Flexible Display Materials
More flexibility in display design and color
Currently marketed e-paper technologies are primarily based on black and white optical films. In order to offer manufacturers more flexibility in display design and color, Merck is developing full sets of colored electrophoretic microparticle formulations that can be used to create various flexible display architectures and designs - enabling vivid colors, sunlight readability and high resolution.
Your advantage - High-quality products tailored to your special needs
To address the complementary pixel electronics, Merck also provides new concepts of printable semiconductors under the brand name lisicon® that combine high electron mobility with ambient temperature processing. Using its extensive expertise built up over many years of serving the LCD industry, Merck strives to commercialize high-quality flexible display materials products tailored to the special needs of flexible display manufacturing.
Applications - Flexible displays could be everywhere
Flexible and e-paper displays will make a wide range of future applications possible - from simple electronic shelf edge labels in your local supermarket to e-book readers and bright color billboard signs. Tomorrow's students will probably store the content of all their books on one lightweight device, and some day even clothes and the walls of your home could feature a flexible display. With Merck, display manufacturers can be at the forefront of these exciting market developments.
The technology - What are flexible displays?
Flexible displays or "e-paper" displays are an emerging display technology. Demand is growing for slim, lightweight, and portable displays offering features like flexibility in form factor, ease of reading, low power consumption, and durability. Manufacturers of flexible displays want materials that allow processing on substrates based on plastic, thin metal or paper and at ambient temperatures.
One solution to this problem is the use of electrophoretic particles: In electrophoretic displays, images are formed by moving charged pigment particles suspended in a liquid using an applied electric field. While black-and-white electrophoretic displays are already widely commercialized, for example in e-book readers and mobile phones, electrophoretic microparticle formulations from Merck can be used to create flexible colored display designs.
In order to achieve a truly flexible display, the TFT backplanes must also be realized on the flexible plastic substrate. Therefore, Merck offers printable high-performance semiconductors, organic and inorganic, as ready-to-use formulations.
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