ONE TENTH OF A GRAM OF MAGIC:
LIQUID CRYSTALS FOR ENERGY-EFFICIENT SMARTPHONES AND TABLETS
THE MAGIC CAREER OF LIQUID CRYSTALS
When the Austrian botanist Friedrich Reinitzer
discovered the first liquid crystals in 1888,
nobody could imagine how incredible the career
of these substances with fascinating optical
properties would be. Today, liquid crystals
produce sharp, high-contrast, brilliant images on
the displays of almost all electronic devices.
In 2014 alone, around 250 million televisions,
200 million notebooks, 160 million computer
monitors, 340 million tablet computers and over
one billion smartphones were sold worldwide.
We at Merck started believing in liquid crystal
(LC) technology early on. When the American
engineer George Heilmeier from Radio Corporation of America (RCA) presented the first liquid
crystal display in 1967, this electrified several
Merck research chemists. They soon recognized
that liquid crystals made the vision of flat,
compact displays tangible. And they convinced
the management, although the liquid crystal
substances known at that time still had considerable disadvantages. Heilmeier's first LC display
required an operating temperature of 80°C, the
LCDs had very slow switching times, plus they
were monochrome. Color, liquid video images
were still far from imaginable.
This makes it all the more fascinating to see the
brilliant, perfect images generated by 3D-enabled
giant TV screens in UHD quality. And with their
brilliant colors, mobile devices with functions
controlled by swiping have revolutionized our
communication culture like hardly any other
technology before. In hindsight, we at Merck
are proud of the fact that our pioneering work
has driven this development to the fore.
This also applies to the development of a new
generation of liquid crystals that made today's
mobile devices with LCD touchscreens possible
in the first place. This brochure illustrates the
challenges we faced nearly ten years ago when
this technological revolution began. Thanks to
the innovation culture of our company, we have
very successfully risen to these challenges.
As a business enterprise, the greatest benefit
has of course been global technology and market
leadership, now also in the rapidly growing
market for mobile devices. Nevertheless, the
receipt of such a renowned distinction such
as the “German Innovation Award” is an un­
forgettable moment of happiness, recognition
and motivation for the future.
I hope you enjoying reading about the history
made by one-tenth of a gram of chemical magic
that has transformed our world.
Bernd Reckmann
Executive Board Member
CEO Life Science und Performance Materials
One tenth of a gram of magic:
Liquid crystals for energy-efficient
smartphones and tablets
Today‘s smartphones and tablet computers with their brilliant touchscreens would not exist had it not
been for the most recent advancements in liquid-crystal display technology. Crucial for such mobile
devices is the energy efficiency of their displays. It was Merck that developed innovative FFS technology and, in its latest manifestation, UB-FFS technology. UB‐FFS exploits 15 percent more of the
display‘s backlight and so saves 30 percent of the energy required by the devices. UB‐FFS came onto
the market in 2014 and has already recovered all its own costs.
No other technology has so radically altered our
lifestyle, our communication culture – even our
everyday life – as smartphones and tablet computers. The breakthrough came with brilliant, interactive touch screen displays. This user interface has
made the technology intuitive and readily accessible.
The display revolution that occurred turned smartphones from gadgets for techno-enthusiasts into
ubiquitous everyday companions. The initial spark
was provided in 2007 by Apple‘s first iPhone. Then,
with its iPad in 2010, the Californian company kickstarted the growth revolution in the tablet market.
Poseung
Korea
Shanghai
China
Atsugi
Japan
Taoyuan
Taiwan
DARMSTADT
GERMANY
From Darmstadt to the world: distribution of LC singles to the LC mixing plants in Asia
The magic of these revolutionary products lies
in the user interface. Dominant in the market at
the moment are devices that feature LCDs (liquid
crystal displays), with the magic actually existing
in the chemistry concealed within the display.
Around just a tenth of a gram of liquid-crystal
mixture breathes shining life into a smartphone
or tablet. This is where we from Merck come in.
When you swipe over the surface of your smart
device the liquid crystal molecules you are
setting in motion are in all probability from
Merck. In top-end devices in particular our
latest-generation liquid crystals are providing
that special experience.
The fact is lost on most consumers, however. As far
as public perception goes, Merck is an unrecognized
hero. This applies not only to our global commercial
and technology leadership in liquid crystals found
in large-screen TVs and computers. We also supply
specially designed liquid crystals to around 80 % of
the market for LCD smartphones and tablets, and it
is this technology which features in our candidacy
for the German Innovation Award.
We manufacture the molecular building blocks
of LCDs, so-called “singles”, in Darmstadt. Around
200 scientists are continuously developing new
singles to satisfy special requirements. From our
portfolio of more than 300 singles we produce over
a thousand tailor-made mixtures for our clients
annually at our Asian production sites situated in
China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. The formulations
are developed in close collaboration with our
clients, which include all of the leading display
manufacturers.
A substantial part of our research, patent filing,
production and thus also wealth-creating infrastructure remains in Germany, however. We have
continuously strengthened our home base innovation throughout our timely and enduring presence
in Asia. Without the mobility this provided Merck
would not today be market and technology leader
in the global liquid crystals business. We are also,
of course, among the leading companies in the
alternative technology, organic light emitting
diodes (OLED), with our range of special chemicals.
From our perspective as a chemical company, the
two technologies are complementary.
The Challenge
Our candidacy for the “Deutsche Innovationpreis”
relates to a revolution in LCD technology that has
made mobile devices possible in the form we now
know them. Smartphones and tablets with touchsensitive screens required totally new liquid crystal
technology. Merck played a huge part in driving
this innovation forward, we can announce with
justifiable pride.
A further challenge which faced us at Merck in
particular was the viewing angle. Smartphones and
tablets can be viewed both in portrait and landscape format. In other words, the display must be
easily viewable from all directions - including from
very wide angles. Classical LCD flatscreen TVs and
computer monitors on the other hand are optimized
for a wide viewing angle in the horizontal direction.
This is consistent with the basic physical properties
of liquid crystals. The rod-shaped molecules steer
the light in a preferred direction. In order to overcome viewing angle dependence, we had to work
with display manufacturers to develop a totally
new technology.
The challenge which leading display manufacturers
and Merck shared a few years ago in connection
with touchscreen mobile devices is plain to see.
If you press a finger gently against the glass plate
of a flat TV or computer screen, the image distorts.
This is because the slight impression left on the
glass compresses the thin liquid crystal layer
situated behind it. When you move your finger
away, the distorted image soon rights itself again,
but it is clear that this effect is intolerable in a
touchscreen device.
A further factor that had to be considered is that
smartphones have to operate over a temperature
range to which domestic TVs are never exposed:
from the boiling heat of the midday sun in an automobile, to extreme winter temperatures of minus
40°C that can exist in many regions. Mobile devices
must function reliably wherever they are used.
The greatest challenge of all, however, has been
the energy consumption of the displays. Innovative
solutions from Merck have been particularly sought
after. Mobile devices are expected to incorporate
brilliant high-resolution displays and nevertheless
use a minuscule amount of energy. The displays
should be so energy-efficient that the rechargeable
batteries allow devices to be as thin and light as
possible. The chemistry we supply in the form of
liquid crystals thus directly influences the design
of the hardware.
And another important feature: from production
to disposal of the devices, the chemistry involved
must not cause any environmental problems. This
is at the heart of Merck‘s Green3 strategy.1
With this list of requirements – touchscreen
capability, excellent readability from all angles,
temperature stability and, above all, energy
efficiency, Merck was facing an entirely new set
1
G
reen³ – Materials, Processes, Devices, Merck Corporate Responsibility Report.
Higher Resolution
Flexible Display
Architecture Display
Smart TV, Tablets
Smartphones
Monitor, TV
LIVING INNOVATION
Notebook
SMART & MOBILITY
2005
REPLACEMENT
2010
2015
2020
The evolution of the display market
of challenges. As far back as 2005, LCD technology may have seemed to have reached maturity
already. Merck had been a significant driving
force in liquid-crystal development since the
early 1970 and, for this achievement, our former
Head of Department Ludwig Pohl was inducted
at the end of October 2014 into the Hall of Fame
of German Research launched by the German
publication, manager magazin.
Merck‘s high-tech advancements in the field gave
zest to the initially rather indolent liquid crystals
and turned dull monochrome into brilliant color.
The faster switching times which liquid crystals
were progressively able to achieve eliminated the
time lag in moving images and enabled them to
be used for video and games applications, also.
High contrast ratios and ever smaller pixel sizes
opened the way to brilliant, razor-sharp images.
In 2003 three of our scientists received the German
Future Award from the German President. No one
had even an inkling at the time that we were about
to open an entirely new chapter in the innovation
saga.
Merck holds approximately 2500 patents associated
with liquid-crystal technologies. One patent acquired
in 1995 from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied
Solid State Physics turned out to be particularly
important: so-called In Plane Switching (IPS) technology led to the production of LCDs that were
capable of displaying high-contrast color images
with a viewing angle of up to 170°. The patent was
central to the new LCD technology for mobile
devices, an area in which we collaborated closely
with display manufacturers. The result was so-called
Fringe Field Switching (FFS). For it and its further
development in recent years Merck has submitted
a further 17 new, crucially important patents.
Breakthrough with Fringe Field
Switching Technology
In order to understand the basic principles of FFS
technology it is necessary to recall to mind the way
in which most liquid-crystal displays work. They
consist of two glass plates each of which has a
so-called polarization filter attached to its surface.
The liquid crystal layer is then sandwiched between
the two plates. Liquid crystals are a special state of
matter something between a liquid and a crystal.
Their molecules are free to move like a liquid, but
still maintain some of the structured arrangement
and molecular orientation that occurs in a crystal.
Modern displays work with white light from an
LED-based backlighting source. Initially, however,
this light is like electromagnetic “wave salad”
oscillating in all directions. On its way to the surface
of the display the light must pass through a polarization filter (polarizer). This sorts through the salad
and selects a defined direction of oscillation, which
can then be effectively steered by the rod-shaped
liquid crystal molecules. The molecules align themselves in the liquid like a shoal of fish which is
orientable through the use of a magnetic field.
The molecular shoal in turn twists the direction
in which the light oscillates as it passes through
the liquid crystal. Ultimately the light encounters
a second polarizer which is crossed with respect
to the first. If the shoal has twisted the direction
of oscillation like a screw through 90°, the light
is able to pass through the second polarizer
unhindered. If there is no rotation the polarizer
blocks the light and the display remains black.
Using this basic principle, every individual pixel in
the LCD switches the light. A color filter in each
pixel provides one of the primary colours for the
display image. To switch the liquid crystals the
pixels have electrodes that are controlled by means
of thin-film transistors (TFT). In this way the
liquid-crystal mixture which is thinly distributed
throughout the entire display, can create the
complex, full-color, high resolution images that
we expect from our displays.
The new FFS technology made it possible to create
uniformly wide all-round viewing angles for mobile
devices. Together with display manufacturers we
even developed a specially shaped electrode. Its
electrical switching field works like a tiny ring in
each pixel, hence the term fringe field switching.
The field ensures – expressed simply – that in each
pixel various sub-shoals of liquid crystal molecules
become oriented in various directions. Each subshoal is then responsible for one of the two – or
more – main viewing angles. What is more, the
technology offers a further advantage for touchscreens: the alternative form of the electrical field
makes the pixels largely pressure-insensitive.
More light!
Unfortunately, the polarizers have a downside in
that they fundamentally only allow half of the
light through from the backlighting. Consequently,
the liquid crystal layer must optimally utilize the
remaining light in order to save energy. And this
is why we have developed FFS into UB-FFS techno­
logy in recent years. UB stands for “Ultra Bright”
and signifies that the liquid crystal layer allows
15 percent more of the backlight to pass through
it. Not only that: it uses every bit of light gained
to compose the image. As a result, the devices have
a 30 percent lower energy consumption.
In simple terms it is a question of usefully incorporating as many as possible of the liquid crystal
molecules into one of the light-switching shoals.
UB-FFS requires an advanced form of electrode and
for that, in turn, new optimally adapted liquid
crystals had to be developed. The power-saving
potential is huge: when videos are running at full
brightness, the display eats up half of the electrical
power consumed in the device. Most of it is consumed by the backlighting. Innovations such as
UB-FFS bring major progress here in terms of
battery life and ever slimmer device designs.
UB-FFS technology hit the market in 2014 with
the latest generation of sought-after top-end
smartphones. By the end of its launch year this
technology had already paid for itself at Merck.
And so our history of success with the FFS techno­
logies continues. Our liquid crystals are such an
important part of the value chain that the display
manufacturers, as our customers – and also their
customers, the device manufacturers – are prepared to pay a premium for them.
In the chain of reciprocity our strategy of working
closely and confidentially with everyone concerned
is paying off. This creates a win-win situation from
which all of the partners benefit. Together we are
driving technological innovation forward. Our
intensive collaboration with our partners means
that they can make efficient cost savings in their
own manufacturing processes. Merck is not simply
a classic supplier, therefore, but rather a strategic
partner and deliverer of solutions who is also well
acquainted with the business culture of Asia.
The discovery of
intelligent slowness
Through this strategic approach we at Merck are
able to promote innovation in LCD technology.
Success is obvious, in the form of the latest generation of smartphone or tablet. It is not to be taken
for granted, however, as we must permanently
resolve one fundamental contradiction: electronics
is a fast-moving industry – chemistry, on the other
hand, demands intelligent slowness. The entertainment electronics sector thrives from permanent
innovation. But with an industrial-scale chemical
process it can take years for it to run reliably.
We are only able to resolve the contradiction
between these fundamentally disparate paces of
innovation by developing a profound insight into
the future of display technology. For this we rely
on close partnerships with the display and device
manufacturers. By applying this strategy Merck as
a German company has succeeded in establishing
itself as technology and market leader in the largely
Asian-dominated entertainment electronics sector.
Strategic acquisitions such as the purchase of AZ
Electronic Materials has played an important role
here. This company, formerly part of the Hoechst
group, supplies special chemicals for other display
components and thus fits perfectly in our portfolio.
We can now offer our customers in future even
more finely tuned materials and processes. And in
doing so we are also strengthening value creation
in Germany.
The market for LC and OLED displays is set to grow
even more strongly. TV and computer monitors will
continue to dominate the market. The number of
mobile devices will grow also. In 2013, an area
equivalent to a total of 141 square kilometers of
LC display was produced; it is estimated that in
2020 the figure will be over 200 square kilometers.
In smartphones and tablets the growth rate is even
higher. With these, the total area of LCDs produced
between 2012 and 2014 doubled from approximately
7 to around 14 square kilometers. By the year 2020
growth of more than 20 annually produced square
kilometres is anticipated.
Our intention at Merck is to continue to maintain
our leadership. The next time you swipe across your
smartphone or tablet, please think of that tenth
of a gram of magic from Merck. Just imagine how
you are setting our molecules in motion. We will
be delighted!
Published in April 2015
by Merck KGaA, Group Communications,
Frankfurter Str. 250, D-64293 Darmstadt
Phone: +49 (0) 6151-72 0
Fax: +49 (0) 6151-72 5577
E-Mail: service@merckgroup.com
Web: www.merckgroup.com
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