Carbon Nanotube Macroelectronics for Active Matrix Polymer-Dispersed Liquid Crystal Displays

Active matrix liquid crystal display (AMLCD) is the most widely used display technology nowadays. Transparent display is one of the emerging technologies to provide people with more features such as displaying images on transparent substrates and simultaneously enabling people to see the scenery behind the panel. Polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) is a possible active matrix transparent display technology due to its high transparency, good visibility, and low power consumption. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with excellent mobility, high transparency, and room-temperature processing compatibility are ideal materials for the driver circuit of the PDLC display. Here, we report the monolithic integration of CNT thin-film transistor driver circuit with PDLC pixels. We studied the transmission properties of the PDLC pixels and characterized the performance of CNT thin-film transistors. Furthermore, we successfully demonstrated active matrix seven-segment PDLC displays using CNT driver transistors. Our achievements open up opportunities for future nanotube-based, flexible thin-film transparent display electronics.