Liquid crystal parallax barrier and method of addressing

Abstract

A liquid crystal (LC) device includes an optical stack arrangement including from the viewing side: a first electrode component; a first LC alignment layer; an LC layer; a second LC alignment layer; and a second electrode component. A voltage is applied to the LC device to create a potential difference between the first and second electrode components to switch an alignment of liquid crystals of selected portions of the LC layer from a first state when no voltage is applied to a second state when the voltage is applied. The first and second LC alignment layers are vertical alignment layers that induce a vertical alignment of the liquid crystals such that the first state when no voltage is applied is a vertical alignment state, and the liquid LC crystals switch to a planar alignment state as the second state when the voltage is applied. The first and/or second electrode components is a dual layer segmented electrode component comprising a first layer of electrode elements separated by inter-electrode gaps and a second layer of electrode elements separated by inter-electrode gaps, the first layer of electrode elements and the second layer of electrode elements being spaced apart in a viewing direction by an insulator layer.