SBIR Phase II: Germanium Liquid Crystals for Perfect Displays

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）二期项目将开发含锗铁电液晶（Ge-FLC’s），这是一种全新的LC材料，可以将微型显示器迁移到相机和汽车应用中，拥有数十亿美元的显示市场。在第一阶段合成的Ge-FLC介质显示出突破性的层收缩特性，这将解决FLC中长期存在的双稳定性问题，从而将FLC投影显示器的可实现亮度提高到商业可行的水平。第二阶段的研究任务包括：(1)合成和表征大约100种新的Ge-FLC化合物库，(2)从该FLC混合物库中设计三种特定的双稳态开关方法，以及(3)开发符合三种双稳态方法的器件物理要求的对准层。这些任务支持整个项目的目标，即展示具有适合商业微显示产品特性的稳健工程原型双稳态FLC器件。在商业上，该项目进一步推动了硅基微显示器的新兴技术，具有非常大的潜在商业影响。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数十亿美元的相机和汽车微显示器市场增长奠定了基础。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.