Light blocking and cell spacing for liquid crystal matrix displays

Claim 2

A liquid crystal display comprising: a pair of flat substrate, at least one of which is transparent; a quantity of liquid crystal material disposed and contained between said substrates; an array of pixel electrodes disposed on said at least one substrate; at least one ground plane electrode disposed on the other use of said substrates, so that liquid crystal material is disposed between said pixel electrodes and said ground plane electrode, with said at least one ground plane electrode and said array of pixel electrodes being transparent; an array of amorphous silicon semiconductor switch elements associated with said pixel electrodes; a set of electrically conductive data lines; a set of electrically conductive gate lines, said switch elements, said data lines and said gate lines being electrically connected to permit voltages appearing on said data lines to be applied to select pixel electrodes in accordance with signals present on said gate lines; and cured photopatterned polyimide light blocking spacer material disposed between said substrates so as to determine the distance between said substrates and disposed so as to block light from said semiconductor switch elements.

Claim 3

The display of claim 1 in which said light blocking spacer material is also disposed so as to at least partially cover said data lines or said gate lines.

Claim 4

The display of claim 1 in which said light blocking spacer material at least partially covers said gate lines.

Claim 5

The display of claim 1 in which said light blocking spacer material at least partially covers said gate lines.

Claim 6

The display of claim 1 in which said light blocking spacer material is in contact with both of said flat substrates.

Claim 7

The display of claim 1 in which said light blocking spacer material is formed on the same substrate as said semiconductor switch elements.

Claim 8

The display of claim 1 in which said light blocking spacer material is formed on a nontransparent one of said flat substrate.

Claim 9

The display of claim 1 in which said polyimide includes additional material selected from the group consisting of black pigments and black dyes.

Claim 10

The display of claim 1 in which said polyimide comprises cured polyamic acid.

Claim 11

The display of claim 1 in which the spacing between said flat substrates is approximately 6 microns.

Claim 12

The display of claim 11 in which said light blocking spacer material exhibits an optical density greater than 3.

Claim 13

The display of claim 1 in which said light blocking spacer exhibits a resistivity greater than 10 10 ohm-cm.

Claim 14

The display of claim 1 in which said data lines are transparent.

Claim 15

The display of claim 1 in which said gate lines are transparent.

Claim 16

The display of claim 1 in which said semiconductor switch elements are light sensitive.

Claim 17

The display of claim 1 in which said semiconductor switch elements comprise field effect transistors having source, gate, and drain regions.

Claim 18

The display of claim 1 in which said semiconductor switch elements comprise thin film field effect transistors.

Claim 19

The display of claim 1 in which said transparent electrodes comprise indium tin oxide.

Claim 20

The display of claim 1 in which there is present only a single ground plane electrode.

Claim 21

The display of claim 1 in which both of said flat substrates are transparent.

Claim 22

The display of claim 1 in which said liquid crystal material is selected from the group consisting of dichroic liquid crystal material and twisted nematic liquid crystal material.

Claim 23

The display of claim 1 in which said pixel electrodes are approximately 0.01 inches square.

Claim 24

The display of claim 20 in which said semiconductor switch elements are approximately 0.001 inches square.

Claim 25

The display of claim 1 in which said light blocking spacer material is disposed on a color filter in registration with said pixel electrodes.

Claim 26

The display of claim 16 in which said drain regions are connected to said pixel electrodes.

Claim 27

The display of claim 1 further including a color filter in registration with said pixel cells.

Claim 28

The display of claim 1 further including a polarizer disposed external to and on opposite sides of said flat substrates and in which said liquid crystal material comprises twisted nematic material.

Claim 29

The display claim 1 further including a polarizer of disposed external to said flat substrates and in which the liquid crystal material comprises dichroic dye material, said polarizer being disposed so as not to be on a side of the display on which either the electrodes or the substrates on which the electrodes are disposed are opaque.

Claim 30

The display of claim 16 in which said gate lines comprise the same material as electrodes forming said FET gate regions.

Claim 31

The display of claim 1 in which said light blocking spacer material is disposed so as to prevent transmission of light in at least some locations between said pixel electrodes and either said gate lines or said data lines.

Claim 32

A liquid crystal display comprising: a pair of flat substrates, at least one of which is transparent; a quantity of liquid crystal material disposed and contained between said substrates; an array of pixel electrodes disposed on said at least one substrate; at least one ground plane electrode disposed on the other one of said substrate, so that liquid crystal material is disposed between said pixel electrodes and said ground plane electrode, with said at least one ground plane electrode and said array of pixel electrodes being transparent; an array of amorphous silicon semiconductor switch elements associated with said pixel electrodes; a set of electrically conductive data lines; a set of electrically conductive gate lines, said switch elements, said data lines and said gate lines being electrically connected to permit voltages appearing on said data lines to be applied to select pixel electrodes in accordance with signals present on said gate lines; and cured photopatterned polyimide light blocking spacer material disposed so as to at least partially cover said data lines or said gate lines.

Claim 33

A liquid crystal display comprising: a pair of flat substrates, at least one of which is transparent; a quantity of liquid crystal material disposed and contained between said substrates; an array of pixel electrodes disposed on said at least one substrate; at least one ground plane electrode disposed on the other one of said substrate, so that liquid crystal material is disposed between said pixel electrodes and said ground plane electrode, with said at least one ground plane electrode and said array of pixel electrodes being transparent; an array of amorphous silicon semiconductor switch elements associated with said pixel electrodes; a set of electrically conductive data lines; a set of electrically conductive gate lines, said switch elements, said data lines and said gate lines being electrically connected to permit voltages appearing on said data lines to be applied to select pixel electrodes in accordance with signals present on said gate lines; and cured photopatterned polyimide light blocking spacer material disposed so as to at least partially cover said data lines or said gate lines.

Claim 34

The display of claim 31 in which said light blocking spacer material is disposed so as to prevent transmission of light in at least some locations between said pixel electrodes and either said gate lines or said data lines.

Claim 35

A liquid crystal display comprising: a pair of flat substrates, at least one of which is transparent; a quantity of liquid crystal material disposed and contained between said substrates; an array of pixel electrodes disposed on said at least one substrate; at least one ground plane electrode disposed on the other one of said substrates, so that liquid crystal material is disposed between said pixel electrodes and said ground plane electrode, with said at least one ground plane electrode and said array of pixel electrodes being transparent; an array of amorphous silicon semiconductor switch elements associated with said pixel electrodes; a set of electrically conductive data lines, each of said data lines being partially duplicated along its length, respectively, so as to form a redundant conductive structure; a set of electrically conductive gate lines, said switch elements, said data lines and said gate lines being electrically connected to permit voltages appearing on said data lines to be applied to select pixel electrodes in accordance with signal patterns present on said gate lines; and cured photopatterned polyimide light blocking spacer material disposed so as to at least partially cover said data lines or said gate lines.

Claim 36

A liquid crystal display comprising: a pair of flat substrates, at least one of which is transparent; a quantity of liquid crystal material disposed and contained between said substrates; an array of pixel electrodes disposed on said at least one substrate; at least one ground plane electrode disposed on the other one of said substrates, so that liquid crystal material is disposed between said pixel electrodes and said ground plane electrode, with said at least one ground plane electrode and said array of pixel electrodes being transparent; an array of amorphous silicon semiconductor switch elements associated with said pixel electrodes; a set of electrically conductive data lines, each of said data lines being partially duplicated along its length, respectively, so as to form a redundant conductive structure; a set of electrically conductive gate lines, said switch elements, said data lines and said gate lines being electrically connected to permit voltages appearing on said data lines to be applied to select pixel electrodes in accordance with signal patterns present on said gate lines; and cured photopatterned polyimide light blocking spacer material disposed so as to at least partially cover said data lines or said gate lines.

Claim 37

The display of claim 33 in which said light blocking spacer material is disposed so as to prevent transmission of light in at least some locations between said pixel electrodes and either said gate lines or said data lines.

Claim 38

A liquid crystal display comprising: a pair of flat substrate, at least one of which is transparent; a quantity of liquid crystal material disposed and contained between said substrates; an array of pixel electrodes disposed on said at least one substrate; at least one ground plane electrode disposed on the other one of said substrates, so that liquid crystal material is disposed between said pixel electrodes and said ground plane electrode, with said at least one ground plane electrode and said array of pixel electrodes being transparent; an array of amorphous silicon semiconductor switch elements associated with said pixel electrodes; a set of electrically conductive data lines, each of said data lines being partially duplicated along its length, respectively, so as to form a redundant conductive structure; a set of electrically conductive gate lines, said switch elements, said data lines and said gate lines being electrically connected to permit voltages appearing on said data lines to be applied to select pixel electrodes in accordance with signal patterns present on said gate lines; and a cured photopatterned polyimide light blocking material disposed so as to at least partially cover said data lines or said gate lines.

Claim 39

A liquid crystal display comprising: a pair of flat substrate, at least one of which is transparent; a quantity of liquid crystal material disposed and contained between said substrates; an array of pixel electrodes disposed on said at least one substrate; at least one ground plane electrode disposed on the other one of said substrates, so that liquid crystal material is disposed between said pixel electrodes and said ground plane electrode, with said at least one ground plane electrode and said array of pixel electrodes being transparent; an array of amorphous silicon semiconductor switch elements associated with said pixel electrodes; a set of electrically conductive data lines, each of said data lines being partially duplicated along its length, respectively, so as to form a redundant conductive structure; a set of electrically conductive gate lines, said switch elements, said data lines and said gate lines being electrically connected to permit voltages appearing on said data lines to be applied to select pixel electrodes in accordance with signal patterns present on said gate lines; and a cured photopatterned polyimide light blocking material disposed so as to at least partially cover said data lines or said gate lines.

Claim 40

The display of claim 34 in which said light blocking material is disposed so as to prevent transmission of light in at least some locations between said pixel electrodes and either said gate lines or said data lines.