Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Hirohide Munakata

Masahiro Haruta

Yukuo Nishimura

Satoshi Yuasa

Yoko Yoshinaga

Shinjiro Okada

Yasufumi Asao

Hiroshi Matsuda

Toshihiko Miyazaki

Yoshinori Tomida

Takashi Hamamoto

Akira Tsuboyama

Etsuko Sugawa

Yoko Kuwae

Yukio Hanyu

Yasuyuki Watanabe

Yutaka Hirai

Ken Eguchi

Nobuhiro Ito

Yoshinori Tomita

Yasuaki Takeda

Koichi Sato

Kenji Saito

Yutaka Inaba

Takashi Enomoto

Hidemasa Mizutani

Hideo Mori

Seishi Miura

Hirokatsu Miyata

Hiroyuki Kitayama

Koji Noguchi

Katsuhiko Shinjo

Takahiro Hachisu

Naoya Nishida

Tomoko Maruyama

Ryuichiro Isobe

Michiko Johnson

Provided is a display module in which the prevention of ambient light reflection and the protection of a mounting component may be provided in the same process using the same material, to thereby reduce the number of production steps, while preventing the display panel from increasing in size and thickness so that the cost of production may be reduced. The display module includes a display panel including a display element and a mounting component; a protective plate for protecting a display region of the display panel; and a covering material for integrally covering the display region of the display panel and the mounting component, the covering material being disposed between the display panel and the protective plate.

Display module

A chiral smectic liquid crystal device includes chiral smectic liquid crystal exhibiting a phase transition series on temperature decrease of (a) Iso, Ch and SmC* or (b) Iso and SmC*, a pair of oppositely disposed substrates which sandwich the liquid crystal to form a plurality of pixels, each substrate provided with an electrode for applying a voltage to the liquid crystal and a uniaxial alignment axis for aligning the liquid crystal, and means for providing a difference in potential between the substrates of at least 100 mV when no external electric field is applied in a temperature range of Tc&plusmn;2&deg; C. where Tc denotes a phase transition temperature from Ch to SmC* or from Iso to SmC. At least one substrate is provided with a polarizer, and each pixel is provided with an active element connected to an associated electrode on at least one substrate.

Chiral smectic liquid crystal device

A driving method for a liquid crystal device comprising a pair of electrodes and a liquid crystal disposed between the electrodes includes a sequence of voltage application operations each comprising application of a reset voltage to the liquid crystal for placing the liquid crystal in a reset state in a reset period and application of a data voltage to the liquid crystal for placing the liquid crystal in a desired gradational display state in a writing period subsequent to the reset period. Each reset voltage is set to provide a prescribed difference in voltage between the each reset voltage and a subsequent data voltage, thus preventing an image memory phenomenon without using an additional reset circuit for exclusively applying the reset voltage to the liquid crystal.

Driving method for liquid crystal device

At least one of a pair of substrates constituting a liquid crystal device is provided with a composite alignment film including a homeotropic alignment film region and a homogeneous alignment film region, whereby the liquid crystal in contact with the homogeneous alignment film region is surrounded by the region of liquid crystal in a hybrid or homeotropic alignment state and is stably held in a twit alignment state under no electric field which can be continuously transformed into a bend alignment state. As a result, it is possible to provide a liquid crystal device capable of display by utilizing bend alignment with reduced bending voltage and voltage for holding the bend alignment.

Liquid crystal device and driving method therefor

A liquid crystal device having a good bend alignment characteristic is provided by using an alignment film having an alignment power of aligning nematic liquid crystal molecules in a bend alignment state under no voltage application and providing a retardation R (nm) of the liquid crystal device under application of a prescribed voltage relative to a refractive index anisotropy &Dgr;n of the liquid crystal and a cell thickness d (nm) of the liquid crystal device, providing a retardation factor R/&Dgr;n&middot;d of at most 0.3. As a result, the liquid crystal device can be driven at a high speed always in a stable bend alignment state.

Liquid crystal device

An optical modulation device is constituted by a first substrate provided with a plurality of first electrodes each comprising a plurality of portions electrically independent of each other, a second substrate disposed opposite to the first substrate and provided with a plurality of second electrodes each confronting a corresponding first electrode, and an optical modulation substance disposed between the first and second substrates so as to form a plurality of pixels each having a particular electrode structure. In the electrode structure, the optical modulation substance is sandwiched between each second electrode and said portions of said corresponding first electrode so as to form a series circuit providing a plurality of capacitance, thus reducing the capacitance for each pixel to improve a switching characteristic while minimizing a defective portion due to a short-circuit between the confronting electrodes.

Optical modulation device with pixels each having series connected electrode structure

A liquid crystal apparatus comprises a liquid crystal device having a pair of substrates respectively having thereon scanning electrodes and data electrodes arranged in a matrix shape, and a liquid crystal disposed between the substrates and capable of a cumulative translational movement depending on a change in an external electric field applied to the liquid crystal; and a driver for controlling a first frequency f having a variable range and representing an effective frequency of a drive data signal pulse applied to the liquid crystal so that a second frequency f.sub.0 representing an inversion frequency at which a direction of the translational movement of the liquid crystal is turned in an opposite direction is in the variable range of the first frequency f. The above driver used in the liquid crystal apparatus is effective in suppressing a cumulative translational movement of liquid crystal molecules for a long period of time.

Suppressing liquid crystal movement based on the relationship between a

A liquid crystal apparatus is constituted by a liquid crystal device including a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal disposed between the substrates, and means for applying an asymmetrical drive signal waveform to the liquid crystal. The liquid crystal is capable of having at least two stable states S1 and S2 and capable of causing a cumulative translational movement depending on a change in an external electric field applied to the liquid crystal. To the liquid crystal, an asymmetrical drive signal waveform having an effective frequency range is applied by the above application means so as to provide an absolute value of a difference between an inversion frequency f.sub.01 where a direction of the movement of said liquid crystal is turned in an opposite direction in the state S1 and an inversion frequency f.sub.02 where a direction of the movement of said liquid crystal is turned in an opposite direction in the state S2 smaller than a difference therebetween in the case of applying a symmetrical drive signal waveform to said liquid crystal. The inversion frequencies f.sub.01 and f.sub.02 are within the effective frequency range of the asymmetrical drive signal waveform. The application means is effective in suppressing liquid crystal movement in the liquid crystal device.

Liquid crystal apparatus and driving method

A liquid crystal apparatus includes a liquid crystal panel and drive means for driving the liquid crystal panel. The liquid crystal panel includes a pair of oppositely disposed substrates each having an electrode thereon, an alignment film disposed over the electrode on at least one of the substrates, and a liquid crystal disposed between the substrates; the liquid crystal being composed of a plurality of liquid crystal layers each composed of a plurality of liquid crystal molecules. The drive means is suitable for applying to the liquid crystal an electric field insufficient to cause a switching of the liquid crystal but sufficient to cause a reversible change of the liquid crystal layers into a bookshelf structure. As a result, the liquid crystal panel can be provided with a good switching characteristic while effectively suppressing deleterious liquid crystal molecular movement.

Liquid crystal apparatus and display apparatus

A process for producing a gel fiber comprises a step (N) of spinning a solution containing at least one polymer having at least one monomer unit as a constituent component for a gel to solidify the solution into a fiber, and step (M) of effecting crosslinking of the fiber to form a gel which can be swelled or shrunk reversibly by a thermal action in the presence of a liquid.

Process for producing gel fiber

An optical device is provided which comprises a liquid layer containing a liquid-absorbable and releasable polymer that absorbs and releases a liquid under thermal action.

Optical device

A medium for image formation which comprises a monomolecular film or monomolecular built-up film of a metal chelate compound and a process for image formation which comprises (1) manipulating the adsorption of a gas on a metal chelate compound and the desorption of the gas therefrom or (2) reducing metal ions in molecules of a metal chelate compound.

Medium and process for image formation

A biocatalyst such as an enzyme or microbe is immobilized in a polymer gel having a phase transition temperature such that it is capable of reversibly swelling and shrinking by a change in temperature. By lowering the temperature, the polymer gel is caused to swell and a biocatalyst is absorbed therein and by raising the temperature, the polymer gel is caused to shrink and immobilize the biocatalyst. The biocatalyst may then be released by cooling the polymer to cause it to swell. Only a portion of the polymer gel may be subjected to temperature change to immobilize the biocatalyst only in a desired portion.

Biocatalyst immobilization with a reversibly swelling and shrinking

An optical element comprises a gel layer exhibiting a light scattering property when heated and exhibiting transparency when cooled, and the gel layer is sandwiched between a transparent substrate and a transparent protective plate.

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Yokohama, Japan

Hirohide Munakata