Liquid Gold The Story Of Liquid Crystal Displays And The Creation Of An Industry

This book traces the history of liquid crystal display (LCD)development from simple laboratory samples to the flat, thin LCDs thathave become an important part of everyday life, appearing intelevision screens, computers, cellular phones, as well as numerousother consumer and industrial products.

This book traces the history of liquid crystal display (LCD) development from simple laboratory samples to the flat, thin LCDs that have become an important part of everyday life, appearing in television screens, computers, cellular phones, as well as numerous other consumer and industrial products. It provides insight into how these products were developed and what might be expected in the future. This account is a personal, in-depth look at the evolution of a high-technology industry from the eyes of the author, who watched it grow from inception to ubiquity for over nearly forty years. The story that is told in this book goes beyond the technical details and into the ideas, visions, struggles, and ambitions of the scientists and engineers who made it possible. In addition, the diverse field of LCD technology encompasses not only electronics but also physics, chemistry, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, marketing, and sales. Consequently, this book will be of interest to physical scientists from several disciplines as well as engineers and students.

Liquid Crystal Display Drivers deals with Liquid Crystal Displays from the electronic engineering point of view and is the first expressively focused on their driving circuits. After introducing the physical-chemical properties of the LC substances, their evolution and application to LCDs, the book converges to the examination and in-depth explanation of those reliable techniques, architectures, and design solutions amenable to efficiently design drivers for passive-matrix and active-matrix LCDs, both for small size and large size panels. Practical approaches regularly adopted for mass production but also emerging ones are discussed. The topics treated have in many cases general validity and found application also in alternative display technologies (OLEDs, Electrophoretic Displays, etc.).

This book focuses on the development of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and liquid crystal materials (LCs) in Japan. The Committee of Organic Materials Research for Information Sciences of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) planned the book to document essential LCD innovations and developments since the beginnings of the field-effect LCD technology in 1970. The book illustrates the remarkable effort and progress behind those flat, lightweight, and high-information-content LCDs that have become the indispensable human–machine interface for virtually all electronic devices. In contrast to other publications on this topic, the book illustrates the interdisciplinary character of the LCD technology and its crucial importance for technological progress of the field far beyond displays. It also gives insights into breakthrough innovations not revealed in other publications. Moreover, prospects for the development of LC research toward new fields of applications are provided. In line with its interdisciplinary character, the book targets researchers in basic science as well as engineers and researchers in industry.

The terms 'liquid crystal' or 'liquid crystal display' (LCD) are recognized in the context of flat-screen televisions, but the properties and history of liquid crystals are little known. This book tells the story of liquid crystals, from their controversial discovery at the end of the nineteenth century, to their eventual acceptance as another state of matter to rank alongside gases, liquids, and solids. As their story unfolds, the scientists involved and their works are put into illuminating broader socio-political contexts. In recent years, liquid crystals have had a major impact on the display industry, culminating in the now widely available flat-screen televisions. This development is described in detail over three chapters, and the basic science behind it is explained in simple terms accessible to a general reader. New applications of liquid crystals in materials, biosystems, medicine, and technology are also explained. The authors' approach to the subject defines a new genre of popular science books. The historical background to the scientific discoveries is given in detail, and the personal communications between the scientists involved are explored. The book tells the story of liquid crystals, but it also shows that scientific discovery and exploitation relies on human interactions, and the social and political environments in which they operate.

In 1968 a team of scientists and engineers from RCA announced the creation of a new form of electronic display that relied upon an obscure set of materials known as liquid crystals. At a time when televisions utilized bulky cathode ray tubes to produce an image, these researchers demonstrated how liquid crystals could electronically control the passage of light. One day, they predicted, liquid crystal displays would find a home in clocks, calculators—and maybe even a television that could hang on the wall. Half a century later, RCA’s dreams have become a reality, and liquid crystals are the basis of a multibillion-dollar global industry. Yet the company responsible for producing the first LCDs was unable to capitalize upon its invention. In The TVs of Tomorrow, Benjamin Gross explains this contradiction by examining the history of flat-panel display research at RCA from the perspective of the chemists, physicists, electrical engineers, and technicians at the company’s central laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey. Drawing upon laboratory notebooks, internal reports, and interviews with key participants, Gross reconstructs the development of the LCD and situates it alongside other efforts to create a thin, lightweight replacement for the television picture tube. He shows how RCA researchers mobilized their technical expertise to secure support for their projects. He also highlights the challenges associated with the commercialization of liquid crystals at RCA and Optel—the RCA spin-off that ultimately manufactured the first LCD wristwatch. The TVs of Tomorrow is a detailed portrait of American innovation during the Cold War, which confirms that success in the electronics industry hinges upon input from both the laboratory and the boardroom.

Handbook of Optoelectronics offers a self-contained reference from the basic science and light sources to devices and modern applications across the entire spectrum of disciplines utilizing optoelectronic technologies. This second edition gives a complete update of the original work with a focus on systems and applications. Volume I covers the details of optoelectronic devices and techniques including semiconductor lasers, optical detectors and receivers, optical fiber devices, modulators, amplifiers, integrated optics, LEDs, and engineered optical materials with brand new chapters on silicon photonics, nanophotonics, and graphene optoelectronics. Volume II addresses the underlying system technologies enabling state-of-the-art communications, imaging, displays, sensing, data processing, energy conversion, and actuation. Volume III is brand new to this edition, focusing on applications in infrastructure, transport, security, surveillance, environmental monitoring, military, industrial, oil and gas, energy generation and distribution, medicine, and free space. No other resource in the field comes close to its breadth and depth, with contributions from leading industrial and academic institutions around the world. Whether used as a reference, research tool, or broad-based introduction to the field, the Handbook offers everything you need to get started. (The previous edition of this title was published as Handbook of Optoelectronics, 9780750306461.) John P. Dakin, PhD, is professor (emeritus) at the Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, UK. Robert G. W. Brown, PhD, is chief executive officer of the American Institute of Physics and an adjunct full professor in the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic at the University of California, Irvine.

The untold story of how America once created the most successful economy the world has ever seen—and how we can do it again. The American economy glitters on the outside, but the reality is quite different. Job opportunities and economic growth are increasingly concentrated in a few crowded coastal enclaves. Corporations and investors are disproportionately developing technologies that benefit the wealthiest Americans in the most prosperous areas -- and destroying middle class jobs elsewhere. To turn this tide, we must look to a brilliant and all-but-forgotten American success story and embark on a plan that will create the industries of the future -- and the jobs that go with them. Beginning in 1940, massive public investment generated breakthroughs in science and technology that first helped win WWII and then created the most successful economy the world has ever seen. Private enterprise then built on these breakthroughs to create new industries -- such as radar, jet engines, digital computers, mobile telecommunications, life-saving medicines, and the internet-- that became the catalyst for broader economic growth that generated millions of good jobs. We lifted almost all boats, not just the yachts. Jonathan Gruber and Simon Johnson tell the story of this first American growth engine and provide the blueprint for a second. It's a visionary, pragmatic, sure-to-be controversial plan that will lead to job growth and a new American economy in places now left behind.