Sample and hold circuits and related peak detectors are the elementary analog memory devices.
For practically all commercial liquid crystal active matrix displays based on TN, IPS or VA electro-optic LC cells (excluding bi-stable phenomena), each pixel represents a small capacitor, which has to be periodically charged to a level corresponding to the greyscale value (contrast) desired for a picture element.
In order to maintain the level during a scanning cycle (frame period), an additional electric capacitor is attached in parallel to each LC pixel to better hold the voltage.
[4][5] Sample and hold circuits are also frequently found on synthesizers, either as a discrete module or as an integral component.
They are used to take periodic samples of an incoming signal, typically as a source of modulation for other components of the synthesizer.