Flexible LCDs fabricated with a slit coater: Not requiring an alignment film

Abstract

-A homogeneously aligned liquid crystal layer on a substrate film on which it is not necessary to form a liquid crystal alignment film can be assembled by a slit coater. Types of twisted nematic and in-plane switching flexible liquid crystal displays were demonstrated. The production time can be considerably shortened because of the lack of need for an alignment film. The slit coater method is also applicable to the roll-to-roll process.

Shear-Thinning Characteristics of Nematic Liquid Crystals Doped with Nanoparticles

“…The slit coater experiments were carried out using an instrument of our own design [15][16][17], as shown in Figure 1. The slit width, slit length, and gap between the slit nozzle and the substrate were fixed at 20 μm, 13 mm, and approximately 100 μm, respectively.…”

“…MLC-14100 is a mixture of fluorinated biphenyl compounds, and was employed because its viscosity and elastic constant are similar to those of the simpler NLC material ZLI-2293 (Merck, Kanagawa, Japan) used in our previous studies [15][16][17]. NTN-02 and NTN-03 (DIC Co., Saitama, Japan) were employed as the NLCs in the viscosity measurements.…”

“…Kimura et al recently proposed a technique known as the slit coater method as a novel fabrication process for LCDs [15][16][17]. It is known that the viscoelasticity of LCs is associated with the self-organization of LC layers.…”

Study of Liquid Crystal Alignment Using Slit Coater under Different Application Velocities

“…Prof. Fujikake's group has demonstrated flexible LCDs that use polymer-wall technologies [2], and bendable LCDs have been realized using polyimide substrates [3]. Recently, the slit coater method was devised as a novel fabrication process for flexible LCDs [4][5][6][7][8][9]. The advantage of the slit coater method is that an alignment film and its thermal coating process are unnecessary.…”

“…The advantage of the slit coater method is that an alignment film and its thermal coating process are unnecessary. Twisted nematic (TN) mode LCDs, inplane switching (IPS) mode LCDs, and uniform lying helix (ULH) mode LCDs fabricated by the slit coater method have been demonstrated [5,9], and the surface anchoring energy has been surveyed [6,7]. However, the optimal fabrication conditions of the slit coating of LC materials has not yet been investigated.…”