NEW YORK: Scientists at IBM have developed a process that aligns the liquid
crystals used in many computer displays without the need for abrasive rubbing,
promising to cut manufacturing costs and improve image quality, the company said
on Thursday.
The technique, which International Business Machines Corp. reported in
Thursday's edition of the science journal Nature, replaces a 95-year-old method
that uses velvet to rub the tiny crystals in place, sometimes causing streaks
and scratches.
The new method involves shooting atoms at a thin layer of carbon to form tiny
atomic rows. When liquid crystal molecules are added, they attach to the carbon
atoms and form in the direction of the rows.
Liquid crystal displays are used in notebook computers and increasingly on
desktop monitors. Sought after for their slim form, the displays have become a
$20 billion-per-year business, IBM said. The company's non-contact method cuts
the time it takes to manufacture the displays and makes higher quality images.
The rubbing method, discovered in 1906, uses a velvet cloth to hook atoms and
drag them across the surface. How the rubbing works is not entirely understood,
IBM said.
"Replacing the rubbing process has been a Holy Grail of flat-panel
display manufacturing," said Praveen Chaudhari, the lead scientist on the
project. Errors on rubbed displays cannot be detected until late in the
manufacturing process, and it is difficult to solve the problems that arise, IBM
said.
(C) Reuters Limited 2001.