Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Shuzo Kaneko

Tsutomu Toyono

Akihiro Mouri

Yutaka Inaba

Junichiro Kanbe

Yasuyuki Tamura

Kazuo Yoshinaga

Toshikazu Ohnishi

Kazuo Isaka

Ryoji Fujiwara

Katsuhiko Shinjo

Katsumi Kurematsu

Yomishi Toshida

Tomoko Maruyama

Yutaka Kurabayashi

Tohru Takahashi

Hirokatsu Miyata

Takeo Eguchi

Shinjiro Okada

Tetsuya Kaneko

Takeo Tsukamoto

Takashi Kai

Tomoko Murakami

Hideaki Mitsutake

Masahiko Enari

Makoto Kojima

Tetsuo Hasegawa

Katsutoshi Nakamura

Hisao Yaegashi

Akio Yoshida

Naoki Kushida

Mitsutoshi Kuno

Junko Shingaki

Hiroshi Sato

Masaaki Shibata

Kazunori Katakura

Masato Katayama

Yoshio Takasu

Akio Maruyama

Takayuki Suzuki

Etsuro Kishi

Ihachiro Gofuku

Kazumi Tanaka

Toshiya Yuasa

Koichi Tohma

Kazuharu Katagiri

Tadashi Sato

Tatsuo Takeuchi

Isamu Shimoda

Tadashi Yamamoto

Yujiro Ando

Nagao Hosono

Satoshi Yuasa

Akihiko Tojo

Hiroyuki Kitayama

Hiroshi Fukumoto

Hideyuki Kawagishi

Shinnosuke Taniishi

Ryo Fujimoto

Yoshiro Udagawa

Fumitaka Kan

Seishiro Yoshioka

Hitoshi Shindo

Yukitoshi Ohkubo

Takayoshi Tsutsumi

Kouichi Touma

Tomoro Maruyama

Etsur O Kishi

Murakami Tomoko

An optical modulation device comprises scanning electrodes and signal electrodes disposed opposite to and intersecting with the signal electrodes, and an optical modulation material disposed between the electrodes, a pixel being formed at each intersection of the electrodes and showing a contrast depending on the polarity of a voltage applied thereto. The device is driven by a method comprising, in a writing period for writing in all or prescribed pixels among the pixels on a selected scanning electrode, a first phase for applying a voltage of one polarity having an amplitude exceeding a first threshold voltage of the optical modulation material to the all or prescribed pixels, and a second phase for applying a voltage of the other polarity having an amplitude exceeding a second threshold voltage of the optical modulation material to a selected pixel and applying a voltage not exceeding the threshold voltages of the optical modulation material to the other pixels, respectively among the all or prescribed pixels. The duration of a continually applied voltage of the same polarity applied to a pixel on a scanning electrode is 2.5 times the duration of the first phase in the writing period at the maximum.

Driving method for optical modulation device

An optical modulation element, in which a pixel surrounding a ferroelectric liquid crystal layer and an column shaped orientation layer is formed between a pair of electrodes. The orientation layer is formed by a high-molecular polymer in which an ultrafine granular conductive substance may be dispersed. External voltage applied across the electrodes in response to gradation signals performs gradation drivings.

Optical modulation element

A liquid crystal device is constituted by a pair of oppositely disposed substrates including a first substrate having a uniaxial alignment characteristic and a second substrate having a non-uniaxial alignment characteristic and a liquid crystal disposed between the first and second substrates. The first and second substrates are controlled to have surface potentials providing a difference therebetween of less than 50 mV in terms of an absolute value at their liquid crystal-contacting surfaces. As a result, the liquid crystal device is provided with an improved symmetry of switching threshold while retaining a good liquid crystal alignment characteristic.

Liquid crystal device

Provided an image forming method comprising the steps of;

Image forming method, recording medium, and visible image reproducing

Driving method for ferroelectric optical modulation device

A liquid crystal display device having a matrix of pixels in driven for gradational display with better temperature compensation and better flicker suppression by a driving method, wherein (a) a first voltage signal is applied to a pixel on a selected scanning line, the first voltage signal including a clear pulse, a writing pulse of a polarity opposite to that of the clear pulse and a correction pulse of a polarity opposite to that of the writing pulse, (b) a second voltage signal is applied to an associated pixel on a subsequent scanning line, the second voltage signal including a clear pulse, a writing pulse and a correction pulse of which polarities are respectively opposite to corresponding pulses of the first voltage signal, and (c) the correction pulse applied to the pixel on the selected scanning line is determined based on gradation data for the associated pixel on the subsequent scanning line, and the writing pulse applied to the pixel on the selected scanning line is determined based on gradation data for the pixel on the selected scanning line and the above-determined correction pulse.

Liquid crystal display apparatus having a film layer including

An active matrix liquid crystal device is driven by sequentially applying a first scanning pulse to reset each pixel on a first selected line, a second scanning pulse to write each pixel on a second selected line and a third scanning pulse to provide a voltage signal which is equal to or less than the optical threshold value of the liquid crystal to each pixel on a third selected line. According to the driving method, the first, second and third selected lines are spaced at a predetermined number of lines from each other, and a sum of time integrated values of the applied voltage signals is or approaches zero.

Method and apparatus for driving active matrix liquid crystal device

A liquid crystal display device is constituted by a pair of oppositely disposed substrates each having a plurality of opposing electrodes, and a ferroelectric liquid crystal disposed between the substrates so as to form a plurality of pixels each composed by a combination of a pair of the opposing electrodes and the ferroelectric liquid crystal disposed therebetween. Each pixel is provided with regions of different polarity inversion threshold voltages, and at least one of the pair of opposing electrodes is provided with a plurality of regions having unevennesses at different densities including a region with a higher density of unevennesses corresponding to a region of a lower polarity inversion threshold voltage and a region with a lower density of unevennesses corresponding to a region of a higher polarity inversion threshold voltage.

Liquid crystal display device having protrusions on the electrodes

The present invention relates to an optical modulation device that maintains good contrast despite changes in temperature and is capable of performing stable display. A polarizer, a first and second modulator and an analyzer are provided. Each modulator is a chiral smectic liquid crystal layer held between two opposite substrates which have different orientation determining abilities. The chiral smectic liquid crystal layers have at least two stable alignment states and substantially the same temperature dependency and tilt angle. The molecular axis of the first modulator at one of the two stable alignment states is substantially parallel to a transmitting modulation axis of said polarizer and is substantially perpendicular to a transmitting polarizing axis of said analyzer, and a molecular axis at one of the two stable alignment states of said second modulator is substantially parallel to a transmitting polarization axis of said analyzer.

Optical modulation device having different pretilts in the compensation

Liquid crystal display device with pixels having stripe-shaped

A liquid crystal display device having a matrix of pixels is driven for gradational display with better temperature compensation and better flicker suppression by a driving method, wherein (a) a first voltage signal is applied to a pixel on a selected scanning line, the first voltage signal including a clear pulse, a writing pulse of a polarity opposite to that of the clear pulse and a correction pulse of a polarity opposite to that of the writing pulse,(b) a second voltage signal is applied to an associated pixel on a subsequent scanning line, the second voltage signal including a clear pulse, a writing pulse and a correction pulse of which polarities are respectively opposite to corresponding pulses of the first voltage signal, and (c) the correction pulse applied to the pixel on the selected scanning line is determined based on gradation data for the associated pixel on the subsequent scanning line, and the writing pulse applied to the pixel on the selected scanning line is determined based on gradation data for the pixel on the selected scanning line and the above-determined correction pulse.

Liquid crystal display apparatus and drive method

A liquid crystal device is constituted by a pair of substrates having mutually opposing electrodes thereon, and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the substrates so as to form a pixel comprising a pair of the opposing electrodes and the liquid crystal layer therebetween. The liquid crystal layer in a pixel is divided into a plurality of regions having mutually different liquid crystal layer thicknesses, and the pixel is constituted so as to show an applied voltage-transmittance characteristic having an improved linearity. More specifically, for example, the liquid crystal layer in a pixel is provided with locally varying thicknesses by forming on a substrate pluralities of stripe-shaped projections and indentations at locally different indentation widths so that the projections have a smaller width in a region having a smaller indentation width than in a region having a larger indentation width.

LCD electrode projections of variable widths and spacings

A liquid crystal device is constituted by a pair of substrates, and a chiral smectic liquid crystal assuming at least two stable states disposed between the two substrates. At least one of the substrates is subjected to a uniaxial aligning treatment in two directions including a normal direction and a reverse direction substantially opposite to the normal direction. The liquid crystal is placed in an alignment state such that the liquid crystal provides an apparent tilt angle .theta.a which is a half of an angle between said two stable states, a tilt angle H and a pretilt angle .alpha. with respect to a substrate surface, and forms smectic layers forming an inclination angle .delta. from a normal to the substrate surfaces satisfying: H/2&lt;.theta.a.ltoreq.H and H&gt;.alpha.+.delta.. According to the liquid crystal device, an undesirable liquid crystal molecular movement along the substrates is effectively suppressed.

Chiral smetic LCD with small pretilt angle, substrate rubbed in two

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Shuzo Kaneko