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:
Aug. 15, 2000
Filed:
Mar. 31, 1998
Paul Bonnett, Littlemore, GB;
Nicholas Mayhew, Oxford, GB;
Michael Geraint Robinson, Stadhampton, GB;
Craig Tombling, Stadhampton, GB;
Michael John Towler, Botley, GB;
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Osaka, JP;
Abstract
A diffractive liquid crystal device includes a bistable liquid crystal arranged as pixels with each pixel being addressed by a strobe electrode and a pair of interdigitated data electrodes. A strobe generator supplies an initial blanking pulse to each of the strobe electrodes and then supplies strobe pulses in sequence to the strobe electrodes for at least several frames without any more blanking pulses. A data signal generator supplies data signals to the pairs of data electrodes which switch each pixel to a diffractive or non-diffractive state irrespective of its previous state. In particular, the strobe signals comprise pulses of opposite direction in consecutive frames. To select the non-diffractive pixel state, switching signals are applied to both the first and second electrodes during each frame. To select the diffractive pixel state, the first and second electrodes receive non-switching and switching pulses, respectively, during odd frames and switching and non-switching pulses, respectively, during even frames. This arrangement may be periodically reversed for DC compensation.