Flat Panel Display
Flat panel displays encompass a growing number of electronic visual display technologies. They are far lighter and thinner than traditional television sets and video displays that use cathode ray tubes (CRTs), and are usually less than 10 centimetres (3.9 in) thick. (Some CRTs were designed to have a flat front surface, and equipment using them was advertised as "flat-screen", which can cause confusion.)
Flat panel displays can be divided into two general display technology categories: volatile and static.
The first engineering proposal for a flat screen 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 screen TVs and monitors. But GE did not continue with the R&D required and never built a working flat screen at that time.
The first-ever flat panel display was invented in 1964 at the University of Illinois. The first-ever active-matrix addressed display was made by T Peter Brody's Thin-Film Devices department at Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1968.
In many applications, specifically modern portable devices such as laptops, mobile phones, digital cameras, camcorders, point-and-shoot cameras, and pocket video cameras, any display disadvantages are made up for by portability advantages.
Most of the modern flat-panel displays use LCD technologies. Most LCD screens are backlit to make them easier to read in bright environments. They are thin and light. They provide better linearity and higher resolution.
As of 2012, 50% of global market share in flat panel display (FPD) production are solely dominated by Taiwanese manufacturers such as AU Optronics and Chimei Innolux Corporation.
Famous quotes containing the words flat and/or display:
“For the Eye altering alters all;
The Senses roll themselves in fear
And the flat Earth becomes a Ball.”
—William Blake (1757–1827)
“In the early forties and fifties almost everybody “had about enough to live on,” and young ladies dressed well on a hundred dollars a year. The daughters of the richest man in Boston were dressed with scrupulous plainness, and the wife and mother owned one brocade, which did service for several years. Display was considered vulgar. Now, alas! only Queen Victoria dares to go shabby.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)