Fabrication of high aspect ratio nanostructures for reflective display

LCD和OLED等现代显示器是发光显示器，这意味着它们必须发射和操纵自己的光才能显示图像。这就是他们问题的根本原因：持续发光需要大量电力，显示器可能会耗尽高达50%的电池寿命；如果显示器在户外使用，屏幕反射的日光会降低显示器的可实现对比度，甚至使其无法阅读。反光显示器就是解决这些问题的办法。因为反射式显示器会反射当前环境中的光线，所以不需要浪费能量来产生自己的光线。 此外，由于反射式显示器的亮度与投射在其上的光线成正比，即使在阳光直射的情况下，这些显示器也很容易阅读。然而，到目前为止，大多数反射式显示器都存在制造成本高和色彩质量差的问题。 最近，支持公司Thalo Inc.设计了一种新颖的显示架构，考虑到了成本、亮度和颜色质量。高反射背板可提供所需的高亮度，而对反射光谱的额外控制可提供高色彩质量。这将是低电池消耗和/或用于各种照明的设备的理想选择，包括智能手表和其他可穿戴设备，以及摩托车和飞机的车辆性能读数。 当前项目的目标是建立一个色层，用于验证Thalo的显示设计的概念。该层由纳米级的栅格结构组成，每个像素的顶部都有电极图案。这一合作研究项目将在滑铁卢大学的研究小组和滑铁卢公司Thalo Inc.之间建立第一个也可能是长期的联系。该项目的成功将有助于加拿大公司通过开发和实施新技术来加强其市场地位。

Modern displays such as LCD and OLED displays are emissive displays, meaning they must emit and manipulate their own light in order to display an image. This is the root cause of their problems: it takes a lot of power to constantly be producing light and a display can drain up to about 50% of the battery life; and if the display is used outdoors, the daylight reflecting from the screen degrades the achievable contrast of the display or even make it unreadable. Reflective displays are the answer to these problems. Because they reflect the light that is currently in the environment, reflective displays do not need to waste energy producing their own light. Furthermore, because a reflective display's brightness is proportional to how much light is falling on it, these displays are easy to read even in direct sunlight. However, most reflective displays to date have suffered from high manufacturing costs and poor color quality. Recently, a novel display architacture was designed by the supporting company Thalo Inc. with cost, brightness and color quality in mind. A highly reflective backplane provides the high brightness needed, and additional control of the reflection spectrum gives high color quality. It would be ideal for devices which have low battery consumption and/or which are used in varied lighting, including smart watches and other wearables, and vehicle performance readouts for motorcycles and airplanes. The objective of the current project is to build one color layer for proof of concept of Thalo's display design.The layer consists of nanoscale grating structures with electrode patterned atop for each pixel. This collaborative research project will establish a first and potentially long-term linkage between the research group at the University of Waterloo and Thalo Inc., a Waterloo-based company. The success of this project will help Canadian companies to strengthen their market position through the development and implementation of novel technologies.