Single‐layered retardation films with negative wavelength dispersion birefringence made from liquid‐crystalline monomers

Organic light‐emitting diode displays have a cathode composed of a layer of highly reflective metal. Reflection of external light from this layer can be suppressed with a broadband quarter‐wave plate. Although various types of quarter‐wave plate retardation films have been prepared by copolymerizing, mixing, or laminating multiple polymers, ideal wavelength dispersion has not been achieved with thin retardation films because of their relatively low birefringence and the complexity of the procedure required manufacturing them. In this study, we developed (i) new liquid‐crystalline monomers with negative wavelength dispersion birefringence that we used to obtain thin, single‐layered retardation films suitable for coating and (ii) retardation films with different molecular alignments. We found that the monomers showed high solubility and high regularity of molecular alignment, with less damage to the substrate and alignment films. We also investigated the wavelength dispersion and thermal stability of the films. We succeeded in developing retardation films that had a homeotropic alignment or a hybrid alignment with negative wavelength dispersion. These alignments can be used to obtain antireflection films with an improved viewing angle for organic light‐emitting diode displays or next‐generation thin displays.     

A broadband wide‐incident‐angle reflective polarization converter

Abstract— A high‐performance reflective polarization converter which could be used in a backlight recycling system for liquid‐crystal‐display (LCD) devices is proposed. The device consists of a twisted‐nematic (TN) liquid‐crystal film, a uniaxial A‐plate, and a reflector. The configuration parameters, such as thickness and orientation of the films, are optimized using a genetic algorithm. As a result, the design can convert light from TM to TE polarization (or TE to TM) at a maximum 99.7%, minimum 91.3%, and average 96.7% conversion efficiency for the entire visible spectrum and incident angle from 0 to 60°. Such a broadband reflective polarization converter is particularly useful for enhancing the light efficiency and reducing the power consumption of LCDs.     

Single step micro‐patterned liquid crystal photoalignment by patterned quarter‐wave plate

In this article, a method for fabricating the patterned liquid crystal photoalignment structures, in a single step, is proposed. A patterned quarter‐wave plate formed by a photoaligned liquid crystalline polymer film is used as a photomask to generate photoaligned micro‐patterns. Whereas other existing alternatives include complicated fabrication scheme, the proposed method provides an edge with simple one‐step alignment. Moreover, the proposed method offers highly accurate, high resolution, multi micro‐pattern alignment with great repeatability and therefore could find application in wide range of photonic and display devices demanding the micro‐patterned, single of multi domain, alignment. In addition, the structure could be used for optical polarization information storage and patterned alignment structure storage, which could easily be reproduced.     

A SiGe BiCMOS phase shifter based on quarter‐wave coupled resonators

This work presents the first example of monolithically integrated phase shifter based on a pass‐band filter architecture. The proposed configuration was realized mapping a classical quarter‐wave coupled filter circuit into its lumped element equivalent. Phase control is achieved by controlling the pass‐band through tunable tanks employing varactor diodes. A demonstrator was prototyped in the 24 GHz ISM band using a 0.25μm SiGe BiCMOS technology. Experimental results show 180° of phase range and maximum transmission losses of 8 dB. The main feature of this configuration is that it allows controlling the transmission losses by design and that its size is extremely compact.     

Transflective twisted‐nematic liquid‐crystal display with double twisted‐nematic cell and twisted liquid‐crystal retarder

Abstract— Two configurations, (i) a double‐cell‐gap twisted nematic (DTN) liquid‐crystal display (LCD) and (ii) a single‐cell‐gap twisted‐nematic (TN) liquid‐crystal display (LCD) using a twisted LC retarder, were optimized for transflective liquid‐crystal displays. For the DTN configuration, both the single‐cell‐gap approach and the double‐cell‐gap approach were considered. The optimized configurations exhibit a high contrast ratio, wide viewing angles, and achromatic (black/white) switching in both the transmissive and reflective modes. They are easy to fabricate and also possess a perfect dark state. Both are suitable for high‐quality transflective TFT‐LCDs.     

Compensation of birefringence in lead‐free polarizing beam splitters for LCOS projectors

Abstract— Most optical designs for delivering light to LCOS imagers and then from the imagers to the projection lens use polarizing‐beam‐splitter (PBS) technology. Most of the PBSs used in commercial LCOS projectors contain glass with a significant amount of lead (Pb). Such glasses have inherently low stress birefringence, and therefore maintain the polarization state of light passing through them. However, Pb‐bearing glass is an expensive, difficult to process, and hazardous material with special disposal requirements and is therefore not desirable in consumer‐electronic products. On the other hand, Pb‐free wire‐grid plate PBSs require a longer back focal length than would be optimal. Data and modeling results show that uniform high‐contrast dark states may be obtained from lead‐free‐glass Cartesian PBS prisms when a quarter‐wave compensator is used between the imager and the PBS.     

Local dimming light‐guiding plate type backlight system using alignment‐controlled polymer‐dispersed liquid crystals

A new technology which enables a local brightness control according to the displayed images has been expected in the thin and lightweight backlight systems to improve a contrast ratio and power consumption of the liquid crystal displays (LCDs). In this paper, we have proposed a novel local‐dimming backlight system using alignment‐controlled polymer‐dispersed liquid crystals as a light‐guiding plate and investigated the forming conditions of polymer‐dispersed liquid crystals to achieve both a high‐luminance ratio and a fast response speed. As a result, we found that a luminance ratio and response speed of the backlight system can be improved by using bifunctional LC monomer materials and forming fine and rigid polymer network in the LCs, and achieved high luminance ratio of 16:1 and fast response time less than 0.5 ms. In addition, we fabricated the twisted nematic‐mode LCD using the local dimming light‐guiding plate‐type backlight based on this design, and successfully realized eight times higher contrast ratio than that of the traditional twisted nematic‐mode LCD.     

A silicon‐chip‐based light valve with reflective twisted‐nematic mode for high‐definition projectors

Crystalline‐silicon‐chip‐based reflective light valves are suitable for realizing high definition and bright liquid‐crystal projectors. We have developed an XGA (1025 × 769 pixels) silicon‐chip‐based light valve with a diagonal display area of 2.54 cm (1 in.). The reflective twisted‐nematic mode was examined by using the Jones matrix method as a display mode, and the normally white reflective twisted‐nematic mode was selected. This mode is suitable for a narrow cell gap, and a fast response time can be expected. In addition, the driving voltage of this mode is low and has good chromaticity with small retardation. The cell gap of the light valve is 2 μm. The cell gap support is made using spacer posts formed on the silicon chip with a photodefinable resin. The response time is 12 msec, including both rise and fall times. The contrast ratio is more than 1000 at 5 Vrms.     

High‐transmittance in‐plane‐switching liquid‐crystal displays using a positive‐dielectric‐anisotropy liquid crystal

Abstract— The in‐plane‐switching (IPS) mode exhibits an inherently wide viewing angle and has been widely used for liquid‐crystal‐display (LCD) TVs. However, its transmittance is limited to ～76% compared to that of a twisted‐nematic (TN) cell if a positive‐dielectric‐anisotropy LC is employed. A special electrode configuration that fuses the switching mechanism of the conventional IPS and the fringe‐field switching (FFS) to boost the transmittance to ～90% using a positive LC has been developed. The new mode exhibits an equally wide viewing angle as the IPS and FFS modes.     

Contrast‐enhanced wide‐angle high‐speed polarization modulator for active‐retarder 3‐D displays

Abstract— A contrast‐enhanced wide‐angle high‐speed polarization modulator for active‐retarder 3‐D displays is proposed. By using a double liquid‐crystal‐cell structure together with a dedicated driving scheme and an external quarter‐wave retarder, a high‐performance modulator can be realized, resulting in minimized brightness loss and low cross‐talk levels in fast‐refresh time‐multiplexed 3‐D displays.     

Towards a polarized light‐emitting backlight: micro‐structured anisotropic layers

A backlight for liquid‐crystal‐display illumination is presented, in which s‐polarized light is preferentially coupled out by micro‐optical structures in a birefringent layer. In the experiments, contrasts higher than 15 have been obtained. A polarization dependent ray‐tracing model has been developed. Important guidelines for finding an optimal backlight configuration have been derived from the calculations.     

Dual‐band dual‐polarized hybrid aperture‐cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna for wireless applications

A dual‐band dual‐polarized hybrid aperture‐cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna (CDRA) is examined in this article. Inverted regular pentagon shaped aperture is not only used to launch two radiating hybrid modes (HEM_11δ and HEM_12δ mode) in CDRA but also act as a radiator. Out of two frequency bands, the lower frequency band is linearly polarized while upper frequency band is the combination of both circular and linear polarization. A circular polarization (CP) characteristic in upper frequency band is created by loading quarter annular stub with microstrip line. LHCP/RHCP can easily be controlled by alternating the position of quarter annular stub. It is operating over two frequency ranges i.e. 2.48‐2.98 GHz and 4.66‐5.88 GHz with the fractional bandwidth 18.31% and 23.14% respectively. Axial ratio bandwidth (3‐dB) is approximately 8.78% (4.9‐5.35 GHz) in upper frequency band. The proposed antenna design is suitable WiMAX (2.5/5.5 GHz) and WLAN (2.5/5.5 GHz) applications.     

3D‐printed high‐gain circularly polarized antenna for broadband millimeter‐wave communications over the power line

It is well known that high transmission loss occurs when millimeter waves traveling through the atmosphere. As an alternative, power line is proposed as a transmission media to combat the high loss. In this article, a three‐dimensional (3D) printed high‐gain circularly polarized antenna was proposed for millimeter‐wave broadband power line communications. It has a simple structure, where tapered slots are designed between the upper and lower layers of the waveguide to generate the circularly polarized operation. A wide impedance bandwidth of 31.58% (24‐33 GHz) and an axial ratio bandwidth of 28.07% (24.5‐32.5 GHz) are achieved by the proposed design. A maximum gain of 11.2 dBi is measured from the 3D printed structure. The proposed antenna has a simple structure which is easy to adjust to any working frequency. The antenna can be excited by properly integrated to the waveguide that connected to the power line end. The use of 3D printing technology enables a low‐cost solution millimeter‐wave broadband communications over the power line.     

Performance of a circular crossed‐dipole array for SDMA configuration adopting directivity and polarization control using particle swarm optimization algorithm

In this article, the performance of a circular crossed‐dipole array (CCDA) for space division multiple access (SDMA) configurations adopting directivity and polarization control is presented. The array consists of 12 dual‐polarized elements uniformly distributed in a circular configuration; each dual‐polarized element (crossed‐dipole) consists of two half‐wave dipoles in a ±45° slant configuration. The modified particle swarm optimization and moment of method (MPSO‐MOM) algorithm is used to calculate the complex weightings of the array elements in a mutual coupling environment for beamforming synthesis. In addition, the performance of the adaptive array using discrete feedings (1‐bit amplitude and 4‐bit phase shifters or only 4‐bit phase shifters) is studied. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2009.     

High‐quality direct‐view display combining multiple integral 3D images

This paper proposes a method for combining multiple integral three‐dimensional (3D) images using direct‐view displays to obtain high‐quality results. A multi‐image combining optical system (MICOS) is used to enlarge and combine multiple integral 3D images without gaps. An optical design with a simple lens configuration that does not require a diffuser plate prevents the deterioration in resolution resulting from lens arrangement errors and the diffuser plate. An experiment was performed to compare a previously developed method with the proposed method, and the latter showed a significant improvement in image quality. A method for expanding the effective viewing angle of the proposed optical design was also developed, and its effectiveness was confirmed experimentally. A prototype device of the proposed optical design was constructed using a high‐density organic light‐emitting diode (OLED) panel with 8K resolution and 1058 ppi pixel density to achieve 311 (H) × 175 (V) elemental images, a viewing angle of 20.6° in both the horizontal and vertical directions, and a display size of 9.1 in. In addition, the proposed optical design enabled making device considerably thinner, ie, with a thickness of only 47 mm.     

Watt‐level compact green laser for projection display

Abstract— In this paper, a compact efficient diode‐pumped solid‐state (DPSS) green laser based on a periodically poled MgO:LiNbO³ (MgO:PPLN) crystal, which is suitable for low‐cost mass production, was demonstrated. A linearly polarized 532‐nm laser light of 1.02‐W CW output power was obtained by employing a simple parallel‐plane configuration. A numerical method, based on the 1 ‐D coupled‐mode equations, is used in the cavity design and investigation of the intra‐cavity second‐harmonic‐generation process.     

Asymmetric dual‐band linear‐to‐circular converter by bi‐layered chiral metamaterial

In this article, we present a dual‐band linear‐to‐circular transparent converter by bi‐layered chiral metamaterial (CMM) with an inverted “G” array in microwave region. The proposed metasurface consists of three layers which are the upper layer of the metasurface with a periodic regular metallic inverted “G” and wire array, the dielectric layer, and the bottom layer operating as chiral symmetric structure of the upper. The simulation results show that the transmitted right‐circular polarized wave with the axial ratio of 3 dB or less is in the range of 8.6‐10.9 GHz and the left‐circular polarized wave is within 18.1‐22.5 GHz when y‐polarized forward wave is normally incident. Specifically, the polarization conversion transmission can be maintained at over 85% at angle of incidence up to 40°. Therefore, the proposed CMM device is useful for the development of the integrated polarization manipulation devices.     

New measuring method for determining alignment parameters in twisted‐nematic and super‐twisted‐nematic cells

Abstract— A new method for determining the thickness, twist angle, and azimuth of the director for a substrate with twisted‐nematic (TN) and super‐twisted‐nematic (STN) liquid‐crystal (LC) cells has been proposed. The measurement was carried out by using an optical system which consisted of a monochromatic light source, polarizer, rotating analyzer, and software programs. The polarization transfer matrix, or Jones matrix, of a TN or an STN LC cell is formulated by the Fourier coefficient of the signal that is modulated by the rotating analyzer. These three alignment parameters are derived directly from components of the Jones matrix. We made a special effort to design the system to ensure accurate, stable, and quick measurement. Thus, the three parameters were determined simultaneously within a few seconds with good reproducibility; e.g., the standard deviation of the twist angle in the TN cell is 0.02° or less.     

A high‐efficiency holographic waveguide display system with a prism in‐coupler

Holographic waveguide display system with high efficiency is presented by embedding an in‐coupling prism and an out‐coupling reflective volume holographic element, which enables a small‐type configuration. The improved coupling scheme can achieve 25% efficiency and the chromatic is corrected properly.     

Non‐polar‐oriented InGaN light‐emitting diodes for liquid‐crystal‐display backlighting

Abstract— This article addresses spontaneously polarized light emission from GaN‐based light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) fabricated on electrically non‐polar crystallographic orientations and application of spontaneously polarized emission for backlighting of liquid‐crystal displays (LCDs). The first half of the article describes polarized light emission from GaN‐based LEDs and its role in solid‐state lighting technology. The second half reports on our experimental work to explore the potential of non‐polar LEDs for LCD backlighting applications. Optical transmission of non‐polar LED emission was characterized through a liquid‐crystal layer. Extinction ratios of 0.21 were measured between zero and an applied bias voltage to the liquid‐crystal cells. These extinction ratios are not particularly high yet; nevertheless, the experiment has demonstrated the potential of such non‐polar LEDs for LCD backlighting.