Sony Corporation

Keiichi Nito

Akio Yasuda

Hidehiko Takanashi

Eriko Matsui

Toru Udaka

Ying Bao Yang

Yang Ying Bao

Tsutomu Noguchi

Toshiharu Yanagida

Yoshiki Shirochi

Junetsu Seto

Seiichi Arakawa

Masaru Kawabata

Mayumi Miyashita

Nobuhiro Kihara

Katsuya Shirai

Takao Takahashi

Masanobu Yamamoto

Takeshi Yamasaki

Yoshio Suzuki

Tadaaki Isozaki

Eiji Okabe

Ryushi Shundo

Hideo Saito

Takashi Iwamura

Teiichiro Nishimura

Kazumasa Miyazaki

Nobue Kataoka

Katsumi Kohno

Tohru Nagai

Ying-Bao Yang

Masami Toriduka

Eriko Koseki

Fumitomo Hide

Disclosed are a light modulation apparatus including a liquid crystal device; and a polarizing plate disposed in an optical path of light made incident on said liquid crystal device; wherein said liquid crystal device is of a guest-host type using a negative type liquid crystal as a host material, an image pickup apparatus using the light modulation apparatus, and methods of driving the light modulation apparatus and image pickup apparatus.

Light modulation apparatus, image pickup apparatus, and drive methods therefor

A light control device and an imaging device suitable for the effective and stabilized driving of a Guest-Host type liquid crystal element. A light control device which is provided with a light controlling GH cell and a UV cut filter provided on the light incident side of the GH cell and which is therefore reduced significantly in the quantity of ultraviolet ray applied to the GH cell, thereby preventing the photodecomposition or photodegradation of materials constituting a liquid crystal layer in the GH cell; and an imaging device such as a CCD camera having this light control device disposed on the optical path thereof.

Guest-host liquid crystal element with removable polarizer

A light control device and an imaging device suitable for the effective and stabilized driving of a Guest-Host type liquid crystal element. A light control device () which is provided with a light controlling GH cell () and a UV cut filter () provided on the light incident side of the GH cell (), and which is therefore reduced significantly in the quantity of ultraviolet ray applied to the GH cell (), thereby preventing the photodecompositon or photodegradation of materials constituting a liquid crystal layer in the GH cell (); and an imaging device such as a CCD camera () having this light control device disposed on the optical path thereof.

Light modulation apparatus and image pickup apparatus, and drive method thereof

A liquid crystal projector providing an image having a high luminance and excellent contrast, including a polarization plate which is arranged at an incident side of a liquid crystal panel and transmits a first polarized beam therethrough, a polarization plate which is arranged at an exit side of the liquid crystal panel and transmits an optically modulated second polarized beam therethrough and outputs the same to a projection lens, and a phase difference film having one of a phase delay axis or a phase forward axis which is orthogonal to the polarization axis of the polarization plate and arranged inclined at a predetermined angle about an axis of rotation comprising an axis parallel to the polarization axis of the polarization plate in the plane in which said phase delay axis or phase forward axis is formed.

Liquid crystal projector having phase difference means with inclined angle

A monostable ferroelectric liquid crystal display in which a stable monostable mode is realized to achieve sufficient analog gradation and contrast. A pair of substrates, processed with uniaxial orientation, are placed so that the directions of orientation processing will be substantially parallel to each other. Into the gap between the two substrates is charged a ferroelectric liquid crystal material. The component of projection on the substrates of the axial direction of a cone drawn by the liquid crystal molecules of the ferroelectric liquid crystal material and that of the axial direction of the liquid crystal molecules themselves are substantially coincident with the direction of the processing for orientation of the substrates. Monostability is achieved with this state as an initial state. The ferroelectric liquid crystal material is a liquid crystal composition including a compound comprised of a phenyl pyrimidine skeleton to each terminal end of which is linked an alkyl chain, with the sum of carbon atoms of the alkyl chains being equal to 17.

Monostable ferroelectric liquid crystal display apparatus

Method of driving a liquid crystal display such as a ferroelectric liquid crystal display by multiplex addressing. The display has a pair of bases. A transparent electrode layer and an orientation film are formed in this order on each base. The two bases are placed opposite to each other with a certain gap between them. A ferroelectric liquid crystal material is inserted in the gap. Let V be the voltage applied when the transmittivity of the liquid crystal material begins to change. Let V be the voltage applied when the transmittivity of the liquid crystal material substantially assumes its maximum value. First and second select pulses of opposite polarities are applied to the liquid crystal material. Let V be the voltage of the first select pulse. Let V be the voltage of the second select voltage. This method is characterized in that V &equals;&plusmn;(V &minus;&Dgr;V), where &Dgr;V>0, and that V &equals;&mnplus;(V &plus;&Dgr;V), where &Dgr;V>0.

Method of driving liquid crystal device

A liquid crystal device comprises a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal provided between the paired substrates wherein domains whose threshold voltages are different from one another are finely distributed throughout the liquid crystal. In particular, the respective substrates each has a transparent electrode and an alignment film formed thereon in this order and the substrates are assembled to establish a given space therebetween, and a ferroelectric liquid crystal being injected into the given space wherein domains are finely distributed as set out above, thereby providing a a liquid crystal display device. The fine distribution is such that when a transmittance through inverted domains is 25%, the number of domains (microdomains) having a size of larger than 2 &mgr;m&phgr; in a field of 1 mm is not smaller than 300, preferably not smaller than 600, and the width of the threshold voltage within the domains is not smaller than 2 volts within a transmittance range of from 10 to 90%. The liquid crystal device, particularly the display device, keeps a high contrast and can easily, reliably realize an analog gray-side display at low costs.

Liquid crystal devices comprising a multitude of domains having different threshold voltages for switching liquid crystals

A display device has a line scan driving circuit disposed in a horizontal direction of a display region and a pixel driving circuit (dot scan driving circuit) disposed in a vertical direction of the display for performing image display with pixel groups each forming one line in the vertical direction being scanned in the horizontal direction. Vertical-horizontal converting circuitry is provided for converting an image data stream supplied with n pixels in a horizontal direction and m horizontal lines in a vertical scanning direction into an image data stream with m pixels in a vertical direction and n vertical lines in a horizontal scanning direction, and the vertical-horizontal converted data is supplied to the display device by a display controlling circuit. That is, image data is supplied to the displaying device as a vertical-horizontal converted data stream and display operation is executed by vertical pixel rows being scanned in the horizontal direction, as a result of which the relatively small line scan driving circuit is disposed above or below the display region instead of the relatively large dot scan driving circuit and thus the area required for circuit mounting above/below the display region is reduced and the size of the display device in the vertical direction can be effectively reduced.

Display device

In a liquid crystal device in which a pair of substrates each having an electrode and a liquid crystal orientation control layer are disposed opposite to each other leaving a predetermined gap therebetween and liquid crystal is disposed in the gap, a plurality of grooves are formed on each of the inner surface contacting the liquid crystal, the section of the inner surfaces in a direction along the grooves has such a shape that repetitive asymmetrical projections are formed and the radius of curvature of the grooves in a direction intersecting the grooves is set to 0.1 &mgr;m or more.

Liquid crystal device having liquid crystal orientation layers including repetitive asymmetrical projects along a plurality of grooves

A method of driving a liquid crystal device, which comprises matrix-addressed driving a liquid crystal device comprising a liquid crystal, particularly a ferroelectric liquid crystal, disposed between a pair of substrates and comprising finely distributed domains differing in threshold voltage for use in switching said liquid crystal, said method being a pulse modulation method comprising modulating at least one of pulse voltage and pulse width, a pixel electrode division method, or a time integration method. Also claimed is a liquid crystal device driven by any of said methods. The liquid crystal device provides a further improved analog multiple gray-scale level display, realizes a large-area display at a low cost, and enables drive at full color video rate.

Passive matrix addressed LCD pulse modulated drive method with pixel area and/or time integration method to produce covay scale

A liquid crystal device comprises a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal provided between the paired substrates wherein domains whose threshold voltages are different from one another are finely distributed throughout the liquid crystal. In particular, the respective substrates each has a transparent electrode and an alignment film formed thereon in this order and the substrates are assembled to establish a given space therebetween, and a ferroelectric liquid crystal being injected into the given space wherein domains are finely distributed as set out above, thereby providing a a liquid crystal display device. The fine distribution is such that when a transmittance through inverted domains is 25%, the number of domains (microdomains) having a size of larger than 2 .mu.m.phi. in a field of 1 mm.sup.2 is not smaller than 300, preferably not smaller than 600, and the width of the threshold voltage within the domains is not smaller than 2 volts within a transmittance range of from 10 to 90%. The liquid crystal device, particularly the display device, keeps a high contrast and can easily, reliably realize an analog gray-scale display at low costs.

Liquid crystal devices comprising a multitude of domains having

Passive matrix addressed LCD pulse modulated drive method with pixel

There is disclosed an optical information record medium having an optical information record layer on a transparent substrate, in which the transparent substrate is made of a resin material mainly consisting of a polycarbonate resin that contains no more than 4 wt % of low molecular weight fractions having a weight average measured with respect to a polystyrene molecular weight of no more than 3500, in order to avoid a double refraction of an optical information record medium resulting in an improved signal to noise ratio and having superior thermal-transformation resistance and impact resistance.

Optical information record medium

An optical device according to this invention includes a phase modulating optical unit comprising a plurality of optically transparent base members each of which includes an optically transparent electrode and an alignment film formed in this order, and an optically transparent birefringent medium, wherein the optically transparent base members are spaced from one another at predetermined intervals so that the electrode and the alignment film of a base member is confronted to the electrode and the alignment film of another base member, and at least one kind of liquid crystal selected from the group consisting of ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC), antiferroelectric liquid crystal (AFLC) and smectic liquid crystal having an electro clinic effect (SmA) (or mixed liquid crystals thereof) is injected into gaps between the base members.

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Tokyo, Japan

Keiichi Nito