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:
Mar. 18, 1997
Filed:
Nov. 02, 1994
Paul O Braatz, Calabasas, CA (US);
Chiung-Sheng Wu, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Hughes Aircraft Company, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
A liquid crystal light valve is provided with an array of photoconductive pedestals surrounded by a dielectric matrix material. Metal mirror pads are formed on top of each pedestal to form a high resolution metal matrix mirror, with each pedestal/mirror combination servicing one image pixel. The dielectric matrix forms a potential barrier between the individual photoconductive pedestals which prevents lateral charge migration between pedestals. The metal matrix mirror also shields the underlying photoconductive pedestal from photoactivation by the readout beam. The dielectric matrix material has a lower dielectric constant than the photoconductive pedestals, allowing the impedance of the photoconductive pedestals to match the impedance of the liquid crystal layer with a much thinner layer of photoconductive material than in prior LCLVs using a continuous photoconductive layer. The thinner photoconductive layer results in higher electric fields which improve the LCLV's response time, photodegradation rate, spatial resolution and spectral response.