IMPROVED HIGH RESOLUTION DISPLAYS COMBINING VERY LARGE SCALEINTEGRATION AND POLYMER DISPERSED LIQUID CRYSTAL TECHNOLOGIES

THE PROPOSED WORK REPRESENTS A NEW, INNOVATIVE APPROACH IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF IMPROVED HIGH RESOLUTION DISPLAYS. THE CORE FEATURE OF THIS NEW DISPLAY CENTERS ON CONSTRUCTION OF A REVOLUTIONARY NEW LIGHT VALVE WHICH COMBINES STATE-OF-THE-ART CAPABILITIES IN VLSI AND LIQUID CRYSTAL (LC) TECHNOLOGIES. WITH THIS NEW LIGHT VALVE, IT IS, IN PRINCIPLE, POSSIBLE TO CONSTRUCT DISPLAYS WHICH WOULD HAVE PIXEL DENSITIES OF 250,000/CM(2) AT AN APERTURE RATIO IN EXCESS OF 80% USING CURRENTLY AVAILABLE VLSI TECHNOLOGY. AS REVIEWED IN THIS PROPOSAL, POLYTRONIX'S NEW LIGHT VALVE, BASED ON A NOVEL TWO-LAYER ARCHITECTURE, PROVIDES SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER APERTURE RATIO/PIXEL DENSITY COMBINATIONS THAN ANY OF THE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE OR PROPOSEDLIGHT VALVES. FOR REASONS DESCRIBED IN THIS PROPOSAL, THE USE OF POLYMER DISPERSED LIQUID CRYSTAL (PDLC) IS SELECTED AS THE CHOICE LC MEDIUM FOR THIS APPLICATION. THE COMBINED VLSI/PDLC LIGHT VALVE PROPOSED WILL RESULT IN FABRICATION OFAN ULTRAMINIATURE LIGHT VALVE WITH A PROJECTED COST FACTOR WHICH IS APPROXIMATELY AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE LESS THAN COMPETING (LOWER RESOLUTION) DISPLAYS CURRENTLY UNDER DEVELOPMENT. THIS PROPOSAL PROVIDES BOTH A DESCRIPTION OF POLYTRONIX'S NEW VLSI/PDLC LIGHT VALVE ALONG WITH A REVIEW OF COMPETING TECHNOLOGIES. AS DOCUMENTED HEREIN, THERE IS NO OTHER KNOWN LIGHT VALVE WHICH CAN APPROXIMATE THE RESOLUTION, APERTURE RATIO, ULTRAMINIATURE SIZE AND PROJECTED COST OF POLYTRONIX'S NEW DISPLAYS. THE PHASE I SBIR RESEARCH EFFORTWILL BE DEVOTED TO A FEASIBILITY STUDY WHICH WILL INVOLVE CONSTRUCTION, TESTING AND EVALUATION OF THE FIRST EXPERIMENTAL PROTOTYPE VALVE BASED ON COMBINED VLSI/PDLC TECHNOLOGIES.