Advanced Flat-Panel Displays and Materials
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Advanced Flat-Panel Displays and Materials
Yue Kuo and Kouji Suzuki, Guest Editors Abstract This introductory article reviews the topics covered in this issue of MRS Bulletin on advanced flat-panel displays and materials. The common requirements of flat-panel displays are compact dimensions, low power consumption, light weight, and high performance. Flat-panel displays are incorporated in many consumer products as well as in a large range of industrial, medical, military, transportation-related, and scientific instruments. In recent years, there have been dramatic improvements in flat-panel display technology due to an enhanced understanding of various new or existing materials as well as fabrication processes. “Flat-panel display” is a general term that includes many different types of technologies. It includes panels that are in mass production, such as passive or active addressed liquid-crystal displays or plasma displays, and those in the early production or development stages, such as organic light-emitting devices or electrophoretic displays. It also includes novel products that are based on the principle of flat-panel display technology, such as solid-state x-ray imagers. The articles in this issue cover a range of these topics. Keywords: electrophoretic displays, flat-panel displays, in-plane switching (IPS) mode, liquid-crystal displays (LCDs), organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs), polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistor (TFTs), reflective LCDs, system-on-glass (SOG) displays, x-ray imaging.
The progress of flat-panel display technology has been dramatic since the 1980s. For example, the mass production of the thin-film transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT-LCD) started in early 1990 and was instantaneously successful. Its applications penetrate many consumer products, from personal computers and PDAs (personal digital assistants) to audio-video equipment and portable phones. New products containing TFT-LCDs can also be found in a large range of industrial, medical, military, transportation-related, and scientific instruments. In addition, other types of flat-panel displays, such as plasma display panels (PDPs) and electroluminescent (EL) displays, have also found niche markets and are in mass production. The research and development (R&D) of new flat-panel displays has not stopped with these successes. New display technologies, such as advanced reflective LCDs, organic lightemitting devices (OLEDs), electrophoretic displays, full-color EL displays, and field-
MRS BULLETIN/NOVEMBER 2002
emission displays, show promising characteristics and will be in production in a short period of time. Flat-panel display technology has further evolved into more aggressive roles. For example, the TFT array has been the central part of the twodimensional x-ray imager for medical diagnostic applications. To a great extent, the success of current flat-panel displays has been due to the improvement of various new or existing materials as well as fabrication processes. For example, the success of TFT LCDs is due to
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