Green Liquid Crystals on Display

Darmstadt, Germany, May 12, 2010 – For SID Display Week in Seattle (May 23-28, 2010), Merck KGaA has selected the heading “green” to denote the extent to which its materials help the environment. Specifically, “green^“ stands for producing eco-friendly materials, enabling eco-friendly manufacturing processes, and reducing the energy consumption of the devices that contain them.

Merck will be presenting its advanced PS-VA materials for high-quality LCDs at SID Display Week, the prestigious annual information display event. PS-VA (Polymer Stabilized Vertical Alignment) is a novel premium LC technology that offers better contrast, faster switching speed and reduces power consumption in LCD televisions. It is an innovation based on VA, the leading LCD television technology besides IPS (in plane switching). Merck PS-VA materials, which are part of the company’s innovative licristal^® portfolio, are based on a combination of liquid crystals with specially designed reactive mesogens produced in a sophisticated production process.

Furthermore, Merck will be providing information on its liquid crystal materials for a switchable Blue Phase, which is seen as a future technology for fast switching, high contrast ratio and wide viewing angle. Cost effective production is predicted due to the cell layout without alignment layers and no constant cell gap required.

Merck will also be showing the top quality liquid crystal materials it produces for many 3D applications, including mixtures for 3D shutter glasses. Merck liquid crystals enable the high frame rates required in 3D applications by offering LCs with reduced switching times. In addition, Merck offers reactive mesogens for use in patterned retarder films for 3D displays using passive glasses. Broad-Band Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Reflective Polarizer Films (BB CLC RPF) made from commercially available high delta n RMM (Reactive Mesogen Mixtures) from Merck allow LCD manufacturers to decrease the brightness of back light units and by that to reduce power consumption by maintaining at the same time reasonably high brightness values of the display.

The extended livilux^® range now includes a complete new set of electron, hole transport and matrix (host) materials for small molecule-based OLEDs. These materials enable display and lighting customers to decrease the operating voltage and at the same time increase the overall efficiency of the OLED. With state of the art analytical equipment and methods Merck ensures high purity and reliability. Therefore livilux OLED materials are ideally suited for mass production.

The isiphor™ brand offers a broad spectrum of efficient lighting materials (phosphors) for manufacturers of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). These support color-on-demand concepts ranging from warm to cold white light, and are fast earning Merck a reputation as a reliable partner to the lighting industry.

Also on show at the SID: Merck’s efficient, environment-friendly isishape^® products for smart and simple patterning in the display and photovoltaic industries. One of the highlights is isishape HiperEtch^®, which is able to selectively etch antireflective coatings, passivation layers, and transparent conductive materials for displays and related applications. The isishape^® concept is particularly recommended for use in the production of new-generation touch panels, flexible displays, OLEDs, EL backlights, and others.

For manufacturers of innovative applications such as flexible displays, organic solar cells and organic RFID chips, the lisicon^® brand offers a wide selection of printable organic electronic materials including advanced organic semiconductor formulations, dielectrics, surface treatment materials and process aid chemicals.

The annual SID International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition is a key industry gathering for researchers, developers, manufacturers and users in the electronic display sector. Now in its 48th year, the six-day event is expected to attract more than 250 exhibitors and thousands of industry visitors to the Washington State Convention & Trade Center in Seattle.

Merck experts will hold four talks on the latest innovations on Thursday, May 27 in the exhibitor`s forum (Hall 4A). The schedule and topics are as follows:

”Advanced Materials for Display and Flat Panel Applications” (9:00- 9:15 a.m.): M. Goulding, Merck Chemicals UK, Ltd.
”PS-VA – Advanced Materials for Advanced LCDs” (9:30-9:45 a.m.): G. Bernatz, Merck Germany
”Merck – Reactive Mesogens for Display Applications” (10.00-10:15 a.m.): J. Sargent, Merck Chemicals UK, Ltd.
”isishape HiperEtch® – Efficient and Environmentally Friendly Structuring Solutions for Display Production” (11:00-11:15 a.m.): H-J. Lemp, Merck Germany

Three scientific lectures by Merck scientists are also scheduled to take place during Symposium:

“Purity of OLED Materials and the Implications on Device Performance” H. Becker, Merck Germany Tuesday May 25, 10:50-11:10 a.m., Ballroom 6E
“Dyed Polymeric Microparticles for Colour Rendering in Electrophoretic Displays” M. Goulding, Merck Chemicals UK, Ltd. Wednesday May 26, 3:30 – 3:50 p.m., Room 608-610
“Advanced Liquid Crystal Materials for the Polymer Stabilized Vertically Aligned (PS-VA) Mode” A. Götz, Merck Germany Thursday May 27, 9:00-9:20 a.m., Room 611-612