Recent Liquid Crystal Material Development for VA-TFT

A large size flat panel LCD-TV must fulfill different requirements than a desktop LCD-monitor: The contrast must be much larger, the viewing angle should be as wide as possible and the switching times must be shorter to allow moving pictures to be displayed naturally. The "Vertically Aligned" technology is most promising to realize such a product. LC-material development for this technology began at Merck about 10 years ago. New materials based on the 1,1,6,7-tetrafluoroindane skeleton were recently synthesized via ortho-metallation and intramolecular Heck cyclization followed by an oxidative fluorination procedure. The materials offer improved properties over liquid crystals currently employed in flat panel LCD-TVs.