Substrates and you

Undoubtedly, the glamour behind LCDs lies in the substrate production. Producing LCDs are very different from any other component. Cramming 4 million transistors on a 17" piece of glass does not seem too difficult of a task, when we consider that modern CPUs have 60 million transistors on a square inch. Unfortunately, CPU manufacturers are able to get away with lower yields since processors will lower quality are simply marked as lower speed and shipped. LCDs do not have that luxury, since a 1% defect rate would result in 40,000 dead sub pixels. It’s very easy to see why some substrate manufacturers pride themselves with 60% yields.

Without getting overly technical, the substrate manufacturing process relies on three basic ingredients. The first is a layer of TFTs, or glass substrates with transistors attached to it. These create the electronic array that controls the liquid crystals. The second layer is a thin (as in micrometers) film of liquid crystals. Another special glass substrate, called a color filter, is fitted over the liquid crystal. The backlight is attached to the rear of the TFT substrate, and the LCD is born.


©Samsung. Click to enlarge.


DVI versus Analog LCD Distribution
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  • Anonymous User - Thursday, September 4, 2003 - link

    A good article.I my self use CML174.
    Made a lot of difference to my eyes compared to CRT.
  • Anonymous User - Thursday, September 4, 2003 - link

    Outstanding reading, thanks.
  • mechBgon - Thursday, September 4, 2003 - link

    Nice work, Kristopher. : )
  • KristopherKubicki - Thursday, September 4, 2003 - link

    #5 fixed it - sorry.

    #7 fixed that one too. Yeah rubbing pixels really doesnt do much good. I think NewEgg is going to be pissed when they find out I messed up their monitor pretty good.

    #6 Say it aint so!! We want to be the only ones ;)

    Kristopher
  • Shalmanese - Thursday, September 4, 2003 - link

    Finally! It took long enough for you to get this out :). Great article, finally an article about LCD's which isn't full of opinion and hearsay.
  • dvinnen - Thursday, September 4, 2003 - link

    ok, maybie you did mean that. Hard to tell, you say you scuffed the monitor, then go on to tell other people how to do it...

    I problay just need some sleep...
  • dvinnen - Thursday, September 4, 2003 - link

    Rubbing the pixils does more good then harm then?

    <<<Personally, it seems that rubbing the pixels does more good than harm so continue at your own risk.>>>

    Might want to fix that one
  • dvinnen - Thursday, September 4, 2003 - link

    good to hear it. Seems like alot of the hardware sites are getting there act together.
  • Anonymous User - Thursday, September 4, 2003 - link

    On page 6, where you talk about the cables in the picture (the sentence right below the picture), shouldn't the good cable be the *upper* one or am I missing something?
  • KristopherKubicki - Thursday, September 4, 2003 - link

    Yeah, new editors and kind of a revamped AT staff. We went through a lull period after we lost Matthew, but now we have some really good writers and a lot of great content to write about.

    Just wait till Computex and COMDEX - 3 and 4 reviews per day sounds about right.

    Kristopher

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