Merck Patent Gesellschaft MIT Beschrankter Haftung

Merck Patent Gmbh

James Hanmer

David Coates

Mark Andrew Verrall

Jeremy Ward

Owain Llyr Parri

Simon Greenfield

Mark John Goulding

Shirley Ann Marden

The invention relates to a liquid crystal display device comprising a liquid crystal cell and at least one compensation film or a combination of polarizer and optical compensators comprising at least one compensation film, said compensation film comprising at least one layer of an isotropic polymer obtainable by polymerization of a mixture of a polymerizable mesogenic material comprising:

Liquid crystal display device

The invention relates to a combination of optical elements comprising at least one optical retardation film and at least one broadband reflective polarizer, characterized in that the optical retardation film is comprising at least one layer of an anisotropic polymer material having an optical symmetry axis substantially parallel to the plane of the layer, said optical retardation film being obtainable by polymerization of a mixture of a polymerizable mesogenic material comprising: a) at least one reactive mesogen having at least one polymerizable functional group; b) an initiator, c) optionally a non-mesogenic compound having two or more polymerizable functional groups; and d) optionally a stabilizer; and relates to an optical retardation film used in said combination of optical elements and to a liquid crystal display comprising said combination of optical elements.

Combination of optical elements

The present invention relates to a method of preparing a film that includes at least one layer of anisotropic polymer material. The method can include polymerizing a mixture of a filtered polymerizable mesogenic material.

A liquid crystal display device containing a liquid crystal cell and at least one reflective polarizer or a polarizer combination having at least one reflective polarizer as a means to generate circular polarized light. The reflective polarizer includes an optically active layer of an anisotropic polymer material with a helically twisted planar molecular orientation. The material is oriented so that the axis of the molecular helix extends transversely to the layer, and the pitch of the molecular helix is varied in such a manner that the difference between the maximum pitch and the minimum pitch is at least 100 nm. The reflective polarizer is obtainable by copolymerization of a mixture of a chiral polymerizable mesogenic material including a) at least one achiral polymerizable mesogenic compound having at least one polymerizable functional group in the presence of b) at least one chiral polymerizable mesogenic compound having one polymerizable functional group and/or at least one non-polymerizable chiral mesogenic compound, c) an initiator, d) optionally a non-mesogenic compound having at least one polymerizable functional group, e) optionally a dye and, i) optionally a stabilizer. The invention also discloses methods of manufacturing such a reflective polarizer. The invention further discloses a mixture of a chiral polymerizable mesogenic material used for manufacturing such a reflective polarizer.

A liquid crystal display device containing a liquid crystal cell and at least one reflective polarizer or a polarizer combination having at least one reflective polarizer as a means to generate circular polarized light. The reflective polarizer includes an optically active layer of an anisotropic polymer material with a helically twisted planar molecular orientation. The material is oriented so that the axis of the molecular helix extends transversely to the layer, and the pitch of the molecular helix is varied in such a manner that the difference between the maximum pitch and the minimum pitch is at least 100 nm. The reflective polarizer is obtainable by copolymerization of a mixture of a chiral polymerizable mesogenic material including a) at least one achiral polymerizable mesogenic compound having at least one polymerizable functional group in the presence of b) at least one chiral polymerizable mesogenic compound having one polymerizable functional group and/or at least one non-polymerizable chiral mesogenic compound, c) an initiator, d) optionally a non-mesogenic compound having at least one polymerizable functional group, e) optionally a dye and, f) optionally a stabilizer. The invention also discloses methods of manufacturing such a reflective polarizer. The invention further discloses a mixture of a chiral polymerizable mesogenic material used for manufacturing such a reflective polarizer.

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Hampshire, United Kingdom

James Hanmer