Optical rewritable liquid-crystal-alignment technology

A new optical rewritable (ORW) liquid-crystal-alignment technology has been developed to create a display and to demonstrate its maturity and potential. ORW displays have no electrodes and use polarizers as substrates. The display requires no photolithography on plastic. Its simple construction secures durability and low cost for mass production. The on-screen information is optically changed in a writing unit that consists of an LCD mask and an exposure source that is based on LEDs, low power, and low cost in comparison with Hg lamps or lasers. A high contrast image can be easily written, viewed, and rewritten through a polarizer, while the multi-stable gray-level image requires zero power to maintain the image. Reconfigurable LC alignment using ORW technology best suits plastic-card displays as well as for LC photonics and various one-mask processes of patterned LC-alignment applications.