When F. Reinitzer conducted experiments on heating cholesteryl benzoate, he found that when the temperature was raised to a certain level by heating, the resulting solid began to dissolve. But after melting, it is not a transparent liquid, but a turbid and viscous liquid. When it heats up further, it turns into a transparent liquid，Liquid crystals exhibit different material forms at different temperatures, including smectic phase, nematic phase and cholesteric phase.. He observed the viscous and turbid liquid under a polarizing microscope and found that the liquid was birefringent. Birefringence is a special property of solid crystals, so this turbid and viscous liquid also has solid properties.

As a result, people realized that this material, which has both the birefringence caused by the anisotropy of crystals and the unique fluidity of liquids within a certain temperature range, is definitely different from traditional solid crystals and liquids. It should be a special state of matter that is different from solid (crystal), liquid (isotropic flowable liquid) and gas. The German physicist D. Leimann at the time called it Fiessende Krystalle (German, meaning liquid crystal).

Since then, liquid crystals have entered our world. Through continuous research and improvement by scientists, liquid crystals have been very maturely used in the field of display screens. Compared with other display devices, LCD screens have many unique and excellent characteristics.

1) Low voltage, micro power consumption

Extremely low operating voltage, only 2~3V can work, and the operating current is only a few microamps, which is unmatched by any other display device. In terms of operating voltage and power consumption, liquid crystal displays are just in line with the development of large-scale integrated circuits, thus making liquid crystals and large-scale integrated circuits twin brothers, making electronic watches, calculators, portable meters, laptop computers, and GPS electronics Maps and more are possible.

2) Flat structure

The flat structure facilitates mass and automated production. At present, most of the production of liquid crystal display devices adopts automated or semi-automated integrated processes.

3) Passive display

The liquid crystal display device itself cannot emit light. It relies on modulating external light to achieve display purposes, so it is called a passive display. In nature, more than 90% of the visual information perceived by humans depends on the reflected light of external objects, rather than the luminescence of the objects themselves. Therefore, passive display is more suitable for human vision and less likely to cause fatigue. This advantage is particularly important when displaying large amounts of information, high density, rapid changes, and long-term observation. In addition, passive display is not afraid of light erosion. The so-called light washout means that when the ambient light is brighter, the displayed information is diluted, making the display unclear. Passive display, on the other hand, relies on reflecting external light to achieve display purposes. Therefore, the stronger the external light, the stronger the reflected light, and the clearer the displayed content. Therefore, liquid crystal displays can be used not only for outdoor display, but also for display in strong lighting environments such as sunlight. The shortcoming of not being able to see in the dark can be overcome as long as it is equipped with a backlight.

4) Display a large amount of information

Compared with CRT, LCD devices do not have shadow mask restrictions, so the pixels can be made finer; compared with plasma displays, LCD devices do not need to leave a certain isolation area between pixels. Therefore, the liquid crystal display can accommodate more pixels and display more information within the same size display window area.

5) Easy to colorize

Although liquid crystal itself is generally colorless, it is easy to achieve colorization and there are many methods.

6)Long life

Liquid crystal materials are organic polymer synthetic materials with extremely high purity, and other materials are also high-purity substances. The driving voltage of liquid crystal is very low, and the driving current is even more negligible. Therefore, this device has almost no degradation and has a long life.

7) No radiation, no pollution

Liquid crystal display devices do not produce soft X-rays and electromagnetic wave radiation when used. This kind of radiation not only pollutes the environment, but also causes information leakage.

For various LCD display products, please click on the product category links below:

TFT LCD Panel

TFT Module

Charater LCD 

COG Dispaly

Segment LCD 

Graphic LCD 

Recommended related knowledge articles: What types of liquid crystals are there?

The above subject knowledge is quoted from the 2nd edition of Liquid Crystal Display Technology published by Electronic Industry Press.

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