A flat-panel display is made of millions of little dots called pixels, the number depending upon the desired resolution. One pixel is made up of three (or four) subpixels which are colored red, green and blue (and white). Everything you see on the screen is a combination of these colors.
No light is allowed through the liquid crystal when you see black. If you see red, light is only allowed through the red subpixel. Only blue. Only green. If a color other than red, green or blue is required, varying amounts of light are allowed through each subpixel to create that color. Advanced screens mix red, green, blue with white to achieve higher brightness.
At the core of the light transmission is a small device, the thin-film transistor, also called a TFT. A TFT controls the amount of voltage that is applied to the liquid crystal cell. There is one TFT for every subpixel. |
