High Quality Liquid Crystal Displays and Smart Devices: Surface alignment, new technologies and smart device applications (Materials, Circuits and Devices)

A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically-modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals. Liquid Crystal Displays are already widely used in consumer electronics, but research and development is still ongoing. The shifting focus of research follows a pattern of improved definition, increased display size, wider viewing angles and faster responses, with improvements in each area influencing the next. There is also growing interest in the use of liquid crystal materials in novel applications including sensing devices, spatial modulators and light-shielding windows.

This book discusses the latest LCD technologies, with their challenges, opportunities, and problems to be solved, at a level suited to an academic and research-professional audience. There is a particular focus on display quality such as image sticking, contrast ratio and colour hue that has not been dealt with thoroughly elsewhere. Current and future trends in liquid crystal materials and technologies based on their evolving role and new applications are discussed in detail.

Dr. Shoichi Ishihara is a Professor at Osaka Institute of Technology, and serves as the President of the Japanese Liquid Crystal Society and a member of the Society for Information Display. He previously worked at Panasonic Corporation and Sharp Corporation where he was the first in the world to put optically compensated birefringence (OCB) mode LCDs and photo-aligned LCD panels (UV2A mode panels) to practical use, respectively. His current work is on developing alignment-free film substrates and chemical gas sensors using cholesteric LCs.

Dr. Shunsuke Kobayashi is Professor Emeritus at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT) and Professor Emeritus and the Founding Director of the Liquid Crystal Institute at the Tokyo University of Science, Yamaguchi. He has obtained numerous awards and is an Honored Member of International Liquid Crystal Society 2012 for his research of defect free colour LCDs and services as vice president of ILCS and SID.

Dr. Yasuhiro Ukai is a technical consultant at the UDDI (Ukai Display Device Institute), a senior member of the Society for Information Display and a life member of the Japan Applied Physics Society. Previously, he was chief distinguished engineer and deputy general manager of Corporate R&D Display Device Development at Sony, working on the technology strategy and development of TFT-LCDs.