Merck is using IMID 2026 in Busan to highlight a broader shift in display technology toward multifunctional systems that combine advanced materials, optics, sensing and computing as artificial intelligence reshapes the role of displays.
At the International Meeting on Information Display (IMID) 2026, held at BEXCO from Aug. 18 to 21, Merck Korea announced the winners of the 23rd Merck Award while preparing to bring together display industry researchers and engineers for its eighth Merck Science Connect on Aug. 20.
The two programs point to a technology transition extending well beyond improvements in conventional display resolution, brightness or power efficiency. Research recognized this year spans liquid-crystal-based XR optics, holographic imaging, oxide thin-film transistors and neuromorphic systems — areas increasingly relevant as displays evolve into intelligent interfaces connecting users with AI-powered devices.
“The display is the cornerstone of the Electronics business, and the reason Merck began its business in Korea,” said WooKyu Kim, managing director of Merck Korea.
Kim said Merck has expanded its business beyond displays into semiconductor metrology and inspection through continued investment and is seeking strategic synergies in future displays and optoelectronics.
From Display Panels to Spatial Computing
The 2026 Merck Award went to Hak-Rin Kim, professor at Kyungpook National University, whose research illustrates how rapidly the definition of display technology is expanding.
Kim has worked on active polarization-switching optics, geometric-phase optical devices, holographic imaging and XR display optics using liquid-crystal and reactive-mesogen materials.
His research has progressed from liquid-crystal electro-optic devices into low-power LCDs, 3D and light-field displays, updatable holographic displays and near-eye optical systems for extended reality.
More recent work has focused on geometric-phase-based active switching optics using spatial optic-axis patterning in reactive mesogens.
Among the technologies developed by Kim's research group are multifocal tunable optical systems designed to mitigate the vergence-accommodation conflict found in XR displays, full-color incoherent digital holography under ordinary illumination and gaze-tracking-based dynamic eyebox steering.
These technologies address some of the fundamental optical challenges facing lightweight glasses-type XR devices, where display performance increasingly depends not only on the panel itself but also on how light is generated, manipulated and delivered to the human eye.
Kim said he plans to continue contributing to Korea's global competitiveness in immersive and spatial display technologies.
Oxide TFTs Move Toward Neuromorphic Computing
The Merck Young Scientist Award was presented to Soo-Yeon Lee, professor at Seoul National University, for research connecting oxide thin-film transistor devices with next-generation display and semiconductor applications.
Lee's work has covered the reliability and instability mechanisms of oxide-semiconductor TFTs as well as driving algorithms designed to compensate for image-quality degradation associated with smaller pixels, narrow-bezel backplanes and device aging.
Since entering academia, she has also investigated device structures capable of suppressing short-channel effects in oxide TFTs and developed OLED and micro-LED pixel circuits targeting higher resolution and lower power consumption.
The implications increasingly extend beyond displays.
By exploiting characteristics such as the low off-current and multi-level operation of oxide semiconductors, Lee has expanded her research into low-power synaptic devices and neuromorphic systems.
That progression — from TFT devices to display circuits and eventually neuromorphic computing and image sensors — illustrates the growing overlap between technologies traditionally classified as display components and those being developed for AI computing architectures.
“My research, which began with oxide TFT devices, is now growing beyond display driving circuits into neuromorphic computing and image sensors,” Lee said in her acceptance remarks.
AI Changes What a Display Needs to Do
The convergence will also be the focus of Merck Science Connect, scheduled for Aug. 20 at BEXCO under the theme “The Evolution of Displays: Integrating Multifunctionality for a Future AI Era.”
Natalie Tober, Scientific Team Lead for OLED at Merck's Optronics Business Unit, will discuss the evolution of multifunctional displays.
Hoon-Sub Shin of LG Display and Ki-Sun Kwon of Merck will examine switchable privacy technology and liquid-crystal material properties for dual-cell applications.
DaeKwon Chang, Head of DPM R&D Korea at Merck, will address the combination of photoresist and resolution-enhancement technologies for high-resolution patterning, while Merck Award winner Hak-Rin Kim will participate in a special session on emerging display technologies.
The program reflects a wider change taking place across the electronics industry.
As AI moves from cloud infrastructure into vehicles, wearable devices, XR headsets and other edge devices, displays are increasingly expected to perform multiple functions simultaneously. Optical control, sensing, low-power operation, privacy, high-resolution patterning and interaction with AI processing systems are becoming interconnected engineering requirements rather than separate development tracks.
For materials suppliers, that shift could also change the competitive landscape. Companies historically positioned around liquid crystals or OLED materials are increasingly operating at the intersection of display materials, semiconductor processes and optoelectronics.
Merck's decision to expand the Merck Award from display technologies to include optoelectronics beginning in 2026 reflects that changing boundary.
Merck established the award at IMID in 2004, the year marking the 100th anniversary of the company's liquid-crystal research. The Merck Young Scientist Award followed in 2006.
More than two decades later, the technologies being recognized suggest that the next phase of the display industry may be defined less by the screen alone and more by the integration of materials, optics, sensors and computing around it.
For an industry entering the AI era, the display is increasingly becoming not just where information is shown, but where the physical and digital worlds meet.
