Lensvector Inc.

UniversitÈ Laval

Photintech Inc.

Other

Tigran Galstian

Armen Zohrabyan

Karen Asatryan

Vladimir Presniakov

Amir Tork

Aram Bagramyan

Peter P Clark

Simon Careau

Rouslan Birabassov

Dany Dumont

Marco Thiboutot

Jeffrey James Parker

Behzad Khodadad

Ted J Cooper

Michael James Nystrom

Gongjian Hu

Bahram Afshari

Sergei Y Yakovenko

Chong I Cheang

Suresh Venkatraman

Thomas Charles Antognini

Jacques Godin

Jean-François Viens

Armen Saghatelyan

Arutyun Bagramyan

Derek Alexandre Proudian

Howard Earhart

Thomas Edwin Killick

Aram Babramyan

Armen Zohrabian

Aram Bagramian

Denis Brousseau

Bertrand Gagnon

David Yoon

Richard Peter Glynn Jewell

Liquid crystal light beam control devices and their manufacture are described. Beneficial aspects of beam broadening devices employed for controlled illumination and architectural purposes are presented including improving beam divergence control, improving beam broadening dynamic range control, beam divergence preconditioning, improving projected beam intensity uniformity.

Liquid crystal beam control device

Liquid crystal (LC) beam modulation devices are applied to lighting control or to optical wireless communications to improve performance of lighting or communications. A flexible optical network using LC beam modulation and common control of beam intensity and solid angle of beams are also described.

Liquid crystal beam control

A lighting device using a liquid crystal beam modulator produces good broadening of a light beam. The liquid crystal cell has a patterned electrode structure having a pattern of paired electrodes on a first one of a pair of cell substrates for providing a spatially modulated electric field extending into a liquid crystal material, and the cell is arranged with respect to a light source so that an incident beam will arrive through another of the pair of substrates and exit from the first one of the pair of substrates.

Liquid crystal beam control device generating flat-top distribution

A liquid crystal optical device providing refractive Fresnel lens type element control over light passing through an aperture is provided. The device includes a layer of liquid crystal material contained by flat substrates having flat alignment layers; and an arrangement of electrodes configured to provide a spatially varying voltage distribution within a number of lensing zones within said liquid crystal layer. The arrangement of electrodes includes ring-shaped electrodes defining boundaries between Fresnel lensing zones. The liquid crystal optical device is structured to provide a spatial variation in the optical phase delay with an abrupt transition at a boundary between lensing zones to increase the effective aperture of the optical device.

Controllable liquid crystal layered Fresnel lens device

For vehicles having left and right headlights, a steering direction signal input indicative of a left or right steering direction is used to modulate a control signal of a liquid crystal beam broadening device to broaden horizontally the vehicle headlight beam when the steering direction signal input is indicative of a selected one of a left or a right steering direction and to maintain or reduce a horizontal spread of the vehicle headlight beam when said steering direction signal input is indicative of one of a left or a right steering direction opposite to the selected steering direction.

Vehicle headlight beam control having a liquid crystal driving circuit and liquid crystal broadening device

A method of wafer level manufacturing, separating and electrical connection of liquid crystal optical devices is disclosed. An electro-optic device having at least one liquid crystal cell for providing spatially variable control of light is also described. The electro-optic device includes: a pair of opposed substrates, each substrate having a lateral extent; a pair of electrodes for applying an electric field therebetween, each electrode having a pattern and being deposited on a corresponding substrate, each electrode having an electrical contact area extending to at least one side of the corresponding substrate; a pair of alignment layers sandwiching a liquid crystal layer therebetween, the alignment layers defining a predominant orientation direction for liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer; and a liquid crystal reservoir wall defining a lateral extent of the liquid crystal layer, the liquid crystal reservoir wall being spaced from at least one side of each substrate such that each electrode electrical contact area is exposed to air in an air gap between the substrates.

Method of wafer scale fabrication, assembly and electrical connection of a liquid crystal electro-optic device

A variable light beam is provided from a light source. The light source can be an LED light source or other source. The light source includes basic collimation optics, such as reflector or Fresnel lens, an electrically controllable LC device, such as a polydisperse LC film, in front of the incident spot light beam. Preferably the polydisperse LC film includes transparent flat uniform electrode layers. The LC device can be autonomous of the light source. The proposed solution provides a dynamically controllable, preferably polarizer-free and pixel-free, beam shape light source module including a controllable light beam control module and a light source module providing the initial light beam in a scanner light source, a camera flash, an architectural, automobile or industrial lighting device.

Liquid crystal dynamic beam control device and manufacture

Liquid crystal light beam broadening devices and their manufacture are described. Beneficial aspects of beam broadening devices employed for controlled illumination and architectural purposes are presented including providing symmetric beam broadening, improving the beam intensity profile, beam divergence preconditioning and improving projected beam intensity uniformity. Both beam control devices having in-plane and homeotropic ground state liquid crystal alignment are presented.

LC beam broadening device with improved beam symmetry

A fiber-optic thermometer probe has an optical fiber with a sensing portion, namely a region of reduced cladding thickness coated with a temperature-dependent refractive index material to provide variations in propagated light power upon changes in temperature in a vicinity of the sensing portion. A reflective interface optically coupled to a core of the optical fiber reflects light propagated therein. The sensing portion can be the tip and prepared by etching using a dipping process.

Fiber-optic thermometer

A liquid crystal optical device is described configured to provide variable beam steering or refractive Fresnel lens control over light passing through an aperture of the device. The device includes at least one layer of liquid crystal material contained by substrates having alignment layers. An arrangement of electrodes is configured to provide a spatially varying electric field distribution within a number of zones within the liquid crystal layer. The liquid crystal optical device is structured to provide a spatial variation in optical phase delay with a transition at a boundary between zones which is an approximation of a sawtooth waveform across the boundaries of multiple zones. The arrangement of electrodes, device layered geometry and methods of driving the electrodes increase the effective aperture of the overall optical device.

Liquid crystal beam control device with improved zone transition and method of manufacture thereof

Liquid crystal modulator optical devices and more specifically shutters and smart windows are presented. The liquid crystal modulator devices are characterized by a reduced polymer content which is eliminated from the material composition of the liquid crystal layer and characterized by non-uniform electrode structures in the liquid crystal structure configured to generate spatially non-uniform electric fields and therefore non-uniform molecular reorientation of liquid crystal molecules. This arrangement advantageously makes light scattering electrically controllable.

LC modulator devices based on non-uniform electrode structures

There is disclosed an imaging system for use in imaging a sample. The imaging system comprising a light source and a light detector. A probe optically coupled to the imaging assembly. The probe being configured to, during use, direct light from the light source to a focal point to illuminate the sample, and from the focal point to the light detector. The probe having a tunable liquid crystal lens (TLCL) assembly comprising at least one pair of TLCLs, the TLCLs of the pair being superposed to one another, a gradient-index (GRIN) lens assembly having a base being optically connected to the TLCL assembly, and a tip opposite to the base. The focal point being at a working distance from the tip. The working distance being adjustable relative to the tip by tuning each TLCL of the TLCL assembly during use.

Tunable optical device, tunable liquid crystal lens assembly and imaging system using same

A reprogrammable intraocular adaptive lens prosthesis apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes a tunable liquid crystal lens (TLCL) encapsulated in the intraocular prosthesis with control electronics and a power source or in the intraocular prosthesis with a control signal receiver while an external control electronics package transmits the control signal. The TLCL is driven in response to a stimulus signal to provide accommodation. The TLCL corrects other visual shortcomings of the natural eye. The intraocular prosthesis has a remote programmable TLCL controller configured to recalibrate the TLCL to compensate for dynamic adaptation of the eye over time.

Reprogrammable tuneable liquid crystal lens intraocular implant and methods therefor

A liquid crystal optical device is provided including at least two LC cells. A first LC cell layer has a predominant director orientation imparting a transversally non-uniform phase delay to a first polarization of an unpolarized incident light field passing therethrough while incident light of a second polarization orthogonal to the first light polarization passes therethrough undergoing transversally uniform phase delay. The first LC cell is configured to project a center extraordinary ray onto an optical axis of the device at the image surface. A second LC cell layer has a predominant director oriented orthogonally to the other predominant director in a plane perpendicular to the optical axis. The second LC layer imparts a transversally non-uniform phase delay to the second polarization of the incident light passing therethrough, the second LC cell being configured to project a center ordinary ray onto the optical axis at the image surface.

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Tigran Galstian