SBIR Phase II: Liquid Crystal-based Next Generation e-paper Devices by Micro-engineered Surfaces

此小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二期项目专注于开发基于微工程表面配向（梅萨）技术的低功耗、高存储容量液晶显示器（LCD）设备，用于电子书和移动的应用。MESA-LCD创新性地采用了新的光对准材料和工艺，结合独特的无掩模UV图案发生器，以实现便携式设备的双稳态和性能要求。它适用于大规模生产，也适用于柔性基板，也与现有的LCD制造基础设施兼容。 在第一阶段，受控的弱锚定已被成功地证明，并已开发的过程，以减少一个数量级的驱动电压。第二阶段的主要挑战是将驱动电压降低到0.1V/dBm。第二阶段的主要目标和方法是：（1）开发无源矩阵MESA-LCD原型（第一代），以向潜在投资者展示;（2）优化光配向工艺，以降低驱动电压;（3）开发具有优化光配向材料和工艺的有源矩阵MESA-LCD原型（第二代），并建立大规模制造工艺。预计第二阶段的结果将是成功开发MESA-LCD原型用于商业化。更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是MESA-LCD相关技术将受益于低功耗、高对比度和高分辨率。该项目的成功将使高性能和低成本MESA-LCD在移动的设备中具有重要的市场机会，为用户带来信息和娱乐，为用户提供融合的显示体验，具有纸张般的可读性，显著降低功耗和视频速率响应时间。MESA-LCD最重要的市场是电子纸和电子书市场。当基于MESA-LCD的电子书和电子纸得到充分开发时，一个设备可以容纳数十或数百本书或内容，减轻学生背包的负担，节省书架空间，并降低运输成本。此外，大量的纸张将被节省，这是一个很好的贡献环境。除了电子书和电子纸市场，MESA-LCD还可用于各种应用，如货架上和整个零售商店的价格标签和销售公告显示器，手机和其他手持设备，安全和酒店的显示产品，以及工业控制的显示器。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project focuses on development of low power consumption, bistable memory nematic liquid crystal display (LCD) devices for e-book and mobile applications, based on the micro-engineered surface alignment (MESA) technology. The MESA-LCD innovatively implements new photoaligment materials and processes, combined with unique maskless UV pattern generator, to achieve bistability and performance requirements for portable devices. It is suitable for mass production and also on flexible substrates, also compatible with existing manufacturing infra-structure of LCDs. In Phase-I, the controlled weak anchoring have been successfully demonstrated, and the process has been developed to reduce the driving voltage by one order of magnitude. The main challenge in Phase-II is to reduce the driving voltage down to 0.1v/ìm. The main objectives and approaches in Phase-II are: (1) to develop a passive matrix MESA-LCD prototype (the first generation) for presenting to the potential investors; (2) to optimize the photoalignment process for driving voltage reduction, (3) to develop an active matrix MESA-LCD prototype (second generation) with the optimized photoalignment material and process, with establishment of large scale manufacturing processes. Anticipated Phase-II results would be the successful development of MESA-LCD prototypes for commercialization. The broader impacts/commercial potential will be that the MESA-LCD related technologies will benefit from the low power, high contrast ratio and high resolution. Success of this project will enable a high performance and low cost MESA-LCD that have a significant market opportunity in mobile devices to bring users information and Entertainment, offer users a convergent display experience, with paper-like readability, significantly less power consumption, and video-rate response times. The most important market the MESA-LCD addresses is e-paper and e-book market. When the MESA-LCD based e-book and e-paper are fully developed, one device can hold tens or hundreds of books or content, decreasing the burden of students' backpacks, saving bookshelf space, and reducing shipping costs. Also huge amount of paper will be saved, which is a good contribution to the environment. Besides the e-book and e-paper market, MESA-LCD can also be used in various applications such as price tag and sale-announcement displays on shelves and throughout the retail stores, cell phones and other hand-hold devices, display products for security and hospitality, and display for industrial controls.