Liquid crystal shutter

Claim 1

In a liquid crystal light shutter wherein light is transmitted through the shutter upon application of a voltage in a selection period and the amount of light tramsmitted through the shutter tends to fluctuate due to vibrations in the liquid crystal when the voltage is applied to the shutter for longer periods of time, including: a first substrate; at least two common electrodes disposed on the first substrate parallel to an spaced apart from each other; a second substrate opposite to the first substrate spaced apart to form a cell therebetween; a plurality of spaced apart signal electrodes disposed on the second substrate and arranged so that the signal electrodes are substantially perpendicular to the common electrodes on the first substrate; and a liquid crystal material having frequency dependent dielectric anisotrophy enclosed in the cell between the substrates the improvement which comprises: at least one isolation electrode disposed on the first substrate parallel to and between the common electrodes, or by providing an opaque projection having a dimension P on the common electrodes at locations which cross the signal electrodes for minimizing light leakage and an effective gap distance between adjacent common electrodes that is at least about ten times greater than the distance between the opposing subtrates the effective gap distance L eff , between common electrodes expressed as: 1/L.sub.eff =((P-W)/P)×1/L+(W/P)×1/G wherein W represents the width of each projection, L represents the gap distance between common electrodes, G represents the gap distance between each signal electrode, and P represents the pitch of repetitions of the projections.