The fiftieth anniversary of the liquid crystal display

Abstract

A record is given of the special meeting organised by the UK&I Chapter of the Society of Information Display held at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the RCA announcement of the first Liquid Crystal Display on 28th May 1968. Coming exactly eighty years after the report of the first liquid crystal materials, this announcement sparked interest across the globe, and particularly in the UK, Switzerland and Japan. Presentations of the early LCD history from Hilsum, Schadt and Raynes give insights into both the science and also the process of invention itself. These early contributors are followed by a view from the USA from Bos and representation from the companies Sharp and Merck that helped shape the success of these fascinating and useful materials. Also reviewed are talks on the use of organic semiconductors to drive plastic LCD by Sirringhaus, reflective LCD of Folium Optics, retail signage of Displaydata, as well as a look to the future from LCD competitors from Bodle (Phase Change Material displays) and BOE (OLED).

The experimental average refractive index of liquid crystals and its prediction from the anisotropic indices

“…As liquids, LC are fluid, but they have anisotropic optical, magnetic, electric and rheological properties because of their microscopic structures. 1 Anisotropic optical properties of LC are especially useful in practical applicationssuch as displays, biosensors, and smart windows- [2][3][4] because the refractive index of a LC depends on the relative orientation between the direction of light propagation and the director vector of the LC. 5 In isotropic liquids, molecules adopt all possible orientations; molecules in isotropic phases can thus be perceived as spherical averages.…”

Steady-State and Transient Electrical Properties of Liquid Crystal Cells

“…Contemporary applications of thermotropic liquid crystals are rapidly expanding. In addition to conventional liquid crystal displays (LCD) [1,2], liquid crystal technologies are very promising for the development of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) systems [3,4,5]. Numerous photonic and biomedical devices (filters [6], retarders and spatial light modulators [7], lenses [8], electrically controlled sensors [9], diffractive optics [10], and beam-steering devices [11,12]) rely on tunable optical elements made of liquid crystals.…”

En Route to Wide Area Emitting Organic Light‐Emitting Transistors for Intrinsic Drive‐Integrated Display Applications: A Comprehensive Review

“…[31][32][33][34] In particular, LCD found early success in tiny pocket calculators to flat panel television display applications due to their compact size and low power consumption compared to the CRT displays, successfully dominating the display market in the past two decades. [35,36] Replacing the fluorescent backlight unit in high dynamic range (HDR) LCDs by a lightemitting diode (LED) opened up the mini-LEDs (mLEDs) display market for large LCD panels.…”