imaging technology tft lcd zc853400 factory

Luckily, technology delivers the tools doctors need to make the most accurate diagnosis possible. Perhaps nowhere is this more prominent than in medical imaging displays.

Such displays make it easy for medical professionals to peer into a patient’s body to better understand the ailment. For instance, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have become mainstream tests, saving doctors from guesswork and enabling them to save countless lives.

Moreover, medical imaging technology is not only crucial to diagnosis, but also for monitoring a confined patient’s condition. Enter any ward or patient room and you’ll see patient monitoring equipment keeping track of a person’s heart rate, blood pressure and other vital signs. Advanced imaging technologies are also needed in operating rooms, where high-quality screens help guide complicated surgical procedures by doctors.

Given the ubiquity of display technology in the medical field, it’s not surprising that it has become a burgeoning market. According to data from NPD Display Search, the medical imaging display market is expected to grow by 5 per cent this year. As Tom Fender of NPD states, “Technology continues to advance at a rapid pace, creating new medical imaging procedures that require sophisticated, high resolution and larger display solutions.”

To satisfy this demand, manufacturers are using more advanced technologies to aid medical professionals. Once such example are screens that utilize TFT LCD display technology. TFT is short for thin film transistor. In such screens each pixel contains its own tiny transistor. As a result, the screen can refresh the image several times per second, guaranteeing the most accurate image possible–a benefit for doctors, no doubt.

The great thing about this technology is that you can order screens in custom sizes, ranging from 3.5 to 12.1 inches. Regardless of the device’s size, there is always a TFT LCD display for it.

Of course, if you’re looking for a TFT module, be sure to work only with trusted suppliers like Microtips Technology, which not only distributes but also manufactures their own modules. With their help, you can create the perfect screen for any and all medical imaging equipment in your hospital.

LCD (liquid crystal display) is the most widely used display technology. They are used for automotive, appliance, telecommunication, home appliance, industrial, consumer electronic, military etc. But LCD displays have some drawbacks, such as slow response, narrow viewing angle, lower contrast etc. One annoying phenomenon often complained about by users is image sticking.

If a fixed image remains on a display for a long period of time, the faint outline of that image will persist on the screen for some time before it finally disappears. Normally, it happens to LCD and plasma screens, but for the purpose of our discussion, we will focus on TFT LCD displays. Image sticking is also referred to as “image persistence”, “image retention”, “ghosting” or “burn-in image.”

An LCD screen includes a thin layer of liquid crystal material sandwiched between two electrodes on glass substrates, with two polarizers on each side. A polarizer is an optical filter that lets light waves of a specific polarization pass through while blocking light waves of other polarizations. The electrodes need to be transparent so the most popular material is ITO (indium tin oxide). Since an LCD can’t emit light itself, normally a backlight is placed behind an LCD screen in order to be seen in a dark environment. The light sources used for a backlight can be LED (light emitting diode) or CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamps). The LED backlight is the most popular. Of course, if you want a color display, a layer of RGB color filter can be made into an LCD cell. A touch panel can also be added in front of an LCD display.

When an electric field is applied to the liquid crystal molecules, they become untwisted. When the polarized light reaches the layer of liquid crystal molecules, the light passes straight through without being twisted. When it reaches the second polarizer, it will also pass through, meaning the viewer sees the display as bright. Because LCD technology uses electric fields instead of electric current (electron passes through), it has low power consumption.

The cause of LCD image sticking is due to an accumulation of ionic impurities inside the liquid crystal materials. When slight DC voltage occurs, the charged impurities will move the electrodes and build up a reversed voltage field. When the power is removed, the reversed voltage will kick in to make the LCD molecules twisted different from the other part of the LCD, which shows up as the image sticking. The longer the time, the more impurities will migrate, the larger the reversed voltage will be, and the imaging sticking will appear worse.

For LCD manufacturers, try to protect liquid crystal materials exposed to the air by using nitrogen gas or dried air to avoid absorbing moisture that can create a huge amount of impurities in the liquid crystal material, as water is an excellent solvent. Controlling the humidity of the fab is also very important, as is selecting the right liquid crystal materials and their manufacturers. Different liquid crystal materials have different moisture absorbing abilities. Different liquid crystal material factories have different capabilities in terms of controlling impurities. Despite the fact that high purity can mean high in cost, using higher purity liquid crystal materials and designing the circuitry to get rid of DC in LCD display drivers can avoid an image sticking issue.

Unlike the “burn-in” issue common with CRTs, an image sticking issue is not permanent. It will eventually recover after some time. One way to expedite erasing a retained image is to have a screen on in an all-black pattern for 4-6 hours. If you want to make it even faster, the display can be put into an environment with a temperature of around 35 to 50°C for 1-2 hours. As this elevated temperature is within the working temperature range, it will not damage the LCD panels.