Patent Describes Using MgO as ‘Breakthrough Material' for Enhancing Displays

Two tech firms landed a U.S. patent Tuesday for using magnesium oxide (MgO) as what they call a “breakthrough material” for enhancing the performance of thin-film transistors that drive the pixels in most consumer displays. The patent (9,856,578), which describes “methods of producing large grain or single crystal films,” was based on an April 2014 application and was assigned to Solar-Tectic and Blue Wave Semiconductors and names Ratnakar Vispute, Blue Wave’s owner, and Andrew Seiser, systems/process engineer, as the inventors. MgO thin films “have assumed significant importance in recent times” as a protective layer on the glass used in consumer displays and as an “intermediate buffer layer” between a semiconductor substrate and a ferroelectric film used in chip production, says the patent. As an insulating material, MgO “is not only highly transparent, but also has very high thermal conductivity, high thermal stability, and a high melting point,” said Solar-Tectic and Blue Wave in a Tuesday statement. “Perhaps most importantly, however, the new material has an unusual orientation which can enhance the preferred orientations of silicon and germanium.”