Other

Rockwell International Corporation

Rockwell Science Center, Inc.

Teledyne Scientific and Imaging, LLC

Jane H Hanamoto

Bruce Kevin Winker

Zili Li

Young J Chung

Zhiming Zhuang

David Coates

Ira B Goldberg

Ted M McKinney

Charles S Hollingsworth

Nicholas Sharples

Gabrielle Egan

The invention relates to an optical retardation film comprising a layer of an anisotropic polymer material with an optical axis substantially parallel to the plane of the layer. The invention furthermore relates to a process of preparing the optical retardation film, to the use of such an optical retardation film in liquid crystal displays, and to a liquid crystal display device comprising a liquid crystal cell and such an optical retardation film.

Film

The present invention relates to thin film retardation plates, such as cholesteric and A-plate compensators, for improving the viewing angle and contrast of liquid crystal displays. The A-plate is fabricated using a single substrate onto which a layer of polymerizable reactive mesogens (RMs) is solvent cast. Included in the RMs solution is an additive that migrates to the RM/air interface to lower the surface energy and generate an additive-rich surface layer, which in turn lowers the intrinsic tilt angle of the RMs at the air interface to between 25 degrees (25.degree.) and about zero degrees (0.degree.). The solvent is evaporated and the resulting film is polymerized in the liquid crystal phase to permanently orient the liquid crystal. The resulting film may be readily separated from the substrate and shaped into any desired pattern and combined to form novel compensators. In an alternative embodiment, a tilt may be provided by treating the substrate with an oblique alignment layer to form a compensator having a defined splay through the bulk of the thin film.

Thin film compensators having planar alignment of polymerized liquid

A magnetically variable inductor for high power, high frequency applications which includes a solenoid with a magnetic core therein, disposed coaxially around a conductor for carrying the high power, high frequency signal and a variable current source coupled with the solenoid so that a manipulation of the current through the solenoid results in a variable inductance for said conductor. Also disclosed are additional features of ferrite rings disposed around each end of the magnetic core, a shield disposed between the core and the solenoid, and a sheath disposed around the solenoid.

Magnetically variable inductor for high power audio and radio frequency

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Thousand Oaks, CA, United States of America

Jane H Hanamoto