The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 02, 2020
Filed:
Sep. 24, 2018
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Osaka, JP;
Nathan James Smith, Oxford, GB;
Andrew Acreman, Oxford, GB;
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Osaka, JP;
Abstract
A display device includes an optical stack arrangement including from the viewing side: a front polarizer; a first electrode layer; a viewing side bistable liquid crystal (LC) alignment layer; an LC layer; a non-viewing side bistable LC alignment layer; a second electrode layer; and a rear polarizer. The bistable LC alignment layers induce alignment of LC molecules of the LC layer adjacent to respective surfaces of the bistable LC alignment layers. The non-viewing side bistable LC alignment layer is switchable between two stable LC alignment states and the viewing side bistable LC alignment layer is also switchable between two stable LC alignment states. A combination of structural parameters of the viewing side and non-viewing side bistable LC alignment layers and the front and rear polarizers renders the display device operable to achieve four stable distinct optical states, each stable distinct optical state having a different optical response when viewed from the viewing side of the display device.