Multiplexed ferroelectric liquid crystal display

The studies on the fundamental requirements for realization of a multiplexed ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) display have been presented as follows: (1) The new classes of 2,5-diphenylpyrimidine FLCs are useful as a blending component for broadening the Sc temperature range and improving the switching response time. (2) A FLC material with the Iso-N-SA-Sc phase transition sequence as well as the long Sc and N helical pitches is required to achieve the homogeneous alignment in a Sc phase. (3) Among the FLC cells with various alignment layers, the PI/PI coated cell exhibits the symmetric and steep bistability threshold behavior. (4) The parameters to evaluate the multiplexing capability of a FLC cell are introduced and applied to select a suitable combination of alignment layers for highly multiplexing. (5) The parameters are also used to evaluate a favorable drive method among the drive schemes proposed so far for multiplexing a FLC cell. On the basis of the above studies, a multicolor ferroelectric LCD with 639x400 pixels in an A4 size has been developed.