Varistor-controlled liquid-crystal displays

A new method of constructing multiplexed reflective liquid-crystal displays is described. A passive nonlinear control layer is formed by applying appropriate conductor and insulator layers to a slab of ZnO varistor material which forms the rear wall of the liquid-crystal cell, thereby, placing a varistor in series with each display element. The sharp nonlinearity of the varistor I-V characteristics allows matrix displays with a very large number of lines (∼ 1000), while achieving the same optical performance as a nonmultiplexed display. Resolution limits and drive requirements are also discussed.