Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

The Secretary of State for Defence in Her Britannic Majesty's Government

Qinetiq Limited

The Secretary of State for Defense in Her Britannic Majesty's Government

David Charles Scattergood

Jonathan Rennie Hughes

Michael John Towler

John Clifford Jones

Akira Tagawa

Edward P Raynes

Mitsuhiro Shigeta

Harry Garth Walton

Paul Bonnett

Maurice Stanley

Timothy David Wilkinson

An electro-optic device such as a smectic liquid crystal cellwith an active semiconductor backplaneis mounted on a hybrid substrate, for example of alumina or silica. Other active or passive electronic or optical components may also be mounted on the substrate, and interconnected by conductive tracks, for example by wire bonding, and the substrate itself may be mounted on a printed circuit board. The substrate may comprise a heat sink. The arrangement facilitates the safe connection of the liquid crystal cell and good optical alignment thereof.

Electro-optic device

A ferroelectric liquid crystal device includes a layer of ferroelectric liquid crystal material contained between a pair of substrates, a first plurality of electrodes and a second plurality of electrodes defining a plurality of addressable liquid crystal pixels. A driving arrangement is provided for applying a first signal (Strobe) in succession to the first plurality of electrodes and for applying a plurality of second signals (Data) simultaneously to the second plurality of electrodes. The plurality of second signals are arranged to include non-rectangular wave signals which have a lower harmonic content than a rectangular wave. Non-uniform heating of the device as a result of the application of the second signals (Data) is reduced with consequent improvement in device performance.

Ferroelectric liquid crystal driving using square wave and non-square wave signals

A passive liquid crystal device (FIG. 1) is driven in a multiplexed manner by a strobe signal (STB) applied in succession to a plurality of row electrodes and data signals (DATa, DATb) applied to a plurality of column electrodes. A resultant signal (RESa, RESb) comprising the combination of the strobe and data signals is applied to the pixels in the device. The liquid crystal device is sensitive to the polarity of the resultant signal. Typically a blanking pulse of a first polarity is applied followed by a resultant signal of the opposite polarity. A first data signal (DATa) is intended to change the state of the relevant pixel (SELECT) while a second data signal (DATa) is intended to leave the pixel in the same state (NON-SELECT). According to the invention the resultant signal (RESa, RESb) comprises at least a portion which is substantially continuously varying. This can be achieved by either or both of the strobe and data signals including such a portion or portions. The invention may provide improved performance of the device through maximisation of the torque applied to the molecules of the liquid crystal during the switching process in response to a SELECT resultant (RESa). The invention is particularly applicable to ferroelectric liquid crystal devices (FLCDs).

Liquid crystal device

Temperature compensation of ferro-electric liquid crystal displays

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Malvern, United Kingdom

David Charles Scattergood