Liquid Crystals Profile Audited by KPMG

The division’s success is based on close cooperation between interdisciplinary teams and display manufacturers in the Far East. Merck’s future is secured through a broad portfolio of customer-specific LC mixtures, reliable just-in-time deliveries in a highly demanding market with high innovation rates, and a large number of patents. More than 100 researchers based in Germany as well as close to our customers in Japan, Korea and Taiwan are responding to the ever-increasing demand in particular for shorter switching times.

• licristal® - Liquid crystals and mixtures for super-fast and high-performance displays based on innovative technologies such as VA or IPS (see also "Research and development").

• High-performance OLED (organic light-emitting diode) materials for displays and lighting
• Efficient and environmentally friendly structuring tools for photovoltaic products and displays
• Superior materials for optical films that enhance display image quality
• Printable polymers for flexible displays, solar cells and RFID chips

• The LCD market will continue to grow strongly in the coming years.
• According to forecasts by the market research firm DisplaySearch, the following growth rates are expected for LCD panels, in terms of units sold, for the years 2007 to 2011: 17% for notebooks, 7% for computer monitors and 18% for LCD televisions.
• The major growth driver for computer monitors will be sales in emerging countries, for notebooks the trend toward new flat-panel formats and for LCD televisions diagonal screen sizes exceeding 40 inches as well as extremely flat screens.
• At 100 million units worldwide, sales of LCD televisions are expected to already exceed those of cathode-ray televisions in 2008.