STTR Phase II: Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal (FLC) Gels for Facile Processing and High Yield Manufacture of Hardened FLC Displays

STTR 第二阶段：铁电液晶 (FLC) 凝胶，用于轻松加工和高产量制造硬化 FLC 显示器

• 批准号: 0924709
• 负责人: Michael Wand
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: LC Vision, LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-08-15 至 2011-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0924709&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; II; Ferroelectric; Liquid

"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II project will enable the widespread use of ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) electro-optic devices, leading to a new generation of displays that have greater speed, higher resolution and lower power consumption than today's liquid crystals displays (LCDs), which use nematic LCs. A proprietary family of additives, "polymer dopants" demonstrated in Phase I, overcomes the main technical obstacles to large-scale application of FLC devices: manufacturing and stabilizing properly aligned cells. The proposed work will develop FLC-polymer materials that expedite processing and increase the yield of well-aligned FLC cells. In Phase I the team: 1) Identified side-group liquid crystal polymers that dissolve in FLC. , 2) Showed that the FLC-polymer mixtures retain fast electro-optic (EO) responses3) Demonstrated that the FLC-polymer mixtures robustly and rapidly adopt the proper alignment, giving bistable switching that is elusive in the FLC alone. In Phase II the team will establish the structure-activity relationships for polymer dopants. It will optimize the FLC-polymer mixtures to establish reliable processes to produce well aligned FLC cells in high yield at high production rates. Approximately 2x109 small flat panel displays are used annually in cell phones, PDAs, iPods, etc. Currently, nematic LCDs overwhelmingly dominate this market $20 billion/year in LCDs, manufactured using $350 million/year of LC materials. The additives developed in this project will allow FLCs to be processed into displays in this size range, providing a step-change in resolution and speed in LCDs. This will lay the foundation for moving FLCs into LCD TVs ($86.3 billion/year market in 2008, growing rapidly). Enabling commercial production of FLC displays 10 cm and up could revolutionize display technology and potentially fuel the growth of display manufacturers in the U.S. Scientifically, solutions of polymers in FLCs represent a nascent class of materials that has hardly been explored. This project is at the cutting edge of experimental research in LCs, providing the first glimpse into the consequences of orientational coupling in chiral smectic LCs.

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(Public Law 111-5)资助的。这个小型企业技术转让(STTR)第二阶段项目将使铁电液晶(FLC)电光器件得到广泛使用，导致新一代显示器比目前使用向列型LCD的液晶显示器(LCD)具有更快的速度、更高的分辨率和更低的功耗。在第一阶段展示的一系列专有添加剂“聚合物掺杂剂”克服了大规模应用FLC器件的主要技术障碍：制造和稳定适当排列的单元。这项拟议的工作将开发FLC聚合物材料，以加快加工速度并提高良好排列的FLC电池的产量。在第一阶段，研究小组：1)确定了溶解在FLC中的侧基液晶聚合物。，2)表明FLC-聚合物混合物保持了快速的电光(EO)响应。3)证明了FLC-聚合物混合物强健而迅速地采用了正确的排列，给出了仅在FLC中难以捉摸的双稳态开关。在第二阶段，该团队将建立聚合物掺杂剂的结构-活性关系。它将优化FLC-聚合物混合物，以建立可靠的工艺，以高产量和高生产率生产排列良好的FLC电池。每年大约有2x109个小型平板显示器用于手机、PDA、iPod等。目前，向列型LCD压倒性地主导着这个市场，每年200亿美元的LCD，使用3.5亿美元/年的LC材料制造。在该项目中开发的添加剂将允许将Flc加工成这种尺寸范围的显示器，从而提供LCD分辨率和速度的阶跃变化。这将为氟氯烃进入LCD电视市场奠定基础(2008年市场规模为863亿美元，增长迅速)。实现10厘米及以上FLC显示器的商业化生产可能会给显示技术带来革命性的变化，并可能推动美国显示器制造商的增长。从科学上讲，FLC中的聚合物解决方案代表着一种几乎没有人探索过的新兴材料类别。该项目处于液晶实验研究的前沿，首次揭示了手性近晶液晶中取向耦合的结果。