Patent EP0268877A2 successfully refreshed from Google Patents.
EP0268877A2
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EP
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Encapsulated liquid crystal and method
Assignee: Manchester R&D Partnership
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Filing: 1982-09-14
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2002-09-14
Abstract
Abstract Briefly, according to one aspect of the invention, liquid crystal material, and especially nematic material, is encapsulated; according to another aspect the encapsulated liquid crystal material is used in liquid crystal devices, such as relatively large size visual display devices; and according to further aspects there are provided methods for encapsulating liquid crystal material and for making a liquid crystal device using such encapsulated liquid crystal material.
Inventors
- 👤 James Lee Fergason
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-25 12:20
CPC Classifications
G; G02; G02F; G02F1/00; G02F1/01; G02F1/13; G02F1/133; G02F1/1333; G02F1/1335; C; C09; C09K; C09K19/00; C09K19/52; C09K19/54; C09K19/542; C09K19/544; G02F1/1334; G02F1/137; G02F2202/00; G02F2202/04; G02F2202/043
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 26
Claim 1
Independent Claim
35 words
A liquid crystal structure characterized in that it comprises: liquid crystal material and a medium for containing a multiplicity of discrete quantities of such liquid crystal material, and pleochroic dye in the liquid crystal material.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
35 words
A liquid crystal structure characterized in that it comprises: liquid crystal material and a medium for containing a multiplicity of discrete quantities of such liquid crystal material, and pleochroic dye in the liquid crystal material.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
22 words
The structure of either one of claims 1 or 2, further characterized in that the liquid crystal material has positive dielectric anisotropy.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
21 words
The structure of any one of claims 1-3, further characterized in that the liquid crystal material is operationally nematic liquid crystal.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
20 words
The structure of any one of claims 1-3, further characterized in that the liquid crystal material is nematic liquid crystal.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
52 words
The structure of any one of claims 1-4, further characterized in that the liquid crystal material has ordinary and extraordinary indices of refraction, the medium has an index of refraction, and the ordinary index of refraction of the liquid crystal material and the index of refraction of the medium are substantially matched.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
28 words
The structure of claim 5, further charaterized in that the extraordinary index of refraction of the liquid crystal is different from the index of refraction of the medium.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
36 words
The structure of any one of claims 1-6, further characterized in that the pleochroic dye is operative structurally to align with respect the liquid crystal structure thereby to control optical transmission in response to such alignment.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
31 words
The structure of any one of claims 1-7, further characterized in that the pleochroic dye is selected from the group consisting of indophenol blue, Sudan black, Sudan 3 and Sudan 2.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
43 words
The structure of any one of claims 1-8, further characterized in that the liquid crystal material, pleochroic dye and medium are cooperative to absorb light in the absence of an electric field and to reduce absorption in the presence of an electric field.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
63 words
The structure of any one of claims 1-9, further characterized in that the liquid crystal material has a tendency to orient in one direction under an electric field, allowing light to pass therethrough and the medium comprising non-planar surface-defining means for affecting the natural structure of the liquid crystal material by inducing a distorted alignment thereof in the absence of an electric field.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
38 words
The structure of any one of claims 1-9, further characterized in that the medium forms non-planar wall means that tends to distort the natural structure of the liquid crystal material when in the absence of an electric field.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
30 words
The structure of either one of claims 10 or 11, further characterized in that the medium forms discrete curved volumes containing discrete quantities of liquid crystal material and pleochroic dye.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
39 words
The structure of claim 12, further characterized in that said distorted alignment comprises alignment of the structure of both the liquid crystal material and pleochroic dye at least partly parallelling at least part of a wall of said volumes.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
22 words
The structure of any one of claims 1-13, further characterized in comprising electrical means for applying electric field to liquid crystal material.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
18 words
The structure of claim 14, further characterized in that the electrical means comprises electrodes for applying electric field.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
32 words
The structure of claim 15, further characterized in that the electrical means comprises circuit means for applying electrical energy to the electrode means to enable the same to apply such electric field.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
37 words
The structure of any one of claims 1-16, further characterized in that the liquid crystal, pleochroic dye and medium comprises volumes of liquid crystal material having a size of from about 2 microns to about 25 microns.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
43 words
The structure of any one of claims 1-17, further characterized in that the medium at least one material selected from the group including resin, polymer, gelatin, carboxy polymethylene polymer (Carbopole), maleic anhydride derived copolymer (Gantrez), poly(methyl vinyl ether/maleic anhydride) (Gantrez), and polyvinyl alcohol.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
26 words
The structure of any one of claims 1-18, further characterized in comprising substrate means for supporting the combination of liquid crystal material, pleochroic dye and medium.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
27 words
The structure of claim 19, further characterized in comprising adhering means for adhering the combination of liquid crystal material, pleochroic dye and medium to the substrate means.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
30 words
The structure of any one of claims 1-20, further characterized in that the liquid crystal material, pleochroic dye and medium are cooperative to affect optical transmission independently of optical polarization.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
74 words
The structure of any one of claims 1-21, further characterized in that the medium forms plural capsules of liquid crystal material and pleochroic dye bounded by walls formed by the medium, the dielectric constant of the walls of such capsules results in a capacitance in a radial direction that does not drop the voltage appreciably relative to the voltage drop across the liquid crystal material upon application of an electric field across respective capsules.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
17 words
An optical apparatus or optical display characterized in comprising the structure of any one of claims 1-22.
Claim 25
Independent Claim
42 words
A method of causing liquid crystal material to perform substantially independently of the optical polarization direction of incident light, comprising combining pleochroic dye with the liquid crystal material and confining such dyed liquid crystal material as a suspension in a confining medium.
Claim 26
Independent Claim
42 words
A method of causing liquid crystal material to perform substantially independently of the optical polarization direction of incident light, comprising combining pleochroic dye with the liquid crystal material and confining such dyed liquid crystal material as a suspension in a confining medium.
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