Thin film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT LCD) are the type of flat panel display technology used in personal computers, televisions and many mobile devices. Reason why TFT LCD are so popular is because they offer superior reliability with low cost price (Jungho Jung, et al) as well as continuous improvements from the manufacturers. They are getting better at making the backplane film transistors, the liquid crystal modes and the system level efficiency of thin film transistor liquid crystal displays.

Backlight unit is the light source behind the panel. It is made up of LEDs, optical films, light guides, and diffusion layers. The function is to provide uniform white light because the LCD pixels do not produce any light.

LCD has two polarizing films, one on each side of the crystal cell. These films take the light from the backlight. Turn it into polarized light, then the liquid crystal cell layer either rotates or blocks this polarization to control how bright the screen is.

TFT array is like a layer (active-matrix backplane) on the glass substrate. Each pixel or subpixel is connected to a thin-film transistor. This transistor drives the voltage that is needed to set the orientation of the liquid crystal.