Sony Corporation

Minako Sugiura

Shunichi Hashimoto

Tadaaki Isozaki

Shigeo Kubota

Naoya Eguchi

A superior reflex type vertically-aligned liquid crystal display device wherein the refractive index anisotropy &#x394;n of its liquid crystal material is controlled to be more than 0.1, and the transmissivity of the liquid crystal is saturated with facility at a low voltage below 6V despite a reduction of the thickness of the vertically-aligned liquid crystal layer to less than 2 &#x3bc;m, hence achieving satisfactory driving at a practically low voltage while attaining another advantage of remarkable improvement in the transmissivity itself. Therefore, the display device indicates a sufficient transmissivity, an excellent low-voltage driving characteristic and a fast response. Further improvements are realizable in a display apparatus, a projection optical system and a projection display system by the use of such display device.

Reflex liquid crystal display device, display apparatus, projection optical system, and projection display system

A superior reflex type vertically-aligned liquid crystal display device wherein the refractive index anisotropy &#x394;n of its liquid crystal material is controlled to be more than 0.1, and the transmissivity of the liquid crystal is saturated with facility at a low voltage below 5 to 6V despite a reduction of the thickness of the vertically-aligned liquid crystal layer to less than 2 &#x3bc;m, hence achieving satisfactory driving at a practically low voltage while attaining another advantage of remarkable improvement in the transmissivity itself. Therefore, the display device indicates a sufficient transmissivity, an excellent low-voltage driving characteristic and a fast response. Further improvements are realizable in a display apparatus, a projection optical system and a projection display system by the use of such display device.

Reflection type liquid crystal display element, display unit, projection optical system, and projection display system

A superior reflex type vertically-aligned liquid crystal display device wherein the refractive index anisotropy &#x394;n of its liquid crystal material is controlled to be more than 0.1, and the transmissivity of the liquid crystal is saturated with facility at a low voltage below 5 to 6V despite a reduction of the thickness of the vertically-aligned liquid crystal layer to 2.5 &#x3bc;m or less, hence achieving satisfactory driving at a practically low voltage while attaining another advantage of remarkable improvement in the transmissivity itself. Therefore, the display device indicates a sufficient transmissivity, an excellent low-voltage driving characteristic and a fast response. Further improvements are realizable in a display apparatus, a projection optical system and a projection display system by the use of such display device.

A second harmonic generating element radiates a laser beam having a wavelength of 532 nm onto a substrate surface. The laser beam corresponds to the second harmonic beam of a fundamental laser beam having a wavelength of 1064 nm. An emitting optical system emits the laser beam vertically to the substrate surface so that the laser beam is made linear. An observing means has a optical axis Lo oriented in a different direction from a optical axis Li of the emitting optical system and provides a CCD image sensor served as a two-dimensional imaging device located in conjugation with the height or thickness of the substrate surface. The observing means operates to observe a light section image formed by the linear beam fired by the emitting optical system onto the substrate surface. Then, an image processing means precisely measures the form of the surface of an object to be measured as suppressing degrade of an S/N ratio, on the basis of the image data of the light section image observed by the observing means.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Minako Sugiura