This course had a four part laboratory section, in which students study the fabrication of three types of technologies--inorganic electroluminescence, organic electroluminescence, and liquid crystal displays. In the four labs students build an EL backlight, a matrixed OLED, and an 8x8 passive matrix LCD. Power supplies were provided (or built as part of the lab) to allow students to take all three projects home in a fully operational state.

Lab Manual for Lab #1 In this lab students prepared and tested an EL backlight using a silk screening process. Students prepared the screens, built the structures, and powered them using commerically available power supplies.

Photos of lab #1 in action.

Lab Manual for Lab#2 In this lab students built an 8x8 oligomeric OLED array using a simple process. Students learned how to evaporate both metals and organic materials. A simple adjustable power supply was also assembled which powers the device and allows exploration some of the characteristics of the device.

Photo of completed, working device.

Photos of lab #2 in action.

Outline of Lab #3 In lab #3, students made an 8x8 passive matrix liquid crystal display starting with plain ITO sputtered glass. Students performed photolithography, etching, and deposition and rubbing of polyimide. These displays were connected to a controller board in the fourth lab.

Photos of lab #3 and lab #4 in action.

Lab #4 was soldering and programming the control board for the liquid crystal display. It has no lab manual. The control board allows students to program an arbitrary pattern onto the display over a serial connection to a computer.