Merck KGaA Unveils New Liquid Crystal Singles at SID Display Week

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany will showcase its portfolio of display solutions at the Society for Information Display (SID) Display Week 2018 at the Los Angeles Convention Center under the slogan “Power to the Pixel – next generation display materials.” At the event, Merck KGaA will also debut new high-performance liquid crystal (LC) singles under the Licristal brand: XtraBright, XtraBoost and XtraBrilliant.
 
“In close cooperation with our partners in the display industry, we are constantly working on new, sophisticated solutions that precisely meet the desired performance properties and demanded high-quality that will lead us into the next generation of displays,” says Michael Heckmeier, Head of the Display Solutions business unit at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. “As we look forward, we will continue to use our extensive knowledge and expertise to further develop solutions and applications within and beyond displays.”
 
In 1668, Friedrich Jacob Merck laid the foundations of what would become the world’s oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company. In the early 20th century, the company pioneered the research for liquid crystal applications. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first LCD, Merck KGaA will co-sponsor a special event, hosted at the SID Display Week, in honor of this milestone. Among other speakers from both academia and industry, Mark Verrall, SVP of product development for the Display Solutions business unit of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, will give a talk, “The ®evolution of Liquid Crystals.”
 
With a focus on increasing brightness and contrast and further advanced quality and reliability, the company has further optimized its cutting-edge liquid-crystal materials to achieve maximum performance in all areas with its new Xtra high-performance LC singles. The new and optimized singles now contribute to one of three categories: XtraBright for transmission, XtraBrilliant for contrast, or XtraBoost for reliability. Merck KGaA will now be able to mix and match its Xtra high-performance singles by coordinating the components for each unique liquid crystal mixture to meet the desired requirement profile.
 
Merck KGaA’s portfolio enables the displays of today and drives the future of the industry with high-performance liquid crystals, materials for optical films, organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) for flexible displays, quantum materials, photoresists, reactive mesogens, and a robust LED portfolio to enhance backlighting for displays.  Beyond displays, Merck KGaA remains focused on the developing new applications for liquid crystals such as their liquid crystal window technology.
 
OLED materials from Merck KGaA continue to gain importance within the display industry by enabling brilliant colors, sharper images from any viewing angle, high contrasts and perfect black states for high-end televisions and smartphones. In addition, their thin, flexible and very energy-efficient properties are enabling unique display applications. As a diffuse light source, these OLED materials are also revolutionizing the design of automotive lighting. In the future, OLED technology could transform ceilings or walls in buildings into information panels.
 
To enable such future applications, Merck KGaA is developing highly efficient OLED materials under the Livilux brand name for vacuum evaporation methods or printing processes. Further investments in OLED from Merck KGaA include successfully doubling its application lab capacity in Korea in 2017. This is to be followed by its first OLED Applications Lab in China, which is to be opened later in 2018.