A bistable ferroelectric liquid-crystal display (FLCD) for application in a smart card has been developed together with Infineon Technologies Business Unit Security and Chip Card ICs. The manufacturing process of the display will be explained. To further improve the functionality and reliability of the display, its layout has been modified. Barrier layers to reduce water permeation have been introduced. Defects in the FLC have been observed around the spacers. A change in the process order can help to avoid them. To reduce the sensitivity of the smectic layers of the FLC to shear forces, a special display layout with enlarged spacers has been developed together with an appropriate vacuum-free filling process.

The 600 µm thick transflective display for mobile systems presented consists of a reflective plastic substrate FLCD for daytime and an OLED with thin glass plates and controlled lightemitting segments as backlight for darkness. A memory for addressing the OLED saves the second polarizer of transmissive displays. A thin film battery feeding the OLED lasts more than 2 years.

A flexible display module consisting of a bistable seven digit Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Display (FLCD) with an ACAbonded addressing IC is presented. Due to the innovative cell concept for mirrors the module shows a high reflectivity and a high contrast.

Printing processes for etch resist, alignment layer, glue and also nematic and ferrorelectric LCs are presented. Special care is taken to print the FLC with the desired alignment. A comparison between knife coating with a doctor blade as well as flexographic and inkjet printing will be offered.

We report on the requirements of Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Displays (FLCDs) for Smart Card applications and on the switching behaviour of FLCs with different spontaneous polarization. Furthermore a flexographic printing technique of FLCs on plastic substrates is presented. Experiments show that the phase of the FLC during the printing process has a big influence on the switching voltage of the FLCD. After printing the FLC the substrates are laminated to a display. This technique allows a vacuum free and in consequence economic mass production process of bistable FLC-Displays on flexible plastic substrates.