A liquid crystal display includes: a) a sapphire substrate; b) a single crystal silicon structure disposed on the sapphire substrate to create a silicon-on-sapphire structure; c) a plurality of liquid crystal capacitors disposed on the silicon-on-sapphire structure; d) integrated self-aligned circuitry formed from the crystal silicon structure, where the circuitry modulates the liquid crystal capacitors in response to an input control signal; and e) a receiver disposed on the silicon-on-sapphire structure for receiving electromagnetic radiation and generating the input control signal responsive to the received electromagnetic radiation.