Foresights
Displays
What is it?
The display screen is the primary medium through which we are able to interact with our computers and electronic devices. For a long time displays based around cathode ray tube (CRT) technology dominated because they were cheap to produce and proven in televisions.
In a CRT screen, a thin beam of electrons scans across the screen in a vacuum tube, causing a phosphorescent coating to emit light. Today, there are many other types of displays available, and some interesting new innovations are starting to leave the labs.
The near-term future mass market is dominated by flat panel displays based on the following technologies:
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Liquid crystal display (LCD): a liquid crystal material is sandwiched between two glass sheets. LCD displays are backlit and a current causes the polarization of individual pixels to change, altering the brightness. Individually colored red, blue and green sub-pixels generate color.
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Plasma screens: a gas is sandwiched between two glass sheets. When signals are sent to a pixel, the gas forms a glowing plasma and stimulates phosphorescent chemicals in red, green and blue sub-pixels to produce light.
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Organic light-emitting diodes (OLED): a conductive organic polymer is stimulated with electrical current to produce colored light. Since each pixel is turned on or off individually with no need for backlight, OLED displays are energy efficient.
 To learn more about Displays, download our full Foresight PDF file ( 182Kb; opens in a new window).
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