International Business Machines Corporation

Richard Allen John

Shui-Chih Alan Lien

Paul Stephen Andry

Praveen Chaudhari

James Patrick Doyle

James Andrew Lacey

Young Hoon Kwark

Eileen Ann Galligan

Christian Wilhelmus Baks

Robert J Von Gutfeld

Kevin K Chan

Sampath Purushothaman

Christopher Vincent Jahnes

David William Abraham

Marie Angelopoulos

Minhua Lu

Alessandro Cesare Callegari

John J Ritsko

James Henry Glownia

Ramon Lane

Omesh Sahni

Tony A Hancock

Chen Cai

Yuhichi Momoi

James T Welch, Iii

A method is provided to form an electromechanical relay. A magnetic layer is etched to form a substrate-metal structure having a pattern of conductive contacts. The substrate-metal structure is electroplated. The electroplated structure is attached to a printed circuit board (PCB). A portion of the electroplated structure is removed to electrically decouple the conductive contacts. The PCB includes a common contact terminal aligned to one end of each conductive contact. The PCB includes magnetic actuators each having a magnetic core with a first core part disposed within a via extending through layers of the PCB, and an electrical coil disposed around the first core part within layers of the PCB. Each conductive contact is aligned to an associated magnetic actuator to enable electrical contact between the common contact terminal and the conductive contact upon activation of the associated magnetic actuator.

Method of forming an integrated electromechanical relay

Electromechanical relays and semiconductor structures and microelectromechanical systems including at least part of an electromechanical relay are presented. For example, an electromechanical relay includes an electrically conductive terminal within a printed circuit board, one or more electrically conductive contacts, and one or more magnetic actuators. The one or more magnetic actuators are respectively associated with the one or more electrically conductive contacts and each magnetic actuator includes (i) a magnetic core within at least one via extending through one or more layers of the printed circuit board, and (ii) an electrical coil around at least a portion of the magnetic core and within one or more layers of the printed circuit board. Activation of the one or more actuators causes electrical contact between the terminal and an associated one of the one or more electrically conductive contacts.

Integrated electromechanical relays

Display panels and methods for fabrication are disclosed for an in-plane switching mode display to reduce or eliminate image sticking. The display panel includes a substrate with a first electrode formed on the substrate. A dielectric layer is formed on the substrate, and the dielectric layer forms an opening down to the first electrode so that the dielectric layer is eliminated over the first electrode. A second electrode is formed on the dielectric layer, and an alignment layer is formed on the first electrode, the second electrode and the dielectric layer.

High resolution in-plane switching mode TFT-LCD

A liquid crystal display device includes a first substrate, a dry alignment film deposited over the substrate, a second substrate coupled to the first substrate with the dry alignment film deposited over the second substrate therebetween and forming a cell gap, and a liquid crystal material formed in the cell gap. The dry alignment film allows for a truly vertical alignment of molecules of the liquid crystal material such that the molecules form an angle of substantially 90&deg; relative to the substrate. The dry alignment film can be an oxide layer, a nitride layer, an oxynitride layer or a silicon layer. This dry alignment layer can be treated to form a tilted homeotropic alignment, such that the liquid crystal molecules have a pretilt angle of 0.5 to 10 degrees from a substrate normal direction. The truly vertical alignment process can be incorporated with a ridge and fringe field process method to form a multidomain Vertical Alignment (VA) Liquid Crystal Display's (LCDs) which have wide viewing angles.

Vertical aligned liquid crystal display and method using dry deposited alignment layer films

A system and method for maintaining a dispensing system a desired distance between a dispenser and a surface is shown. The system includes a light-emitting device, connected to the dispenser, that emits light in the direction of the surface. The emitted light is reflected off of the surface as well as a mirror connected to the dispenser. Subsequently, all reflected light is received by a sensor. Using the sensor data, a computer calculates the distance between the dispenser and the surface. A servo device then adjusts the location of the dispenser, in accordance with the calculated distance, in order to maintain the desired distance between the dispenser and the surface. One advantage of the system and method is the increased ability to maintain a desired distance between the dispenser and the surface. This can lead to increased and higher quality production by a dispensing system.

Method and system for maintaining a desired distance between a dispenser and a surface

A liquid crystal display cell having liquid crystal molecules positioned in a vertical or a substantially vertical alignment is provided. The liquid crystal display cell includes at least two substantially homogeneous fluorinated alignment layers disposed on transparent electrodes; a liquid crystal layer of liquid crystal molecules disposed between the alignment layers; and, a means of applying voltage across the transparent electrodes. Methods for forming these liquid crystal display cells are also provided.

Liquid crystal display cell having liquid crystal molecules in vertical or substantially vertical alignment

A device and method for maintaining the volume of a liquid contained within a cavity between two substrates to something equal or nearly equal to that of the volume of the cavity. A particular application is a liquid crystal display (LCD), in which a liquid crystal (LC) material is contained within a cavity between two flat display substrates. The device serves to minimize the volume differential between the liquid and the cavity caused by a change in temperature of the display, such that the formation of bubbles within the liquid is substantially or completely prevented. In so doing, the device essentially eliminates thermally-induced defects that would otherwise be visible to the user.

Method and device for eliminating bubble formation within a liquid crystal display

A liquid crystal display with an array of pixels comprises a liquid crystal layer having transparent electrodes on either side thereof with an alignment layer disposed on each of the electrodes and in contact with opposite surfaces of the liquid crystal layer. The alignment layers are capable of inducing a predetermined pre-tilt angle on the molecules of the liquid crystal. The pre-tilt angle inducing ability of at least one of the alignment layers, which is formed with only one alignment direction, has been selectively altered so that pre-tilt angle inducing ability in the altered area differs in the magnitude of the angle from the pre-tilt angle inducing ability of the unaltered area. With the liquid crystal molecules having at least two different pre-tilt angles, more than one domain is created when voltage is applied across the electrodes. The change in the pre-tilt angle inducing ability in the altered areas is achieved by exposure to a beam, such as ultra violet light, of sufficient energy. In the preferred embodiment, the display is an active type with twisted nematic liquid crystals.

Liquid crystal display with multi-domains

A liquid display comprises a first substrate having a plurality of electrodes thereon, a second substrate having a common electrode, and a liquid crystal material disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate. The common electrode has a pattern of openings therein which causes display elements of the display to have more than one liquid crystal domain. The common electrode is otherwise continuous, except where the pattern of openings is located. The liquid crystal display is of the active matrix variety. It may be a multi-domain homeotropic liquid crystal display or a multi-domain twisted nematic liquid crystal display. It may be a crossover type of display wherein gate lines and data lines are disposed on one substrate and insulated from one another at crossover regions, or a non-crossover type with gate lines, pixel electrodes and active devices on one substrate and data lines having a pattern of openings in accordance with the invention on the opposite substrate.

Liquid crystal displays having multi-domain cells

A printhead of a resistive ribbon printer has a column of electrodes formed on each of at least two edge surfaces. When the column of electrodes at one edge surface is worn out after being used for printing, the printhead is rotated so that the column of electrodes at the other edge surface is used for printing. Instead of the column of electrodes at each edge surface being the same size, the column of electrodes at one edge surface could be smaller than at the other edge surface so as to have a higher resolution for graphics whereby the position of the printhead is changed each time that higher resolution is desired and then returned to its initial position when alphanumeric printing is to occur. The printhead could have more than two edge surfaces with each having a column of electrodes for printing when at the printing position.

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Yorktown Heights, NY, United States of America

Richard Allen John