Novel LCD's and novel LCD manufacturing;A new world of LCDs opened up by Photo-Rubbing

  • Yokoyama, Hiroshi (Nanotechnology Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology) ;
  • Kimura, Masayuki (Nanotechnology Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Display Research Laboratories, JSR Corporation)
  • Published : 2006.08.22

Abstract

A novel photo-alignment scheme using normally incident periodically intensity-modulated UV light has been developed and demonstrated to efficiently yield a stable pretilt angle of nematic liquid crystals by single exposure. The scheme, referred to as the "photo-rubbing", consists in unidirectional scan of the intensity-modulated UV light over the photo-alignment film, which causes asymmetrical photo-reactions in the film. We show here its successful application to multi-domain alignment processing. Thanks to the normal incidence, the photo-rubbing removes the instrumental disadvantages of the conventional oblique incidence technique, thereby providing a true practical solution for photo-alignment.

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