Wide-viewing observation and high-spatial resolution characterization of rubbed polyimide film for liquid crystal display

Molecular orientation of rubbed polyimide (PI) film affects the quality of an LCD. It is necessary to characterize the molecular orientation of rubbed PI film in order to develop LCD. Recently, LCD panel size has been increasing while pixel size has been decreasing. For an advance of LCD, we have developed two techniques to characterize the molecular orientation of rubbed PI film. The first is a technique of the wide viewing. It visualizes the molecular orientation in the area of 5x10 mm with one snap shot. It is effective to rapidly characterize the molecular orientation in a producing process of LCD. The second is a technique of a high-spatial resolution. The spatial resolution is about 1 mum. It is effective to characterize the molecular orientation within a small area such as a pixel of TIT LCD. We demonstrated the performance of two techniques by measuring the rubbed PI film.