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:
Sep. 23, 2003
Filed:
Jan. 22, 1998
Jun Sugiyama, Suwa, JP;
Yuji Fujimori, Suwa, JP;
Seiko Epson Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A polarizing apparatus extracts light amount of which is increased by incidence of light ( ) having a plurality of planes of polarization, and by aligning the planes of polarization. This polarizing apparatus can be used as a polarizer for a liquid crystal display device (optical transducer), or can be disposed as a preliminary stage before a polarizer. Molecules of an optically active material ( ) rotates the plane of polarization through an optical rotation angle &thgr; when a first vector component of light having a horizontal plane of polarization passes, and rotates the plane of polarization through an optical rotation angle &thgr; (>&thgr; ) when a second vector component of light having a vertical plane of polarization passes. Therefore, light having a horizontal plane of polarization is amplified, and light having a vertical plane of polarization is reduced. To bestow the anisotropy of the optical rotation angle on the large number of molecules making up the optically active material molecular constituents of the optically active material are substantially aligned in three dimensions. By this means, the efficiency of use of the incident light can be increased, and a brighter display can be obtained, or the power consumption of the light source can be reduced.