IBM breakthrough rubs out LCD problems
Singapore -- Scientists at IBM Corp. have found a new way to align crystal molecules inside flat-panel LCDs (liquid crystal displays), which will provide higher screen quality as well as large savings for LCD manufacturers, IBM said in a statement Thursday.
IBM said it will begin full production using the new technique by the end of this year and may license the patented technology to other manufacturers.
The principle -- atomic beam alignment -- will replace an effect first discovered 95 years ago, whereby rubbing a polymer substrate with a velvet cloth caused liquid crystals deposited on the substrate to align with the rubbed traces.
Without alignment of the crystals, usable LCDs cannot be built, so all LCD manufacturers have been forced to use the rubbing technique for the last 20 years to build notebook computer and mobile phone displays.
Replacing rubbing with the non-contact atomic beam method has been the most asked-for scientific improvement in the LCD manufacturing world, according to IBM. Among other disadvantages, the rubbing process is not completely understood scientifically, making it difficult to improve the technology or solve problems, IBM said.
IBM's new method starts by depositing a thin layer of diamond-like carbon instead of using a polymer substrate. Then, an ion gun shoots atoms at an angle, pushing aside many of the surface carbon atoms. When the rod-shaped liquid crystal molecules are added, one end of each molecule attaches to an exposed carbon atom, resulting in the alignment of all the liquid crystal molecules in the direction of the rows.
The LCD breakthrough is the second recent technical advance announced by IBM. Late last month, it announced it had built the world's first array of transistors out of carbon nanotubes [See "IBM breakthrough buys time for Moore's Law".]
IDG News Service
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