The
state-of-the-art $14-million, 60,000 square-foot Liquid Crystal
and Materials Sciences building houses the program's research
and instructional facilities. Its twenty-five research laboratories
are equipped for every aspect of synthesis and characterization
of liquid crystal materials and for investigation and modeling
of liquid crystalline phases. The building also houses one
of the largest academic clean-room facilities in the nation
for prototyping new types of liquid crystal devices.
Characterization
Facility
Dr. Oleg Lavrentovich supervises the Liquid Crystal
Institute's facility for Materials and Surface Characterization.
This facility can determine material properties of bulk liquid
crystals, properties of the liquid crystal/substrate interface,
and properties of the substrate.
Liquid
Crystal Display Resource Facility
The Liquid Crystal Display Resource Facility at the Liquid Crystal Institute
offers a wide range of services & capabilities related to liquid crystals
and displays in particular. The facility is centered in a 3,500 square foot
Class 100-1,000-10,000 clean room facility for manufacturing or prototyping
of liquid crystal devices & related research. The clean room was made possible
through funding from the Ohio Board of Regents and equipment donations, and
funding from Lucent Technologies, the GAR Foundation, and the W.M. Keck Foundation.
The purpose of the Resource Facility is to provide custom LCD devices which
are not available elsewhere.
Included
in the clean room is a complete passive LCD pilot manufacturing
line. The line can accommodate substrate sizes of 12"x12",
although many pieces of equipment can handle alternative
sizes such as 320x400mm or 14"x14". A separate
prototyping area for use with substrate sizes up to 6"x6" is
also available. Process capabilities include the full range
necessary for passive LCDs. Special process equipment includes
a production-type thermal evaporator for oblique silicon
monoxide deposition and a coater / laminator for roll processing
of plastic displays.
Organic
Synthesis Facility
The Organic Synthesis Facility can provide researchers with liquid crystalline
materials that are not commercially available. Materials that have been previously
reported in the literature can be requested by any interested researcher. A
fee will be charged to cover the cost of synthesis. Researchers can also discuss
with Dr. Li, the possible design and synthesis of new materials through a collaborative
research project. The facility can also purify impure single liquid crystals
for a fee and can formulate mixtures when an exact composition is provided.
The Organic
Synthesis Facility is well known for providing high quality
liquid crystalline materials in useable quantites. We have
expertise in deuterated materials, esters, cyanobiphenyls,
ferroelectrics, diacetylenes, lipid salts, etc. |
