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US 8,026,997 B2Granted
Area active backlight with steerable light source
AssigneeSharp Laboratories of America, Inc.
InventorXiao-fan Feng
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A liquid crystal display includes a backlight. The backlight includes a plurality of waveguides to selectively direct light. A set of selection elements in combination with the backlight selectively direct light to the front of the display.
Claims21
A display comprising:
- (a) a liquid crystal layer;
- (b) a backlight that provides light to said liquid crystal layer;
- (c) said liquid crystal layer selectively modifying the transmission of light from said backlight to the front of said display;
- (d) said backlight includes a plurality of spaced apart light waveguides;
- (e) said display includes a plurality of selection elements associated with said light waveguides that selectively inhibit the transmission of light toward said liquid crystal layer, wherein said selection elements includes liquid crystal material in a polymer matrix and that alternates between an on and an off state, respectively, upon selective application of a voltage;
- (f) wherein the combination of said waveguides and said selection elements provide light to regions of said liquid crystal layer in a temporally sequential manner during a frame.
3 more elements
A display comprising:
- (a) a liquid crystal layer;
- (b) a backlight that provides light to said liquid crystal layer;
- (c) said liquid crystal layer selectively modifying the transmission of light from said backlight to the front of said display;
- (d) said backlight includes a plurality of spaced apart light waveguides arranged in a one-dimensional parallel array extending from one side to the other side of said display;
- (e) said backlight includes at least one light source associated with each of said waveguides;
- (f) said display includes a plurality of selection elements associated with each of said waveguides such that selective activation of one of said selection elements results in light not being substantially inhibited that is directed light toward said liquid crystal layer while light is substantially inhibited that is directed toward said liquid crystal layer where one of said selection element is not selected;
- (g) said selection elements include liquid crystal material in a polymer matrix sandwiched between conductive layers;
- (h) each of said waveguides are provided with light in a sequential manner while a plurality of associated selection elements for each of said waveguides are selected so that light is selectively emitted from each of said respective waveguide.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.