Hughes Aircraft Company

The Boeing Company

Jvc Victor Company of Japan, Ltd.

Willis H Smith, Jr

Leroy J Miller

Hugh L Garvin

J David Margerum

Anna M Lackner

Klaus Robinson

Thomas B Stanford

John D Margerum

Wei-Yu Wu

Philip G Reif

Khoon C Lim

Elena Ramos

John H Erdmann

Tsung Y Hsu

Anna M Lacker

A method for making batteries wherein the extraction step includes extracting plasticizer using phase shifting of supercritical carbon dioxide. In addition, contacting the extracting cells with pressurized carbon dioxide throughout the fabrication process encourages the formation of a solid electrolyte interphase layer.

Battery fabrication method using supercritical carbon dioxide

An improved liquid crystal display cell (34) comprising two substrates (108, 124) spaced apart and containing a quantity of liquid crystal mixture (18) therebetween, in which the substrates have facing surfaces (108', 124') coated with a continuous, electrically conducting material (38, 36), is provided with an array of spacer pads (40) at a pre-selected distance apart from each other, having a pre-selected height to maintain a given spacing between the substrates, and having a pre-selected cross-section that avoids substantial interference with the display properties of the liquid crystal display cell.

Liquid crystal light valves using internal, fixed spacers and method of

A substrate (20) is treated prior to use to induce a near-perpendicular orientation of a liquid crystal director (26) relative to the substrate. A layer of silica (98) is deposited upon the substrate (20) by in-line magnetron sputtering as the substrate ( 20) is moved past the sputtering target (78), and the silica-coated substrate (20) is thereafter treated with a long-chain alcohol. The alcohol-treated substrate (20) is covered with a layer of liquid crystal (22), the director (26) of the liquid crystal (22) assuming a field-off state tilted about 1-3 degrees from the perpendicular toward an azimuthal direction (30) parallel to the direction of movement of the substrate (20) during deposition.

Inducing tilted perpendicular alignment in liquid crystals

A substrate is treated prior to use to induce a near-parallel orientation of a liquid crystal director relative to the substrate. A layer of silica is deposited on the substrate by in-line magnetron sputtering as the substrate is moved past the sputtering target, and the silica-coated substrate is thereafter treated with an alcohol that is selected from one of two classes of alcohols: (1) alcohols having an aromatic ring structure on one end of an aliphatic chain and a hydroxy group on the other end, with or without at least one ether group in the chain, and (2) an aliphatic chain having a hydroxy group at one end and at least one ether linkage in the chain. An example is 2-phenylethanol. The alcohol-treated substrate is covered with a layer of the liquid crystal. The process of the invention induces a tilt to the director of the liquid crystal. The tilt is about 0.5.degree. to 4.degree., as measured parallel to the surface of the substrate.

Inducing tilted parallel alignment in liquid crystals

An electrically-conducting substrate coated with silicon dioxide is contacted with alcohol vapors from a source (12) by heating the substrate (16) in a microwave oven. The substrate and source of alcohol are contained in a vessel (10), on which a vacuum is optionally pulled during the heating. The process results in approximately 100 fold reduction in processing time from the prior art time of several hours to several minutes. The process may be used in either inducing perpendicular alignment or parallel alignment of liquid crystals in the cell.

Surface treatment process for liquid crystal cell substrates

A substrate (20) is treated prior to use to induce a near-perpendicular orientation of a liquid crystal director (26) relative to the substrate. A layer of silica (38) is deposited upon the substrate (20) by in-line magnetron sputtering as the substrate (20) is moved past the sputtering target (78), and the silica-coated substrate (20) is thereafter treated with a long-chain alcohol. The alcohol-treated substrate (20) is covered with a layer of liquid crystal (22), the director (26) of the liquid crystal (22) assuming a field-off state tilted about 1-3 degrees from the perpendicular toward an azimuthal direction (30) parallel to the direction of movement of the substrate (20) during deposition.

Active components of a liquid crystal light valve are provided on opposed faces of a pair of transparent substrates that have peripheral edges which flare out and away from the opposed faces at predetermined angles. A sealant ring formed from a stiffly resilient material encircles the substrates to seal the space between their opposed faces. The inner surface of the ring has a chevron profile with angles complementary to the substrate edge angles, and an unstressed inner diameter slightly smaller than the corresponding outer diameters of the substrates. The sealant ring is thus slightly deformed outwardly as the substrates are tightened together to a desired spacing, producing a hermetic seal for the active light valve elements.

Liquid crystal cell sealant assembly

Liquid crystals are induced to assume a uniform tilted alignment in the absence of an applied field by treating the surface of a substrate to provide a desired tilted surface microstructure and free hydroxyl groups. A long chain alcohol having the formula ROH, where R is a carbon chain having at least about 6 carbon atoms therein, is chemically reacted with the tilted surface microstructure and the alkoxy groups derived therefrom are chemically bonded to the microstructure. Subsequently introduced liquid crystals assume a tilted-perpendicular alignment at a tilt angle of about 0.5.degree. to about 6.degree.. The liquid crystals exhibit a significantly greater photostability than has previously been achieved. The microstructure is preferably obtained by depositing sequential layers of SiO.sub.x at medium and shallow grazing angles, where x is from 1 to 2, with the substrate rotated 90.degree. between depositions.

Method for tilted alignment of liquid crystals with improved

A light emitting panel is formed of a transparent plastic substrate doped with fluorescent dye which absorbs incident light through a relatively large surface area and emits light of a longer wavelength out through one edge. The incident light may be ambient or produced by a fluorescent light source. The edge emitted light is optically coupled into an edge of a display panel, which may be a polymer dispersed liquid crystal display or a plastic panel having a display surface formed with an etched or printed pattern, grating or hologram. The substrate materials of the emitting and display panels, as well as an optical adhesive which joins the edges thereof, preferably have an essentially similar index of refraction which is larger than that of air causing light propagating through the panels to be internally reflected and exit the structure only through the pattern on the display surface. The display panel is preferably transparent in the absence of light incident on the emitting panel, and produces a display visible from only one direction upon application of incident light. The display panel may be constituted as a center-high-mounted stop light for an automotive vehicle.

Visual display device with fluorescent dye-doped edge-illuminating

A polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) film, along with various fabrication methods that enable partial prealignment of the film's LC bubbles, are described. The film is formed with a matrix of liquid crystal bubbles. Individual liquid crystals within the bubbles are partially, but substantially less than fully, aligned in a given direction. Partial alignment is attained by the controlled application of an electric or magnetic field, or a mechanical flow, during photopolymerization. The resulting films retain the positive qualities of prior PDLCs, and in addition exhibit generally lower threshold and operating voltages, and can be used as tunable birefringent films in the infrared region.

Growing community of inventors

Newbury Park, CA, United States of America

Willis H Smith, Jr