SBIR Phase II: Amorphous Metal Nonlinear Resistor Applications for Liquid Crystal Display Backplanes

SBIR 第二阶段：液晶显示器背板的非晶金属非线性电阻器应用

• 批准号: 1456411
• 负责人: Sean Muir
• 金额: $ 75万
• 依托单位: Amorphyx Incorporated
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-02-15 至 2017-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1456411&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Amorphous; Metal

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to simplifying the display backplane manufacturing process and thereby deliver cost savings to a display industry annually losing billions of dollars. The technology being developed as part of this Phase II project has the potential to outperform current thin film transistor (TFT) backplane technologies in key Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) performance areas such as power consumption, image brightness and quality, and color richness. The vision of this project is to redefine the cost, manufacturability and performance of displays through the use of advanced materials and novel electronics. Beyond dramatic economic implications for the LCD industry, the amorphous metal and metal oxide-based technologies developed through this project will enable a technically and economically viable path to roll-to-roll production of flexible glass displays. Enabling a roll-to-roll "flex" factory could reintroduce display manufacturing to the United States. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project challenges conventional display industry practice by eliminating semiconductor content and relying on quantum tunneling conduction enabled by innovative materials to control the LCD backplane. The relatively simple tunneling devices developed as part of this project contrast with the industry's focus on increasingly complex semiconductors and manufacturing processes to meet the performance demands of UHD TV while reducing cost. The use of these structurally less complex tunneling devices in the LCD backplane has been enabled through the use of amorphous metal thin-films. The objective of this Phase II project is to develop a prototype display incorporating amorphous metal thin-film based tunneling devices and to evaluate its performance in terms of gray-scale control, power consumption, and maximum refresh rate. It is anticipated that amorphous metal tunneling devices can outperform current TFT technologies in these three areas by enabling 12-bit gray-scale accuracy, increasing the sub-pixel aperture ratio, and eliminating the need for semiconductor materials. The results from this prototype will confirm the technology's core value proposition, amorphous metal thin-film devices improve UHD performance while reducing manufacturing cost and increasing factory capacity.

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是简化显示器背板制造工艺，从而为每年损失数十亿美元的显示器行业节省成本。 作为第二阶段项目的一部分，正在开发的技术有可能在关键的液晶显示器（LCD）性能领域（如功耗、图像亮度和质量以及色彩丰富度）优于当前的薄膜晶体管（TFT）背板技术。 该项目的愿景是通过使用先进材料和新型电子产品来重新定义显示器的成本、可制造性和性能。除了对LCD行业产生巨大的经济影响外，通过该项目开发的基于非晶金属和金属氧化物的技术将为柔性玻璃显示器的卷对卷生产提供技术和经济上可行的途径。 启用卷对卷的“柔性”工厂可以将显示器制造重新引入美国。 这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目通过消除半导体内容并依靠创新材料实现的量子隧穿传导来控制LCD背板，从而挑战传统的显示器行业实践。 作为该项目的一部分开发的相对简单的隧道器件与行业对日益复杂的半导体和制造工艺的关注形成鲜明对比，以满足UHD电视的性能需求，同时降低成本。 通过使用非晶金属薄膜，已经能够在LCD背板中使用这些结构上不太复杂的隧穿器件。 此第二阶段项目的目标是开发一个原型显示器，采用非晶金属薄膜为基础的隧道器件，并评估其性能的灰度控制，功耗和最大刷新率。 预计非晶金属隧穿器件可以通过实现12位灰度精度、增加子像素孔径比和消除对半导体材料的需求，在这三个领域超越当前的TFT技术。 该原型的结果将证实该技术的核心价值主张，非晶金属薄膜器件提高了UHD性能，同时降低了制造成本并提高了工厂产能。