Ferroelectric LCDs
Thanks NightOwl, for the pointer to the MU FPD thread.
My version of the ideal FPD hasn't been mentioned here yet because the patents are not secured yet. I'll be happy to describe it once the patents are taken care of.
The ferroelectric displays you mentioned are a type of Liquid Crystal which maintains its' state after being polarized. "Ferroelectric" is to "electric" as "ferromagnetic" is to "magnetic". Iron can be put in a strong magnetic field, then when you remove the external field, the iron nucleil align and the iron remains magnetized. That's the basis of magnetic media like hard disks. When you expose a liquid crystal material to an electric field, the molecules align, and can then polarize light. If the LC material is ferroelectric, it remains polarizing after the electric field is switched off.
So, a FELCD is kinda like a whiteboard. You can write on it, and it stays there until you erase it. Even without applied power. For portable applications this is great. The problem is you can't set it for say 63% and have it stay there. Hence no grayscale.
There is a way to do grayscale images, though. For each image frame period, you can set the pixel to be on 63% of the time, and off 37%. That requires current to switch the pixel twice during every frame, so the benefits of the ferroelectric behavior are mostly lost. Also, remember that full color is made up of three grayscale images.
Still, for some applications, FELCDs offer tremendous power savings. So far, I would say that the US and Japam are about even on FELCD technology. However, as this technology moves towards production, the huge installed base in Japan and Korea for manufacturing AMLCDs could be brought to bear. I'd expect one or more of Sharp's outmoded production lines could be converted. Poof. There goes any US lead. Real or imagined.
The diamond films are used in electron emission displays, not LCDs.
-bob mackey
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