Liquid crystal optical element and test method for its boundary layer
AssigneeOPTREX Corporation
InventorsSatoshi Niiyama, Noriko Suehiro
Life of this patent
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Abstract
On substrates 2a, 2b of a chiral nematic liquid crystal optical element 1, transparent electrodes 3a, 3b and electrical insulation layers 4a, 4b are formed, and further, resin layers 5a, 5b having a pencil hardness of “B” or less are formed on the electrical insulation layers by a spin coating method so as to be in contact with a liquid crystal layer 7 When the surface hardness of the resin layers is to be measured, a glass substrate on which a resin layer is formed by screen-printing is prepared as a test piece, and the test piece is fitted to a pencil-scratching tester. The surface hardness is measured by scratching the test piece with two kinds of testing pencil selected from testing pencils having 17 grades of density.
Claims20
In a liquid crystal optical element comprising a pair of substrates with electrodes between which a liquid crystal layer including a chiral nematic liquid crystal is interposed wherein at least one of the substrates is transparent and the liquid crystal layer exhibits two or more optically stable states in a non-voltage-application time, the liquid crystal optical element being characterized in that a boundary layer is provided between an electrode on at least one of the substrates and the liquid crystal layer, and the surface hardness of the boundary layer is B or less in terms of a pencil hardness test.
In a test method for a liquid crystal optical element comprising a pair of substrates with electrodes between which a liquid crystal layer including a chiral nematic liquid crystal is interposed wherein at least one of the substrates is transparent and the liquid crystal layer exhibits two or more optically stable states in a non-voltage-application time, the test method being characterized in that a boundary layer is provided between an electrode on at least one of the substrates and the liquid crystal layer, and judgment is made as to the presence or absence of a image-sticking phenomenon after the liquid crystal optical element has been left for 1 hour or more in a state of maintaining a predetermined image.
In a test method for a boundary layer of a liquid crystal optical element comprising a pair of substrates with electrodes between which a liquid crystal layer including a chiral nematic liquid crystal is interposed wherein at least one of the substrates is transparent;
- the liquid crystal layer exhibits two or more optically stable states in a non-voltage-application time, and a boundary layer is provided at least a part between an electrode on at least one of the substrates and liquid crystal, the test method for a boundary layer of a liquid crystal optical element being characterized in that a test means having a predetermined ranking of hardness is provided;
- the test means is brought to contact with the boundary layer N times (1≦N) or more while a pressure is applied to the test means, and evaluation is made as to the surface hardness of the boundary layer based on whether or not a flaw is resulted in the boundary layer, whereby applicability to the liquid crystal layer is determined.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.