Handling
All LCDs are made from glass cells and therefore from shock or rough handling. The front faces of all LCDs are easily scratched and therefore a window is usually recommended to protect the LCD.

Static precautions
LCD modules of all kinds use CMOS silicon, so static precautions must be taken when handling modules.

Temperature and humidity
For applications which will entail operation or storage at high or low temperature we advise that you specify a wide-temperature display. The polarizer will be a highstability type and the display will have a wider seal and special fluid to suit a more demanding use.

Backlighting
Depending on the display chosen, you may have several backlighting options.
These include a variety of LED, options, low power EL, or CCFL for some of the graphics modules. Refer to the display mode section too as this has an impact on backlighting choice. Electroluminescent (EL) used to be very popular as it offers low power consumption and yields enough uniform blue/green illumination for a transflective display to be used in the dark. EL requires an inverter for its AC drive. An EL panel and inverter will consume around 45ma for a typical 20x2 module.

LED backlights are now the most common choice and are available i in 2 basic configurations.
The brightest and most uniform is the “full array” type. This features LED chips distributed evenly underneath the active area of the display. Power consumption of this type is typically around 200mA for a 20x2 module. The other common type is the “edge-lit” type, which uses less LED's therefore reducing power consumption considerably. LED backlights generally run from 5V, via a currentlimiting resistor. On some modules you can specify the LED colour - green, yellow, red, amber, white or blue.

Graphics modules need uniform lighting and EL is the most uniform, but less bright than LED or CCFL. CCFL gives a more neutral white illumination and works best with silver mode or blue mode displays. The CCFL tubes are driven by an inverter which we can also be supplied by Plus Opto.