Image display device utilizing birefringence properties of ferroelectric ceramic material

Abstract

An image display device comprises first and second polarizers having their planes of polarizations oriented at right angles to each other and an electrooptic plate of ferroelectric ceramic material interposed between the first and second polarizers. A matrix electrode arrangement is secured to one surface of the ceramic plate to cause crystallographic structural changes to occur under the influence of a locally generated electric field, so that light passing through the first polarizer is refracted by an amount proportional to the magnitude of the electric field and emerges from the second polarizer with an intensity proportional to the electric field. The electrode arrangement includes a plurality of row electrodes and a plurality of column electrodes to define a plurality of elemental picture areas. In each elemental area the electrode arrangement includes a diode, first parallel finger electrodes connected to a row electrode via the diode and second parallel finger electrodes connected to a column electrode and staggered relative to the first finger electrodes.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.