology. Demand for more precise definition in display resolutions drives research in the use of twisted nematics liquid crystals and presents promising prospects for future production of cost effective products with even more realistic presentations.

Most of the advances in monitors and displays are in reference to color and resolution. Conversely, the issues of quality that determine superiority for consumption purposes are viewing angle, image quality, increased brightness, and lower production line costs.

The high cost of building factories to produce competitive thin film transistors liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCD) pushes production of the less costly to produce twisted nematic (TN) into the general display panel market. The product line includes display components for digital televisions, computer monitors, mobile phones, handheld video games, and PDAs and navigation systems. This push also segments the marketplace into quality demanding commercial sells and the less exacting one-off brand name markets.

Screen brightness, as perceptively distinguishable by the human eye, is a result of lessening the scattering of light with respect to the directional movement of the crystal molecules. Improvements to this lessening effect combined with patented faster switching techniques improved image quality by addressing the color gamut with higher luminosity, which corrected color shift errors and deviations.

Over time, several major manufacturers have entered into partnerships and joint ventures that resulted in increasing pixel counts while speeding up switching to yield faster response timing at lower production cost. Developments in alternative technologies for vertical and patterned alignments of pixels lowered distortions in off-perpendicular viewing common in twisted nematic panels. The resulting better viewing angles have since been enhanced with continuously rotating sub-pixels that produce dramatic improvements to viewing angles.

Nine manufacturers produce the world’s supply of TN-LCD display products. Quality is a matter of performance testing of the product as it comes off the assembly lines. Segmented fulfillment is determined by very practical quality factors that sort the destination of the production according to superiority of its performance. The best product goes to commercial channels and the worst is disposed of in the off-brand market. Everything in between is branded by the manufacturers for general consumption.

TN stands for twisted nematic. This is a type of LED (a form of LCD) panel display technology. TN panels are characterized as being the fastest and cheapest among the other main types of display panels, VA (vertical alignment)and IPS (in-plane switching). As such, they work great for gaming monitors and gaming laptops. However, TN panels also offer the worst viewing angles and color when compared to VA and IPS panels.

PerformanceFastest: low response times, highest refresh rates, minimal motion blur; Low input lagLongest response times typically; Higher refresh rates possibleSlower response times than TN, faster response times than VA; Gaming-quality refresh rates are rare

DisplayWorst viewing angles;Worst colorViewing angles typically better than TN, worse than IPS; Good color; Best contrast;Best image depthBest viewing angles; Best color

Everyday, we look at LCD display, TV, cell phone, monitor. It becomes a necessity in modern society. LCD panel is the most important part of an LCD display. It determines LCD screen"s performance, e.g. brightness, contrast, color and viewing angle. Therefore, picking the right type of LCD panel is critical to your application.

These names reflect the alignment of crystal molecules inside the LCD, and how they change when they are charged electrically. All liquid crystal displays change the alignment of liquid crystal molecules to work, but the manner in which they do so can drastically affect the image quality and response time. Each panel type has its advantages and disadvantages. The easiest way to choose between them is to decide which attributes are most important to your project. It mainly depends on what you use your LCD display for, and your budget.

TN is the most mature technology in LCD panel manufacturing. When there is no voltage difference between the two transparent electrodes, liquid crystal molecules are twisted 90 degrees, in combination of upper and bottom polarizers, allows light to pass through LCD. As voltage applied, crystal molecules are untwisted and aligned to the same direction, blocking light.

In IPS panel, crystal molecules are parallel to the glass substrates at initial stage, LCD is off. When the in-plane electrodes is charged, crystal molecules are rotated, modifying light"s direction. Which lights up the LCD display.

As its name suggests, VA panel"s liquid crystals are aligned vertically without charged. When a voltage is applied, the molecules tilt and modifying light direction.

So in summary, TN panels twist, IPS panels use a parallel alignment and rotate, while VA panels use a perpendicular alignment and tilt. These difference create LCD display with distinctive performance.

IPS LCD is the clear winner in this aspect. It has 178/178 viewing angle ratings. Which means you can look at IPS LCD display from any angle without the image shifting in color and contrast. VA LCD has pretty wide viewing angle, too. But it has contrast shifts at off-center angles. As for TN LCD, viewing angle is its weakest point.

Most TN LCDs have 6-bits colors. Manufacturers use frame rate control (FRC) to enhance its color performance. For IPS and VA panels, you can still find 6-bits entry level LCD. But most of them are 8-bits. And IPS technology can provide natively 10-bits colors.

Color gamut is another part that VA and IPS panels shine at. The best TN LCD can reach sRGB gamut. VA panels typically start with full sRGB coverage, and get to around 90% DCI-P3 coverage. With IPS LCD panel, you could find the best ones full DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB coverage. That is why you see most professional grade LCD displays use IPS panel.

There is no inherent differences among the three panel technologies, because LCD backlight is the main factor here. However, there is a big gap in terms of contrast ratio. TN LCD panel tends to have the lowest value among the three. IPS LCD screen sits in the middle can reach 1500:1. For VA panel, the best one can exceed 4500:1 easily. VA LCD display provides far darker screen than TN & IPS. That is why they are used in vehicle dashboard.

TN panel does have an advantage when it comes to refresh rate. The panel offers the best refresh rate and response time. This is the reason why most gaming LCD monitors are made of TN panel.

TN LCD provides the best refresh rate and economic solution. If your application requires wide viewing angles and good color presentation, VA panel is probably the choice. While IPS has the best overall visual performance, in general it is more expensive than the other two.

This type of LCD was invented at the Brown Boveri Research Center, Baden, Switzerland, in 1983.twisted nematic (TN) LCDs with a 90 degrees twisted structure of the molecules have a contrast vs. voltage characteristic unfavorable for passive-matrix addressing as there is no distinct threshold voltage. STN displays, with the molecules twisted from 180 to 270 degrees, have superior characteristics.

The main advantage of STN LCDs is their more pronounced electro-optical threshold allowing for passive-matrix addressing with many more lines and columns. For the first time, a prototype STN matrix display with 540x270 pixels was made by Brown Boveri (today ABB) in 1984, which was considered a breakthrough for the industry.

STN LCDs require less power and are less expensive to manufacture than TFT LCDs, another popular type of LCD that has largely superseded STN for mainstream laptops. STN displays typically suffer from lower image quality and slower response time than TFT displays. However, STN LCDs can be made purely reflective for viewing under direct sunlight. STN displays are used in some inexpensive mobile phones and informational screens of some digital products. In the early 1990s, they had been used in some portable computers such as Amstrad"s PPC512 and PPC640, and in Nintendo"s Game Boy.

CSTN (color super-twist nematic) is a color form for electronic display screens originally developed by Sharp Electronics. The CSTN uses red, green and blue filters to display color. The original CSTN displays developed in the early 1990s suffered from slow response times and ghosting (where text or graphic changes are blurred because the pixels cannot turn off and on fast enough). Recent advances in the technology, however, have made CSTN a viable alternative to active matrix displays. New CSTN displays offer 100ms response times (for comparison TFT displays offer 8ms or less), a 140 degree viewing angle and high-quality color rivaling TFT displays – all at about half the cost. A newer passive-matrix technology called High-Performance Addressing (HPA) offers even better response times and contrast than CSTN.

Samsung had two proprietary technologies for STN LCDs, Ultra Fine & Bright (UFB), which delivered wide viewing angle (about 120 degrees), faster response time (about 60 ms) and less power consumption, while Ultra Fine & High Speed (UFS), delivered almost same color depths as TFT LCDs, greater color purity, much faster response time (about 14 ms) and same contrast ratio as TFT LCDs.

Dual Scan STN: An enhanced STN passive matrix LCD. The screen is divided into halves, and each half is scanned simultaneously, thereby doubling the number of lines refreshed per second and providing a sharper appearance. DSTN was widely used on earlier laptops. See STN and LCD.

FSTN: Film compensated STN, Formulated STN or Filtered STN. A passive matrix LCD technology that uses a film compensating layer between the STN display and rear polarizer for added sharpness and contrast. It was used in laptops before the DSTN method became popular and many early 21st Century cellphones.

CCSTN: Color Coded Super Twist Nematic. An LCD capable of displaying a limited range of colours, used in some digital organisers and graphic calculators in the 1990s

You may be surprised to know that not all LCD panels are created equal. That’s because there’s more than one type of LCD screen. While their differences are subtle, the type of panel technology significantly impacts its image quality and display performance.

In this post, we’ll compare the three types of LCD panel technologies – IPS vs. TN vs. VA – and the pros and cons of each. Knowing the differences is critical to help you find the best type that fits your needs.

The main difference between them is how they arrange and move the liquid crystal display (LCD) molecules in their panels. This, in turn, has a profound effect on image quality, refresh rate, and other performance factors.

A twisted nematic or TN monitor is the oldest and most common type of LCD still used today. It uses a nematic liquid crystal, meaning it has its molecules arranged in parallel, but not on a level plane. These can twist or untwist themselves when a voltage runs through them, hence the name. This twisting effect either allows or blocks light from passing through, turning screen pixels “on” or “off.”

In-panel switching (IPS) panels work similarly to TN monitors, except that the liquid crystal molecules are parallel to the glass panel of the screen. Instead of twisting like in TN monitors, these molecules rotate when a voltage is applied.

Vertical alignment (VA) displays arrange their LCD molecules vertically, perpendicular to the glass panel. When voltage is present, they tilt themselves instead of twisting or rotating.

Being the oldest LCD technology still in use today, TN monitors undoubtedly have their share of benefits, otherwise they wouldn’t have this much longevity! Comparing TN vs. IPS and VA, TN panels are the cheapest and fastest to manufacture. As a result, they are better for the more budget-conscious user. They’re also the most versatile LCD type and have no real-world limits on size, shape, resolution, and refresh rate.

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a TN monitor in a reasonable price range that can display 24-bit (8 bits per channel) color at a wide color gamut, and contrast is limited. The second problem with TN monitors is that because the molecules are not oriented uniformly across the plane, it suffers from a narrow viewing angle. That is, anyone looking at the screen off-axis, such as from a 45-degree angle, will most likely find the image completely un-viewable.

Comparing IPS vs. TN, the former is a drastic improvement over the latter. IPS panels resolve some of the limitations and problems of TN monitors, specifically color accuracy and issues with viewing angles. However, IPS panels suffer from a phenomenon called “IPS glow,” where you can see the display’s backlight clearly if you view it from the side.

Another significant limitation of IPS panels, particularly for gamers, is that they have the lowest refresh rates of any LCD type. And while the color fidelity is fantastic with IPS vs. VA, the latter has superior contrast ratios over the IPS panels.

The biggest strength of VA panels lies in their excellent contrast ratio. Keep in mind that irrespective of the LCD technology used, a backlight is required; this is typically LED. The LCD’s ability to block this light will determine how well it can reproduce blacks, and it’s in this detail where VA excels. That is, blacks are dark and rich in a VA panel vs. IPS. They also lie somewhere in the middle regarding overall image quality, color reproduction, viewing angle, and refresh rate. Overall, VA is a good compromise between TN and IPS.

A drawback of VA vs. IPS and TN is it exhibits an relatively high response time. As such, VA displays are more prone to motion blur and ghosting if you’re viewing fast-moving visuals on a screen, such as when you’re playing a racing game.

It’s worth noting that there is no universal “right” choice for choosing a type of LCD panel. Which one you pick depends on your budget, your intended use, and your expected outcome.

A TN monitor is best if you’re looking for a low-cost, readily available display for tasks that don’t rely on contrast and color accuracy, such as sending emails or typing a document or spreadsheet. They are also the best choice for competitive gamers who want the best refresh rates and response times to give them an edge in online multiplayer games, despite a technically lower image quality.

With their superior color reproduction, IPS panels are best for graphic designers, film editors, photographers, and other visual design professionals. For them, image quality including contrast and color accuracy are more important than refresh rates. IPS panels are also fantastic for casual gamers who want the best visuals and don’t mind the compromise in refresh rate or response time.

Whichever LCD type you choose, make sure you get the right cable, a Premium High Speed HDMI® Cable, or an Ultra High Speed HDMI® Cable to ensure delivery of all the HDMI 2.1 features. Doing this ensures that you’ll get the best experience on your screen.

Twisted nematic or TN LCD panel is a type of thin-film transistor liquid crystal display or TFT-LCD that is commonly used in an array of consumer electronic devices such as digital watches and calculators, as well as computer monitors and mobile phones.

However, further demands for better and wider display applications resulted in the emergence of newer display technologies such as plasma panel display or PDP technology, in-plane switching or IPS LCD technology and active-matrix organic light-emitting diode or AMOLED technology.

Nonetheless, it cannot be denied that the introduction of TN technology during the 1970s was a major technological breakthrough because it commercialized the use of LCD and made the use of digital electronic displays in consumer electronic devices affordable and practical.

Central to the technology behind twisted nematic or TN display panel is the use of nematic liquid crystal sandwiched between two plates of glass substrates coated with transparent indium-tin-oxide or ITO. This ITO surface are further coated with alignment layers that both rub in one direction.

Manipulation of polarised light is the underlying technological principle behind TN display. When light enters the TN cell, the polarisation state twists with the director of the liquid crystal material.

The inherent advantages of TN LCD panels made twisted nematic LCD technology a dominant and almost universal display technology used in portable electronics during the 1990s. Take note of the following advantages of TN LCD panels over other display technologies:

One of the key advantages of TN LCD panels stems from the easy implementation of twisted nematic technology. This translates to cheaper manufacturing requirements and simpler production processes, thus further translating into affordability of TN LCD panels and the corresponding consumer electronics products to end consumers.

Note that the introduction and subsequent popularity of twisted nematic technology quickly pushed out other display technologies such as monolithic LED and cathode-ray tube or CRT for most electronics.

Furthermore, because TN LCD panels are easy and cheap to manufacture, not only did they replace LED and CRT display but they have also continued to remain an affordable alternative to modern display technologies such as IPS and AMOLED.

Twisted nematic technology does not require a current to flow to operate. It also runs under low operating voltages. These advantages collectively correspond to low and efficient power consumption, thus making TN LCD panels suitable for use with batteries and low-powered devices.

The power consumption advantage of TN LCD panels has ushered in the era for low-powered and lightweight LCD, thus paving the way for the invention and production of compact and lighter consumer electronics and non-consumer electronic instruments.

Compared against IPS LCD panels, TN LCD panels have shorter response time and higher refresh rate. Pixels in a typical TN LCD panel change their state as fast as two milliseconds compared against the five milliseconds response time of a typical IPS LCD panel. Furthermore, high-end TN LCD panels even have double the usual refresh rate of 120Hz instead of 60Hz.

The better pixel response time and refresh rate advantages of TN LCD panels can enable them to display twice as much information every second. These make TN LCD panels suitable for use in high-end gaming. In fact, some hardcore gamers prefer a TN computer monitor to a VA or IPS monitor due to its responsiveness and better refresh rate.

The disadvantages of twisted nematic LCD technology have prevented it from catapulting into more modern and wider applications however. Take note of the following limitations and disadvantages of TN LCD panels:

A notable disadvantage of TN LCD panels is a narrow viewing angle. A user needs to look at a TN panel from a straight up 90-degree angle to maximize its visual performance.

When viewed from other angles, colors will appear duller and images will appear darker on a TN panel. User familiar with different types of LCD can easily discern if a panel is a TN panel through these color shifts and image distortion.

Nonetheless, the restricted viewing angle compels a user to remain sitting dead straight up in front of a TN LCD panel. Doing so can be problematic in larger TN LCD panels in which changing viewing angle is sometimes unavoidable.

Apart from the inherent dull color reproduction in twisted nematic LCD technology, especially when compared against vertical alignment or in-plane switching LCD technologies, the problem with the limited viewing angle also produces poor representation of colors.

Poor color reproduction also means that color inaccuracy is another disadvantage of TN panels. This is the reason why TN panels are not suitable for use in color critical tasks such as graphic design, photo manipulation, and video editing, among others.

Note that the quality of TN LCD panels depends on manufacturers. Low-end TN LCD panels have the tendency to exhibit extreme instances of other disadvantages such as poor viewing angle and poor color reproduction.

Take note of cheap feature mobile phones as an example. The TN LCD panels used in these products can exhibit extreme color shifts even at slight change in viewing angle.

Images in low-end TN LCD panels can also be indiscernible when viewed under direct sunlight. Note than another disadvantage of TN LCD panels is susceptibility to dead pixels. This becomes more pronounced in cheaper and low-end panels.

Twisted nematic LCD technology was a breakthrough innovation that paved the way for an array of relatively inexpensive electronic devices that use digital electronic display. TN panels remain a very popular LCD option because of their advantages that revolve around inexpensive manufacturing and simpler production that translate further to cheaper price points for end consumers.

However, TN panels are becoming noticeable archaic due to the popularity of other display technologies such as in-plane switching or IPS LCD technology and active-matrix organic light-emitting diode or AMOLED technology. Both technologies are becoming more prominent in modern consumer electronics such as smartphones and tablet computers.

Of course, the associated cost efficiency of producing and using TN panels, in addition to other advantages such as low power consumption and better response time and refresh rates, still make them an ideal display option for use in inexpensive computer monitors, as well as for other portable electronics such as digital watches and calculators.

In this article we will explore the different types of display panel types available on the market. We will cover the most popular and some very niche or near obsolete options to give our fans a good overview.

TN or Twisted Nematic, In-Plane Switching or IPS, and Vertical Alignment or VA. TN is most common on computer monitors although IPS is also very common, while VA is most common on low-end TVs, but is slowly gaining ground in PC monitor spaces.

LCD technology has some real and inherent disadvantages when compared to CRT, Plasma, and OLED, mostly because of the fact that LCDs rely on backlighting (either edge-lit like all computer monitors, or literally backlit on higher end TVs) while CRT, Plasma, OLED produce light on the surface for each and every pixel. This means that those other display types have superior contrast ratios, deeper blacks, more pure whites, far richer and fuller colors. For example, blacks are only true blacks on CRT/Plasma/OLED, not LCD, since the pixel actually has no light on these unlike LCD. LCDs also use sample and hold which leads to a lot more motion blur especially compared to CRT and SED/FED.

TN panels have two large advantages over other types. Cost and response time. It should be noted that even though inferior to IPS and VA for colour critical work, a good, high-end TN monitor with good calibration can still look quite decent for most use cases. It won’t beat decent VA or IPS, but it can still offer a nice visual experience. Good response times and low motion blur can make a TN look great in action.

This is the panel type used in many slightly older HDTVs. Overall it is a very nice and increasingly popular LCD panel type although the potential has yet to be fully realized in computer monitors.

- Inconsistent response times. Most VA displays have at least a few very slow transitions. Black to dark grey or just black to grey are the most common culprits, even if other transitions are good or even fast. As a result, VAs offer better minimum response times than IPS, but worse average and maximum response times than IPS. It should be noted that some higher end panels seem to have this issue mostly figured out though.

- “Black crush” which causes a loss in black detail (e.g., grey detail lost in black content). Compared to TN’s dark grey blacks and IPS’s white blacks, this isn’t a cause for concern save for color critical work, but it is a real con.

IPS is the most used panel type for photo editing, because of all LCD panels it has the best color accuracy. It is becoming more and more common and may eventually overtake TN panels.

- The best potential color accuracy of all LCD panels. Especially for professional panels, but even normal IPS monitors still have far better color accuracy than typical TN monitors though.

IPS is a very good LCD panel type and it has many advantages, but it is not the end all be all of monitors. Still, we believe that it and VA are overall tied in their pros and cons. But remember, the specific panel and product (and price!) always matter more than the technology it is based off!

The image above is based on slightly older monitors, but it shows the difference in blacks in a similar scene.IPS (far left), TN (middle), and VA (right).

CRT monitors have gone out of fashion and very few are still in any sort of production. Any CRT monitors one finds are likely to be used or old stock. We mostly expect only really hardcore competitive gamers to use such monitors thanks to their response time advantage, but the truth is that modern ultra-high end LCDs with blur reduction can offer a good alternative here.

This tech was prominent in HDTVs for a while, before LCD became the big thing. We are covering it in case you find an old plasma TV and are wondering if it would be a good fit. It has excellent contrast ration, good blacks and no backlight. Viewing angles are also very good and there is almost no motion blur.

Like CRT and plasma, the light source is on the screen surface itself, hence the much better image. An OLED powers each and every subpixel. OLED may have the potential to be the best panel type for everything, but there are still some longevity concerns on many models and its higher cost is still an issue.

- They use sample and hold just like LCD technology, so motion blur still exists. However, there is already a blur reduction technique for it, used by Oculus Rift (black frame insertion).

- While colour accuracy is good, it is hard to make it excellent. Lots of calibration is needed on the manufacturer’s side and probably on the user’s side too. It will easily surpass all other panels, except a perfectly calibrated CRT.

The point when liquid crystals, in response to application of a magnetic field along the axes of their molecules, become parallel; is being refined to a degree that permits the manufacture of projectors, monitors and or video panels that allow 3-D perceptions by human observation. This enhancement is a necessary improvement to enable remote visual communications that replicate personal interactions. Such a technology will present realistic imagery that conveys all the visual cues entailed in interpersonal associations.

The future of human existence may depend on energy reduction strategies that could incorporate remote 3-D video to provide personal interactions without necessitating travel. Such alternatives would need to accommodate normal mobility issues as commonly provided by smartphones and tablet PCs today. Twisted nematic LCD displays currently produced provide scalable solutions for rudimentary dimensional presentations that require headsets for perception of the 3-D effects.

As scientists perfected polymer buffering and magnetic switching characteristics of the controlling electronics, expectations for greater brilliance and wider viewing angels are achieved at significantly lower production cost. These factors have gradually increased the competiveness of LCD products utilizing active matrix technology. Demand for more precise definition in display resolutions drives research in the use of twisted nematics liquid crystals and presents promising prospects for future production of cost effective products with even more realistic presentations.

Most of the advances in monitors and displays are in reference to color and resolution. Conversely, the issues of quality that determine superiority for consumption purposes are viewing angle, image quality, increased brightness, and lower production line costs.

The high cost of building factories to produce competitive thin film transistors liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCD) pushes production of the less costly to produce twisted nematic (TN) into the general display panel market. The product line includes display components for digital televisions, computer monitors, mobile phones, handheld video games, and PDAs and navigation systems. This push also segments the marketplace into quality demanding commercial sells and the less exacting one-off brand name markets.

Screen brightness, as perceptively distinguishable by the human eye, is a result of lessening the scattering of light with respect to the directional movement of the crystal molecules. Improvements to this lessening effect combined with patented faster switching techniques improved image quality by addressing the color gamut with higher luminosity, which corrected color shift errors and deviations.

Over time, several major manufacturers have entered into partnerships and joint ventures that resulted in increasing pixel counts while speeding up switching to yield faster response timing at lower production cost. Developments in alternative technologies for vertical and patterned alignments of pixels lowered distortions in off-perpendicular viewing common in twisted nematic panels. The resulting better viewing angles have since been enhanced with continuously rotating sub-pixels that produce dramatic improvements to viewing angles.

Nine manufacturers produce the world’s supply of TN-LCD display products. Quality is a matter of performance testing of the product as it comes off the assembly lines. Segmented fulfillment is determined by very practical quality factors that sort the destination of the production according to superiority of its performance. The best product goes to commercial channels and the worst is disposed of in the off-brand market. Everything in between is branded by the manufacturers for general consumption.

In order to understand this problem, we first need to know the panel type of LCD. At present, the LCD panels are mainly divided into three categories, which are TN, VA and IPS.

TN panel, full name Twisted Nematic (twist nematic), because the production cost is relatively low, so it is the first popular panel in LCD. The advantage of TN panel is that the response time of GTG panel is very fast, and the gray scale response time of GTG is often up to 1ms, which is the lowest among all LCD panels, so many e-sports / game monitors use TN panel.

However, the shortcomings of the TN panel are also obvious, such as less output gray scale, white color, small visual angle and so on. 1080p is the most common resolution in the TN panel, and there are also some 27-inch QHD panels, and the latest panel can do 28-inch UHD. At present, the main manufacturers of TN panels are Samsung display (Samsung Display), LG, Youda Optoelectronics, Qunchuang Optoelectronics, China Picture Tube and so on.

Let"s talk about the VA panel. VA panel full name Vertical Alignment (vertical arrangement), its advantage lies in the contrast, VA panel is the highest contrast of all LCD panels, usually can reach 3000 VA 1, while the contrast of TN, IPS is only about 1000 VA 1, the intuitive feeling of high contrast is that black looks purer and the picture is more layered.

The gray scale response time of VA panel is faster than that of IPS, and some of them even reach the same 1ms as TN, while the visual angle of TN is much better than that of TN, which is consistent with the visual angle of IPS panel, and there is no light leakage problem of VA panel.

Finally, let"s talk about the IPS panel. IPS full name In-Plane Switching (plane conversion), its advantage is that the color performance is relatively good, and the visual angle is also relatively wide, horizontal and vertical visual angle can reach 178°, but the contrast is not as good as VA panel, and the problem of light leakage is also more prominent.

From the above carding, it is not difficult to see that each panel has its own advantages, but also some inherent shortcomings. For example, TN panel is better than fast response time, but the color and visual angle is not good; VA panel contrast is high, but there are still some differences in response time and color; IPS color is good, but there are long response time and light leakage problems.

So which panel to choose depends on the specific requirements, you can"t simply think that IPS must be better than VA, or VA must be better than TN. For example, heavy players of FPS games who value response time can choose the display of TN panel, designers who value visual angle and have certain requirements for color can choose the display of IPS panel, and friends who like to watch some high-contrast and more powerful pictures can choose the display of VA panel.

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screens are a staple in the digital display marketplace and are used in display applications across every industry. With every display application presenting a unique set of requirements, the selection of specialized LCDs has grown to meet these demands.

LCD screens can be grouped into three categories: TN (twisted nematic), IPS (in-plane switching), and VA (Vertical Alignment). Each of these screen types has its own unique qualities, almost all of them having to do with how images appear across the various screen types.

This technology consists of nematic liquid crystal sandwiched between two plates of glass. When power is applied to the electrodes, the liquid crystals twist 90°. TN (Twisted Nematic) LCDs are the most common LCD screen type. They offer full-color images, and moderate viewing angles.

TN LCDs maintain a dedicated user base despite other screen types growing in popularity due to some unique key features that TN display offer. For one,

TN TFTs remain very popular among competitive PC gaming communities, where accuracy and response rates can make the difference between winning and losing.

VA, also known as Multi-Domain Vertical Alignment (MVA) dislays offer features found in both TN and IPS screens. The Pixels in VA displays align vertically to the glass substrate when voltage is applied, allowing light to pass through.

Displays with VA screens deliver wide viewing angles, high contrast, and good color reproduction. They maintain high response rates similar to TN TFTs but may not reach the same sunlight readable brightness levels as comparable TN or IPS LCDs. VA displays are generally best for applications that need to be viewed from multiple angles, like digital signage in a commercial setting.

IPS is superior in contrast, brightness, viewing angles, and color representation compared to TN screens. Images on screen retain their quality without becoming washed out or distorted, no matter what angle they’re viewed from. Because of this, viewers have the flexibility to view content on the screen from almost anywhere rather than having to look at the display from a front-center position.

IPS displays offer a slightly lower refresh rate than TN displays. Remember that the time for pixels to go from inactive to active is measured in milliseconds. So for most users, the difference in refresh rates will go unnoticed.

Based on current trends, IPS and TN screen types will be expected to remain the dominant formats for some time. As human interface display technology advances and new product designs are developed, customers will likely choose IPS LCDs to replace the similarly priced TN LCDs for their new projects.

As the key component behind liquid crystal displays (LCD), these materials change light polarization to create vibrant, high-resolution images on digital screens. The growth of LCD technology has helped propel the larger display panel market enormously, with industry valuation projected to reach $178.20 billion by 2026.

A prolific variety of LCD types has been developed to best meet their exact use-cases and end-environments. Displays may be optimized for power consumption, contrast ratio, color reproduction, optimal viewing angle, temperature range, cost, and more.

Passive Matrix LCDs are addressed with common and segment electrodes. A pixel or an icon is formed at the intersection where a common and a segment electrode overlap. Common electrodes are addressed one-at-a-time in a sequence. Segment electrodes are addressed simultaneously with the information corresponding to all pixels or icons connected to the current common electrode. This method is referred to as multiplexing.

Passive Matrix LCDs offer a cost advantage (both parts and tooling) and are highly customizable. The counterpart to Passive Matrix displays are Active Matrix displays.

Active-Matrix LCDs were developed to overcome some of the limitations of Passive Matrix LCDs – namely resolution, color, and size. Within an Active-Matrix LCD, an “active element” is added to each pixel location (the intersection between a horizontal row and vertical column electrode). These active elements, which can be diodes or transistors, create a threshold and allow control of the optical response of the liquid crystal structure to the applied voltage. Transistors are used as switches to charge a capacitor, which then provides the voltage to the pixel. Whenever a row is turned on, one at a time, all transistor switches in that row are closed and all pixel capacitors are charged with the appropriate voltage. The capacitor then keeps the voltage applied to the pixel after the row is switched off until the next refresh cycle.

Furthermore, the processes used for manufacturing Active-Matrix LCDs can create much finer details on the electrode structure. This allows splitting each pixel in three sub-pixels with different color. This together with the better voltage control allows full color displays.

Currently the most common Electronics Display Technology on the market is LCD technology and among LCD technologies, TFT display technology is the most widely used across consumer applications (laptops, tablets, TVs, Mobile phones, etc.) as well as many industrial, automotive, and medical applications.

Nematic refers to one of the common phases of liquid crystals (LC). In this phase, rod-like molecules tend to self-align more or less parallel to each other.

As the first commercially successful LCD technology, Passive Matrix Twisted Nematic (TN) LCDs use a 90° twist of the nematic LC fluid between two polarizers to display information. The twist of the LC fluid either blocks light from passing through the LCD cell or allows light to pass, depending on the applied voltage. The applied voltage changes the twisted nematic orientation into an orientation that does not change the polarization of tight. This is called the TN effect.

TN displays can be normally white (NW) when they use two orthogonal liner polarizers or normally black (NB) when parallel linear polarizers are used. ‘Normally’ refers to what happens when no voltage is applied.

Initially, Passive TN LCDs were used in segmented, icon, or character displays where an image element was turned “on” and “off” depending on how the fluid was driven. Improvements were made along the way to address the limited viewing angle of TN technology, which can suffer from contrast loss or even inversion at shallow angles.

It can be advantageous to twist the director of the nematic phase a bit more than 90 degrees, but less than 180 degrees. Displays like this are a subset of TN displays and are sometimes caller Hyper Twisted Nematic Displays.

The numbers of rows or icons that can be addressed in a TN display without Active Matrix addressing is very limited. This is related to how strongly the liquid crystal responds to the applied voltage. Twisting the LC nematic fluid more than 180 degrees (typically between 210 and 270 degrees) causes the display to require a much smaller voltage difference between on and off pixels. This in turn allows addressing of many more rows without an active matrix. Displays with a twist between 210 and 270 degrees are called Super Twisted Nematic displays.

The higher display resolution of STN displays comes at a price. The optical effect is no longer neutrally black and white as in a TN display. Rather these displays are naturally yellow and black or blue and white. The color can be somewhat compensated with colored polarizers, but that comes at the expense of brightness and contrast.

The color in STN displays is caused by birefringence. Adding the same birefringence in the opposite direction can compensate for the effect. Initially this was done by stacking two STN displays on top of each other. This is referred to as Double STN or DSTN, but this is of course thicker and more expensive.

The birefringence of an STN display can be approximated with a stretched transparent plastic film. Adding such a film to an STN display instead of the 2nd STN display is a lot more attractive and has almost the same performance. This is referred to as a Film Compensated STN display (FSTN, or sometimes if two films are used as FFSTN).

FSTN displays are used commonly in consumer, medical and industrial display applications that require low cost and do not need high resolution images or full color.

Another development to the TN display was to use the same concept as in FSTN displays on TN displays. However, the film cannot just be a stretched polymer. Instead, a twisted liquid crystal structure is made and polymerized into a film that is used as a compensation film for TN displays. As this method mostly improves the display characteristics at shallow viewing angles while preserving the excellent performance in straight on viewing, this technology is called Wide View Twisted Nematic (WVTN).

Due to the ability in AM displays to address one row while the other rows are isolated, the demands on the electro-optical performance of the Liquid Crystal Configuration are less stringent. In principle, all the above mentioned configurations can be used in AM displays. In practice, TN, and WVTN are frequently used as well as some versions of VA technology described below. (MVA, AIFF-MVA, PVA, ASV).

The advantage of these technologies is a much wider and more symmetrical viewing angle along with the elimination of the contrast inversion (or color shift) seen in TN TFT LCDs when viewed from various angles. IPS and FFS displays also are less sensitive to pressure, which is a big advantage in touchscreen displays.

Legacy LCDs normally have the driver ICs (integrated circuit) mounted on a printed circuit board (PCBA) which consists of a flat sheet of insulating material used to mount and connect the driver IC and electronic periphery to the LCD. PCBs can be a single-sided, double-sided or multi-layer.

New Vision Display (NVD) has decades of experience designing and manufacturing custom display and touch panel assemblies for some of the world’s largest original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the automotive, medical, industrial, and consumer markets.