How LCD Televisions Work

With its increasing popularity, you may be wondering how LCD televisions work. LCD is an acronym that stands for “Liquid Crystal Display.”  LCD televisions are growing much more common in homes across the world today. The technology that makes LCD televisions work is actually based upon the physical properties that allow crystals to interact with light. There have been a lot of advancements made in this field within recent years.

Crystals are the most important feature of LCD televisions.  Liquid crystals are molecules that are cylindrical in shape. Their shape allows for light to pass through the crystals during their natural phase and less light to pass through them during their unnatural phase. Whenever voltage is applied to these crystals they relax, thus becoming less twisted.  As they untwist the block an increasing amount of rays.  Once these crystals are completely untwisted they can completely block all light from passing through. With LCD televisions the crystals are placed between two electrodes creating a current. They are also placed between two polarizing filters. These crystals are then connected to one another so that they can transmit a current from one electrode to another. Since liquid crystals are unable to emit light by themselves, a backlight device is located behind them. This light usually comes from several fluorescent bulbs. Once emitted, the light passes through a white panel before it comes into contact with the liquid crystals.

Remember that the crystals can choose to either allow or prevent this light to pass through them in the LCD televisions. This includes light of every frequency and every color. Each of these crystals are either twisted or relaxed in order to allow a certain color to be able to pass through them. Extremely bright displays are produced on LCD televisions via a low voltage that is applied to these liquid crystals. On the other hand, LCD televisions produce a high voltage by allowing darker light to pass through a certain crystal. As such, all of the crystals in the LCD televisions will allow some light to pass through them, regardless of the type of voltage that is being used. This means that the crystals will never allow pure black levels of light to pass through them.

While this is the main way in which LCD televisions work, it is important to understand that there are several different ways that voltage is determined by each of the individual crystals inside of LCD televisions.  The most common way is via passive and active matrix structures. LCD televisions will usually use the active matrix structure. Herein the electrons access the individual crystals, and then they determine the amount of voltage that needs to be applied in order to achieve the right color. The color filters in LCD televisions are placed on top of the crystals to transform the light that passes through them into the color that your eyes see.