SID Announces Winners of Second Annual Journal of the Society for Information DisplayOutstanding Student Paper Awards

Papers from National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan, Southeast University in P. R. China, and Kyushu University in Japan Selected for Top Honors

ON December 20, 2006, the Journal of the SID (JSID) Awards Committee selected three student papers to receive the 2006 Outstanding Student Paper Awards on the basis of their originality, significance, organization, and clarity. Nearly all of the 30 eligible candidate papers were of high quality. Three separate $2000 prizes, as well as individual plaques, were awarded to the student authors.

The principal authors of each of the three winning papers – students at the time of the writing of the JSID papers – were asked to submit a brief article describing how they collaborated on and produced their award-winning scientific papers, and they produced three widely different, quite personal articles. These are published here, in further abbreviated and edited form, in the order in which the award-winning papers appeared in JSID. To students and professors, these personal accounts reveal how young minds can be motivated by dedicated faculty members to do excellent work. To professionals in the industry, these accounts show the highly interrelated nature of academic research and industrial development. They also demonstrate that academic research on displays frequently involves a half a dozen or more faculty members with expertise in different fields working together with their students to reach a common goal, not unlike the teams working in industrial development. These accounts should also serve as inspiration for all students planning to submit manuscripts for publication in a peer-reviewed scientific publication such as the JSID.

On behalf of the JSID Awards Committee and the entire Editorial Board, I wish to congratulate the winners for their award-winning work.

Andras Lakatos
Editor
Journal of the SID

by Meng-Ting Lee,^*† Chi-Hung Liao,* Chih-Hung Tsai,* and Chin H. Chen
Department of Applied Chemistry, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan 300, R.O.C
JSID 14/1, 61–64 (2006)
^*Student
^†Author of the brief article for Information Display

Back in 2002, a great deal of work was focused on increasing the color saturation and efficiency of blue organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) in order to decrease the power consumption of full-color displays. At the time, highly efficient and saturated blue OLED dopants and host materials were rare, and most information available on deep-blue materials and devices were kept as trade secrets by various companies. For this reason, we decided to work from scratch and focus on the design and synthesis of several new deep-blue-emitting materials relying on our group's previous experience and success on the light-blue-emitting materials based on DSA-Ph and MADN [Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 3301 (2005)].

Molecular simulation (CAChe^™) software was used extensively to assist the molecular design and engineering. By modifying and shortening the "chromophore" length of the emitting material, we successfully synthesized a series of new mono(styryl)amine-based deep-blue fluorescent materials that have solution quantum yields as high as about 95% and wavelengths in the deep-blue region of 430–450 nm [Adv. Mater. 17, 2493 (2005)]. To our disappointment, it was soon found that although these deep-blue fluorescent materials were promising, their application in the then typical blue OLED device structure (ITO/ hole-injection/hole-transport layer/emissive layer/electron-transport layer/LiF/Al) did not give satisfactory results in terms of electro-luminescence (EL) efficiency expressed in cd/A. Luckily, our "device team" came to the rescue – at the time, they had been developing a novel OLED device structure that contained the so-called "Composite Hole Transport Layer (c-HTL)" [Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 203507 (2005)], which can effectively boost up the EL efficiency by maximizing the injected-carrier balance in the emitter. As a result of this synergy, a highly efficient and saturated blue OLED with long operational lifetime was demonstrated by combining these two great approaches together in a single optimized device, as reported in the (award-winning) JSID article.

Prof. Chen always reminds us that OLED technology by its nature needs an engineering "system" approach and "team work." It goes without saying that both the material synthesis and the device fabrication groups must work together in order to bring about the best possible solution and generate the biggest impact. Clearly, the result of this paper is one of the best examples in supporting his philosophy and vision. We are very grateful to Prof. Chen for providing us with good advice and his industrial experience, in addition to state-of-the-art materials and a device fabrication/ characterization laboratory in which to carry out this research. As a mentor, he has also taught us to always think "big" with a global vision and worldwide perspective.

by Yongming Tang,^*† X. Zhang, Q. Li, Y. Tu, Y. S. Zheng, Z. Wu, J. Xia, Z. W. Fan,* B. P. Wang, and L. S. Tong
Southeast University, Nanjing, P. R. China
JSID 14/1, 81–85 (2006)
^*Student
^†Author of the brief article for Information Display

With encouragement and support of my doctoral supervisor, Professor Linsu Tong, I joined the Shadow Mask Plasma Display Panel (SMPDP) group at the Display Technology R&D Center of Southeast University, Nanjing, P. R. of China. Although the group was newly organized at that time, it is an excellent one with many outstanding experts and scholars. For example, Dr. Baoping Wang is the group leader, while expertise and leadership is provided by Dr. Xiong Zhang in PDP cell design, by Dr. Yan Tu in PDP device performance and optimization, by Dr. Qing Li in FPD device-fabrication techniques and in materials, and by Mr. Yaosheng Zheng in circuit-design techniques.

As a student member in this group, I took part in the development of the SMPDP from the very beginning, starting with the 14-in. monochrome SMPDP. This was an exploratory research project. My initial assignment was to work on an acceptable electronic-driver scheme with suitable waveforms. My first task was the design of the logic circuit for the SMPDP driver system, a difficult problem because I had to meet the requirements of an 8-bit gray-level display and also had to apply the readily available scan ICs and data ICs built for conventional PDPs into the SMPDP system. I tried several shadow-mask voltage control modes to reach the final circuit design. My student co-author in this JSID paper, Ms. Fan, joined this group in the panel-fabrication division when the 14-in. monochrome SMPDP was close to completion. Her first task was to develop a technique for effectively depositing phosphors on the inner walls of shadow-mask holes. Ms. Fan tried a variety of techniques and, finally, it was decided to deposit the phosphors in a burst or flash mode onto the shadow mask. The 14-in. color SMPDP was developed by the end of 2002. In 2003, less than a year later, a 34-in. VGA color SMPDP prototype was completed, demonstrating the possibility of large-screen applications for this technology.

From 2004 to 2005, our group developed a 25-in. SVGA-resolution color SMPDP showing the possibility of high-resolution application. My role in this project was system integration and system optimization for this display. Ms. Fan was quite skilled in and participated in most of the panel fabrication processes. She was also involved in the design of the SMPDP discharge cell structure. The development of this 25-in. SVGA SMPDP with a new cell structure, new fabrication processes, and new drive waveforms was described in our paper.

Now, SMPDP technology is on its way to commercial application. Both Ms. Fan and I feel strongly that during the time of this research work, not only the SMPDP display technology, but also we, as individuals, were growing up rapidly and happily. In my case, this resulted in an invitation to stay at Southeast University after graduation. Thus, I now have the opportunity to continue to work with my professors and colleagues and to continue my research work in the information-display field.

by Yasuhiro Haseba^*† and Hirotsugu Kikichi
Kyushu University, Kasuga, Japan
JSID 14/6, 551–556 (2006)
^*Student
^†Author of the brief article for Information Display

I first meet Professor Kikuchi at a scientific conference in 1997. In those days, he was investigating polymer/liquid-crystal composites at Kyushu University. At that conference, I asked Prof. Kikuchi several questions because I wanted to develop some new liquid-crystal devices. He considered my question seriously and answered them accurately. After this first meeting, we had dinner together every time we met at conferences, and we enjoyed having scientific conversations over a glass of beer. At one such meeting in 2000, he talked about his idea to produce optically isotropic liquid-crystal composites that were expected to show large Kerr effect with low temperature dependence. His idea impressed me a great deal because I thought that such materials might show a number of unique physical properties and could be employed in the development of new devices. In 2003, Chisso Corp. gave me a chance to enter Kyushu University and to collaborate with Prof. Kikuchi. My student life started in April 2003 at Kyushu University. Of course, my purpose was to develop original liquid crystals showing large Kerr effect.

I developed my own understanding of the physics of liquid crystals on the basis of Prof. Kikuchi's lectures. One day, an optically isotropic liquid-crystal material was produced serendipitously in our laboratory. At that time, I could not understand what this was and why the liquid crystal showed an optically isotropic state. I reported and discussed my experimental results with Prof. Kikuchi. We decided that this discovery must be investigated. A few days later, we also discovered that this liquid crystal showed a large Kerr effect even below T_c (clearing point) and that the temperature dependence of the Kerr constant was relatively small. This early result led to our long collaboration that was documented in JSID.

After my graduation from Kyushu University in March 2006, I continued collaboration with Prof. Kikuchi to study optically isotropic liquid crystals. Needless to say, our common dream is to develop a novel liquid-crystal display using the Kerr effect of optically isotropic liquid crystals. •