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 Design: Q Kreativgesellschaft mbH, www.q-home.de Credits: dpa Picture-Alliance (p. 1), Getty Images (p. 4/7), Thinkstock (p. 6) printed on 100% wastepaper (FSC-certified)