Thin retardation layers are developed. The thin films can be applied in‐ or outside the LCD cell by wet coating techniques. The cell thickness can be reduced considerably since carrier sheets, protective layers and adhesive layers are no longer a necessity. In addition, the optical properties can be patterned on subpixel level which improves the LCD on grey scale inversion, contrast and/or brightness depending on the display type. Photoalignment and thickness patterning are presented as technologies towards patterned optical foils.

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A new method to create multidomain vertically aligned nematic LCDs based on the photoalignment technique has been developed. By photoalignment the pretilt angle of a homeotropic alignment layer can be reduced. In the new method the edges of a pixel are exposed to UV light rendering a pretilt angle between 0 and 90º depending on the exposure conditions. The pretilt angle of the central area of the pixel remains 90º. In combination with a homeotropic aligned polyimide layer a hybrid-aligned nematic LC effect is obtained at the edges of the pixels, whereas in the central area of the pixel the LC material is homeotropically oriented. The hybrid aligned nematic areas have a lower switching voltage than the vertically aligned nematic areas. Upon switching the directional orientation in the edges promotes orientational LC order in the pixel area, thus creating the multidomain vertically aligned nematic effect.

We present a substrate transfer technology which allows devices to be fully processed using conventional silicon-based fabrication techniques prior to their integration with parylene. A parylene-based metal microelectrode array with high-temperature silicon oxide passivation layers was demonstrated. Combining high quality devices from well-established processes with thin, flexible and biocompatible substrates, this technology could provide exciting opportunities, especially in biomedical applications such as implantable neural interfaces.