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. 24, 1996
Filed:
Sep. 22, 1994
Paul May, Cambridge, GB;
Craig Tombling, Oxfordshire, GB;
Michael G Robinson, Oxfordshire, GB;
Edward P Raynes, Oxfordshire, GB;
Jonathan Harrold, Oxfordshire, GB;
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Osaka, JP;
Abstract
An integrated electro-optical device according to the invention comprises a pixellated liquid crystal modulation layer superimposed over an electronic detection layer. Modulator pads for the liquid crystal layer may be formed as electrically conductive combs to achieve optical polarization. Where the liquid crystal layer provides selective absorption of unpolarized light, and separate polarizers between the liquid crystal and detection layers are therefore unnecessary, the device comprises such a liquid crystal layer superimposed over the electronic detector layer. Further, an integrated electro-optical device, optionally of the above type, has a plurality of pixels of the liquid crystal layer for each pixel of the detector array. This allows optical shuttering of the detector pixels by electrically modulating the pixellated liquid crystal layer.