The Secretary of State for Defence in Her Britannic Majesty's Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Screen Technology Limited

Ian David Springle

William A Crossland

Anthony Bernard Davey

Vincent Glenn Geake

A liquid crystal display of the UV-phosphor type comprises a light source,for producing activation light at a predetermined narrow range of UV wavelengths, a collimator,for directing the activation light in parallel in a predetermined direction, a LC cell,formed from an array of pixels, a photoluminescent screen (,) on the cell arranged to emit a visible output when struck by the narrow-band excitation light passing through the cell, and a drive circuit for addressing the LC cell in a multiplexed manner. The direction of the light and the thickness of the cell are chosen to give the best contrast ratio for the liquid crystal. Such an effect is only possible when monochromatic, collimated light is used, which for a normal display is not practical. With the phosphor-emitter configuration, on the other hand, it is ideal, and as a result without loss of contrast a much lower range of drive voltages, and hence a much greater multiplexing capability for passive-matrix displays, can be used while preserving full viewing-angle properties of the display.

Liquid crystal display

A display device includes a shutter layer of liquid-crystal material arranged in cells to shutter input light selectively, a cover layer,on the shutter layer, and a set of phosphors,on the cover layer, corresponding to the cells, to be activated by the input light and provide the display image. To prevent crosstalk the active cell areas,defined by the electrode overlaps are smaller than the corresponding phosphors. This prevents crosstalk between cells even when input light that is not fully collimated is used and also allows space for thicker and/or broader electrodes,leading to the cells, reducing resistance, and for other components such as TFTs.

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Congleton, United Kingdom

Ian David Springle