SBIR Phase II: Germanium Liquid Crystals for Perfect Displays

该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目将开发含锗铁电液晶（Ge-FLC），这是一种全新的LC材料，能够将微型显示器迁移到具有数十亿美元可用显示器市场的相机和汽车应用中。在阶段I期间合成的Ge-FLC介晶显示出突破性的层收缩性能，这将解决FLC中长期存在的双稳态问题，从而将基于FLC的投影显示器的可实现亮度提高到商业上可行的水平。第二阶段的研究任务包括：（1）合成和表征约100种新Ge-FLC化合物的库，（2）从FLC混合物库中设计三种特定的方法来实现MEMS开关的配方，以及（3）开发符合三种MEMS方法的器件物理要求的取向层。这些任务支持了整个项目的目标，即展示具有适合商业微显示器产品特性的坚固的工程原型MEMS FLC器件。在商业上，该项目进一步推动了具有巨大潜在商业影响的硅基微显示器的新兴技术。该公司之前成功地将SBIR资助的技术商业化为快速增长的4000万美元业务，为第二阶段创新实现的相机和汽车微显示器市场增长到数十亿美元奠定了基础。在这些市场的成功将为公司股东带来丰厚的回报，并将为美国消费者提供性能更高、成本更低的电子相机和更安全、更方便的汽车。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop germanium-containing ferroelectric liquid crystals (Ge-FLC's), a fundamentally new class of LC materials that enable migration of microdisplays into camera and automotive applications with billion-dollar available display markets. Ge-FLC mesogens synthesized during Phase I demonstrated breakthrough layer shrinkage properties that will solve the longstanding bistability problem in FLC's, thereby raising the achievable brightness of FLC-based projection displays to commercially viable levels. Phase II research tasks include: (1) the synthesis and characterization of a library of approximately 100 new Ge-FLC compounds, (2) the formulation from this library of FLC mixtures engineered for three specific approaches to bistable switching, and (3) development of alignment layers conforming to the device physics requirements of the three bistable approaches. These tasks support the overall project objective of demonstrating robust engineering-prototype bistable FLC devices with characteristics appropriate for commercial microdisplay products.Commercially, the project furthers the emerging technology of silicon-based microdisplays with very large potential commercial impact. The company's previous success commercializing SBIR-funded technology into a rapidly-growing $40-million business provides a foundation for growth into billion-dollar markets for camera and automotive microdisplays enabled by the Phase II innovation. Success in these markets will generate outstanding returns for the company's shareholders, and will provide higher-performing, lower-cost electronic cameras and safer and more convenient automobiles to U.S. consumers.