Defective Pixels in Liquid Crystal Displays

LCD technology has taken off in the past several years, with expanded availability of increasingly cost-effective product alternatives to the traditional CRT display. LCD manufacturing yields have improved, lowering costs. Technology innovations have enabled the production of ever-larger screen sizes, and today's LCD monitors are brighter than comparable CRT monitors, with viewing angles that rival the CRTs they are being groomed to replace. With their slim profile and small footprint, LCDs require about 60% of the desk space and consume approximately one-third the power of a comparably sized CRT. However, while LCDs offer many advantages over CRTs, and the price gap is continually narrowing, they are still more expensive to produce than their cathoderay tube cousins, due to the required clean room manufacturing process and lower-than-CRT yields. A concern for some manufacturers and consumers regarding LCDs has been the issue of dead pixels.