Tech Spotlight: Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals (FLCs) with True Gray Scale for Improved Information Displays

Liquid crystals (LCs) are organic materials possessing the fluidity of liquids and the long range molecular orientation found in crystals. Ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) involve spontaneous electric polarization of a material that is very rapidly orientable by applying an external electric field. FLCs combined with silicone chips providing the necessary electric fields have various applications in micro-displays for camera viewfinders and hand held pico-projectors.

A University of Colorado research group led by David Walba and Noel Clark has developed an approach for generating FLC electro-optics with gray-scale resolution without the need for a DC balance. This new approach involves “electrostatic V-shaped switching” where there is no electric field inside the liquid crystal layer of the device. V-shaped switching eliminates the need for DC balance, allowing the achievable brightness of the image to be ~2x as bright as current approaches. It creates true gray scale modulation instead of a perceived gray scale, reduces power dissipation for increased battery life, and provides “phase only” modulation potentially useful for holographic imaging.

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