Low driving voltage polymer dispersed liquid crystal display device with conductive nanoparticles

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT While the specification concludes with claims defining the features of the invention that are regarded as novel, it is believed that the invention will be better understood from a consideration of the following description in conjunction with the drawing FIGURES.
The relative sizes of some of the various elements has been intentionally exaggerated for clarity.
Referring now to the sole drawing FIGURE, a PDLC display 10 consists of two parallel transparent substrates 12 and 14.
The substrates are arranged to be substantially parallel to each other and each contain a conductive element 16 formed on the surface.
The conductive element is typically a material such as indium-tin oxide (ITO).
The ITO film is typically patterned in a desired configuration in order to represent a letter or icon that is to be illuminated on the display.
The substrates are arranged so that the ITO film on one substrate faces the ITO film on the opposing substrate.
Spacers are used to maintain a uniform gap between each of the transparent substrates 12 and 14.
The spacers are typically uniformly dispersed across the surface of the substrate or, in other situations, may simply be located around the perimeters of the substrate.
A polymer matrix 20, typically made from an electrically insulative transparent polymer, is situated in the gap between the two transparent substrates.
The polymer matrix 20 contains small spheres or droplets 22 of a liquid crystal fluid uniformly dispersed throughout the polymer matrix.
This is typically performed by dissolving the LC fluid in the polymer matrix when the polymer is in a liquid form to create a homogeneous solution.
The liquid crystal polymer is then cooled in a controlled manner so that a uniform phase separation of the liquid crystal material and a dispersion of liquid crystal droplets through the solid polymer matrix.
An alternative method well known in the art, is to microencapsulate the liquid crystal fluid and then uniformly distribute the microencapsulated fluid throughout the polymer matrix