Merck and LG Chem Ltd. of Seoul, Korea, will receive the “Silver Honor for the Display Component of the Year Award” at the SID Display Week, which will be held in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, from June 3-8, 2012. This award recognizes Merck’s and LG Chem’s Film-Patterned Retarder incorporating Merck’s proprietary reactive mesogens (RM), which have set a new standard in superior performance 3D displays.

“Merck is extremely honored to have been recognized by the Society for Information Display again this year. Winning the sector’s most important award is further proof that continual, user-focused research pays off,” said Roman Maisch, Senior Vice President Marketing & Sales for Merck’s Liquid Crystals business unit. "The results are cutting-edge products that benefit our customers and end users equally. The close professional ties between the members of the international Merck team as well as the highly constructive partnerships and cooperation we enjoy with customers like LG Chem are key success factors.”

Jeongsu Yu from LG Chem, Head of R&D Center, IT&E,commented: “We are proud and grateful to have received this prestigious award. The brilliant 3D applications that we can offer our customers thanks to reactive mesogens from Merck make it possible for us to supply the global mass market with innovative technologies and to further enhance our image as a pioneering leader in the display industry."

The Society for Information Display (SID), headquartered in San Jose, California, has been granting the Display of the Year Awards annually since 1995. Considered to be the most prestigious prize in the display industry, they distinguish the most innovative, future-oriented products, components and applications with either gold or silver. Over the past several years, Merck has been distinguished on numerous occasions for its contributions to liquid crystal display development - in 2009 Merck was awarded a prize for its PS-VA materials. The “Silver Honor for the Display Component of the Year Award” will be conferred to Merck and LG Chem during this year’s Display Week, the 50th SID International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition, on June 6.

Merck will have a booth at the exhibition in the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center to present the newest products from its broad portfolio of innovative display materials. These include the latest reactive mesogen mixtures used in LC Displays to improve viewing angle dependency for optimum image quality with respect to contrast and color.

The 3D FPR (Film-Patterned Retarder) is an optical component attached to the upper polarizer of LCD televisions. It converts left and right eye images to left and right circular polarized light, allowing people to enjoy 3D images through polarized glasses. LG Chem commercialized the world’s first FPR in 2010. LG Chem's FPR is ten times thinner and 20 times lighter than the glass-based patterned retarder. In addition, it can be easily mass-produced, and helps people to enjoy 3D contents conveniently. LG Chem has developed various key technologies such as novel photo-aligning polymer, non-contact-type roll-to-roll continuous patterning and management of dimensional stability of FPR, resulting in superior performance 3D display. FPR consists of substrate, alignment layer and a patterned reactive mesogen film. The novel photo-aligning polymer has very high UV sensitivity and heat stability suitable for film processing.

The reactive mesogen film is made using Merck’s licrivue® materials. RM materials are designed to be coated on a variety of substrates to produce well aligned birefringent films. For FPR, licrivue® materials are formulated for coating onto flexible plastic substrates by a roll-to-roll coating processes. Coated licrivue® RM materials from Merck align and follow the pattern of the photo-alignment layer. This alignment is preserved by UV polymerization of the RM film to form the patterned retarder.