Flat-panel display device

Article By:

Gnade, Bruce E. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Virginia.

Last reviewed:2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.757559

An electronic display in which a large orthogonal array of display elements, such as liquid-crystal or electroluminescent elements, form a flat screen. Since the days of the first television tube, display engineers have dreamed of producing flat-panel displays (FPDs) with the visual attributes of a cathode-ray tube (CRT). The term “flat-panel display” is actually a misnomer, since thinness is the distinguishing characteristic. Most television sets and computer monitors currently employ cathode-ray tubes. Cathode-ray tubes cannot be thin because the light is generated by the process of cathodoluminescence whereby a high-energy electron beam is scanned across a screen covered with an inorganic phosphor, one point, or pixel, at a time, activating light-emitting centers in the material. The cathode-ray tube must have moderate depth to allow the electron beam to be magnetically or electrostatically scanned across the entire screen. See also: Cathode-ray tube; Cathodoluminescence; Electronic display

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