Search

We propose a method for vertical alignment (VA) of liquid crystals (LCs) without alignment layers by mixing only a very low concentration (0.05 wt%) of an organic compound with LCs. The electro-optic characteristics of a VA cell fabricated by the proposed method were almost the same as those of a conventional VA cell with VA layers. Moreover, we used the proposed method to realise a polymer-stabilised VA device with a rapid response time without alignment layers. The proposed method can simplify the fabrication process and reduce the manufacturing cost of LC display devices by removing the need for alignment layers and the alignment process such as coating of polyimide layers and the UV exposure for the photo-alignment. We believe that the proposed method can play an essential role in the fabrication of plastic flexible LC display devices requiring the low-temperature process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A transflective liquid crystal display using polymer-stabilised vertical alignment mode with fishbone-shaped electrode structure is proposed. Using the polymer stabilisation technique and patterned direction of pixel electrode structure, initial surface tilt angle and azimuthal angle can be well defined such that the liquid crystal is almost vertically aligned in the transmissive part while it has a certain pretilt angle that satisfies effective retardation of λ/4 with azimuthal direction of 45o with respect to the analyser in the reflective part. With optimisation of cell structures and surface tilt angles in the transmissive and reflective parts, a high performance transflective display showing excellent readability in any environment light conditions and single-gamma characteristic without using any retardation film or in-cell retarder can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A nano-material called POSS (Phenethyl-Poly Oligomeric Silsesquioxane) provides vertical alignment of LC on substrate without using conventional polymer type of vertical alignment layer. However, it still has many problems like aggregation because of high concentration doping. We synthesise new type of POSS which shows good dispersion with LC and found out that even very low 0.1 wt % into LC, uniform vertical alignment is achieved through diffusuion process from bulk LC to surface of the substrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]