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:
“riding flatcars to Fresno,
Across the whole country
Steep towns, flat towns, even New York,
And oceans and Europe & libraries & galleries
And the factories they make rubbers in”
—Gary Snyder (b. 1930)
“Life is extraordinarily suave and sweet with certain natural, witty, affectionate people who have unusual distinction and are capable of every vice, but who make a display of none in public and about whom no one can affirm they have a single one. There is something supple and secret about them. Besides, their perversity gives spice to their most innocent occupations, such as taking a walk in the garden at night.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)