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. 06, 1989
Filed:
Dec. 10, 1986
Yasuhiro Gunji, Hitachi, JP;
Sadayuki Okada, Katsuta, JP;
Masato Isogai, Hitachi, JP;
Katsumi Kondo, Hitachi, JP;
Masahiko Ibamoto, Katsuta, JP;
Kazuhiro Kuwabara, Hitachi, JP;
Atsushi Kanke, Hitachi, JP;
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
The liquid crystal cell (30) for the optical change-over switch comprises a pair of transparent substrates (1), a pair of transparent flat electrodes (2) provided on the respective opposing surfaces of the substrates, orientation control films (3) provided on the flat electrodes (2), two pair of comb shaped electrodes (33) respectively provided on the orientation control films (3), and a ferroelectric liquid crystal layer (4) confined between the substrates (1). The optical incidence plane (31) to the cell (30) is so selected that the plane (31) is away from the helical axes (9) of the ferroelectric liquid crystal in the cell (30) in the order of somewhat greater than the tilt angle (.theta..sub.t) of the ferroelectric liquid crystal. The pair of flat electrodes (2) generate a first electric field (37a) perpendicular to the layer (32) and orient the long axes of the ferroelectric liquid crystal molecules into a first orientation (35a') parallel to the layer (32 ) to induce a first refractive index which causes simultaneous reflection of unpolarized light beam (7+8) with a predetermined incidence angle (.theta.). The two pair of comb shaped electrodes (33) generate a second electric field (37b') parallel to the layer and perpendicular to the helical axes (9) and orient the long axes of the molecules into a second orientation (35b') not in parallel to the layer (32) to induce a second refractive index which causes simultaneous transmission of the unpolarized light beam (7+8) with the predetermined incidence angle (.theta.).