Reduced operating voltage and grey-to-grey response time in a vertically aligned liquid crystal display using a mixture of two polyimide alignment materials

We proposed a method to reduce the operating voltage and the grey-to-grey switching time of a vertically aligned liquid crystal display using a mixture of planar and vertical polyimide alignment materials. The surface anchoring energy of the two-polyimide mixture was smaller than that of the pure vertical polyimide and consequently, liquid crystal molecules were easily switched to a planar state with an electric field, resulting in a greater maximum retardation than that of the pure polyimide at the same applied voltage. Rising time was also significantly reduced due to the suppressed optical bouncing effect in the mixed planar polyimide, and the decaying time showed negligible change. With the proposed approach, we can reduce the cell gap to obtain half-wave retardation allowing for faster response time while keeping a low operating voltage. (paper)