Patterning electrode for cholesteric liquid crystal display by pulsed laser ablation

An ultraviolet wavelength laser is used to manufacture the metal electrode of a cholesteric liquid crystal display (Ch-LCD) without a shadow mask. The proposed method effectively ablates the metal layer without damaging the liquid crystal layer and underlying indium tin oxide electrode. The width and morphology of the laser ablated sections were investigated as a function of laser power as well as scan speed. The minimum ablated line is around 43 μm and the laser system operates at 1.5 W at a scan speed of 200 mm/s. The characteristics of a Ch-LCD prepared using laser patterning under the optimum ablation process conditions are similar to those of a Ch-LCD prepared using the screen printing method.