A liquid crystal element, a packaging structure providing thermal and alignment control, a display device including the same, and methods of fabrication and assembly are provided. The liquid crystal element includes: a semiconductor wafer, having microcircuitry and an array of reflective pixels; a layer of electro-optical responsive liquid crystal medium, of uniform thickness, disposed on the reflective pixels; a transparent conductive layer positioned on the liquid crystal, being substantially parallel to the reflective layers, to ensure a uniform thickness of the liquid crystal; and an insulative transparent layer provided on the conductive layer. The liquid crystal element is laminated to an optically flat substrate to limit the out-of-plane distortions thereof. The structure formed by element and substrate are disposed in a substrate holder which is mounted to a wiring board, and coupled to voltage sources for actuating the liquid crystal. During mounting, an aligning fixture is used to ensure proper orientation of the element relative to the related optical elements. Once the element is positioned, a heat sink is coupled to the rear surface of the substrate holder to dissipate heat.