Difference between TFT & LCD

Difference between TFT & LCD

Liquid Crystal Displays or LCDs were created as an alternative to big and bulky CRT displays. They were energy efficient, thin, and light. But the problems plagued earlier LCD models and made them far too inferior to CRT displays. As a remedy, traditional LCD construction methods were adapted to improve the performance of these displays. TFT or Thin Film Transistor was the solution they found. Instead of the traditional method of producing silicon transistors in wafers, TFT elements are deposited directly to the glass substrate.

The new method of producing the screen had a few immediate improvements. TFT made it possible to reduce the crosstalk between individual pixels resulting in a significant improvement in image quality. Crosstalk is when the signal of adjacent pixels affects the operation of the pixel. This deviates the brightness of pixels, making it brighter or dimmer than it was intended to be. TFT also solved, or at least minimized, the inherent problem of LCD that made it unusable for a lot of applications. LCD screens used to have a very high response time and it was not capable of reproducing fast motion. This problem made gaming and watching movies on these displays pretty terrible. The small transistor elements in a TFT display requires a smaller amount of charge to change its state. The lower charge needed translates directly to a faster response time. As development continued on TFT displays, the response time became lower and lower until LCDs were almost competitive with CRTs with respect to response time.