Flat Panel Technology
Flat panel technology offers new and exciting ways to display information, television, and HD content.  Both LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) and plasma technologies offer sharp, detailed pictures and bright, lifelike colors.  When deciding which technology to go with, it is helpful to assess your needs and choose the display technology that will best suit your application.

Plasma and LCD displays feature a sleek, compact design that fits into almost any space.  Thin and light enough to be mounted on a wall, flat panel displayes enable you to start enjoying digital PC input, HDTV, and movies like never before.

Flat panel displays are also known as “fixed pixel” displays.  They use tiny pixels housed within the flat screen to render images.  A flat panel display creates a crisp, bright image in a small-sized cabinet without the use of a picture tube.  Flat panel displaces offer sharp focus and are capable of producing a uniform image across the screen.  Also, LCD and Plasma flat panel displays are not subject to magnetic distortion.  If you are a home theatre enthusiast and you want to place your speaker system next to your television, a flat panel television’s picture won’t be affected by these speakers.

Both LCD and plasma flat panel displays produce excellent images, but there are fundamental advantages and considerations for each technology.  Let’s take a look at how LCD and plasmas work, then you can decide which technology is right for your application.

How LCD Works
A Liquid Crystal Display uses liquid crystals, activated by electric fields, to form screen images.

The display is made up of two glass polarizing panels, a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between them, and a light source behind the panels.  The liquid crystal layer can contain over one million individual pixels.  Electric currents control how much color and light are able to pass through each of the pixels in the display, forming a pattern.  When the light source illuminates the display, an image is created.

This type of display is known as “transmissive.”  The crystals do not actually produce light, they simply create a pattern of pixels for light to shine through.

How Plasma Works
Plasma technology utilizes one million or more tiny cells sandwiched between two glass panels, or substrates.  Each cell is filled with a mixture of xenon and neon gases.  These tiny cells cover the entire surface of the plasma panel, with each cell acting as a single pixel on the display.

Each cell is divided up into three “sub-pixels.”  The three sub-pixels each produce a primary color (red, green or blue), and each sub-pixel has a special phosphorus coating that determines which color it produces.  When the sub-pixels are activated by electricity, the gas inside them reacts, causing the phosphorous coating to glow.  The light produced by the three sub-pixels is blended and the pixel emits a color.  Millions of these reactions happen every second to create a moving image.

This type of display is called “emissive” because it is self-illuminating.  Unlike a digital LCD display (which is transmissive), a plasma display does not use a lamp or illuminating device.

Advantages of LCD Technology

• LCD displays have the brightest picture of the flat panel displays.  They are remarkably energy-efficient, typically consuming less power than plasma or CRT displays of the same size.
  
  
• Most LCD displays use a TFT (thin-film transistor) Active Matrix display to deliver an outstanding picture.  Thanks to improvements in technology, anomalies such as blurring, motion lag and “ghosting,” are being reduced.
  
  
• LCD televisions have two main advantages over typical plasma displays.  LCDs are immune to image burn-in, which happens when a static image is displayed onscreen for long periods of time.  Because LCD screens will not burn-in, they are ideal for static images such as point of information and presentations.
  
  
• LCDs also have some points that should be considered.  First, they generally are more expensive than plasma displays of the same size, though this price difference is rapidly diminishing.  Second, LCDs have smaller maximum screen size than plasmas.  However, recent advancements in transmissive display technology are allowing for larger and larger LCD screens.  Future generations of LCDs will most likely rival plasma in screen size.
  
  
• LCD displays usually have higher resolution than plasmas of the same or similar size.  Also, LCD screens don’t reflect windows or lights as much as plasma which have a glossy front finish.
  
  
• Last, LCDs do not present shadows and dark tones as well as plasma displays.  Because of the LCD screen’s outstanding brightness, some representation in the darkest colors is sacrificed.  However, new advancements in processing and panel technology have greatly improved the contrast abilities of LCD flat panel displays.  An LCD screen can still produce a picture with amazing contrast, but the contrast is not quite as good as it is on a plasma screen.

Advantages of Plasma Technology

• Plasma displays have the largest possible screen sizes of all flat panel screens.  The largest Plasma television screens exceed 100 inches in size!  They are actually less expensive per square inch of screen space than LCDs – though again, this price difference is getting smaller and smaller.
  
  
• Plasma displays are also better at representing shadows and deep, dark colors than LCD displays.
  
  
• Also, the plasma display offers a better viewing angle than the LCD technology, although this is also changing.  Therefore, if the application is for use in areas where viewing angle is important, you should consider this fact.
  
  
• You will also find that the response time on plasma displays are faster than LCDs.  This makes plasma the preferred technology to use for video signage and TV.
  
  
• There are some things to consider about plasma flat panel displays.  First, they are not quite as bright as LCD displays.  Also, plasma displays are susceptible to image burn-in.  Like tube-based monitors, plasmas utilize a phosphorous coating that can show “ghosts” of static images that have been displayed for extended periods of time.  Plasmas are, therefore, not the ideal choice for static text images, video games that are played for long periods of time, or for use as a computer display.

LCDs are slightly brighter than plasmas and offer better performance in well-lighted rooms.

Plasmas are not as bright as LCDs, though recent advancements have yielded significant improvements.

LCDs have smaller maximum screen sizes than plasmas, but recent advancements are allowing for larger screens.

Plasmas currently have larger maximum screen sizes than LCDs.

Due to its outstanding brightness, LCDs sacrifice a slight amount of contrast.  Newer generations of LCDs offer significant contrast improvements.

Plasmas offer slightly better color representation than LCDs.

Some have limited viewing angle. (170 degrees with reduction in contrast ratio).

Up to 170 degrees (with reduction in contrast ratio).

Lighter than plasma displays of the same size – Professional installation recommended for wall mounting.

Heavier than LCD displays, more difficult to mount on a wall – Professional installation is recommended.

Estimated average of up to 55,000 hours under normal conditions.

Estimated average of up to 60,000 hours under normal conditions.

Not as fast as plasma, but recent improvements have brought the response time up significantly.

No response time issue – same as CRT technology

Typically lower than CRT and Plasma displays.

Typically lower than CRT displays, but not as low as LCD.

Competitive

Competitive