November 5, 2010 - Merck KGaA announced today that it will be exhibiting at the FPD International, one of the leading events for the flat panel display industry, from November 10 to 12, 2010 in Makuhari/Chiba, Japan. The global pharmaceutical and chemical company will be highlighting its innovative products for the display, lighting and photovoltaics segments.
Within its liquid crystal product range, Merck is going to present PS-VA (Polymer-Stabilized-Vertical-Alignment), a novel premium technology that offers better contrast, greater brightness, faster switching speed and makes it possible to reduce power consumption in LCD televisions. The colors appear more intense, warmer, and more natural. In addition, the spatial depth of the display is greater and movements are more lively. Also the newest screen-generation - 3D displays - will profit from this Merck technology. Merck's PS-VA materials are a part of the innovative licristal portfolio, which is based on a combination of a liquid crystals mixture with specially designed reactive mesogens resulting from a sophisticated production process.
Merck will also be providing information on its liquid crystal materials for ultra-fast switchable Blue Phase devices, which is seen as a future technology for extremely rapid picture motion, high contrast ratio and wide viewing angle. Cost-effective production is predicted due to the cell layout without alignment layers and less critical cell gap control.
For patterned retarders in transflective LCDs and 3D displays Merck has used their in-depth experience to develop a range of ready-to-use reactive mesogen formulations which are being promoted under the name licrivue. The latest notebooks with 3D capability are based on the patterned retarder film type using Merck's reactive mesogen materials and have recently become commercially available.
In the lighting industry, Merck has also established a reputation as a reliable partner. Under the brand name isiphor the company offers a wide spectrum of efficient lighting materials for manufacturers of LEDs. These support color-on-demand concepts ranging from warm to cold white light.
For small molecule-based OLEDs Merck offers the extended livilux range that now includes a complete new set of electron, hole transport and matrix (host) materials.
For manufacturers of flexible displays, organic solar cells and organic RFID chips, the lisicon brand offers a broad spectrum of printable organic electronic materials such as organic semiconductor formulations, dielectrics, surface treatment materials and process aid chemicals.
For smart and simple patterning in the display and photovoltaic industry, the efficient and environment-friendly isishape products should be the first choice. 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. They are particularly recommended for new-generation touch panels and flexible displays.
Merck will also introduce its activities on materials for colored electrophoretic displays (EPD). Under the name lisiflex Merck develops EPD fluids consisting of highly engineered colored polymer microparticles which enable display manufactures to design in-plane or vertical color filter free EPD pixel architectures.
All Merck products mentioned above are eco-friendly materials, enabling green manufacturing processes and reducing the energy consumption of the devices that contain them.
