LCD Screen: How Does it Work?

LCD screens are a recent innovation in technology. The liquid crystals that are part of the technology have allowed us humans to create slim and portable technology gadgets. Wrist watches to laptops that we tote around from place to place are possible because they have thin and lightweight LCD display screens. Liquid crystal display (LCD) technology is not without problems, but it has given birth to a whole new gamut of consumer electronics advancements thus allowing technological progress to leap forward.

Liquid crystals are not really liquid per se. Their molecules behave more like liquids than solids. The LCD crystals exist in a kind of form that is middle ground between solid and liquid forms. They retain the movement and flexibility of a liquid and they can be stationary like a solid. The sensitivity of liquid crystals to temperature can be a boon or a bane. It is advantageous when liquid crystals are used in instruments like thermometers, where temperature sensitivity is good and needed. The same property can make LCD screens unreliable when working in extreme climates.

Inside an LCD screen setup, electric currents work at microscopic levels to control the amount of light passing through the liquid crystal molecules that make up the layer of the screen sandwiched between two clear glass panels. The molecules then unwind or coil tighter, changing the amount of light that passes from the bulb behind the glass to the eye of the viewer. You may want to think of an analogy by imagining that light filters through an LCD screen the same way that sunlight filters through the leaves of a tree.

If the tree is being blown due to wind, the amount of the light passing through the leaves changes dynamically. In an LCD screen, the sun will be a small light bulb, the leaves are molecules of liquid crystal, and the wind is the electric currents. Thus the LCD is designed to create a specific pattern of light that your eye can then interpret as words and pictures. This is the working principle behind any LCD screen.