International Business Machines Corporation

Shui-Chih Alan Lien

Praveen Chaudhari

James Andrew Lacey

James Patrick Doyle

Eileen Ann Galligan

Minhua Lu

Richard Allen John

Paul Stephen Andry

Robert J Von Gutfeld

Alessandro Cesare Callegari

Sampath Purushothaman

Marie Angelopoulos

Hiroki Nakano

John J Ritsko

James Henry Glownia

Evan G Colgan

Frank Robert Libsch

Kei-Hsiung Yang

Kai R Schleupen

Gareth Geoffrey Hougham

Alan Edward Rosenbluth

Fuad Elias Doany

Christos Dimitrios Dimitrakopoulos

Stephen L Buchwalter

Bruce Kenneth Furman

James L Speidell

Teresita Ordonez Graham

Chen Cai

David A Lewis

Kevin K Chan

Yukito Saitoh

Christopher Vincent Jahnes

Robert L Wisnieff

Steven Lorenz Wright

Kang-Wook Lee

David Andrew Lewis

Frederick Cole Mintzer

James Edward Christensen

Gordon Wesley Braudaway

Kenichi Tajima

Do Yeung Yoon

Michael James Cordes

Donald M DeCain

Shuhichi Odahara

Yoshimine Kato

Hideo Takano

Glenn Allen Held

Albert Nessim Cazes

James E Anderson

Shuichi Odahara

Atsushi Takenaka

Yuhichi Momoi

Hiro Nakano

Curtis E Farrell

A liquid crystal display device includes an alignment layer with constituent materials. The constituent materials have a stoichiometric relationship configured to provide a given pretilt angle. Liquid crystal material is provided in contact with the alignment layer. A method for forming an alignment layer for liquid crystal displays includes forming the alignment layer on a substrate by introducing an amount of material to adjust a stoichiometric ratio of constituent materials wherein the amount is determined to provide a given pretilt angle to the alignment layer. Ions are directed at the alignment layer to provide uniformity of the pretilt angle.

Tilted vertical alignment of liquid crystals employing inorganic thin film composition and ion beam treatment

A method for preparing an alignment layer surface provides a surface on the alignment layer. The surface is bombarded with ions, and reactive gas is introduced to the ion beam to saturate dangling bonds on the surface. Another method for preparing an alignment layer surface provides a surface on the alignment layer. The surface is bombarded with ions and quenched with a reactive component to saturate dangling bonds on the surface.

Stability of ion beam generated alignment layers by surface modification

Electronic devices having patterned electrically conductive polymers providing electrical connection thereto and methods of fabrication thereof are described. Liquid crystal display cells are described having at least one of the electrodes providing a bias across the liquid crystal material formed from a patterned electrically conductive polymer. Thin film transistors having patterned electrically conductive polymers as source drain and gate electrodes are described. Light emitting diodes having anode and coated regions formed from patterned electrically conductive polymers are described. Methods of patterning using a resist mask; patterning using a patterned metal layer; patterning the metal layer using a resist; and patterning the electrically conductive polymer directly to form electrodes and anode and cathode regions are described.

Patterns of electrically conducting polymers and their application as electrodes or electrical contacts

Multi-domain liquid crystal cells having twist angles less than 90 degrees, and LCDs containing such liquid crystal cells, are provided. Such liquid crystal cells are stable, particularly at zero and high fields, and provide wide viewing angles. Also provided are methods of using an adjustable particle beam in combination with a mask to generate multi-domains alignments. Such methods are useful for producing liquid crystal cells in general, and for producing the novel multi-domain low twist angle liquid crystal cells of the present invention in particular.

Multi-domain low twist angle liquid crystal cells and methods of production thereof

Display panels and methods for fabrication are disclosed for an in-plane switching mode display to reduce or eliminate image sticking. The display panel includes a substrate with a first electrode formed on the substrate. A dielectric layer is formed on the substrate, and the dielectric layer forms an opening down to the first electrode so that the dielectric layer is eliminated over the first electrode. A second electrode is formed on the dielectric layer, and an alignment layer is formed on the first electrode, the second electrode and the dielectric layer.

High resolution in-plane switching mode TFT-LCD

A liquid crystal display device includes a first substrate, a dry alignment film deposited over the substrate, a second substrate coupled to the first substrate with the dry alignment film deposited over the second substrate therebetween and forming a cell gap, and a liquid crystal material formed in the cell gap. The dry alignment film allows for a truly vertical alignment of molecules of the liquid crystal material such that the molecules form an angle of substantially 90&deg; relative to the substrate. The dry alignment film can be an oxide layer, a nitride layer, an oxynitride layer or a silicon layer. This dry alignment layer can be treated to form a tilted homeotropic alignment, such that the liquid crystal molecules have a pretilt angle of 0.5 to 10 degrees from a substrate normal direction. The truly vertical alignment process can be incorporated with a ridge and fringe field process method to form a multidomain Vertical Alignment (VA) Liquid Crystal Display's (LCDs) which have wide viewing angles.

Vertical aligned liquid crystal display and method using dry deposited alignment layer films

The present invention provides methods and apparatus for the color calibration of displays. These methods are particularly useful for displays having properties different than those associated with cathode ray tubes (CRT). Some displays, for example liquid crystal displays (LCD), have a high luminance black, the chromas of their primaries are not independent of their luminance levels, the intensities of their primaries are not strictly monotonically increasing with respect to their RGB levels, the color additivity of their subpixels is affected by crosstalk or leakage and their color measurements are dependent on the view angle of the observer. Therefore, the usage of CRT methods is deficient for such displays. The methods and apparatus of the present invention overcome several deficiencies generally found in non-CRT display devices by employing techniques associated with the use of restricted ranges for the primaries, subtracting the color black from all color measurements, forming a modified display matrix and/or creating tables which correct errors due to the non-linearities or color leakages of these display devices. These enable images to be processed using algorithms of different complexity and precision.

Color calibration of displays

A liquid crystal display cell having liquid crystal molecules positioned in a vertical or a substantially vertical alignment is provided. The liquid crystal display cell includes at least two substantially homogeneous fluorinated alignment layers disposed on transparent electrodes; a liquid crystal layer of liquid crystal molecules disposed between the alignment layers; and, a means of applying voltage across the transparent electrodes. Methods for forming these liquid crystal display cells are also provided.

Liquid crystal display cell having liquid crystal molecules in vertical or substantially vertical alignment

A structure (and method for forming the structure) includes an electrically conducting pattern on at least one of two substrates to be combined with the other of the two substrates via a seal. The conducting pattern in a region of the seal for attaching the two substrates is at least transmissive to radiation for curing the seal under the pattern to affix the two substrates.

Method and structure for minimizing shadowing during photo-curing of sealing material by making shadow-producing pattern transparent

Method for forming alignment layer by ion beam surface modification

A self-alignment process for the precise alignment in a deposited diamond-like carbon (DLC), which results in a wider viewing angle for the display being manufactured. The process involves ion bombardment, which is swept across the liquid crystal panel in a two-pass process. In one embodiment, both ion sweeps are aligned at a 45-degree angle with respect to the bottom edge of the panel. The first pass is accomplished without any electrical bias on the panel. During the first pass the impinging ions may be at an angle with respect to a point on a plane defined by the surface of the panel that is less than 90 degrees. The second ion sweep is accomplished with the impinging ions at a second angle, greater than 90 degrees up to 180 degrees with respect to the point on the plane defined by the surface.

Maskless method and system for creating a dual-domain pattern on a diamond-like carbon alignment layer

The present invention includes a method of forming an aligned film on a substrate. The film is deposited and aligned in a single step by a method comprising the step of bombarding a substrate with an ion beam at a designated incident angle to simultaneously (a) deposit the film onto the substrate and (b) arrange an atomic structure of the film in at least one predetermined aligned direction.

Ion gun deposition and alignment for liquid-crystal applications

A method is disclosed for forming an alignment layer for use in a liquid crystal cell layer for use in a liquid crystal cell using an ion beam source that includes the steps of: (1) providing a substrate having a surface; (2) providing an ion beam source that emanates an ion beam; (3) providing a mask layer disposed between the substrate surface and the ion beam source. The mask layer has at least two openings disposed between the ion beam source and the substrate surface. The shape and position of the openings reduce the irregularity of the beam exposure in a border region on the surface of the substrate resulting from the ion beam source. The present invention may be used in conjunction with substrate treatment using multiple sweeps with a single ion beam source, or with a substrate treatment using a single sweep with multiple ion beam sources. Also disclosed is an apparatus for practicing the disclosed method.

Method and apparatus for making a crystal alignment layer

It is important to accurately align a pair of substrates, such as liquid crystal display (LCD) panels before they are affixed together. This is accomplished, according to the invention, by depositing a number of magnetic field generating elements on one substrate and a plurality of magnetic field-detecting elements on the other substrate. For example, the field-generating elements can be permanent magnets, while the field-detecting can be correspondingly located elements of a magnetic material. Alternatively, both the field-generating and field-detecting elements may be made from permanently magnetic materials.

Self alignment of substrates by magnetic alignment

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Briarcliff Manor, NY, United States of America

Shui-Chih Alan Lien