National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

Japan Science and Technology Agency

Konica-minolta Holdings, Inc.

Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Japan Science and Technology Corporation

Sijtechnology, Inc.

Other

Jsr Corporation

Agency of Industrial Science and Technology

Sii Nanotechnology Inc.

Agency of Industrial Science and Technology Ministry of International

Harima Chemicals, Incorporated

Sharp Kabushiki Kaishi

Nanosystem Solutions, Inc.

Hiroshi Yokoyama

Kazuhiro Murata

Yasuo Nishi

Jun Yamamoto

Makoto Yoneya

Kaoru Higuchi

Masatoshi Yasutake

Hiroyuki Akinaga

Jong-Hyun Kim

Masayuki Kimura

Jong-hyun Kim

Tetsuya Yoshida

Lachezar Komitov

Kazumi Haga

Yorishige Matsuba

Daisuke Itoh

Noriaki Hata

Toshio Tahira

Toshiro Tani

Kazuhiro Saito

Akihito Izumitani

Yuka Tabe

Takashi Wakamatsu

Martin Vacha

Yuusuke Kawahara

Hirokazu Furue

Hiromi Kuramochi

Yasuyuki Semba

Neil Campbell

Yoji Maeda

Camilla Olivia Voeltz

A high resolution, wide viewing angle, low power consumption liquid crystal display device which utilizes nematic liquid crystal and which can attain both the memory effect and wide-viewing-angle display characteristic. A liquid crystal display device that utilizes nematic liquid crystal and includes a pair of transparent substrates; a group of electrodes for applying to a liquid crystal layer disposed between the pair of substrates an electric field having a component substantially parallel to the surfaces of the substrates; and an alignment layer disposed between the liquid crystal layer and at least one of the pair of substrates and having been subjected to liquid crystal anchoring treatments in plural directions. The plurality of liquid crystal anchoring directions of the alignment layer form substantially equal angles relative to one another, and a rising angle in each of the liquid crystal anchoring directions with respect to the corresponding substrate surface is substantially zero.

Liquid crystal display device

According to the present invention, a metal nanoparticle dispersion suitable to multiple layered coating by jetting in the form of fine droplets is prepared by dispersing metal nanoparticles having an average particle size of 1 to 100 nm in a dispersion solvent having a boiling point of 80&#xb0; C. or higher in such a manner that the volume percentage of the dispersion solvent is selected in the range of 55 to 80% by volume and the fluid viscosity (20&#xb0; C.) of the dispersion is chosen in the range of 2 mPa&#xb7;s to 30 mPa&#xb7;s, and then when the dispersion is discharged in the form of fine droplets by inkjet method or the like, the dispersion is concentrated by evaporation of the dispersion solvent in the droplets in the course of flight, coming to be a viscous dispersion which can be applicable to multi-layered coating.

Metal nanoparticle dispersion usable for ejection in the form of fine droplets to be applied in the layered shape

A method is for producing an active matrix organic EL display element by an inkjet method to eject droplets () of a liquid via an ejection hole of a nozzle so as to form an organic EL layer. The liquid contains an organic EL layer material. An electrostatic attraction type inkjet apparatus () is used whose ejection hole () has a diameter smaller than a diameter of the droplets (). The droplets are ejected from the nozzle of the electrostatic attraction type inkjet apparatus () in such a manner that each of the droplets is 1 pl or less in amount. With this arrangement, the landed droplet dries quickly, and movement of the landed droplet is restricted. This makes it possible to form an organic EL layer accurately with low cost.

Method and apparatus for manufacturing active-matrix organic el display, active matrix organic el display, method for manufacturing liquid crystal array, liquid crystal array, method and apparatus for manufacturing color filter substrate, and color filter substrate

The present invention is to provide a high quality smectic aerogel which is not brittle and a method for producing the smectic aerogel by using a host material comprising a mixture of a smectic liquid crystal and a UV-curable material or a host material comprising a smectic UV-curable material and by selecting an appropriate host material. A smectic aerogel comprising 4-nonyl-4'-cyanobiphenyl (9BC) and air bubbles can be produced, wherein hexagonal or pentagonal air cells are separated from each other by a smectic layer comprising a smectic liquid crystal. The thickness of the wall of the smectic layer at the boundaries of the air cells is about 24 &#x3bc;m, which corresponds to about 6000 smectic layers. The thickness of the wall of the smectic layer at the boundaries can be varied. Particularly, the thickness can be reduced to as thin as several smectic layers.

Smectic aerogel and method for production thereof

A method of producing a three-dimensional structure contains the steps of: arranging a substrate close to a tip of a needle-shaped fluid-ejection body having a fine diameter supplied with a solution, ejecting a fluid droplet having an ultra-fine diameter toward a surface of the substrate by applying a voltage having a prescribed waveform to the needle-shaped fluid-ejection body, making the droplet fly and land on the substrate, and solidifying the droplet after the fluid droplet is landed on the substrate; further a three-dimensional structure has a fine diameter comprises droplets having an ultra-fine particle diameter, wherein the structure is grown by solidifying the droplets and stacking the solidified droplets.

Method of producing a three-dimensional structure and fine three-dimensional structure

Liquid crystal display with group of interdigitated electrodes

The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device using nematic liquid crystal material with low power consumption and having a memory characteristic which can be easily fabricated with a high yield. The liquid crystal device using nematic liquid crystal material includes: a pair of substrates () with plate-like electrode layers () thereon; a liquid crystal layer interposed between the pair of substrates (); and alignment layers () arranged between the liquid crystal layer and at least one of the pair of substrates (). The alignment layers () include a plurality of different alignment domains having a substantially vertical direction and substantially horizontal direction to the surface of the substrate. Both of two orientation states, i.e. a substantially vertical orientation state and a substantially horizontal orientation state of the liquid crystal, are stable and have a memory characteristic in the absence of an electric field.

Liquid crystal display device using nematic liquid crystal and alignment layer favorable for low power consumption

An optical alignment method which develops a pretilt angle by batch plane exposure without tilting a substrate. This optical alignment method provides liquid crystal aligning capability to the surface of a polymer film by exposing the surface of the polymer film through a slit exposure mask while the surface of the polymer film and the slit exposure mask are moved relative to each other substantially at a fixed rate. Alternatively, liquid crystal aligning capability is provided to the surface of the polymer film by exposing the surface of the polymer film through an optical exposure pattern while the optical exposure pattern having a plurality of lines with a certain width at certain intervals is formed on the surface of the polymer film continuously.

Optical alignment method and liquid crystal display element

The present invention provides a liquid crystal material, method for producing the liquid crystal material, and liquid crystal device thereof which shows low light absorption in the ultraviolet light region. A compound of formula (I) wherein R is an alkyl or alkenyl group which is optionally interposed with one or more oxygen or sulphur atoms, Y is independently selected from oxygen or sulphur, n is an integer of from 2 to 8, X is a direct bond, Calkylene or Calkenylene, and A is selected from a various specified ring structures. The liquid crystal material (compounds) are of low birefringence and are U.V. stable and are useful in liquid crystal devices that need low birefringence such as reflective displays, or which are exposed to high levels of U.V. light such as phosphor display cells.

Liquid crystal material, method for producing liquid crystal material and liquid crystal device

An electrostatic attraction fluid jet device of the present invention is so arranged that a nozzle () is formed so as to correspond to a meniscus equivalent to a tip portion in the form of a taylor cone formed in a process of an electrostatic attraction of ink () as a conventional fluid. A diameter of an ink-ejecting hole () of the nozzle () is set to be substantially the same as a diameter of the tip portion, which is about to be ejected, of the meniscus () of ink. Moreover, the diameter of the ink-ejecting hole () of the nozzle () is set to be equal to or less than a droplet diameter of the ink () which has just been ejected. Therefore, it is possible to provide an electrostatic attraction fluid jet device which can realize a recording device which has high resolution, is safe and is highly versatile.

Electrostatic attraction fluid jet device

The present invention provides a probe for a scanning magnetic force microscope having a resolution sufficient to allow observation of a magnetic storage medium with 1200 kFCI or higher recording densities, a method for producing the probe, and a method for forming a ferromagnetic alloy film on a carbon nanotube. In the context of the present invention, the probe for a scanning magnetic force microscope comprises a carbon nanotube whose surface is at least in part coated with a ferromagnetic alloy film consisting of any one of a Co&#x2014;Fe alloy and a Co&#x2014;Ni alloy, wherein the arithmetic mean roughness (Ra 10 &#x3bc;m) of the surface of the ferromagnetic alloy film is controlled to 1.15 nm or less. A method for producing such probes for a scanning magnetic force microscope and a method for forming such a ferromagnetic alloy film on a carbon nanotube, so as to achieve such mean surface roughness by controlling the growth rate of the ferromagnetic alloy film within the range of 1.0 to 2.5 nm/min, is also disclosed.

Probe for a scanning magnetic force microscope, method for producing the same, and method for forming ferromagnetic alloy film on carbon nanotubes

First, through a coating step, a photolithography step and an etching step, a plurality of electrodes, . . . are formed on a base plate. Next, a resist layeris formed on the base plateso as to cover all of the electrodes, . . . , and by exposing and developing the resist layer, a nozzlehaving a super minute diameter is formed to stand with respect to the base plateso as to make the resist layercorrespond to each electrode, and an in-nozzle passage is formed in each nozzle

Producing method of electrostatic sucking type liquid jetting head, producing method of nozzle plate, driving method of electrostatic sucking type liquid jetting head, electrostatic sucking type liquid jetting apparatus and liquid jetting apparatus

A smectic liquid crystal device and process for producing the same are provided to realize uniform orientation of a smectic liquid crystal with no nematic phase in a phase sequence represented by an antiferroelectric liquid crystal; and a process for producing the same. The process comprises the steps of inducing an isotropic phase-nematic phase-smectic phase as a phase sequence of mixture obtained by adding a photopolymerizable monomer liquid crystal exhibiting nematic phase to a smectic liquid crystal; and irradiating the mixture with UV rays so that the monomer is photopolymerized into a polymer to thereby form a smectic liquid crystal medium with uniform orientation structure.

Smectic liquid crystal device and process for producing the same

A liquid crystal display device that can be fabricated more simply as compared with a conventional device and suitably used in a liquid crystal display television satisfying both high pixel transmittance and wide viewing angle display characteristics is provided. The liquid crystal display device includes a pair of substrates including at least one transparent substrate, a liquid crystal layer interposed between the pair of substrates, and a liquid crystal alignment layer interposed between the liquid crystal layer and at least any one of the pair of substrates. On the liquid crystal alignment layer, a plurality of closed regions having a liquid crystal alignment direction different from the surrounding liquid crystal alignment direction are arranged. In the liquid crystal display element, each of the closed regions has such a shape that the head and tail are distinguishable along the surrounding liquid crystal alignment direction.

A liquid jetting apparatus () to jet a droplet of a charged liquid solution onto a base material, having: a nozzle () in which an edge portion thereof is arranged to face the base material K having a receiving surface to receive the jetted droplet, and an inside diameter of the edge portion from which the droplet is jetted is not more than 30 [&#x3bc;m]; and a liquid solution supplying section () to supply the liquid solution into the nozzle (), wherein a jetting electrode () of the jetting voltage applying section () is provided on a back end portion side of the nozzle, and an inside passage length of the nozzle is set to at least not less than ten times of the inside diameter.

Liquid jetting device

Growing community of inventors

Tsukuba, Japan

Hiroshi Yokoyama