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:
Dec. 10, 1996
Filed:
Jun. 02, 1994
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A liquid crystal device for gradational display, comprising: a pair of substrates each provided with an electrode, and a liquid crystal layer comprising a chiral smectic liquid crystal disposed between the substrates; the pair of substrates each having thereon alignment control layer provided with a uniaxial alignment axis, wherein aid liquid crystal layer comprises a striped region and a non-striped region where (1) the striped region and the non-striped region each assume a homogeneous alignment state, (2) the striped region extends in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the uniaxial alignment axis, and (3) each of liquid crystal molecules within the striped region and the non-striped region show bistability; and the liquid crystal molecules within the striped region have a threshold voltage, for switching between two stable states, different from that given by the liquid crystal molecules within the on-striped region. The above two regions (striped and non-striped region) having different threshold voltages each other are suitable as a display region for a liquid crystal device providing good gradation characteristic.