Title of Invention	SWITCHABLE COLOR FILTER
Abstract	The liquid crystal switchable color filter switches between three-color bands and is preferably used for time-sequential color devices, as for example projection devices, direct view displays and video cameras. The color filter employs circularly polarizing selective reflection bands of at least four cholesteric filters (cfbl cfr2) together with three liquid crystal switches (sw1, sw2, sw3) and related retarder layers. The handedness of the second cholesteric filter (cfgl) is equal to the handedness of the third cholesteric filter (cfg2) and opposite to the handedness of the first and fourth cholesteric filter (cfb2, cfrl), and for the blocking state of a color band the optic axis of the corresponding liquid crystal switch is parallel or perpendicular to the polarization direction. This concept leads to an improved, excellent color saturation and requires less stringent production tolerances than in the prior art. Moreover, it advantageously allows overlapping color transmission bands thus improving the light efficiency. Reference Figure 6a.

Title of Invention

SWITCHABLE COLOR FILTER

Abstract

The liquid crystal switchable color filter switches between three-color bands and is preferably used for time-sequential color devices, as for example projection devices, direct view displays and video cameras. The color filter employs circularly polarizing selective reflection bands of at least four cholesteric filters (cfbl cfr2) together with three liquid crystal switches (sw1, sw2, sw3) and related retarder layers. The handedness of the second cholesteric filter (cfgl) is equal to the handedness of the third cholesteric filter (cfg2) and opposite to the handedness of the first and fourth cholesteric filter (cfb2, cfrl), and for the blocking state of a color band the optic axis of the corresponding liquid crystal switch is parallel or perpendicular to the polarization direction. This concept leads to an improved, excellent color saturation and requires less stringent production tolerances than in the prior art. Moreover, it advantageously allows overlapping color transmission bands thus improving the light efficiency. Reference Figure 6a.

Full Text	FORM 2 THE PATENTS ACT, 1970 (39 of 1970) COMPLETE SPECIFICATION [See section 10] SWITCHABLE COLOR FILTER; ROLIC AG, A CORPORATION ORGANIZED AND EXISTING UNDER THE LAWS OF SWITZERLAND, WHOSE ADDRESS IS CHAMERSTRASSE 50, 6301 ZUG, SWITZERLAND; THE FOLLOWING SPECIFICATION PARTICULARLY DESCRIBES AND ASCERTAINS THE NATURE OF THE INVENTION AND THE MANNER IN WHICH IT IS TO BE PERFOMED. GRANTED 16-5-2006 1 Switchable color filter The present invention relates to a liquid crystal switchable 5 color filter and, in particular, to such a color filter that em¬ploys circularly polarizing selective reflection bands of cho-lesteric filters; and to time-sequential color devices, for ex¬ample projection devices, direct view displays and video cam¬eras, comprising said color filter. 10 Past switching color filters which provide the primary colors RGB (Rsd-Green-Blue) synchronized with a fast imager represent the central unit of time sequential single panel video projec¬tors. This projector type is of particular interest because of 15 its compactness, low cost, and low weight. While the color fil¬ters generate the three color components of the full-color pic¬ture, the imager determines the gray levels of these components. If the switching frequency is sufficiently high the human eye simply integrates over the three color components and generates 20 the intended mixed color. Analogously, time sequential direct view displays are possible, and there exist also color video cameras based on the time sequential technique. The latter gen¬erate three gray scale images of the three color components which can be back transformed to the color image by calculating 25 the mixed color component or by time sequential projection. Various designs of color switches have been proposed. One well-known solution for RGB color generation is the mechanical color wheel. Its main drawbacks are light induced degradation of the 30 color filters used, large volume of the device, and jitter due to mechanical instabilities. Another known solution are stacked retarder/polarizer combina- 2 tions with liquid crystal switches, where unwanted color compo¬nents are removed (absorbed) by the polarizer. However, these filters are difficult to produce. In particular, it is difficult to generate saturated colors with thin stacked retarders, and 5 furthermore absorbing polarizers tend to degrade under high light levels. A third known solution uses stacked cholesteric filters, com¬bined with liquid crystal switches. Instead of being absorbed, 10 the unwanted color component is reflected by the cholesteric filters. This alternative is particularly attractive because the high light level present in projectors tends to damage any ab¬sorbing component. Furthermore, cholesteric filters exhibit steep selective reflection bands which result in excellent color 15 saturation. In addition, they generate circularly polarized light within the reflection band of the filter in accordance with its cholesteric helical structure which can be easily transformed to linear polarized light without loss of intensity. Cholesteric filters are nematic liquid crystals with a helical 20 structure with a pitch that is comparable to the wavelength of light. If crasslinkable nematic liquid crystals are used, the filters can be produced as thin films that can easily be com¬bined with nonchiral retarders to form a complex stack struc¬ture . ^ ~> Subtractive color switches and modulators based on cholesteric filters and liquid crystal switches are _ known and for instance described in the following publications: US patent 5,686,931 (Funfschilling et al.); J. Funfschilling and M. Schadt, Novel 3 0 LCD Color Projectors Based on Cholesteric Filters, SID Interna¬tional Symposium, Digest of Technical Papers, XXVI, 5S7-600 (1995); and K. Schmitt, J. Funfschilling, M. Z. Cherkaoui and M. Schadt, Fast Time-Sequential Color Switch Based on Choles- 3 teric Filters and DHP-LCDs, EuroDisplay '99: The 19th Interna¬tional Display Research Conference, Proceedings, 43 7-440 (1999). For comparison purposes, the general structure of a known color 5 switch is also illustrated in Fig. l, and a schematic represen¬tation of a corresponding known band modulation filter is de¬picted in Fig. 3. The color switch consists of three stacked band modulation filters (BMFs) 1, 3, and 5, each capable of blocking one of the primary colors R, G or B by applying suit- 10 able voltages to the electrodes of the liquid crystal switches which are part of each band modulation filter. The filters are independent from each other in the sense that each filter con¬trols a well defined wavelength band. At each switching state of the time sequential color switch, two color bands are blocked 15 and one passes. Independent BMFs in series are an optical concept which leads to highly saturated colors. It can be implemented with fast LCDs, such as ferroelectric LCDs. Used on a pixel-to-pixel basis, it 20 can also be used to generate true color projection systems. Despite these advantages, the known cholesteric color switches with their concept of independent BMFs in series still have shortcomings. One is that the realization poses stringent pro-25 duction tolerances on the LCDs. Another, conceptual shortcoming is that they represent not the most efficient way to split white light into saturated primary colors. The reason for this is a peculiarity of the human color 3 0 perception: If one determines the brightest band-pass filters that produce a given color saturation, one gets filter bands that overlap unless the color saturation is extremely high. As an example, the ideal band-pass-filters to produce NTSC color 4 coordinates from a white light source have transmission bands from 400.. 509 nm (B) , 497.. 566 nm (G) and 588.. 700 nm (R) , re¬spectively. There is a considerable overlap (497..509 nm) of the blue and the green filter. 5 However, the requirement for the independent BMFs that at each switching state two color bands are blocked and one passes im¬plies that the blocking bands of two adjacent colors must over¬lap. During the red period, for instance, no 'gap' is allowed 10 between the green and the blue filter, or - in other words - the respective filter transmission bands may not overlap. Compared with the ideal case, therefore, half of the light in this wave¬length region is lost by the requirement of non-overlapping fil¬ter transmission bands. For real filters with their finite 15 steepness of the filter characteristics the light loss is even significantly higher. A further shortcoming of the known cholesteric color switches can best be explained with reference to Fig. 3, which gives a 20 schematic representation of a conventional BMF. It comprises two cholesteric filters 13 and 15, which have an opposite handedness of the cholesteric helix, but are otherwise identical. Sand¬wiched between the cholesteric filters are two quarter wave plates (λ/4-plates) 17 and 19, and an LC switch 21. The LC switch 25 acts as a rotatable halve-wave plate (λ/2-plate). The upper part of the Fig. shows the blocking state of the BMF. An important feature of this optical arrangement is, that the effective bire¬fringence of the combination 'λ/4-plate / LC switch / λ./4-plate' is zero in the blocking state of the BMF. In this state, the two 30 other colors should pass unaltered, which is indeed true if the total birefringence is zero. Note that a change of polarization finally results in a reduced filter transmission. The precise degree of compensation to zero birefringence is not very criti- 5 cal in this respect. However, any residual birefringence changes the blocking power of the filter, leading to reduced color satu¬ration. This imposes stringent tolerances for the optical retar¬dation And of the LC switch cell (An is the birefringence of the 5 LC material, d the cell gap) . In addition, some ferroelectric LC switch cells (e.g. DHF LC cells) have intrinsic variations of An that lead to significant (3..5%) residual transmission of the BMF in its blocking state. 10 It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a switchable color filter, which overcomes the above mentioned shortcomings. This invention provides a liquid crystal switchable color filter 15 for switching between a first, a second and a third color band, which switchable color filter comprises a first switchable liq¬uid crystal cell, a first retarder layer which is a quarter-wave plate for the first color band, a first cholesteric filter hav¬ing a selective reflection band for the first color band, a sec- 20 ond cholesteric filter having a selective reflection band for the second color band, a second retarder layer which is a quar¬ter-wave plate for the second color band, a second switchable liquid crystal cell, a third retarder layer which is a quarter-wave plate for the second color band, a third cholesteric filter 25 having a selective reflection band for the second color band, a fourth cholesteric filter having a selective reflection band for the third color band, a fourth retarder layer which is a quar¬ter-wave plate for the third color band, a third switchable liq¬uid crystal cell, and a polarization blocking element, wherein 3 0 the switchable liquid crystal cells are capable of at least two switching states, wherein the handedness of the second choles¬teric filter is equal to the handedness of the third cholesteric filter and opposite to the handedness of the first and fourth 6 cholesteric filter, and wherein for the blocking state of the respective color band the optic axis of the corresponding switchable liquid crystal cell is either substantially parallel or substantially perpendicular to the light polarization direc-5 tion. For the polarization blocking element, two preferred embodiments are provided. In one embodiment, the polarisation blocking ele¬ment is formed by a linear polarizer. In the other embodiment, 10 it is formed by a (fifth) retarder layer which acts for the third Color band as a quarter-wave plate and a (fifth) choles¬teric filter having a selective reflection band for the third color band. 15 In a preferred embodiment, a supplementary cholesteric filter having a selective reflection band for the first color band and a supplementary- retarder layer which is a quarter-wave plate for the first color band is added on the light input side. This em¬bodiment is directly suitable for unpolarized input light. On 20 the other hand, without the supplementary cholesteric filter and retarder layer, input light can be used which is already line¬arly polarized; this is for instance the case if a polarization recovery scheme is used to illuminate the switchable color fil¬ter. Polarization recovery schemes are known using non-abscrbing 25 polarizers that split unpolarized light into two beams of dif¬ferently polarized light, and then transform the polarisation of one beam into the polarisation of the other and combine them tc a single beam - see for example US patent 5,235,443. 30 Further embodiments make use of the advantageous feature of the invention to allow cholesteric filters with overlapping wave¬length bands. Preferably, the short-wavelength cutoff of the second cholesteric filter is different from the short-wavelength 7 cutoff of the third cholesteric filter. Advantageously, the long-wavelength cutoff of the first cholesteric filter and the short-wavelength cutoff of the third cholesteric filter are at a substantially equal wavelength, which is shorter than the short-5 wavelength cutoff of tne second c'iiolesteric falter. Preferably, the long-wavelength cutoff of the second cholesteric filter is different from the long-wavelength cutoff of the third choles¬teric filter. Advantageously, the long-wavelength cutoff of the third cholesteric filter is at a longer wavelength than the 10 short-wavelength cutoff of the fourth cholesteric filter. The liquid crystal switchable cells act as a rotatable halve-wave plate. Many liquid crystal devices are capable of perform¬ing this optical function, in particular DHF-, SSF-, anti-15 ferroelectric, thresholdless anti-ferroelectric or electroclinic LC cells. The invention is particularly suitable for a time-sequenti al color device; it may, however, also be useful as a switchable 20 color filter for other applications. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to the inven¬tion can be used in projection optics and in direct view optics. A further application is in color video cameras based on the 25 time sequential technique. The invention selves the problems of the prior art devices ¬ described at the beginning and moreover does not unfavorably ¬ influence other important parameters such as high brightness. 30 With a liquid crystal switchable color filter according to The invention, the dependence of the contrast on And-variations ¬ advantageously is greatly reduced. This can for instance be under- 8 stood by comparing Fig. 3, schematically representing a prior art BMF configuration, and Fig. 4, representing a 'cholesteric filter / λ./4-plate / LC switch / λ/4-plate / cholesteric filter' configuration according to the invention, and observing the po-5 larization of light within the selective wavelength range as it passes through the configurations. The unpolarized input light is circularly polarized by the first cholesteric filter 13, only right (R-) circularly polarized light passes this filter. The first λ/4-plate 17 transforms this light into linearly (p~) po- 10 larized light. Depending on the switching state of the LC switch 21, the plane of linear polarization is rotated by 90° (top.) or remains unchanged (bottom) . The second X/4-wave placs 13 transforms this light into R- (top) or L- (bottom) circularly polarized light, in the version of the prior art (Fig. 3) the 15 exit cholesteric filter 15 reflects R-polarized light, i.e. the upper case is the blocking, the lower case the transmitting con¬figuration. By contrast, in the new version proposed by the in¬vention, where the two cholesteric filters have equal handed¬ness, an exit cholesteric filter 23 blocks L-polarized light 20 (lower case in Fig. 4) and passes R-polarized light. By observ¬ing the state of polarization at the LC switch we see that in the blocking state of the new design illustrated in Fig. 4 the linear polarization is parallel to optical axis of the LC switch, and consequently variations in And have very little 25 influence on the state of polarisation of the light. In con¬trast, in the prior art configuration illustrated in Fig. 3 And has to match exactly the birefringence of the λ/4-wave plates, imposing not only stringent production tolerances on the cell gap d, but also requires matched dispersion of the λ/4-vave 3 0 plates and the liquid crystal material. The And-variations are, of course, still present in a switchable color filter according to the invention, but result by analogy in a 3..5% change of 9 (not the dark but) the bright state transmission, which is far less damaging than the corresponding increase in the blocking state. 5 Advantageously, with a liquid crystal switchable color filter according to the invention there are no more three independent BMFs, but a single entity that comprises retarders and liquid crystal switches in a way that cannot be described as a stack of independent BMFs, but are best regarded as 'fused' BMFs. Fig. 2 10 may illustrate such a concept and shows a block 7 of 'fused' BMFs in comparison to the independent BMFs 1, 3 and 5 of Fig. 1. This concept allows to freely choose the bandwidth of each color and to manage the otherwise critical birefringence of the BMF in its blocking state (Fig. 4 bottom) . In this respect, a main 15 point is that although light inside the selective reflection range of the filter is blocked, light outside this range should be transmitted without change of polarization. Three independent BMFs of Fig. 4 in series would result in elliptically polarized light with completely different ellipticity that cannot be ccm- 20 pensated by simple retarders. However, the invention enables a configuration where, at least in good approximation, the bire¬fringence of the BMF ruveraen the sign of circular polarization in the blocking state and leaves the polarization unchanged in the transmitting state. In the latter ca3e the total birefrin- 25 gence is either zero or a full wavelength X. In Fig. 4 the case of zero birefringence is drawn, where for the blocking state the optic axis of the LC cell is parallel to the light polarization direction. Rotating the LC cell by 90° would lead to a retarda¬tion of . λ Such a configuration, where for the blocking state the 3 0 optic axis of the LC cell is perpendicular to the light polari¬zation direction, is also a feasible. Depending on the precise application, there may be polar- 10 izer/retarder combinations added to the light input and/or the light output side. These are indicated in Fig. 1 and 2 as compo¬nents 9 and 11. Although cholesteric color switches inherently act as polarizers, it can be preferable to use a linear pre-5 polarizer, and retarders may be required to match the linear po¬larization accordingly. Such a linear pre-polarizer is for in¬stance desirable in case a polarization recycling scheme is used to increase the light output of the lamp. Likewise, to match the output polarization to the subsequent imager, retarders and op-10 tionally 'cleaning polarizers' may be added in order to achieve the high polarization ratios required for high quality projec¬tors . To adapt the characteristics of a cholesteric filter to the 15 needs of a liquid crystal switchable color filter according to the invention, a cholesteric filter may be of a more complex type 'than just one layer of a cholesteric liquid crystal. For instance, it may also consist of more than one cholesteric layer, which togecher act as a circularly polarizing filter hav-20 ing a suitable reflection band, or the pitch of the cholesteric layer may vary over the layer thickness. For the cholesteric filters preferably liquid crystal polymers and crosslinked networks respectively are used. 25 Advantageously, the liquid crystal elements of the color filter, that is cholesteric filters, retarders and switches, are aligned by a photo-orientation technique. Among the different known methods particularly well suited will be those using linear pho- 30 topolymerisation (LLP), also sometimes referred to as photoori-ented polymer network (PPN). Backgrounds and manufacturing of such elements are disclosed in, for example, US-A-53S9S98, US-A-5838407, US-A-5602661, EP-A-689084, EP-A-0756193, WO-A-99/49360, 11 WO-A-99/64924, and WO-A-00/36463. The invention will now be described by way of example with ref¬erence to the accompanying drawings, in which: 5 Fig. 1 is a sketch showing the general structure of a known color switch; Fig. 2 is a sketch illustrating the concept of 'fused' BMFs in comparison to the independent BMFs of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a schematic representation of a known band modulation 10 filter; Fig. 4 illustrates a 'cholesteric filter / λ/4-plate / LC switch / λ/4-plate / cholesteric filter' configura¬tion according to the Invention; Fig. 5a to 5c are explanatory diagrams showing the basic ar- 15 rangement and operation of a first embodiment of the present invention,- Fig. 6a to 6c are explanatory diagrams showing the basic ar¬ rangement and operation of a second embodiment of the present invention, modified as compared with Fig. 5a to 20 5c; Fig. 7 is a graph showing transmissivities for the three color bands of a preferred embodiment; Fig. 8 shows transmissivities for the embodiment of Fig. 7, but with an additional output retarder/polarizer combina- 25 tion; Fig. 9 is a graph showing transmissivities for the embodiment of Fig. 8, but with the output polarizer rotated by 90°; Fig. 10 shows transmissivities for an embodiment comprising an additional input retarder/polarizer combination; 3 0 Fig. 11 is a graph showing transmissivities for a further em¬bodiment of the invention, which is adapted to already linearly polarized input light ,- Fig. 12 is a graph showing transmissivities for still a further 12 embodiment of the invention; Fig. 13 is a chromaticity diagram showing the approximations provided by the preferred embodiment, to an NTSC TV sys¬tem; 5 Fig. 14 is a chromaticity diagram corresponding to the transmis-sivities shown in Fig. 11; and Fig. 15 is a chromaticity diagram corresponding to the transmis-sivities shown in Fig. 12. 10 Basic arrangement and optical concept of a liquid crystal switchable color filter forming a first embodiment of the inven¬tion is schematically illustrated in Fig. 5a, 5b and 5c. Each of the figures shows the mode of action for one of the three pri¬mary colors (RGB in this example) , Fig. 5a for the red period, 15 Fig. 5b for the green period and Fig. 5c for the blue period. In the Fig, unpolarized light is indicated by a white/black pair of arrows, L-circularly polarized light by a single filled black arrow, R-polarized light by a single open arrow. The position of 20 the arrows from left to right indicates its color, ranging from blue (left side) to red (right side). The color filter comprises three times a combination λ/4-plate / LC switch / λ/4-plate', for the sake of simplicity 25 referred to as 'switch' and labeled swl, sw2 and sw3, and six cholesteric filters, labeled cfbl, cfb2, cfgl, cfg2, cfrl and cfr2, "Sach of the retarder/switch-combinations and each of the cholesteric filters are shown as a rectangular box extending .from left to right. For each cholesteric filter, the wavelength 3 0 range of selective reflection is marked within the corresponding box by a filling, and the handedness is indicated by a '+ ' or 1 - ' sign. 13 In each of the Pig. 5a, 5b and 5c, one of these switches is in the 'on' state (hatched filling, no change of handedness), and two in the 'blocking' state (crosshatched filling, change of handedness) . The figures differ only in the color that is 5 switched 'on'. Let us first discuss the red period (corresponding to Fig. 5a) , with the red switch sw3 'on' and the blue switch swl and the green switch sw2 'off'. 10 Unpolarized white light is impinging from the top onto the (blue) cholesteric filter cfbl. In the blue spectral range, only L-circularly polarized light 15 passes the filter; the R-component is reflected. Light in the green and red spectral range remains unchanged (i.e. unpolar¬ized) . Switch swl is in the blocking state, that is, it changes the handedness of the light. Since only the blue part of the spectrum is polarized, the change in handedness affects only the 20 blue part of the spectrum, changing the L-polarization to the R-polarization. The next cholesteric filter cfb2, which is sub¬stantially identical to cfbl, then blocks this light. Green and red remain unpolarized. 25 The case of the light in the green spectral range is very simi¬lar. The light remains unpolarized until it hits the (green) cholesteric filter cfgl, where only the R-polarized light is passed (note that the handedness of the green cholesteric fil¬ters is opposite to that of the blue and the red filtera, see 3 0 below) . Switch sw2 then reverses the polarization and the next cholesteric filter cfg2 then blocks this light. The case of the light in the red spectral range is different. 14 After passing the blue and green filter sections unchanged, the red light is polarized by the (red) cholesteric filter cfrl. Ihe L-component of the red light passes and the R-component is re¬flected. Switch sw3 is in the 'on' state and leaves the polari-5 zation in its L-state. The light then passes the cholesteric filter cfr2, yielding red, L-polarised output light. The green period (shown in Fig. 5b) , where the green switch sw2 is 'on1 and the blue switch swl and the red switch sw3 are 10 'off, is slightly more complicated. For the blue spectral range, there is no change compared to the red period. Similarly, the red spectral range remains unpolar-ized until it reaches the cholesteric filter cfrl, were only the 15 L-component passes, which is changed to the R-state by the switch sw3 and then blocked by the cholesteric filter cfr2. The case of the green spectral range is different. After passing the blue filter section unchanged, the green light is polarized 2 0 by the cholesteric filter cfgl, which passes the R-component only. The green switch in the 'on' state does not change this polarisation, and the light paoatiu an R-polax"ized light the next cholesteric filter cf g2. Then, the switch sw3 of the red filter section changes the polarization state of the green light (at 25 least to a first approximation) from R to L. The output is thus L-polarized, green light. This crucial influence on the green light by the red filter sec¬tion is in stark contrast to color switches of the prior art us-30 ing independent band modulation filters, where the green light passes the last 3MF unchanged. It should be further noted that the choice of opposite handed- 15 ness for the central (green) filter section is an important as¬pect of the invention, too. Choosing identical handedness would lead to colors with opposite polarizations. 5 Finally, Fig. 5c shows the most difficult case, namely the pe¬riod of the color of the first filter section. In the present example, this in the blue period, where the blue switch swl is 'on' and the green switch sw2 and the red switch sw3 is 'off'. 10 The red spectral range is blocked as in Fig. 5b and the green spectral range is blocked as in Fig. 5a. The blue spectral range is L-polarized by the cholesteric fil¬ter cfbl, then passes the switch swl and the cholesteric filters 15 cfb2 and cfgl with no change of polarization. Switch sw2 then approximately reverses the polarization to R, whereas switch sw3 reverses it back to L, giving L-polarised blue light output. Again, the concept of independent band modulation filters known 20 from the prior art does not apply since both the red and the green filter section change the polarization state of the blue spectral range. A second embodiment of the invention is schematically illus-25 trated in Fig. 6a, 6b and 6c. It uses the advantageous possibil¬ity of choosing the filter characteristics such that for the cholesteric filters overlapping wavelength bands are possible. As discussed above, this is important if the light of the lamp should be used efficiently. 30 The meanings of the arrows and other symbols in Fig. 6a, 6b and 6c correspond to those in Fig. 5. 16 Compared to the embodiment of Fig. 5, the embodiment of Fig. 6 has two relevant changes: In the red part, the long-wavelength cutoff of the green filter is at a longer wavelength than the short-wavelength cutoff of the red filter, i.e. the blocking 5 ranges overlap, with the desired result that a defined wave¬length band can be blocked completely. Whereas this feature is also possible with the known concept of independent BMFs, the green/blue boundary, however, is different. The two blue as well au The two GreEN choleoteric filters have different selective 10 reflection bands. Using the same reasoning as in the discussion of Fig. 5, one finds from Fig. 6a that the long-wavelength cut¬off of the cholesteric filter cfbl together with the short -wavelength cutoff of the cholesteric filter cfgl determine the long-wavelength cutoff of the transmitted blue light. Further, 15 from Fig. 6b one finds that the long-wave length cutoff of the cholesteric filter cfb2 together with the short-wavelength cut¬off of the cholesteric filter cfg2 determine the short-wavelength cutoff of the transmitted blue light. Since these cutoff-wavelengths can be freely chosen, advantageously any de- 20 sired band-pass characteristics can be implemented. The design concepts described above with reference to Fig. 5 and 6 are useful and result in switchable color filters of quite good quality. However, the implicit assumption that all switches 25 are λ./2-plates for all wavelengths is certainly only approxi¬mately true. As a further improvement of a liquid crystal switchable color filter according to the invention, it is there¬fore proposed to optimize the relative arrangements of the com¬ponents. To find such an arrangement, for instance an optimizing 3 0 algorithm can be used. In a successful example, an algorithm was used, which consists of a routine that calculates.the transmission spectra of a given 17 configuration and determines from these data a cost function that is a measure of the quality of the configuration. The cost function is minimal if both, color saturation and brightness are maximized. An optimization routine then varies the original con-5 figuration until a minimum is reached for the cost function. The algorithm is described in more detail below. Fig. 7 shows the result of such an optimization, and Fig. 13 gives the corresponding chromaticity diagram. The excellent 10 brightness and the almost perfect color saturation are evident from these data. Since the cut-off wavelengths of the choles-teric filters were part of the optimization procedure, these data again illustrate the importance of the overlap of the blue and the green spectral range. 15 The results shown in Fig. 7 use unpolarized input light, no ad¬ditional retarder and no 'cleaning' polarizer at the output (cf. also Table II) . Fig. 8 shows the result for the same stack but with an additional output retarder/polarizer combination; it ex- 20 hibits similar intensity as without polarizer, that is, the out¬put light is already well polarized by the cholesteric filters alone. This can also be seen from Fig. 9, where the output po¬larizer was rotated by 90°. These spectra are quite weak, a di¬rect indication of a high degree of polarization. However, the 25 signal of the wrong polarization is strong enough to possibly reduce the performance of the subsequent imager, so the cleaning polarizer may be necessary. In addition, the same imperfections (i.e. And-variations) that degrade the performance of the known independent aerial BMFs in their off state will in the present 3 0 case degrade the polarization quality of our color switch in its on state. However, a degradation of the polarization quality in the on state is much less harmful; it leads to an additional re¬duction of brightness of 3 to 5 %, which is acceptable in view 18 of the high overall brightness of the color switch. In a variation of the invention, the liquid crystal switchable color filter can also be adapted for input light that is already 5 linearly polarized, as is for instance the case if a polariza¬tion recycling scheme is used to illuminate the switchable fil¬ter. In fact, the liquid crystal switchable color filter may be simpliiied in this case: the first cholesteric filter as well as the first λ./4-plate can be omitted. Figured 11 shows an example 10 of corresponding spectra. They are equally bright and saturated as the former spectra (see also the corresponding chromaticity diagram in Pig. 14). Similarly, in a further variation of the invention, the last 15 cholesteric filter can be omitted if on the light output side a polarizer is used that can handle the full light intensity (for high intensities e.g. a polarizing beam splitter) . From Fig. 5 and 6 it can be seen that the last cholesteric filter cfr2 serves to block one red circular polarization. Further, from 20 Fig. 4 showing schematically the principal components of a fil¬ter section it can be seen that the needed blocking action can also be achieved by a linear polarizer just after the LC-switch. Thus, the handling of the red spectral range is not changed if the cholesteric filter cfr2 together with the λ/4-wave plate are 25 replaced by a linear polarizer. To improve the quality of this embodiment, it is however advantageous to make sure that at the same time the remaining spectral ranges (green and blue) are ab¬sorbed by the linear polarizer as little as possible. One way to reach this goal is the optimisation of the parameters of the re- 3 0 maining components, and the spectra shown in Fig. 12 as well as the chromaticity diagram of Fig. 15 show that in this way indeed a satisfactory color switch can be designed. 19 For the calculations m the examples given, the following condi¬tions have been used: The color filters are composed of polariz¬ers, retarders, cholesteric filters and liquid crystal switches. The calculations use a 4x4-matrix formalism. Retarders, choles- 5 teric filters and - if present - SSF LC cells use the same model for the birefringence n, namely n(X) = n0 + n1λ 2 / {λ2 - ΛO2 ) , using the parameters given in Table I for the retarders. For DHF LC cells the birefringence is different in the two switching states and taken as 1.098 and 1.513 , where is 0 given by the parameters also shown in Table 1. These data have been determined from real liquid crystal mixtures. Antireflection coatings are applied to the front and the back surface, modeled as a linear decrease of the isotropic refrac¬tive index n from the average index of the retarder material to 5 n = 1. Glass- and ITO-layers are neglected. Table I In the optimization routine the following cost function G is 0 minimized: Calculate the tristimulus-responses (XFr Y>, ZF, xP/ yF) for all three colors F = R,G,B, assuming a white (equal en¬ergy per nm bandwidth) light source. In a real application, ad¬vantageously the spectrum of the actual light source of the pro¬jection system should be used. With the data calculate s and minimise G by with respect to the above listed parameters. xP0 and denote the target values x,y for the colour co¬ordinates (taken as the NTSC colour co-ordinates in our exam- 20 pies) . The target values for the brightness, YF0 are determined from the brightness of an ideal colour filter. This ideal filter has a transmission of 1 in a given wavelength band and falls off to 0 over 10 nm on each side. The bandwidths of the filter are 5 chosen as wide as possible while still retaining the desired colour saturation. Note that for a specific design the actual lamp spectrum has to be employed in this calculation. The re¬sulting brightness of the three colours of these ideal filters is used as target values for the colour switch. In our case, the 10 values are 0.12, 0.25 and 0.05 for F= R, G, B respectively. The values of YF should be larger than, but close to, the maximum that can be attained for each colour. Note that the maximum transmission is 0.5 due to the polarizers. The weight parameters g are chosen interactively, adjusted recursively, such that the 15 size of corresponding terms in G after the optimisation are similar (within a factor of ten, preferably three). As described above, Fig. 7 to 12 show the calculated transmis¬sion spectra in the three switching states of several embodi-20 ments of a switchable color filter according to the invention. Tables II and III list the components involved and their parame¬ters . 21 Table II: Parameters used in. the calculations of the data shown in Figures 7 to 11 22 Table III: Parameters used in the calculations of the data shown in Figure 12 In the tables, angles are given with respect to an arbitrary laboratory-frame axis; the sign of the center wavelength indi¬cates the handedness; more than one number given in the center wavelength column indicates that in order to get the desired 5 bandwidth, several cholesteric filters were used in series (be¬cause the birefringence of the nematic host material used was smaller than required for getting the needed bandwidthn with only one cholesteric filter) , and the numbers given are the cen¬ter wavelength of the selective reflection bands of these sub-10 layers; an 'x1 means that this component is present; and a num¬ber in a polarizer row indicates the angle of the polarizer axis, no number means no polarizer is used at that position in the stack. 2.3 We Claim 1.. A. liquid crystal switchable color filter for switching be-5 tween a first, a second and a third color band, with a light path having a light input side and a light output side, the color filter comprising: a first switchable liquid crystal cell (swcelll) capable of at least two switching states; 10 - a first retarder layer (retl.2) which acts for the first color band as a quarter-wave plate; a first cholesteric filter (cfb2) having a selective reflec¬tion band for the first color band; a second cholesteric filter (cfgl) having a selective re-15 flection band for the second color band; a second retarder layer (ret2.1) which acts for the second color band as a quarter-wave plate; a second switchable liquid crystal cell (swcell2) capable of at least two switching states; 20 a third retarder layer (ret2.2) which acts for the second color band as a quarter-wave plate; a third cholesteric filter (cfg2) having a selective reflec¬tion band for the second color band; a fourth cholesteric filter (cfrl) having a selective re-25 flection band for the third color band; a fourth retarder layer (ret3.1) which acts for the third color band as a quarter-wave plate; a third switchable liquid crystal cell (swcell3) capable of at least two switching states; and 30 - a polarization blocking element; characterized in that the handedness of the second cholesteric filter (cfgl) is equal to the handedness of the third cholesteric filter (cfg2) 24 and opposite to the handedness of the first (cfb2) and fourth (cfrl) cholesteric filter; and for the blocking state of the respective color band the op¬tic axis of the corresponding switchable liquid crystal cell is 5 either substantially parallel or substantially perpendicular to the light polarization direction. 2. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to Claim 1, wherein the polarization blocking element is formed by 10 a linear polarizer. 3. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according ,to Claim 1, wherein the polarization blocking element is formed by a fifth retarder layer (ret3.2) which acts for the third color 15 band as a quarter-wave plate and a fifth cholesteric filter (cfr2) having a selective reflection band for the third color band. 4. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any 2 0 preceding claim, which comprises, added on the light input side, a supplementary cholesteric filter (cfbl) having a selective re¬flection band for the first color band and a supplementary re¬tarder layer (ret 1.1) which acts for the first color band as a quarter-wave plate. 25 5. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any preceding claim, wherein the cutoff wavelengths of the selective reflection band of the cholesteric filters are chosen such that at least two of the first, second and third color bands overlap 3 0 in its transmissive state. 6. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any preceding claim, wherein the short-wavelength cutoff of the sec- 25 ond cholesteric filter (cfgl) is different from the short -wavelength cutoff of the third cholesteric filter (cfg2). 7. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any 5 preceding claim, wherein the long-wavelength cutoff of the first cholesteric filter (cfb2) and the short-wavelength cutoff of the third cholesteric filter (cfg2) are at a substantially equal wavelength, which is shorter than the short-wavelength cutoff of the second cholesteric filter (cfgl). 0 8. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any preceding claim, wherein the long-wavelength cutoff of the sec¬ ond cholesteric filter (cfgl) is different from the long- wavelength cutoff of the third cholesteric filter (cfg2) . .5 9. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any preceding claim, wherein the long-wavelength cutoff of the third cholesteric filter (cfg2) is at a longer wavelength than the short-wavelength cutoff of the fourth cholesteric filter (cfrl). 10. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any preceding claim, wherein at least one of the switchable liquid crystal cells is of a Deformed Helix Ferroelectric (DHF) type or of a Surface Stabilized Ferroelectric (SSF) type. !5 11. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any of Claims 1 to 9, wherein at least one of the switchable liquid crystal cells is of a anti-ferroelectric type or especially of a thresholdless anti-ferroelectric type. 50 12. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any of Claims 1 to 9, wherein at least one of the switchable liquid crystal cells is of an electroclinic type. 26 13. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any preceding claim, which comprises ,on the light output side an ad¬ditional cleaning polarizer. 5 14. A time-sequential color device containing a liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any of Claims 1 to 13. //15. An optical projection device containing a liquid crystal 10 switchable color filter according to any of Claims 1 to 13. 16. A direct view display containing a liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any of Claims 1 to 13. 17. A video camera containing a liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any of Claims 1 to 13. Dated this 3rd day of April, 2003.

Full Text

FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
[See section 10]
SWITCHABLE COLOR FILTER;
ROLIC AG, A CORPORATION ORGANIZED AND EXISTING UNDER THE LAWS OF SWITZERLAND, WHOSE ADDRESS IS CHAMERSTRASSE 50, 6301 ZUG, SWITZERLAND;
THE FOLLOWING SPECIFICATION
PARTICULARLY DESCRIBES AND
ASCERTAINS THE NATURE OF THE
INVENTION AND THE MANNER IN WHICH
IT IS TO BE PERFOMED.
GRANTED 16-5-2006

1
Switchable color filter
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal switchable 5 color filter and, in particular, to such a color filter that em¬ploys circularly polarizing selective reflection bands of cho-lesteric filters; and to time-sequential color devices, for ex¬ample projection devices, direct view displays and video cam¬eras, comprising said color filter.
10
Past switching color filters which provide the primary colors RGB (Rsd-Green-Blue) synchronized with a fast imager represent the central unit of time sequential single panel video projec¬tors. This projector type is of particular interest because of
15 its compactness, low cost, and low weight. While the color fil¬ters generate the three color components of the full-color pic¬ture, the imager determines the gray levels of these components. If the switching frequency is sufficiently high the human eye simply integrates over the three color components and generates
20 the intended mixed color. Analogously, time sequential direct view displays are possible, and there exist also color video cameras based on the time sequential technique. The latter gen¬erate three gray scale images of the three color components which can be back transformed to the color image by calculating
25 the mixed color component or by time sequential projection.
Various designs of color switches have been proposed. One well-known solution for RGB color generation is the mechanical color wheel. Its main drawbacks are light induced degradation of the 30 color filters used, large volume of the device, and jitter due to mechanical instabilities.
Another known solution are stacked retarder/polarizer combina-
2

tions with liquid crystal switches, where unwanted color compo¬nents are removed (absorbed) by the polarizer. However, these filters are difficult to produce. In particular, it is difficult to generate saturated colors with thin stacked retarders, and 5 furthermore absorbing polarizers tend to degrade under high light levels.
A third known solution uses stacked cholesteric filters, com¬bined with liquid crystal switches. Instead of being absorbed,
10 the unwanted color component is reflected by the cholesteric filters. This alternative is particularly attractive because the high light level present in projectors tends to damage any ab¬sorbing component. Furthermore, cholesteric filters exhibit steep selective reflection bands which result in excellent color
15 saturation. In addition, they generate circularly polarized light within the reflection band of the filter in accordance with its cholesteric helical structure which can be easily transformed to linear polarized light without loss of intensity. Cholesteric filters are nematic liquid crystals with a helical
20 structure with a pitch that is comparable to the wavelength of light. If crasslinkable nematic liquid crystals are used, the filters can be produced as thin films that can easily be com¬bined with nonchiral retarders to form a complex stack struc¬ture .
^ ~>
Subtractive color switches and modulators based on cholesteric filters and liquid crystal switches are _ known and for instance described in the following publications: US patent 5,686,931 (Funfschilling et al.); J. Funfschilling and M. Schadt, Novel 3 0 LCD Color Projectors Based on Cholesteric Filters, SID Interna¬tional Symposium, Digest of Technical Papers, XXVI, 5S7-600 (1995); and K. Schmitt, J. Funfschilling, M. Z. Cherkaoui and M. Schadt, Fast Time-Sequential Color Switch Based on Choles-
3

teric Filters and DHP-LCDs, EuroDisplay '99: The 19th Interna¬tional Display Research Conference, Proceedings, 43 7-440 (1999).
For comparison purposes, the general structure of a known color 5 switch is also illustrated in Fig. l, and a schematic represen¬tation of a corresponding known band modulation filter is de¬picted in Fig. 3. The color switch consists of three stacked band modulation filters (BMFs) 1, 3, and 5, each capable of blocking one of the primary colors R, G or B by applying suit-
10 able voltages to the electrodes of the liquid crystal switches which are part of each band modulation filter. The filters are independent from each other in the sense that each filter con¬trols a well defined wavelength band. At each switching state of the time sequential color switch, two color bands are blocked
15 and one passes.
Independent BMFs in series are an optical concept which leads to highly saturated colors. It can be implemented with fast LCDs, such as ferroelectric LCDs. Used on a pixel-to-pixel basis, it 20 can also be used to generate true color projection systems.
Despite these advantages, the known cholesteric color switches with their concept of independent BMFs in series still have shortcomings. One is that the realization poses stringent pro-25 duction tolerances on the LCDs.
Another, conceptual shortcoming is that they represent not the most efficient way to split white light into saturated primary colors. The reason for this is a peculiarity of the human color 3 0 perception: If one determines the brightest band-pass filters that produce a given color saturation, one gets filter bands that overlap unless the color saturation is extremely high. As an example, the ideal band-pass-filters to produce NTSC color

4

coordinates from a white light source have transmission bands from 400.. 509 nm (B) , 497.. 566 nm (G) and 588.. 700 nm (R) , re¬spectively. There is a considerable overlap (497..509 nm) of the blue and the green filter. 5
However, the requirement for the independent BMFs that at each switching state two color bands are blocked and one passes im¬plies that the blocking bands of two adjacent colors must over¬lap. During the red period, for instance, no 'gap' is allowed
10 between the green and the blue filter, or - in other words - the respective filter transmission bands may not overlap. Compared with the ideal case, therefore, half of the light in this wave¬length region is lost by the requirement of non-overlapping fil¬ter transmission bands. For real filters with their finite
15 steepness of the filter characteristics the light loss is even significantly higher.
A further shortcoming of the known cholesteric color switches can best be explained with reference to Fig. 3, which gives a
20 schematic representation of a conventional BMF. It comprises two cholesteric filters 13 and 15, which have an opposite handedness of the cholesteric helix, but are otherwise identical. Sand¬wiched between the cholesteric filters are two quarter wave plates (λ/4-plates) 17 and 19, and an LC switch 21. The LC switch
25 acts as a rotatable halve-wave plate (λ/2-plate). The upper part of the Fig. shows the blocking state of the BMF. An important feature of this optical arrangement is, that the effective bire¬fringence of the combination 'λ/4-plate / LC switch / λ./4-plate' is zero in the blocking state of the BMF. In this state, the two
30 other colors should pass unaltered, which is indeed true if the total birefringence is zero. Note that a change of polarization finally results in a reduced filter transmission. The precise degree of compensation to zero birefringence is not very criti-

5

cal in this respect. However, any residual birefringence changes the blocking power of the filter, leading to reduced color satu¬ration. This imposes stringent tolerances for the optical retar¬dation And of the LC switch cell (An is the birefringence of the 5 LC material, d the cell gap) . In addition, some ferroelectric LC switch cells (e.g. DHF LC cells) have intrinsic variations of An that lead to significant (3..5%) residual transmission of the BMF in its blocking state.
10 It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a switchable color filter, which overcomes the above mentioned shortcomings.
This invention provides a liquid crystal switchable color filter
15 for switching between a first, a second and a third color band, which switchable color filter comprises a first switchable liq¬uid crystal cell, a first retarder layer which is a quarter-wave plate for the first color band, a first cholesteric filter hav¬ing a selective reflection band for the first color band, a sec-
20 ond cholesteric filter having a selective reflection band for the second color band, a second retarder layer which is a quar¬ter-wave plate for the second color band, a second switchable liquid crystal cell, a third retarder layer which is a quarter-wave plate for the second color band, a third cholesteric filter
25 having a selective reflection band for the second color band, a fourth cholesteric filter having a selective reflection band for the third color band, a fourth retarder layer which is a quar¬ter-wave plate for the third color band, a third switchable liq¬uid crystal cell, and a polarization blocking element, wherein
3 0 the switchable liquid crystal cells are capable of at least two switching states, wherein the handedness of the second choles¬teric filter is equal to the handedness of the third cholesteric filter and opposite to the handedness of the first and fourth

6

cholesteric filter, and wherein for the blocking state of the respective color band the optic axis of the corresponding switchable liquid crystal cell is either substantially parallel or substantially perpendicular to the light polarization direc-5 tion.
For the polarization blocking element, two preferred embodiments are provided. In one embodiment, the polarisation blocking ele¬ment is formed by a linear polarizer. In the other embodiment, 10 it is formed by a (fifth) retarder layer which acts for the third Color band as a quarter-wave plate and a (fifth) choles¬teric filter having a selective reflection band for the third color band.
15 In a preferred embodiment, a supplementary cholesteric filter having a selective reflection band for the first color band and a supplementary- retarder layer which is a quarter-wave plate for the first color band is added on the light input side. This em¬bodiment is directly suitable for unpolarized input light. On
20 the other hand, without the supplementary cholesteric filter and retarder layer, input light can be used which is already line¬arly polarized; this is for instance the case if a polarization recovery scheme is used to illuminate the switchable color fil¬ter. Polarization recovery schemes are known using non-abscrbing
25 polarizers that split unpolarized light into two beams of dif¬ferently polarized light, and then transform the polarisation of one beam into the polarisation of the other and combine them tc a single beam - see for example US patent 5,235,443.
30 Further embodiments make use of the advantageous feature of the invention to allow cholesteric filters with overlapping wave¬length bands. Preferably, the short-wavelength cutoff of the second cholesteric filter is different from the short-wavelength

7

cutoff of the third cholesteric filter. Advantageously, the long-wavelength cutoff of the first cholesteric filter and the short-wavelength cutoff of the third cholesteric filter are at a substantially equal wavelength, which is shorter than the short-5 wavelength cutoff of tne second c'iiolesteric falter. Preferably, the long-wavelength cutoff of the second cholesteric filter is different from the long-wavelength cutoff of the third choles¬teric filter. Advantageously, the long-wavelength cutoff of the third cholesteric filter is at a longer wavelength than the 10 short-wavelength cutoff of the fourth cholesteric filter.
The liquid crystal switchable cells act as a rotatable halve-wave plate. Many liquid crystal devices are capable of perform¬ing this optical function, in particular DHF-, SSF-, anti-15 ferroelectric, thresholdless anti-ferroelectric or electroclinic LC cells.
The invention is particularly suitable for a time-sequenti al color device; it may, however, also be useful as a switchable 20 color filter for other applications.
A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to the inven¬tion can be used in projection optics and in direct view optics. A further application is in color video cameras based on the 25 time sequential technique.
The invention selves the problems of the prior art devices ¬
described at the beginning and moreover does not unfavorably ¬
influence other important parameters such as high brightness.
30
With a liquid crystal switchable color filter according to
The invention, the dependence of the contrast on And-variations ¬
advantageously is greatly reduced. This can for instance be under-
8

stood by comparing Fig. 3, schematically representing a prior art BMF configuration, and Fig. 4, representing a 'cholesteric filter / λ./4-plate / LC switch / λ/4-plate / cholesteric filter' configuration according to the invention, and observing the po-5 larization of light within the selective wavelength range as it passes through the configurations. The unpolarized input light is circularly polarized by the first cholesteric filter 13, only right (R-) circularly polarized light passes this filter. The first λ/4-plate 17 transforms this light into linearly (p~) po-
10 larized light. Depending on the switching state of the
LC switch 21, the plane of linear polarization is rotated by 90°
(top.) or remains unchanged (bottom) . The second X/4-wave placs 13
transforms this light into R- (top) or L- (bottom) circularly
polarized light, in the version of the prior art (Fig. 3) the
15 exit cholesteric filter 15 reflects R-polarized light, i.e. the upper case is the blocking, the lower case the transmitting con¬figuration. By contrast, in the new version proposed by the in¬vention, where the two cholesteric filters have equal handed¬ness, an exit cholesteric filter 23 blocks L-polarized light
20 (lower case in Fig. 4) and passes R-polarized light. By observ¬ing the state of polarization at the LC switch we see that in the blocking state of the new design illustrated in Fig. 4 the linear polarization is parallel to optical axis of the LC switch, and consequently variations in And have very little
25 influence on the state of polarisation of the light. In con¬trast, in the prior art configuration illustrated in Fig. 3 And has to match exactly the birefringence of the λ/4-wave plates, imposing not only stringent production tolerances on the cell gap d, but also requires matched dispersion of the λ/4-vave
3 0 plates and the liquid crystal material. The And-variations are, of course, still present in a switchable color filter according to the invention, but result by analogy in a 3..5% change of

9

(not the dark but) the bright state transmission, which is far less damaging than the corresponding increase in the blocking state.
5 Advantageously, with a liquid crystal switchable color filter according to the invention there are no more three independent BMFs, but a single entity that comprises retarders and liquid crystal switches in a way that cannot be described as a stack of independent BMFs, but are best regarded as 'fused' BMFs. Fig. 2
10 may illustrate such a concept and shows a block 7 of 'fused' BMFs in comparison to the independent BMFs 1, 3 and 5 of Fig. 1. This concept allows to freely choose the bandwidth of each color and to manage the otherwise critical birefringence of the BMF in its blocking state (Fig. 4 bottom) . In this respect, a main
15 point is that although light inside the selective reflection range of the filter is blocked, light outside this range should be transmitted without change of polarization. Three independent BMFs of Fig. 4 in series would result in elliptically polarized light with completely different ellipticity that cannot be ccm-
20 pensated by simple retarders. However, the invention enables a configuration where, at least in good approximation, the bire¬fringence of the BMF ruveraen the sign of circular polarization in the blocking state and leaves the polarization unchanged in the transmitting state. In the latter ca3e the total birefrin-
25 gence is either zero or a full wavelength X. In Fig. 4 the case of zero birefringence is drawn, where for the blocking state the optic axis of the LC cell is parallel to the light polarization direction. Rotating the LC cell by 90° would lead to a retarda¬tion of . λ Such a configuration, where for the blocking state the
3 0 optic axis of the LC cell is perpendicular to the light polari¬zation direction, is also a feasible.
Depending on the precise application, there may be polar-
10

izer/retarder combinations added to the light input and/or the light output side. These are indicated in Fig. 1 and 2 as compo¬nents 9 and 11. Although cholesteric color switches inherently act as polarizers, it can be preferable to use a linear pre-5 polarizer, and retarders may be required to match the linear po¬larization accordingly. Such a linear pre-polarizer is for in¬stance desirable in case a polarization recycling scheme is used to increase the light output of the lamp. Likewise, to match the output polarization to the subsequent imager, retarders and op-10 tionally 'cleaning polarizers' may be added in order to achieve the high polarization ratios required for high quality projec¬tors .
To adapt the characteristics of a cholesteric filter to the 15 needs of a liquid crystal switchable color filter according to the invention, a cholesteric filter may be of a more complex type 'than just one layer of a cholesteric liquid crystal. For instance, it may also consist of more than one cholesteric layer, which togecher act as a circularly polarizing filter hav-20 ing a suitable reflection band, or the pitch of the cholesteric layer may vary over the layer thickness.
For the cholesteric filters preferably liquid crystal polymers and crosslinked networks respectively are used.
25
Advantageously, the liquid crystal elements of the color filter, that is cholesteric filters, retarders and switches, are aligned by a photo-orientation technique. Among the different known methods particularly well suited will be those using linear pho-
30 topolymerisation (LLP), also sometimes referred to as photoori-ented polymer network (PPN). Backgrounds and manufacturing of such elements are disclosed in, for example, US-A-53S9S98, US-A-5838407, US-A-5602661, EP-A-689084, EP-A-0756193, WO-A-99/49360,

11

WO-A-99/64924, and WO-A-00/36463.
The invention will now be described by way of example with ref¬erence to the accompanying drawings, in which: 5 Fig. 1 is a sketch showing the general structure of a known color switch; Fig. 2 is a sketch illustrating the concept of 'fused' BMFs in
comparison to the independent BMFs of Fig. 1;
Fig. 3 is a schematic representation of a known band modulation
10 filter;
Fig. 4 illustrates a 'cholesteric filter / λ/4-plate / LC switch / λ/4-plate / cholesteric filter' configura¬tion according to the Invention;
Fig. 5a to 5c are explanatory diagrams showing the basic ar-
15 rangement and operation of a first embodiment of the
present invention,-
Fig. 6a to 6c are explanatory diagrams showing the basic ar¬
rangement and operation of a second embodiment of the
present invention, modified as compared with Fig. 5a to
20 5c;
Fig. 7 is a graph showing transmissivities for the three color bands of a preferred embodiment;
Fig. 8 shows transmissivities for the embodiment of Fig. 7, but
with an additional output retarder/polarizer combina-
25 tion;
Fig. 9 is a graph showing transmissivities for the embodiment of Fig. 8, but with the output polarizer rotated by 90°;
Fig. 10 shows transmissivities for an embodiment comprising an additional input retarder/polarizer combination; 3 0 Fig. 11 is a graph showing transmissivities for a further em¬bodiment of the invention, which is adapted to already linearly polarized input light ,-
Fig. 12 is a graph showing transmissivities for still a further

12

embodiment of the invention;
Fig. 13 is a chromaticity diagram showing the approximations provided by the preferred embodiment, to an NTSC TV sys¬tem; 5 Fig. 14 is a chromaticity diagram corresponding to the transmis-sivities shown in Fig. 11; and
Fig. 15 is a chromaticity diagram corresponding to the transmis-sivities shown in Fig. 12.
10 Basic arrangement and optical concept of a liquid crystal switchable color filter forming a first embodiment of the inven¬tion is schematically illustrated in Fig. 5a, 5b and 5c. Each of the figures shows the mode of action for one of the three pri¬mary colors (RGB in this example) , Fig. 5a for the red period,
15 Fig. 5b for the green period and Fig. 5c for the blue period.
In the Fig, unpolarized light is indicated by a white/black pair of arrows, L-circularly polarized light by a single filled black arrow, R-polarized light by a single open arrow. The position of 20 the arrows from left to right indicates its color, ranging from blue (left side) to red (right side).
The color filter comprises three times a combination λ/4-plate / LC switch / λ/4-plate', for the sake of simplicity
25 referred to as 'switch' and labeled swl, sw2 and sw3, and six
cholesteric filters, labeled cfbl, cfb2, cfgl, cfg2, cfrl and
cfr2, "Sach of the retarder/switch-combinations and each of the
cholesteric filters are shown as a rectangular box extending
.from left to right. For each cholesteric filter, the wavelength
3 0 range of selective reflection is marked within the corresponding box by a filling, and the handedness is indicated by a '+ ' or 1 - ' sign.

13

In each of the Pig. 5a, 5b and 5c, one of these switches is in the 'on' state (hatched filling, no change of handedness), and two in the 'blocking' state (crosshatched filling, change of handedness) . The figures differ only in the color that is 5 switched 'on'.
Let us first discuss the red period (corresponding to Fig. 5a) , with the red switch sw3 'on' and the blue switch swl and the green switch sw2 'off'. 10
Unpolarized white light is impinging from the top onto the (blue) cholesteric filter cfbl.
In the blue spectral range, only L-circularly polarized light 15 passes the filter; the R-component is reflected. Light in the green and red spectral range remains unchanged (i.e. unpolar¬ized) . Switch swl is in the blocking state, that is, it changes the handedness of the light. Since only the blue part of the spectrum is polarized, the change in handedness affects only the 20 blue part of the spectrum, changing the L-polarization to the R-polarization. The next cholesteric filter cfb2, which is sub¬stantially identical to cfbl, then blocks this light. Green and red remain unpolarized.
25 The case of the light in the green spectral range is very simi¬lar. The light remains unpolarized until it hits the (green) cholesteric filter cfgl, where only the R-polarized light is passed (note that the handedness of the green cholesteric fil¬ters is opposite to that of the blue and the red filtera, see
3 0 below) . Switch sw2 then reverses the polarization and the next cholesteric filter cfg2 then blocks this light.
The case of the light in the red spectral range is different.

14

After passing the blue and green filter sections unchanged, the red light is polarized by the (red) cholesteric filter cfrl. Ihe L-component of the red light passes and the R-component is re¬flected. Switch sw3 is in the 'on' state and leaves the polari-5 zation in its L-state. The light then passes the cholesteric filter cfr2, yielding red, L-polarised output light.
The green period (shown in Fig. 5b) , where the green switch sw2 is 'on1 and the blue switch swl and the red switch sw3 are 10 'off, is slightly more complicated.
For the blue spectral range, there is no change compared to the red period. Similarly, the red spectral range remains unpolar-ized until it reaches the cholesteric filter cfrl, were only the 15 L-component passes, which is changed to the R-state by the switch sw3 and then blocked by the cholesteric filter cfr2.
The case of the green spectral range is different. After passing the blue filter section unchanged, the green light is polarized
2 0 by the cholesteric filter cfgl, which passes the R-component only. The green switch in the 'on' state does not change this polarisation, and the light paoatiu an R-polax"ized light the next cholesteric filter cf g2. Then, the switch sw3 of the red filter section changes the polarization state of the green light (at
25 least to a first approximation) from R to L. The output is thus L-polarized, green light.
This crucial influence on the green light by the red filter sec¬tion is in stark contrast to color switches of the prior art us-30 ing independent band modulation filters, where the green light passes the last 3MF unchanged.
It should be further noted that the choice of opposite handed-

15

ness for the central (green) filter section is an important as¬pect of the invention, too. Choosing identical handedness would lead to colors with opposite polarizations.
5 Finally, Fig. 5c shows the most difficult case, namely the pe¬riod of the color of the first filter section. In the present example, this in the blue period, where the blue switch swl is 'on' and the green switch sw2 and the red switch sw3 is 'off'.
10 The red spectral range is blocked as in Fig. 5b and the green spectral range is blocked as in Fig. 5a.
The blue spectral range is L-polarized by the cholesteric fil¬ter cfbl, then passes the switch swl and the cholesteric filters 15 cfb2 and cfgl with no change of polarization. Switch sw2 then approximately reverses the polarization to R, whereas switch sw3 reverses it back to L, giving L-polarised blue light output.
Again, the concept of independent band modulation filters known 20 from the prior art does not apply since both the red and the green filter section change the polarization state of the blue spectral range.
A second embodiment of the invention is schematically illus-25 trated in Fig. 6a, 6b and 6c. It uses the advantageous possibil¬ity of choosing the filter characteristics such that for the cholesteric filters overlapping wavelength bands are possible. As discussed above, this is important if the light of the lamp should be used efficiently. 30
The meanings of the arrows and other symbols in Fig. 6a, 6b and 6c correspond to those in Fig. 5.

16

Compared to the embodiment of Fig. 5, the embodiment of Fig. 6 has two relevant changes: In the red part, the long-wavelength cutoff of the green filter is at a longer wavelength than the short-wavelength cutoff of the red filter, i.e. the blocking 5 ranges overlap, with the desired result that a defined wave¬length band can be blocked completely. Whereas this feature is also possible with the known concept of independent BMFs, the green/blue boundary, however, is different. The two blue as well au The two GreEN choleoteric filters have different selective
10 reflection bands. Using the same reasoning as in the discussion of Fig. 5, one finds from Fig. 6a that the long-wavelength cut¬off of the cholesteric filter cfbl together with the short -wavelength cutoff of the cholesteric filter cfgl determine the long-wavelength cutoff of the transmitted blue light. Further,
15 from Fig. 6b one finds that the long-wave length cutoff of the cholesteric filter cfb2 together with the short-wavelength cut¬off of the cholesteric filter cfg2 determine the short-wavelength cutoff of the transmitted blue light. Since these cutoff-wavelengths can be freely chosen, advantageously any de-
20 sired band-pass characteristics can be implemented.
The design concepts described above with reference to Fig. 5 and 6 are useful and result in switchable color filters of quite good quality. However, the implicit assumption that all switches
25 are λ./2-plates for all wavelengths is certainly only approxi¬mately true. As a further improvement of a liquid crystal switchable color filter according to the invention, it is there¬fore proposed to optimize the relative arrangements of the com¬ponents. To find such an arrangement, for instance an optimizing
3 0 algorithm can be used.
In a successful example, an algorithm was used, which consists of a routine that calculates.the transmission spectra of a given

17

configuration and determines from these data a cost function that is a measure of the quality of the configuration. The cost function is minimal if both, color saturation and brightness are maximized. An optimization routine then varies the original con-5 figuration until a minimum is reached for the cost function. The algorithm is described in more detail below.
Fig. 7 shows the result of such an optimization, and Fig. 13 gives the corresponding chromaticity diagram. The excellent
10 brightness and the almost perfect color saturation are evident from these data. Since the cut-off wavelengths of the choles-teric filters were part of the optimization procedure, these data again illustrate the importance of the overlap of the blue and the green spectral range.
15
The results shown in Fig. 7 use unpolarized input light, no ad¬ditional retarder and no 'cleaning' polarizer at the output (cf. also Table II) . Fig. 8 shows the result for the same stack but with an additional output retarder/polarizer combination; it ex-
20 hibits similar intensity as without polarizer, that is, the out¬put light is already well polarized by the cholesteric filters alone. This can also be seen from Fig. 9, where the output po¬larizer was rotated by 90°. These spectra are quite weak, a di¬rect indication of a high degree of polarization. However, the
25 signal of the wrong polarization is strong enough to possibly reduce the performance of the subsequent imager, so the cleaning polarizer may be necessary. In addition, the same imperfections (i.e. And-variations) that degrade the performance of the known independent aerial BMFs in their off state will in the present
3 0 case degrade the polarization quality of our color switch in its on state. However, a degradation of the polarization quality in the on state is much less harmful; it leads to an additional re¬duction of brightness of 3 to 5 %, which is acceptable in view

18

of the high overall brightness of the color switch.
In a variation of the invention, the liquid crystal switchable color filter can also be adapted for input light that is already 5 linearly polarized, as is for instance the case if a polariza¬tion recycling scheme is used to illuminate the switchable fil¬ter. In fact, the liquid crystal switchable color filter may be simpliiied in this case: the first cholesteric filter as well as the first λ./4-plate can be omitted. Figured 11 shows an example 10 of corresponding spectra. They are equally bright and saturated as the former spectra (see also the corresponding chromaticity diagram in Pig. 14).
Similarly, in a further variation of the invention, the last
15 cholesteric filter can be omitted if on the light output side a polarizer is used that can handle the full light intensity (for high intensities e.g. a polarizing beam splitter) . From Fig. 5 and 6 it can be seen that the last cholesteric filter cfr2 serves to block one red circular polarization. Further, from
20 Fig. 4 showing schematically the principal components of a fil¬ter section it can be seen that the needed blocking action can also be achieved by a linear polarizer just after the LC-switch. Thus, the handling of the red spectral range is not changed if the cholesteric filter cfr2 together with the λ/4-wave plate are
25 replaced by a linear polarizer. To improve the quality of this embodiment, it is however advantageous to make sure that at the same time the remaining spectral ranges (green and blue) are ab¬sorbed by the linear polarizer as little as possible. One way to reach this goal is the optimisation of the parameters of the re-
3 0 maining components, and the spectra shown in Fig. 12 as well as the chromaticity diagram of Fig. 15 show that in this way indeed a satisfactory color switch can be designed.

19

For the calculations m the examples given, the following condi¬tions have been used: The color filters are composed of polariz¬ers, retarders, cholesteric filters and liquid crystal switches. The calculations use a 4x4-matrix formalism. Retarders, choles-
5 teric filters and - if present - SSF LC cells use the same model for the birefringence n, namely n(X) = n0 + n1λ 2 / {λ2 - ΛO2 ) , using the parameters given in Table I for the retarders. For DHF LC cells the birefringence is different in the two switching states and taken as 1.098 and 1.513 , where is
0 given by the parameters also shown in Table 1. These data have been determined from real liquid crystal mixtures. Antireflection coatings are applied to the front and the back surface, modeled as a linear decrease of the isotropic refrac¬tive index n from the average index of the retarder material to
5 n = 1. Glass- and ITO-layers are neglected.
Table I

In the optimization routine the following cost function G is 0 minimized: Calculate the tristimulus-responses (XFr Y>, ZF, xP/ yF) for all three colors F = R,G,B, assuming a white (equal en¬ergy per nm bandwidth) light source. In a real application, ad¬vantageously the spectrum of the actual light source of the pro¬jection system should be used. With the data calculate
s
and minimise G by with respect to the above listed parameters. xP0 and denote the target values x,y for the colour co¬ordinates (taken as the NTSC colour co-ordinates in our exam-
20

pies) . The target values for the brightness, YF0 are determined from the brightness of an ideal colour filter. This ideal filter has a transmission of 1 in a given wavelength band and falls off to 0 over 10 nm on each side. The bandwidths of the filter are 5 chosen as wide as possible while still retaining the desired colour saturation. Note that for a specific design the actual lamp spectrum has to be employed in this calculation. The re¬sulting brightness of the three colours of these ideal filters is used as target values for the colour switch. In our case, the
10 values are 0.12, 0.25 and 0.05 for F= R, G, B respectively. The values of YF should be larger than, but close to, the maximum that can be attained for each colour. Note that the maximum transmission is 0.5 due to the polarizers. The weight parameters g are chosen interactively, adjusted recursively, such that the
15 size of corresponding terms in G after the optimisation are similar (within a factor of ten, preferably three).
As described above, Fig. 7 to 12 show the calculated transmis¬sion spectra in the three switching states of several embodi-20 ments of a switchable color filter according to the invention. Tables II and III list the components involved and their parame¬ters .

21

Table II: Parameters used in. the calculations of the data shown in Figures 7 to 11

22
Table III: Parameters used in the calculations of the data shown in Figure 12

In the tables, angles are given with respect to an arbitrary laboratory-frame axis; the sign of the center wavelength indi¬cates the handedness; more than one number given in the center wavelength column indicates that in order to get the desired 5 bandwidth, several cholesteric filters were used in series (be¬cause the birefringence of the nematic host material used was smaller than required for getting the needed bandwidthn with only one cholesteric filter) , and the numbers given are the cen¬ter wavelength of the selective reflection bands of these sub-10 layers; an 'x1 means that this component is present; and a num¬ber in a polarizer row indicates the angle of the polarizer axis, no number means no polarizer is used at that position in the stack.

2.3

We Claim
1.. A. liquid crystal switchable color filter for switching be-5 tween a first, a second and a third color band, with a light path having a light input side and a light output side, the color filter comprising:
a first switchable liquid crystal cell (swcelll) capable of at least two switching states; 10 - a first retarder layer (retl.2) which acts for the first color band as a quarter-wave plate;
a first cholesteric filter (cfb2) having a selective reflec¬tion band for the first color band;
a second cholesteric filter (cfgl) having a selective re-15 flection band for the second color band;
a second retarder layer (ret2.1) which acts for the second color band as a quarter-wave plate;
a second switchable liquid crystal cell (swcell2) capable of at least two switching states; 20 a third retarder layer (ret2.2) which acts for the second color band as a quarter-wave plate;
a third cholesteric filter (cfg2) having a selective reflec¬tion band for the second color band;
a fourth cholesteric filter (cfrl) having a selective re-25 flection band for the third color band;
a fourth retarder layer (ret3.1) which acts for the third color band as a quarter-wave plate;
a third switchable liquid crystal cell (swcell3) capable of at least two switching states; and 30 - a polarization blocking element; characterized in that
the handedness of the second cholesteric filter (cfgl) is equal to the handedness of the third cholesteric filter (cfg2)
24

and opposite to the handedness of the first (cfb2) and fourth (cfrl) cholesteric filter; and
for the blocking state of the respective color band the op¬tic axis of the corresponding switchable liquid crystal cell is 5 either substantially parallel or substantially perpendicular to the light polarization direction.
2. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to
Claim 1, wherein the polarization blocking element is formed by
10 a linear polarizer.
3. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according ,to
Claim 1, wherein the polarization blocking element is formed by
a fifth retarder layer (ret3.2) which acts for the third color
15 band as a quarter-wave plate and a fifth cholesteric filter (cfr2) having a selective reflection band for the third color band.
4. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any
2 0 preceding claim, which comprises, added on the light input side,
a supplementary cholesteric filter (cfbl) having a selective re¬flection band for the first color band and a supplementary re¬tarder layer (ret 1.1) which acts for the first color band as a quarter-wave plate. 25
5. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any
preceding claim, wherein the cutoff wavelengths of the selective
reflection band of the cholesteric filters are chosen such that
at least two of the first, second and third color bands overlap
3 0 in its transmissive state.
6. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any
preceding claim, wherein the short-wavelength cutoff of the sec-
25

ond cholesteric filter (cfgl) is different from the short -wavelength cutoff of the third cholesteric filter (cfg2).
7. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any
5 preceding claim, wherein the long-wavelength cutoff of the first
cholesteric filter (cfb2) and the short-wavelength cutoff of the third cholesteric filter (cfg2) are at a substantially equal wavelength, which is shorter than the short-wavelength cutoff of the second cholesteric filter (cfgl). 0
8. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any
preceding claim, wherein the long-wavelength cutoff of the sec¬
ond cholesteric filter (cfgl) is different from the long-
wavelength cutoff of the third cholesteric filter (cfg2) .
.5
9. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any
preceding claim, wherein the long-wavelength cutoff of the third
cholesteric filter (cfg2) is at a longer wavelength than the
short-wavelength cutoff of the fourth cholesteric filter (cfrl).

10. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any
preceding claim, wherein at least one of the switchable liquid
crystal cells is of a Deformed Helix Ferroelectric (DHF) type or
of a Surface Stabilized Ferroelectric (SSF) type.
!5
11. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any of
Claims 1 to 9, wherein at least one of the switchable liquid
crystal cells is of a anti-ferroelectric type or especially of a
thresholdless anti-ferroelectric type.
50
12. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any of
Claims 1 to 9, wherein at least one of the switchable liquid
crystal cells is of an electroclinic type.
26

13. A liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any preceding claim, which comprises ,on the light output side an ad¬ditional cleaning polarizer.
5
14. A time-sequential color device containing a liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any of Claims 1 to 13.
//15. An optical projection device containing a liquid crystal 10 switchable color filter according to any of Claims 1 to 13.
16. A direct view display containing a liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any of Claims 1 to 13.

17. A
video camera containing a liquid crystal switchable color filter according to any of Claims 1 to 13.
Dated this 3rd day of April, 2003.

Documents:

364-mumnp-2003-abstract(16-05-2006).doc

364-mumnp-2003-abstract(16-05-2006).pdf

364-mumnp-2003-claims(granted)-(16-05-2006).doc

364-mumnp-2003-claims(granted)-(16-05-2006).pdf

364-mumnp-2003-correspondence(27-06-2006).pdf

364-mumnp-2003-correspondence(ipo)-(23-06-2006).pdf

364-mumnp-2003-drawing(16-05-2006).pdf

364-mumnp-2003-form 18(14-09-2005).pdf

364-mumnp-2003-form 1a(03-04-2003).pdf

364-mumnp-2003-form 2(granted)-(16-05-2006).doc

364-mumnp-2003-form 2(granted)-(16-05-2006).pdf

364-mumnp-2003-form 3(03-04-2003).pdf

364-mumnp-2003-form 3(28-12-2005).pdf

364-mumnp-2003-form 5(03-04-2003).pdf

364-mumnp-2003-form-pct-isa-210(16-05-2006).pdf

364-mumnp-2003-petition under rule 137(28-06-2006).pdf

364-mumnp-2003-petition under rule 138(28-06-2006).pdf

364-mumnp-2003-power of attorney(22-11-2000).pdf

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Patent Number

206219

Indian Patent Application Number

364/MUMNP/2003

PG Journal Number

28/2007

Publication Date

13-Jul-2007

Grant Date

19-Apr-2007

Date of Filing

03-Apr-2003

Name of Patentee

ROLIC AG

Applicant Address

CHAMERSTRASSE 50, 6301 ZUG,

Inventors:

#	Inventor's Name	Inventor's Address
1	JURG FUNFSCHILLING	WEIHERHOFSTRASSE 138, 4054 BASEL,
2	KLAUS SCHMITT	GARTENSTRASSE 16B, 79541 LORRACH
3	MARTIN SCHADT	LIESTALERSTRASSE 77, 4411 SELTISBERG

PCT International Classification Number

G 02 F 1/1347

PCT International Application Number

PCT/CH01/00646

PCT International Filing date

2001-11-01

PCT Conventions:

#	PCT Application Number	Date of Convention	Priority Country
1	00 811 032.2	2000-11-03	EPO