Few technologies have had as profound or as rapid an impact on as many industries as the active matrix liquid crystal (AMLCD). Consider that in 1990, laptop computers, individual in-flight airline entertainment systems, and flat-panel cockpit instrumentation were either rare or nonexistent. By 2000, anyone taking an international airline flight would see these things as commonplace. It is a technology that traces its beginnings back to simple digital watches and calculators with their twisted nematic liquid crystal displays (TN LCDs), but which developed swiftly throughout the 1990s to become the premier display technology for some of the most demanding applications.

This article will discuss the utilization of AMLCDs primarily for one of these demanding applications, cockpit instrumentation, but this will serve well as an example for all other applications. For cockpit instrumentation, AMLCDs have largely replaced cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) as the display of choice because of its smaller volume, power, and structural requirements. Additionally, AMLCDs are being used in new ways in which CRTs could never have performed.