3m Innovative Properties Company

Martin E Denker

Adam D Haag

Matthew B Johnson

Timothy J Hebrink

Kristopher J Derks

Richard J Thompson

Jeffery N Jackson

Timothy J Nevitt

Carl A Stover

Kevin M Hamer

Michael F Weber

Takashi Fujita

William Ward Merrill

Robert D Taylor

Joan M Strobel

William B Black

Gregory L Bluem

John P Purcell

Barry S Rosell

Fuming B Li

Bert T Chien

Joseph T Bartusiak

Fuguo Xu

Anna A Kobilansky

Thomas P Hanschen

Zhaohui Yang

Patrick J Hager

Kristy A Gillette

Anthony B Ferguson

Fred J Roska

Sun-Yong Park

Joseph P Attard

Seo-Hern Lee

Brianna N Nieson

Chiu Ping Wong

Randall E Kozulla

Susan J Newhouse

Anna A Wetzels

Karl A Stover

An optical stack includes a reflective polarizer, an absorbing polarizer, and a half-wave retarder. The half-wave retarder is disposed between the reflective and absorbing polarizers. For substantially normally incident light and a first polarization state, the reflective polarizer reflects at least about 60% of the incident light for at least a first wavelength less than a cut-off wavelength and transmits at least about 50% of the incident light for at least a second wavelength greater than the cut-off wavelength. For substantially normally incident light, the half-wave retarder has a first retardance of less than about 250 nanometers (nm) at the first wavelength and a second retardance at the second wavelength. A deviation of the first retardance from a first half-wave retardance corresponding to the first wavelength is less than a deviation of the second retardance from a second half-wave retardance corresponding to the second wavelength.

Optical stack having absorbing polarizer, half-wave retarder, and reflective polarizer

A reflective polarizer has substantially distinct blue, green and red-infrared reflection bands for substantially normally incident light. A display system includes a display panel including blue, green and red light emitting pixels having respective blue, green and red peak wavelengths and respective blue, green and red FWHMs; and the reflective polarizer disposed on the light emitting pixels. The reflective polarizer: reflects at least about 60% of the incident light for each of the blue and green peak wavelengths and at least about 40% of the incident light for the red peak wavelength for a first polarization state; transmits at least about 60% of the incident light for each of the blue, green and red peak wavelengths for an orthogonal second polarization state; and has an absorption peak at a wavelength between the green and red FWHMs.

Reflective polarizer and display system

A display system includes a display panel including a plurality light emitting pixels and a reflective polarizer disposed on the light emitting pixels. The reflective polarizer can have a reflection band having a lower overlap with an emission spectrum of red light emitting pixels for substantially normally incident light and a higher overlap with the emission spectrum of the red light emitting pixels for at least one incident angle greater than about 40 degrees. The reflective polarizer can have a reflection band overlapping an emission spectrum of blue light emitting pixels for substantially normally incident light.

An optical system () includes an emissive display () and a reflective polarizer () disposed on the display (). The display () includes a blue pixel () emitting light having a peak at a wavelength λ. For substantially normally incident light: for the wavelength λ, the reflective polarizer () reflects at least 30% of the incident light having a first polarization state (b) and transmits at least 75% of the incident light having an orthogonal second polarization state(a); and for at least one wavelength λgreater than λ, λ-λ≤50 nm, the reflective polarizer () transmits at least 75% of the incident light for each of the first and second polarization states. For the wavelength λ, the reflective polarizer () has a maximum optical transmittance Tfor light incident at a first incident angle, and an optical transmittance T/2 for light incident at a second incident angle greater than the first incident angle by less than about 50 degrees.

Reflective polarizer and optical system

An integral optical stack includes a lens film having first and second major surfaces. The first major surface includes microlenses having an average peak-to-valley height PV. A light absorbing layer is disposed on the lens film and defines a plurality of openings. A substantially planarizing optically diffusive layer is disposed on the first major surface of the lens film, conforming to the microlenses. The optically diffusive layer includes a plurality of nanoparticles. A polymeric material bonds the nanoparticles to each other to form a plurality of nanoparticle aggregates defining a plurality of voids therebetween. The optically diffusive layer has an average thickness greater than about 8 microns, and an index of refraction of less than about 1.25. Any non-planarity of a major surface of the optically diffusive layer due to the microlenses of the first major surface has an average peak-to-valley height PV, PV≤0.7 PV

Optical stacks for detection systems

A display () including a display panel () and a polarizer () disposed to receive a light () output of the display panel () is described. The polarizer () may be a reflective polarizer () or a circular polarizer () incorporating a reflective polarizer (). The display panel () includes a plurality of pixels and each pixel includes a plurality of subpixels. The reflective polarizer () has a first reflection band, wherein at normal incidence, the first reflection band has a long wavelength band edge wavelength between peak emission wavelengths of two subpixels in the plurality of subpixels. The reflective polarizer () may be disposed between an absorbing polarizer () and a retarder () in a circular polarizer (). The reflective polarizer () may have substantially non-overlapping first, second, and third reflection bands.

Polarizer and display including same

Multilayer reflective polarizers are described. More particularly, multilayer reflective polarizers having a higher block light transmission at longer wavelengths than shorter wavelengths while having a high pass light transmission are described. The described multilayer reflective polarizers may be combined with absorbing polarizers or used in display devices.

Multilayer reflective polarizer

Thermoplastic birefringent multilayer optical films are described. More particularly, thermoplastic multilayer films having alternating first and second layers having a linear layer profile where both outer layers are thinner than 350 nm but thicker than 150 nm are described. Thermoplastic birefringent multilayer optical films with thinner outer protective boundary layers are described.

Multilayer optical film

The present disclosure is directed to optical bodies including a first optical film, a second optical film and one or more strippable boundary layers disposed between the first and second optical films. Each major surface of a strippable boundary layer may be disposed adjacent to an optical film or another strippable boundary layer. At least one of the first and second optical films may include a reflective polarizer. The present disclosure is also directed to methods of processing such optical bodies.

Optical bodies including strippable boundary layers

Optical bodies are disclosed that include a first optical film, a second optical film and at least one rough strippable boundary layer disposed between the first and second optical films. Also disclosed are optical bodies including a strippable boundary layer disposed between the first and second optical films and including a first polymer and a second polymer that is substantially immiscible in the first polymer. The present disclosure also provides methods of processing optical bodies that include stretching the optical bodies.

Optical bodies including rough strippable boundary layers

Optical bodies are disclosed that include an optical film and at least one rough strippable skin layer. The at least one rough strippable skin layer can include a continuous phase and a disperse phase. In some embodiments, the at least one rough strippable skin layer can include a first polymer, a second polymer different from the first polymer and an additional material that is substantially immiscible in at least one of the first and second polymers. In some exemplary embodiments, a surface of the at least one rough strippable skin layer adjacent to the optical film comprises a plurality of protrusions and the adjacent surface of the optical film comprises a plurality of asymmetric depressions substantially corresponding to said plurality of protrusions. Methods of making such exemplary optical bodies are also disclosed.

Optical bodies including rough strippable boundary layers and asymmetric surface structures

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Vadnais Heights, MN, United States of America

Martin E Denker