Twisting ball displays comprised of thixotropic liquid and bichromal balls charged with electret dipoles

A method of enabling the precision addressing of the electrically charged and optically anisotropic elements of a twisting element display by dispersing said elements in a thixotropic liquid that provides hydrodynamic isolation between adjacent elements of said display.

A twisting ball display structure comprising the space between a pair of planar electrodes that is filled with a thixotropic liquid into which has been dispersed a plurality of electrically charged and optically anisotropic rotatable elements, the spacing of said rotatable elements being partially controlled by the co-dispersion of a greater plurality of smaller dimensioned particles.

A twisting ball display structure comprising the space between a pair of planar addressing electrodes, said space being filled with a thixotropic liquid into which has been dispersed a plurality of rotatable electrically charged and optically anisotropic elements, means being provided to apply an AC electric field between the electrode pairs prior to addressing to cause a slight rotation of said elements, thereby lowering the threshold voltage for addressing.

The display device structure comprising charged optically anisotropic rotatable elements dispersed in an elastomer layer and subsequently plasticized in an oil to form an oil filled cavity around each said element, the magnitude of the monopole charge on each rotatable element being controlled by the force needed to separate the ball surfaces from the elastomer during cavity formation.