Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha

Toshiaki Maehara

Susumu Sato

Tetsuya Satake

Takahiro Nishioka

Tetsuyuki Kurata

Yoshihiro Togashi

Light from a light sourceis linearly polarized by a polarizerThen it propagates via a half-mirroralmost parallel to the normal to a reflective liquid-crystal paneland falls on the reflective liquid-crystal panelThe reflected light reflected by the reflective liquid-crystal panelis received by a detectorvia the half-mirrorand an analyzerIn this state, the reflective liquid-crystal panelis rotated about an axis almost parallel to the normal to the reflective liquid-crystal paneland an angle (extinction angle) at which the output signal of detectorreaches minimum is measured. Then, the gap of the reflective liquid-crystal panelis detected based on the measured extinction angle. It is also possible to measure the output signals of detectorby arranging the analyzerin a state in which the transmission axis thereof is almost parallel to the polarization direction of the incident light and a state in which it is almost perpendicular thereto and to detect the gap of the reflective liquid-crystal panelbased on the measured signals.

Growing community of inventors

Aichi, Japan

Toshiaki Maehara