New liquid crystal technology could boost your TV's performance

By Adam Smith
published

By using blue-phase liquid crystals, LCD TVs could soon have triple the number of pixels per inch and require less power to run.

Technology which makes your television picture sharper, and reduces the amount of power needed to run it? Sounds like witchcraft to us.

But a team of researchers at the University of Central Florida’s College of Optics and Photonics (CREOL) claims to have developed a technology that can achieve a resolution density of 1500 pixels per inch on an Apple Retina Display screen - which currently has a density of 500 pixels.

The complex science revolves around the ability of blue-phase liquid crystal to be switched ten times faster than the nematic liquid crystals currently found in LCD screens.

This allows each LED colour (red, green and blue) to be sent through the liquid crystal at different times. The sub-millisecond response is so quick that our eyes 'see' white, eliminating the need for colour filters.

The researchers used an electrode structure to allow the electric field to penetrate the liquid crystal deeper, meaning that a lower voltage is needed to power each pixel.

Shin-Tson Wu, lead researcher on the project, said a working prototype of the technology could be demonstrated as early as next year.

Via TechRadar

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Adam Smith

Adam was a staff writer for What Hi-Fi?, reviewing consumer gadgets for online and print publication, as well as researching and producing features and advice pieces on new technology in the hi-fi industry. He has since worked for PC Mag as a contributing editor and is now a science and technology reporter for The Independent.