Display Works LTD history

1966: Cholesteric liquid crystals are employed as temperature indicators in thermography and medicine, later also in fashion items and cosmetics.

Their first application celebrates a big birthday: In 1968, the invention of the first liquid crystal display (LCD) marks the origin of a whole new generation of technical devices.

1970: The first LCD pocket calculator with our azoxy compounds and integrated yellow light filter is presented at the ACHEMA, World Forum and Leading Show for the Process Industries.

1971: James Fergason, then at Kent State University, Ohio, USA, as well as Martin Schadt and Wolfgang Helfrich in Switzerland almost simultaneously develop the “Twisted nematic cell” (TN cell) – a huge breakthrough which led to greater efforts in the area of nematic liquid crystals.

1973: George W. Gray, professor at the University of Hull, Great Britain, publishes his works on cyanobiphenyls and -terphenyls: For the first-time substances were available, which had a nematic phase stable at room temperature.

The Apple I, unveiled in 1976, for instance, was the first computer from a factor that had this type of output that people could plug into a video monitor.

1984: The first color flat LCD TV is presented in Japan.

2003: The German Future Prize is awarded by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany to one of our research teams for the liquid crystal technology that makes flat televisions possible.

LCD monitor sales surpassed CRT monitor sales in 2007.