A TFT monitor uses thin film transistor technology in an LCD screen. LCD monitors, also called flat panel displays, are replacing the old cathode ray tubes (CRTs) in both televisions and computer monitors. Almost all LCD monitors today use TFT technology.
A desktop computer with a TFT monitor.
The benefit of thin film transistor technology is the separate tiny transistor for each pixel on the screen. Since each transistor is very small, the amount of charge needed to control it is also small. This allows the screen to update very quickly as the image is repainted or refreshed multiple times per second.
Flat panel displays are rapidly replacing the old CRTs.
Before TFT, passive matrix LCD monitors couldn’t keep up with fast-moving images. A mouse dragged across the screen, say from point A to point B, would disappear between the two points. A TFT monitor can track your mouse, resulting in a display that can be used for video, gaming, and all forms of multimedia.
A 17-inch TFT monitor has around 1.3 million pixels and 1.3 million transistors. This leaves a significant chance of a bad transistor or two on the panel, and “dead pixels” are not uncommon. A dead pixel is a pixel whose transistor has failed so it doesn’t create any display image, so on a solid black background, for example, dead pixels will stand out as little red, white, or blue dots. Most manufacturers will not replace a monitor with less than 11 dead pixels. Many do not have dead pixels, although even those that do are not noticeable unless they are located in a critical position on the screen.
There are only a few TFT factories that produce panels for all brands of monitors. Since there is a certain failure rate, considering the number of transistors in each panel, only some of the monitors do not have dead pixels. A certain percentage have some, but not an unreasonable number, and other panels are unusable. Panels that have a few dead pixels are often sold to be used on discounted models. Consumers, therefore, should read online shopper reviews to get an idea of the quality of specific brands. By scanning reviews of various brands, it’s easy to get an idea of which models have consistently good panels that rarely have dead pixels.
A good TFT screen offers sharp text, vibrant colors, and improved response time for multimedia applications. People interested in gaming, video editing, or other multimedia applications should look for a monitor with a response rate of 16 ms or less.
