KCS

Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) have now become a part of the major components in the field of larger graphics interface thanks to the splendid picture quality along with the thin form-factor that realizes various application areas imaginable. Though it is one of the electronic devices, the very heart of it is composed of a diversity of organic and inorganic compounds that are mixed into a wide range of compositions for necessary properties. In addition, they are built into multi-layer structures forming interfaces with each other. Because of this structural complexity, the materials have to be prepared following strict guidelines not to interfere the functionalities of the adjacent layers. To make matters worse, both the interfacial and surface properties are not easily defined from the bulk structures due to the lack of the three dimensional interactions. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) plays an important role in this type of characterizations: interfacial layer compositions, diffusiveness of certain matters, and so forth, to determine whether or not the device is to perform as designed. However, care should be taken during such analytical approach because the primary ions at high kinetic energy can lead to a variety of artifacts with the momentum transfer to the sample. In the mean time, inter-layer structures interpreted from such affected data prevent engineers from correctly correlating the transfer curves of thin film transistors (TFTs) with the process parameters. Aforementioned vagueness results in a display product of poor image quality as the TFTs control the brightness of each pixel to assemble a picture to display. That is not the only experimental parameter that may push the analytical chemists into confusion and such factors include the incidence angle, sample roughness, conductance of the sample, to name a few. The current presentation covers recent achievement that allows better understanding of the characteristics of TFTs in the pixel layouts and tidbits about how such data should be obtained overcoming practical limitations.