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:
Sep. 08, 2020
Filed:
Jun. 27, 2018
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Osaka, JP;
Andrew Acreman, Oxford, GB;
Nathan James Smith, Oxford, GB;
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Osaka, JP;
Abstract
A liquid crystal device (LCD) has improved brightness by the use of a patterned alignment structure. The LCD includes a liquid crystal (LC) layer; an electrode arrangement configured to apply an electric field to the LC layer, the electrode arrangement including a patterned electrode layer having a plurality of individual electrode elements and adjacent individual electrode elements are spaced apart from each other by an inter-electrode gap; and a patterned alignment structure that is deposited on the patterned electrode layer and is positioned to align LC molecules of the LC layer. The patterned alignment structure is configured such that a stronger anchoring energy is present at electrode edges of the individual electrode elements of the patterned electrode layer, as compared to a weaker anchoring energy present at electrode centers of the individual electrode elements and/or present at least at a portion of the inter-electrode gaps between adjacent individual electrode elements.