Progress toward a liquid crystal contact lens display

A contact lens embeddable display using electro‐optic modulation was designed and fabricated. Using a guest–host liquid crystal configuration, a spherically deformed liquid crystal cell was fabricated comprising poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT : PSS) as a conductive layer and obliquely evaporated SiO₂ as an alignment layer. An additional SiO₂ buffer layer was evaporated on top of the PEDOT : PSS to overcome compatibility problems with the patterning of the photolithographically defined spacers. Although the contrast is modest, a patterned modulation could clearly be observed, indicating that our approach and fabrication process could eventually lead to a fully pixelated contact lens display.     

Improved performances in organic and polymer light‐emitting diodes using solution‐processed vanadium pentoxide as a hole injection layer

We report that a solution‐processed vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅) layer can be utilized as an effective and stable hole injection layer in organic light‐emitting diodes and polymer light‐emitting diodes instead of polyethylene dioxythiophene : polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT : PSS). The organic light‐emitting diode and polymer light‐emitting diode with the V₂O₅ layer have driving voltages that are 2.2 and 0.3 V lower for 1000 cd/m², respectively, than the devices with PEDOT : PSS. In addition, the devices with the V₂O₅ layer show improved operational stability compared with the devices with PEDOT : PSS. Therefore, a solution‐processed V₂O₅ layer can be utilized as an effective and stable hole injection layer instead of PEDOT : PSS.     

Properties of azo‐dye alignment layer on plastic substrates

Abstract— The alignment properties of the azo‐dye photo‐alignment material SD‐1/SDA‐2 on plastic substrates are investigated. Important liquid‐crystal cell parameters, such as azimuthal and polar anchoring energy, pretilt angle, voltage holding ratio, and the corresponding electro‐optical properties are presented. Excellent alignment with high anchoring energy can be achieved with a polarized UV dose less than 1.0 J/cm². A reflective six‐digit flexible passive‐matrix‐driven TN‐LCD for smart‐card applications showing excellent electro‐optical properties is demonstrated.     

“Secondary doping” methods to significantly enhance the conductivity of PEDOT:PSS for its application as transparent electrode of optoelectronic devices

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) is the most successful conducting polymer in terms of the practical application. It can be dispersed in water and some polar organic solvents, and high-quality PEDOT:PSS films can be readily prepared through solution processing. In addition, PEDOT:PSS is highly transparent in the visible range and has excellent thermal stability. Nevertheless, PEDOT:PSS has a problem of low conductivity. The as-prepared PEDOT:PSS films from its aqueous solution have a conductivity of lower than 1 S cm⁻¹, which severely impedes the application of PEDOT:PSS in various aspects. It has been discovered that the conductivity of as-prepared PEDOT:PSS from its aqueous solution can be significantly enhanced by adding organic compounds like high-boiling point polar organic solvents, ionic liquids and surfactants or through a post-treatment of PEDOT:PSS films with organic compounds, including high-boiling point polar solvents, salts, zwitterions, cosolvents, organic and inorganic acids. Conductivity of more than 3000 S cm⁻¹ was recently observed on PEDOT:PSS films after treated with sulfuric acid. This conductivity is comparable to that of indium tin oxide (ITO), the conventional transparent electrode material of optoelectronic devices. In addition, PEDOT:PSS has high mechanical flexibility while ITO is a brittle material. Thus, PEDOT:PSS is very promising to be the next-generation transparent electrode material. This article reviews the methods to enhance the conductivity of PEDOT:PSS, the mechanisms for the conductivity enhancements and the application of the highly conductive PEDOT:PSS films in polymer light-emitting diodes and polymer solar cells.     

Azo‐dye aligning layers for liquid‐crystal cells

Abstract— The photo‐induced alignment of liquid crystal onto a photochemical stable azo‐dye film was studied for liquid‐crystal display (LCD) applications. The photo‐aligning of azo dye takes place due to the pure reorientation of the molecular absorption oscillators perpendicular to the UV‐light polarization. The order parameters S = ?0.4 (80% of the maximum absolute value S_m = ?0.5) was measured at a wavelength of 372 nm from the polarized absorption spectra. The temperature‐stable pretilt angle of 5.3° was obtained by a two‐step exposure of azo‐dye film using normally incident polarized light followed by oblique non‐polarized light. The azimuthal anchoring energy of the photo‐aligned substrate was A_? > 10^?4 J/m², which is of the same magnitude as the anchoring of the rubbed PI layer. The VHR value of the photo‐aligned LC cell was also found to be very high (98–99%) at room temperature and more than 95% at T=80°C. The thermal stability of the photo‐aligned azo‐dye layers is sufficiently high, while UV stability has to be improved, _e.g., by polymerization. The new LCD aligning technology based on photochemical stable azo‐dye layers is envisaged.     

Relationship between rubbing‐induced anisotropy and surface azimuthal anchoring energy of nematic liquid crystals

The relationship between the rubbing‐induced anisotropy of alignment films and the surface azimuthal anchoring energy of nematic liquid crystals was investigated using three kinds of rubbing cloths. Reflection ellipsometry revealed that the optical surface anisotropy of polyimide alignment films increases monotonically with increasing RS. The surface azimuthal anchoring energy measured by the torque balance method depends on the rubbing‐induced anisotropy of alignment films. This indicates that liquid crystal molecular alignment can be controlled by monitoring the rubbing‐induced optical anisotropy of alignment films when a suitable rubbing cloth is used.     

All solution‐processed white quantum‐dot light‐emitting diodes with three‐unit tandem structure

Quantum‐dot light‐emitting diodes (QLEDs) are promising candidates for next generation displays. White QLEDs which can emit red, green and blue colors are particularly important; this is because the combination of white QLEDs and color filters offers a practical solution for high‐resolution full‐color displays. In this work, we demonstrate all‐solution processed three‐unit (red/green/blue) white tandem QLEDs for the first time. The white tandem devices are achieved by serially connecting the red bottom sub‐QLED, the green middle sub‐QLED and the blue top sub‐QLED using the inter‐connecting layer (ICL) based on ZnMgO/PEDOT:PSS heterojunction. With the proposed ICL, the two‐unit tandem QLEDs exhibit a high current efficiency of 22.22 cd/A, while the three‐unit white QLEDs exhibit evenly separated red, green and blue emission with a CIE coordinate of (0.30, 0.44), a peak current efficiency of 4.75 cd/A and a high luminance of 4206 cd/m². Displays based on the developed white QLEDs exhibit a wide color gamut of 114% NTSC. This work confirms the effectiveness of the proposed ZnMgO/PEDOT:PSS ICL and the feasibility of making all‐solution processed tandem white QLEDs by using the proposed ICL.     

Bistable nano‐structured photoalignment surface by nanoimprint lithography

A novel nano‐structured photoalignment surface is proposed and demonstrated. Such alignment surface has bistable azimuthal alignment directions for the liquid crystal molecules. The new alignment surface has a structure of stacking a photo‐polymerizable photoalignment polymer on top of a nano‐sized groove surface. The photoalignment polymer and groove surface have different azimuthal alignment directions but the same azimuthal anchoring energies. The fabrication of the nano‐sized groove is based on nano‐imprint lithography. Hence, the size and depth are controllable, where no random process is involved. The alignment surface is robust, stable, reliable, reproducible and suitable for mass manufacturing. Such alignment surface can be applied to fabricate a π/2 bistable twisted nematic (π/2‐BTN) display which has better optical performances than the traditional π‐BTN display.     

Bistable C1 ferroelectric liquid crystal device for e-paper application

Recent progress in both low pretilt and high pretilt defect-free C1 surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal (SSFLC) devices for e-paper application is reviewed. First, by using numerical calculation to investigate the balance between surface azimuthal anchoring energy and bulk elastic energy within the confined chevron layer geometry of C1 and C2, we found it is possible to achieve a zigzag-free C1 state by low azimuthal anchoring alignment with a low pretilt angle. The critical azimuthal anchoring coefficient for defect-free C1 state is calculated. Its relationship with elastic constants, chevron angle, and surface topography effect are also discussed. Second, by using 5° oblique SiO deposition alignment, a defect-free, large memory angle, high contrast ratio, and bistable C1 SSFLC display, which has potential for electronic paper applications has also been developed. The electro-optical properties and bistability of this device have been investigated. Various aspects of defect control are also discussed.     

Anchoring and gliding of easy axis of 5CB on photoaligning PVCN‐F surface

Abstract— The photoaligning properties of the popular photoaligning material polyvinyl‐4(fluorocinnamate) (PVCN‐F) are presented. The aligning quality and azimuthal and zenithal anchoring energy were measured and the drift of the easy orientation axis (gliding effect) on the PVCN‐F surface, depending on UV exposure, was studied. Special attention is paid to unraveling the contribution of the adsorption liquid‐crystal molecules onto the aligning surface to the anchoring properties of PVCNF and measuring the drift of the easy orientation axis over the PVCN‐F surface. It is shown that a relatively weak azimuthal anchoring energy (W_az ～ 10^?7 ? 10^?5 J/m²) leads to strong drift of the easy axis in the azimuthal plane that was observed in a moderate (～0.1–0.3 T) magnetic field. A much stronger polar anchoring (W_zen ～ 10^?4 J/m²) allowed us to observe the essential gliding of the easy axis in the zenithal plane in a rather strong electric field (～5 V/μm).     

H ∞ preview tracking control of retarded state‐multiplicative stochastic systems

The problem of infinite‐horizon H _∞ state‐feedback tracking control for linear continuous time‐invariant retarded systems with stochastic parameter uncertainties is investigated. Two tracking patterns are considered depending on the nature of the reference signal; that is, whether it is measured online or previewed in a fixed time‐interval ahead. The stochastic uncertainties appear in the dynamics matrices for both the retarded and the non‐retarded states of the system. The delayed system is transformed via the input–output approach, to an uncertain norm‐bounded system. A new method that efficiently yields a min–max strategy to the solution of each of the aforementioned two cases is suggested where, given a specific reference signal, the controller plays against nature, which chooses the maximizing energy‐bounded disturbance. The theoretical results are demonstrated by two examples that show the impact of the delay length and the preview length on the system performance. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New properties and applications of rewritable azo‐dye photoalignment

Abstract— The rewritable azo‐dye photoalignment (ORW) of liquid crystals (LCs) for application in optical rewritable electronic paper has been investigated. It was observed that a periodic change in the azimuthal aligning direction with polarized UV light (365 nm) brings about homeotropic alignment, while utilization of visible light (450 nm) does not affect the LC tilt angle. The wavelength dependence of the ORW photoalignment result and the behavior of the photoinduced anisotropy was explored. The dark amplification of film anisotropy after exposure was observed, which is believed to be the relaxation process related to hydrogen bonding in azo‐dye film. New material, CD1, for azo‐dye rotation photoalignement that possesses a high azimuthal anchoring energy (about 2 × 10^?4 J/m²) was found.     

Evaluation of azimuthal anchoring energy for liquid crystal device equipped with color filter by means of renormalized transmission ellipsometry

In this study, we theoretically investigated the influence of a color filter on the determination of the azimuthal anchoring energy by means of ellipsometric analysis, and the azimuthal anchoring energy of the twisted nematic (TN) liquid crystal devices (LCDs) equipped with/without a color filter was evaluated by means of renormalized transmission ellipsometry. The results indicated no influence in the obtained ellipsometric parameters, such as the phase difference and the angle of amplitude ratio, when a color filter was an isotropic medium. It was experimentally confirmed that the evaluated azimuthal anchoring energy of LCD with a color filter was almost the same as that without a color filter. From the numerical and experimental study, the possibility for the determination of the azimuthal anchoring energy for the commercial TN LCD products was demonstrated.     

Defect‐free half‐V‐mode ferroelectric liquid‐crystal device

Abstract— The horizontal chevron defect found in a half‐V‐mode ferroelectric‐liquid‐crystal (HV‐FLC) device can be suppressed by lowering the FLC's total free energy. The energy levels between spontaneous polarization (PS) up and down domains were degenerated by asymmetrical‐alignment treatments. The difference in the polar surface coefficient (γ²) was the key to suppressing the alignment defect. Alignment layers with opposite surface polarities and different anchoring energies were applied to control the sign and value of γ². The asymmetric cells of PIrub ‐ PIplasma (rubbed polyimide and plasma‐treated polyimide surfaces), PVArub ‐ PIplasma (rubbed polyvinyl alcohol and plasma‐treated polyimide surfaces), and PVArub ‐ PIplasma (both rubbed PI and PVA) alignment conditions presented defect‐free alignment textures under a slow‐cooling process. Among these different alignment treatments, the PVArub ‐ PIrub treated cell demonstrated the best alignment result, benefited by the largest difference in polar surface coefficient.     

Single‐source dual‐layer amorphous IGZO thin‐film transistors for display and circuit applications

In this study, the authors report on high‐quality amorphous indium–gallium–zinc oxide thin‐film transistors (TFTs) based on a single‐source dual‐layer concept processed at temperatures down to 150°C. The dual‐layer concept allows the precise control of local charge carrier densities by varying the O₂/Ar gas ratio during sputtering for the bottom and top layers. Therefore, extensive annealing steps after the deposition can be avoided. In addition, the dual‐layer concept is more robust against variation of the oxygen flow in the deposition chamber. The charge carrier density in the TFT channel is namely adjusted by varying the thickness of the two layers whereby the oxygen concentration during deposition is switched only between no oxygen for the bottom layer and very high concentration for the top layer. The dual‐layer TFTs are more stable under bias conditions in comparison with single‐layer TFTs processed at low temperatures. Finally, the applicability of this dual‐layer concept in logic circuitry such as 19‐stage ring oscillators and a TFT backplane on polyethylene naphthalate foil containing a quarter video graphics array active‐matrix organic light‐emitting diode display demonstrator is proven.     

A generalized robust H ∞ filtering for singular Markovian jump systems and its applications

In this paper, a generalized robust H _∞ filtering method is proposed for a class of singular Markovian jump systems, whose generality is mainly embodied that the desired filter could bear perturbances in terms of uncertainties on its parameter matrices. Firstly, an LMI condition of robust mode‐dependent filter is developed. Based on the given result, a new approach to mode‐independent H _∞ filter is presented, which establishes a direct connection between mode‐dependent and mode‐independent filters. Secondly, when the transition rate matrix is with elementwise bounded uncertainties or partially unknown, sufficient conditions of such robust mode‐dependent and mode‐independent filters are all developed within LMI frameworks. Finally, a numerical example is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reliability of transparent conducting substrates for rollable displays: A cyclic loading investigation

Abstract— Failure mechanisms for flexible conducting substrates are investigated herein in the context of rollable/flexible display applications. Cyclic loading experiments (substrates subjected to multiple cycles of tensile strain) were carried out on both ITO‐coated PET and PEDOT:PSS‐coated PET substrates. The resistance was measured after each bending cycle. The resistance increased with the number of cycles and was not reversible. Even when the tensile strain on the ITO/PET was below the virgin cracking threshold (～2%) previously reported [Appl Phys Lett ⁷⁶, 1425 (2000)], slight increases in resistance were measurable after just a few cycles.     

New approach to H ∞ filtering of two‐dimensional T‐S fuzzy systems

This paper is concerned with the H _∞ filtering problem for two‐dimensional T‐S fuzzy systems. Sufficient conditions for the solvability of this problem are obtained by using basis‐dependent Lyapunov functions. By considering the measured output as an independent variable with respect to the state variable and the disturbance input, a new method for designing two‐dimensional H _∞ filters is presented. Moreover, it has been shown that the proposed method is equivalent to the conventional one. Therefore, the proposed method does not lead to any conservativeness that may be caused by separately considering the measured output, the state variable, and the disturbance input. In converting the parameterized linear matrix inequalities (PLMI) into LMI constraints, attention is focused on the reduction of the number of LMI‐based conditions. On the basis of the proposed theorem, the number of LMI‐based conditions is reduced to r³ from r³(r + 1)² ∕ 4 by the conventional method. Thus, the computational advantage is obvious for fuzzy systems with large number of fuzzy rules. Simulation results have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nano‐structured liquid‐crystal alignment layers (Invited Paper)

Abstract— The alignment of liquid crystal by nano‐structured surfaces is investigated. It is shown that reliable pretilt angles of any value between 0° and 90° can be produced with these surfaces. The physics and properties of such alignment layers are studied using a variety of techniques. The anchoring energy and temperature stability of the alignment are also measured. Dependence on various processing conditions is also characterized. It is shown that these nano‐structured alignment layers are useful for the production of high pretilt angles needed for a variety of applications.