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:
May. 30, 2006
Filed:
Jul. 18, 2001
Emma L Wood, Malvern, GB;
Guy P Bryan-brown, Malvern, GB;
Victor C Hui, Malvern, GB;
John C Jones, Malvern, GB;
Carl V Brown, Nottingham, GB;
Emma L Wood, Malvern, GB;
Guy P Bryan-Brown, Malvern, GB;
Victor C Hui, Malvern, GB;
John C Jones, Malvern, GB;
Carl V Brown, Nottingham, GB;
ZBD Displays Limited, Malvern, GB;
Abstract
Liquid crystal devices are described that exhibit bistable, tri-stable or other multistable operation. The stable liquid crystal configurations are attained using a surface alignment grating () on the internal surface of at least one cell wall (). The surface profile of the surface alignment grating comprises three or more defect sites per grating period and permit the liquid crystal molecules to adopt any one of two or more stable pretilt angles in the same azimuthal plane. Application of a suitable voltage causes the liquid crystal material to switch between the stable configurations.