Thin-Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display

What Does Thin-Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display Mean?

A thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT LCD) is a type of liquid crystal display (LCD) that makes use of thin-film transistor technology in order to improve qualities such as contrast and addressability. TFT technology means that an individual transistor is used to drive each individual pixel, allowing for faster response times.

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Techopedia Explains Thin-Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display

Thin-film transistor liquid crystal display technology uses "field-effect" transistors, which are built by layering thin films on a glass substrate, hence the name. This technique is commonly used for creating microprocessors. The TFT in the LCD controls individual pixels in the display by setting the level of the electric field across the three liquid crystal capacitors (one for each sub-pixel of red, green and blue) in the pixel in order to control the polarization of the crystal material. The amount of polarization in the crystal determines the amount of light that reaches the color filter from the backlight. Because of this ability to directly and quickly control each pixel, TFT is also called active-matrix LCD technology.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…