Merck demonstrates its innovative strength and shares its new “Perfect Pixel” technology with the Taiwanese industry

Merck Photonics, the Taiwan subsidiary of Merck, the international chemical giant with the largest history of liquid crystal applications and a leading position in innovation, held its biennial liquid crystal technology seminar in Hsinchu on November 3, 2011. Through the theme of "The Perfect Pixel", it shared the latest innovative materials and future technology development blueprint with the Taiwanese industry. Merck's industry-leading product applications cover the latest material technologies such as liquid crystal panels, touch panels, LED lighting, OLED luminescent materials, solar photovoltaic materials and organic electronics materials.

Dr. Claus-Dieter Boedecker, President of Merck Taiwan (3rd from right), Chih-Hung Hsieh, General Manager of Merck Taiwan Liquid Crystal Business Unit (3rd from left), and Dr. Roman Maisch, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing of Merck Liquid Crystal Business Unit (4th from left), took a photo with seven speakers at the seminar at the venue.

Industry-leading LCD technology

Liquid crystals are products that Merck has been developing for more than 107 years since 1904, and has accumulated more than 40 years of experience in liquid crystal display panels. Through this seminar, Merck and Taiwan's display and innovative materials industry will share the world's latest liquid crystal materials, upholding the long-term commitment to create a win-win situation with Taiwan's display industry, and look forward to working with customers to develop the latest panel technology, toward higher reliability, faster response time, and more energy-saving and environmentally friendly liquid crystal materials. These new-generation materials can be widely used in different liquid crystal drive technologies, such as twist nematic liquid crystal, in plane switching liquid crystal, fringe field switching liquid crystal, vertical alignment liquid crystal, and other fields.

In addition, Merck shared two of its most advanced liquid crystal driving technologies with the guests at the conference: the first is the Polymer Stabilized VA (PS-VA) driving mode, and the newer generation of liquid crystal display technology Blue Phase.

In conjunction with panel design, PS-VA can improve the panel's transmittance, improve dark state light leakage and increase contrast ratio. Therefore, one of the biggest benefits PS-VA provides to LCD manufacturers is to help them reduce costs and gain greater competitive advantages in the increasingly competitive global panel industry.

Merck's second new display technology is blue phase liquid crystal. The application of this new driving method can not only achieve very fast liquid crystal driving, but also improve the color rendering of the panel. Merck's latest materials can significantly reduce (>50%) the driving voltage, making the blue phase panel a big step forward in the commercialization.

Committed to the research and development and application of next-generation innovative materials

As a global leader in display materials, Merck has also invested in the research and development of innovative technologies such as LEDs, 3D displays, touch panels and solar panels in recent years, and will share the latest materials and technologies with participants at this seminar.

In the current market, not only do backlight LEDs require high brightness and high color saturation, but lighting LEDs also need to provide high color rendering in different scenarios. Merck has developed phosphors that can quickly provide customized phosphors, whether in terms of color point, efficiency or reliability, to meet the needs of high color rendering index (CRI). With insight into the development of next-generation display technology, Merck has also stepped up the development of OLED (organic light-emitting diode) materials in recent years, and has worked with global OLED manufacturers to develop OLED materials for small sizes, TVs, and even lighting.

With the popularity of 3D movies and animations, Merck has also invested in the development of 3D liquid crystal displays. Whether it is the rapid response liquid crystal required for shutter type or the reactive liquid crystal for FPR required for polarized type, Merck is a leading material provider in the market.

In order to provide the industry with more environmentally friendly etching technology and more cost-effective capacity expansion solutions, Merck's etching cream has been widely used in the manufacture of well-known touch panels. Not only in ITO or protective layer etching, Merck has provided breakthrough etching solutions for new transparent conductive layers. Merck's anti-fouling evaporation materials are not only anti-fingerprint, but also aim at high wear resistance and high smoothness as the direction of material development. Anti-reflection evaporation materials and LBSF etching creams required for solar panels are also within the service scope of Merck's new business development department.

"Emerging technologies are playing an increasingly important role in Taiwan's LCD industry, and the latest material technologies released by Merck this year (2011) also reflect this," said Chih-Hung Hsieh, General Manager of Merck Taiwan's LCD Business Unit. "The theme of Merck's release this year is 'Perfect Pixels', which aims to work hand in hand with Taiwan's display, LED lighting and solar photovoltaic industries. Through Merck's products that meet the trend and demand for energy-saving and environmentally friendly innovative materials, we will jointly create Taiwan's next wave of innovative industrial technologies after LCD panels."