-I-
Term (Acronym) [units]: Definition
iFire: The only company that is developing TV-size flat-panel displays based on electroluminescent technology (TDEL).
iMOD: The trade name of Qualcomm’s MEMS-based reflective display technology that they acquired from Iridigm Displays.
Indium Tin Oxide (ITO): The most common transparent conductor used in some manner in essentially every type of display, as well as in many touch screens.
Infrared Touch: A touch screen technology that uses infrared light to locate the user’s touch point within the active area.
Ingress Protection (IP): A rating system that defines the susceptibility of a device to penetration by solids (such as dust) or liquids (such as water). The rating consists of two numbers; the first is protection against solid objects on a scale of 0 to 6, while the second is protection against liquids on a scale of 0 to 8.
In-Plane Switching (IPS): An LCD wide-viewing-angle technology pioneered by Hitachi in which the alignment field is generated from electrodes located on a single substrate rather than on opposite sides as in conventional (TN) panels.
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE): The IEEE is an international professional society for electrical and electronics engineers, computer scientists and educators. The IEEE establishes standards for emerging electronic-based technologies, including displays.
Integrated Circuit (IC): A miniaturized electronic device containing multiple solid-state circuits that work in conjunction to form a complete device with defined functions, and that has been manufactured on the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material.
Interlace: Interlace is a technique of improving the picture quality of a video transmission without consuming any additional bandwidth. It works by scanning only every other line of a display during each full vertical screen refresh. Only CRTs can display interlaced video; all other types of displays require some form of de-interlacing.
Inverter (DC to AC): A module that converts low-voltage DC to high-voltage, high-frequency AC; used to power CCFL and electroluminescent lamps in display backlights.
-L-
Term (Acronym) [units]: Definition
Landscape Mode: A screen orientation that is wider than it is tall.
Large-Area: A term used throughout the LCD industry to categorize displays larger than 10" diagonal size. The three most common large-area LCD applications are notebooks, monitors and TVs.
LCD Monitor: A monitor that uses LCD technology rather than CRT technology. LCD monitors take up less desk space and they’re lighter.
LED Backlight: A backlight for small-medium LCDs that uses light-emitting diodes as the light source. The LEDs can be mounted on a substrate behind the LCD with a diffuser on top, or mounted along one or more edges of the LCD with a light guide to direct the light into the LCD.
Lifetime: The length of time that a display can be used before the brightness becomes 50% of its original value. Typical values for LCDs and PDPs range from 20K hours to 60K hours. OLEDs are still hobbled with shorter lifetimes, although they’re catching up quickly.
Light Valve (LV): A form of optical switch that can be used to vary the amount of light that reaches a target by deflecting the light from its path (reflective valve) or blocking its path (transmissive valve). TI’s DLP is an example of the former; HTPS-LCD microdisplays are an example of the latter.
Light-Emitting Diode (LED): A semiconductor device that emits incoherent, narrow-spectrum light when current flows through it in the forward direction (from the anode to the cathode). This emission of light is a form of electroluminescence. The color of the light depends on the chemical composition of the semiconducting material used in the LED.
Light-Emitting Polymer (LEP): An alternative term for Polymer Light-Emitting Diode (PLED).
Liquid Crystal (LC): A liquid crystal is a material that has properties that are between those of a solid and a liquid. The material may flow like a liquid, but have molecules that are arranged and oriented like a crystal. Liquid crystals used in displays have molecules that change orientation (e.g., twist or untwist) in the presence or absence of an electric field. The change in orientation is used to control the flow of light.
Liquid Crystal Display (LCD): A flat-panel display that uses liquid crystals to act as light valves on a backlight to modulate illumination and generate images.
Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS): A reflective microdisplay that uses a silicon backplane with a frontplane similar to a transmissive LCD. Used mostly in rear-projection televisions and HMDs.
Low Temperature Poly-Silicon (LTPS): A process for crystallizing amorphous silicon below the strain point of glass to create high-mobility silicon that can be used to integrate circuits directly onto the display substrate.
Low Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS): A transmission method for sending digital information to a flat-panel display. LVDS is universally used for the connection between the motherboard (video controller) and the LCD in laptops because it enables fewer wires to be used.
Luminance [cd/m2]: A measure of the brightness or luminous intensity of light, usually expressed in units of candelas per square meter (which are also called nits).
