EP1040382A1 - Liquid-crystal display using uv light source - Google Patents
Liquid-crystal display using uv light sourceInfo
- Publication number
- EP1040382A1 EP1040382A1 EP98960001A EP98960001A EP1040382A1 EP 1040382 A1 EP1040382 A1 EP 1040382A1 EP 98960001 A EP98960001 A EP 98960001A EP 98960001 A EP98960001 A EP 98960001A EP 1040382 A1 EP1040382 A1 EP 1040382A1
- Authority
- EP
- European Patent Office
- Prior art keywords
- phosphor
- light
- liquid
- cas0
- narrow
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Withdrawn
Links
- 239000004973 liquid crystal related substance Substances 0.000 title claims abstract description 15
- OAICVXFJPJFONN-UHFFFAOYSA-N Phosphorus Chemical compound [P] OAICVXFJPJFONN-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 claims abstract description 38
- 229910052925 anhydrite Inorganic materials 0.000 claims abstract description 16
- 239000000203 mixture Substances 0.000 claims abstract description 11
- 229910052921 ammonium sulfate Inorganic materials 0.000 claims abstract description 8
- 239000012298 atmosphere Substances 0.000 claims abstract description 7
- 238000010438 heat treatment Methods 0.000 claims abstract description 6
- 238000001816 cooling Methods 0.000 claims abstract description 4
- 239000003638 chemical reducing agent Substances 0.000 claims abstract description 3
- 239000002245 particle Substances 0.000 claims abstract description 3
- 239000011369 resultant mixture Substances 0.000 claims abstract description 3
- 238000000034 method Methods 0.000 claims description 5
- 239000000843 powder Substances 0.000 claims description 4
- OSGAYBCDTDRGGQ-UHFFFAOYSA-L calcium sulfate Chemical compound [Ca+2].[O-]S([O-])(=O)=O OSGAYBCDTDRGGQ-UHFFFAOYSA-L 0.000 abstract description 5
- NLXLAEXVIDQMFP-UHFFFAOYSA-N Ammonia chloride Chemical compound [NH4+].[Cl-] NLXLAEXVIDQMFP-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 abstract 1
- 235000019270 ammonium chloride Nutrition 0.000 abstract 1
- BFNBIHQBYMNNAN-UHFFFAOYSA-N ammonium sulfate Chemical compound N.N.OS(O)(=O)=O BFNBIHQBYMNNAN-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 abstract 1
- 235000011130 ammonium sulphate Nutrition 0.000 abstract 1
- QSHDDOUJBYECFT-UHFFFAOYSA-N mercury Chemical compound [Hg] QSHDDOUJBYECFT-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 5
- 229910052753 mercury Inorganic materials 0.000 description 5
- XKRFYHLGVUSROY-UHFFFAOYSA-N Argon Chemical compound [Ar] XKRFYHLGVUSROY-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 4
- 230000003098 cholesteric effect Effects 0.000 description 4
- 239000000463 material Substances 0.000 description 4
- 239000012190 activator Substances 0.000 description 3
- 238000010304 firing Methods 0.000 description 3
- 239000007789 gas Substances 0.000 description 3
- -1 Eu2+ ions Chemical class 0.000 description 2
- 229910052693 Europium Inorganic materials 0.000 description 2
- VYPSYNLAJGMNEJ-UHFFFAOYSA-N Silicium dioxide Chemical compound O=[Si]=O VYPSYNLAJGMNEJ-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 2
- 229910052786 argon Inorganic materials 0.000 description 2
- 230000005540 biological transmission Effects 0.000 description 2
- 239000001175 calcium sulphate Substances 0.000 description 2
- 235000011132 calcium sulphate Nutrition 0.000 description 2
- 210000004027 cell Anatomy 0.000 description 2
- 238000000295 emission spectrum Methods 0.000 description 2
- OGPBJKLSAFTDLK-UHFFFAOYSA-N europium atom Chemical compound [Eu] OGPBJKLSAFTDLK-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 2
- RSEIMSPAXMNYFJ-UHFFFAOYSA-N europium(III) oxide Inorganic materials O=[Eu]O[Eu]=O RSEIMSPAXMNYFJ-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 2
- 230000005284 excitation Effects 0.000 description 2
- 239000011521 glass Substances 0.000 description 2
- 238000010926 purge Methods 0.000 description 2
- 229910052761 rare earth metal Inorganic materials 0.000 description 2
- 150000002910 rare earth metals Chemical class 0.000 description 2
- 238000001228 spectrum Methods 0.000 description 2
- 230000007704 transition Effects 0.000 description 2
- 229910052723 transition metal Inorganic materials 0.000 description 2
- 150000003624 transition metals Chemical class 0.000 description 2
- XLYOFNOQVPJJNP-UHFFFAOYSA-N water Substances O XLYOFNOQVPJJNP-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 2
- 239000005132 Calcium sulfide based phosphorescent agent Substances 0.000 description 1
- 241000288030 Coturnix coturnix Species 0.000 description 1
- UCKMPCXJQFINFW-UHFFFAOYSA-N Sulphide Chemical compound [S-2] UCKMPCXJQFINFW-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 1
- 238000003491 array Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000015572 biosynthetic process Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000000903 blocking effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- ZCCIPPOKBCJFDN-UHFFFAOYSA-N calcium nitrate Inorganic materials [Ca+2].[O-][N+]([O-])=O.[O-][N+]([O-])=O ZCCIPPOKBCJFDN-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 1
- 230000015556 catabolic process Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000006243 chemical reaction Methods 0.000 description 1
- 239000003086 colorant Substances 0.000 description 1
- 239000013078 crystal Substances 0.000 description 1
- 210000002858 crystal cell Anatomy 0.000 description 1
- 230000007547 defect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000006731 degradation reaction Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000010586 diagram Methods 0.000 description 1
- 239000000706 filtrate Substances 0.000 description 1
- 238000004020 luminiscence type Methods 0.000 description 1
- 229920000642 polymer Polymers 0.000 description 1
- 239000002244 precipitate Substances 0.000 description 1
- 230000005855 radiation Effects 0.000 description 1
- 239000000377 silicon dioxide Substances 0.000 description 1
- 241000894007 species Species 0.000 description 1
- 230000003595 spectral effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 239000000758 substrate Substances 0.000 description 1
- 238000003786 synthesis reaction Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000001429 visible spectrum Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000005406 washing Methods 0.000 description 1
Classifications
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G02—OPTICS
- G02F—OPTICAL DEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CONTROL OF LIGHT BY MODIFICATION OF THE OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MEDIA OF THE ELEMENTS INVOLVED THEREIN; NON-LINEAR OPTICS; FREQUENCY-CHANGING OF LIGHT; OPTICAL LOGIC ELEMENTS; OPTICAL ANALOGUE/DIGITAL CONVERTERS
- G02F1/00—Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics
- G02F1/01—Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics for the control of the intensity, phase, polarisation or colour
- G02F1/13—Devices or arrangements for the control of the intensity, colour, phase, polarisation or direction of light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. switching, gating or modulating; Non-linear optics for the control of the intensity, phase, polarisation or colour based on liquid crystals, e.g. single liquid crystal display cells
- G02F1/133—Constructional arrangements; Operation of liquid crystal cells; Circuit arrangements
- G02F1/1333—Constructional arrangements; Manufacturing methods
- G02F1/1335—Structural association of cells with optical devices, e.g. polarisers or reflectors
- G02F1/1336—Illuminating devices
- G02F1/133617—Illumination with ultraviolet light; Luminescent elements or materials associated to the cell
Definitions
- the invention relates to liquid-crystal displays, particularly those having a source of narrow-band UVA light to activate phosphors.
- Photoluminescent liquid-crystal display (PLLCD) architectures as described, for example, in the patent applications GB 2154355 (Ricoh Ltd) , WO 95/27920 (Crossland et al) and GB 2291734 (Samsung) , utilise a combination of a light source, liquid-crystal cells and a phosphor material to produce an image. This combines the viewing-angle characteristics of a CRT with the compactness and cost of a passive LCD.
- the specific components of such a system can include cholesteric polarisers and compensating retarders as well as the liquid crystal cells. These components tend to be optimised for a specific wavelength and to work less well at other wavelengths. As a consequence, if the bandwidth of the excitation light is large, the performance of the components generally deteriorates. Superior display performance can be obtained by directing the excitation light as closely as possible to the optimum direction and in a narrow spectral range . It has been found advisable when constructing such displays to use UVA light (a wavelength of about 350 - 400 nm) rather than shorter wavelengths. Such light is transmitted through conventional glasses and polymers better than shorter-wavelength UV light, and yet still has enough energy to excite red, green and blue phosphors. Also, such longer UV wavelengths cause less degradation of the liquid-crystal materials themselves. It is therefore desirable to find a suitable source of light for PLLCDs .
- a liquid-crystal-type display comprising an ultra-violet light source, a first phosphor that emits UVA light when struck by light from this source, a liquid-crystal device for modulating the light emitted by the first phosphor and a second phosphor acting as a display surface and emitting visible light when excited by the modulated narrow-band UVA light;
- the first phosphor is preferably Eu 2+ -doped CaS0 4 .
- This phosphor produces narrow-band light in the UVA band from 350-400 nm with a full width at half maximum bandwidth of about 15 nm or less. Its spectrum is shown in Fig. 1.
- the narrow emission characteristics of phosphors used in the present invention also largely eliminate another disadvantage of the prior art.
- a significant amount of visible light is emitted and this must be filtered out, to prevent it adding to the visible emissions of the phosphors in the PLLCD architecture and desaturating the observed colours.
- the considerable amount of blue light emitted by conventional long-wave UV phosphors needs a very sharp transmission cut-off filter to avoid significant loss of the useful UVA light whilst blocking visible light.
- the phosphor of the present invention emits much less in the visible spectrum.
- UVA emissions are the lines of, for example, low-pressure mercury cold- cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL) .
- CCFL low-pressure mercury cold- cathode fluorescent lamps
- Such lines are typically no wider than about 2 nm, but those in the desired near-visible region are unsuitable because of their low relative intensity.
- the primary emission from low-pressure mercury CCFLs is at 254 nm and this is used to excite phosphor powders coated onto the inside of the fluorescent tubes.
- phosphor emission bandwidths are generally rather large and in most cases the spectra extend over several tens of nanometres.
- Commercially available UVA-emitting phosphors typically have full width at half-maximum (FWHM) bandwidths of 18 nm or more.
- the phosphor of the invention ideally comprises a transition metal or rare earth activator incorporated into a host lattice. Transitions involving transition metal or rare earth species as an activator generally have lower bandwidths than ' defect' -type phosphors. It is of course also essential that the activator fits properly into the host lattice, since otherwise increased disorder would be created that would lead to a broader emission spectrum. The design of the phosphors is thus also important . In the phosphor the europium should be incorporated into the calcium sulphate lattice in the form of doubly charged Eu 2+ ions .
- CaS0 4 :Eu 2+ phophor is prepared by heating a mixture of CaS0 4 , (NH 4 ) 2 S0 4 and Eu 2 0 3 in an inert atmosphere, cooling the resultant mixture, adding a reducing agent, in particular NH 4 C1 , heating again in an inert atmosphere and grinding or otherwise processing to the required particle size.
- the powder can then be applied to the inside or outside of a cold-cathode mercury-vapour tube, or it can be supported on a separate substrate.
- FIG. 2 is a highly schematic diagram of a liquid-crystal display in accordance with the invention.
- a low-pressure mercury cold-cathode discharge tube 1 has electrodes, not shown, and a phosphor 3 coated on the inside of the tube 1.
- the phosphor is made from a calcium sulphate host lattice incorporating europium.
- the low-pressure mercury emits light mostly at a wavelength around 254 nm; this light is incident on the phosphor which in turn emits narrowband UV radiation 5 centred at 388 nm and having a bandwidth of 13nm FWHM.
- the quantum efficiency was measured to be 85% which is comparable to conventional phosphors.
- the light 5 emitted by the phosphor is then passed through a collimator 7 and a modulator, here a liquid- crystal modulator 9, and is then incident on a display phosphor 11 upon which images can be displayed.
- the liquid crystal is of a type suited to the 388 nm wavelength, and is equipped with orthogonal arrays of ITO electrodes, alignment layers and polarisers in the usual way.
- the output phosphor 11 can be pixellated to correspond with the modulator pixels, or it can be a uniform layer.
- the polarisers can be cholesteric, since such polarisers are well adapted to work with a narrow range of wavelengths.
- the liquid crystal can then either modulate circularly polarised light or have the light converted to linearly polarised light by a quarter-wave plate.
- the input-light phosphor 3 following the invention is a narrow-band phosphor means that the cholesteric polariser can operate at a narrower band of wavelengths for a given collimation and contrast ratio, and the compensation films can be simpler or even omitted for a given collimation and contrast ratio. Also the fact that the input light is only just sub- visible means that the transmission and lifetime of components are improved.
- a further advantage of the narrow-band source light is that it is easier to collimate the light, in particular by adding a collimating dielectric stack as the collimator 7, as described in PCT/GB 98/01203.
- the CaS0 4 : Eu 2+ phosphor can be produced from a range of synthesis routes and has previously been reported in Dhopte et al, Journal of Luminescence 50
- CaS0 4 • Dissolve 500g Ca(N0 3 ) 2 in 31 water;
- Phosphor • Mix 120g CaS0 4 with 1. lg Eu 2 0 3 .
- the powder thus prepared can be coated on to the inside of a glass tube in any known way, and electrodes and a gas filling introduced to produce a lamp.
- Several linear tubes, or a single serpentine tube, can be used as a backlight for the display, or a TIR lightguide with tubes along its sides can be constructed as a diffuse light source.
- a display comprising an ultra-violet light source, a phosphor (3) that emits UVA light (5) when struck by light from this source, a device (9) for modulating the light emitted by the phosphor and a display output material (11) acting as a display surface and emitting visible light when excited by the UVA light; in which the phosphor has a narrow-band emission spectrum with a FWHM of less than about 14 nm.
- a display as claimed in claim 2 in which the phosphor is Eu 2+ -doped CaS0 4 and emits wavelengths around 388 nm.
- a display as claimed in any preceding claim in which the display output material is itself a phosphor or a mixture of phosphors.
- a display according to any preceding claim in which the UV light source is a gas discharge in a vessel (1) lined by the first phosphor.
- the modulator (9) includes cholesteric polarisers optimised to work over the narrow emission
Landscapes
- Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- Nonlinear Science (AREA)
- Mathematical Physics (AREA)
- Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
- Crystallography & Structural Chemistry (AREA)
- General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- Optics & Photonics (AREA)
- Devices For Indicating Variable Information By Combining Individual Elements (AREA)
- Liquid Crystal (AREA)
- Vessels And Coating Films For Discharge Lamps (AREA)
Abstract
A particularly useful form of light source is disclosed for UV/phosphor-type liquid-crystal displays. The source is a discharge lamp (1) lined with a first phosphor (3) that emits UVA light (5) which is then modulated by a liquid-crystal device (9) before reaching a second phosphor (11) acting as a display surface and emitting visible light when excited by the modulated narrow-band UVA light. To provide the narrow bandwidth the first phosphor is preferably Eu2+-doped CaSO¿4?. The CaSO4:Eu?2+¿ phosphor is prepared by heating a mixture of CaSO¿4?, (NH4)2SO4 and EU2O3 in an inert atmosphere, cooling the resultant mixture, adding a reducing agent, in particular NH4Cl, heating again in an inert atmosphere and grinding or otherwise processing to the required particle size.
Description
Licruid-Crystal Display using UV light source
The invention relates to liquid-crystal displays, particularly those having a source of narrow-band UVA light to activate phosphors.
Photoluminescent liquid-crystal display (PLLCD) architectures, as described, for example, in the patent applications GB 2154355 (Ricoh Ltd) , WO 95/27920 (Crossland et al) and GB 2291734 (Samsung) , utilise a combination of a light source, liquid-crystal cells and a phosphor material to produce an image. This combines the viewing-angle characteristics of a CRT with the compactness and cost of a passive LCD.
The specific components of such a system can include cholesteric polarisers and compensating retarders as well as the liquid crystal cells. These components tend to be optimised for a specific wavelength and to work less well at other wavelengths. As a consequence, if the bandwidth of the excitation light is large, the performance of the components generally deteriorates. Superior display performance can be obtained by directing the excitation light as closely as possible to the optimum direction and in a narrow spectral range . It has been found advisable when constructing such displays to use UVA light (a wavelength of about 350 - 400 nm) rather than shorter wavelengths. Such light is transmitted through conventional glasses and polymers better than shorter-wavelength UV light, and yet still has enough energy to excite red, green and blue phosphors. Also, such longer UV wavelengths cause less degradation of the liquid-crystal materials themselves. It is therefore desirable to find a suitable source of light for PLLCDs .
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the invention there is provided a liquid-crystal-type display comprising an ultra-violet light source, a first phosphor that emits UVA light when struck by light from this source, a liquid-crystal device for modulating the light emitted by the first phosphor and a second phosphor acting as a display surface and emitting visible light when excited by the modulated narrow-band UVA light; the first phosphor is preferably Eu2+-doped CaS04. This phosphor produces narrow-band light in the UVA band from 350-400 nm with a full width at half maximum bandwidth of about 15 nm or less. Its spectrum is shown in Fig. 1.
The narrow emission characteristics of phosphors used in the present invention also largely eliminate another disadvantage of the prior art. In the prior art, a significant amount of visible light is emitted and this must be filtered out, to prevent it adding to the visible emissions of the phosphors in the PLLCD architecture and desaturating the observed colours. The considerable amount of blue light emitted by conventional long-wave UV phosphors needs a very sharp transmission cut-off filter to avoid significant loss of the useful UVA light whilst blocking visible light. In contrast, the phosphor of the present invention emits much less in the visible spectrum.
The narrowest practicable UVA emissions are the lines of, for example, low-pressure mercury cold- cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL) . Such lines are typically no wider than about 2 nm, but those in the desired near-visible region are unsuitable because of their low relative intensity. The primary emission from low-pressure mercury CCFLs is at 254 nm and this is used to excite phosphor powders coated onto the inside of the fluorescent tubes. Unfortunately, phosphor emission bandwidths are generally rather large and in most cases the spectra extend over several tens
of nanometres. Commercially available UVA-emitting phosphors typically have full width at half-maximum (FWHM) bandwidths of 18 nm or more.
Hence the phosphor of the invention ideally comprises a transition metal or rare earth activator incorporated into a host lattice. Transitions involving transition metal or rare earth species as an activator generally have lower bandwidths than ' defect' -type phosphors. It is of course also essential that the activator fits properly into the host lattice, since otherwise increased disorder would be created that would lead to a broader emission spectrum. The design of the phosphors is thus also important . In the phosphor the europium should be incorporated into the calcium sulphate lattice in the form of doubly charged Eu2+ ions . The Eu2+ ions use the 5d-4f transition and emit in a narrow band (13-14 nm FWHM) centred at 385 nm. There is very little visible light emission. In the method according to the invention CaS04:Eu2+ phophor is prepared by heating a mixture of CaS04, (NH4)2S04 and Eu203 in an inert atmosphere, cooling the resultant mixture, adding a reducing agent, in particular NH4C1 , heating again in an inert atmosphere and grinding or otherwise processing to the required particle size. The powder can then be applied to the inside or outside of a cold-cathode mercury-vapour tube, or it can be supported on a separate substrate.
DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
An embodiment of the invention will now be described, purely by way of example, with reference to the accompanying Fig. 2 which is a highly schematic diagram of a liquid-crystal display in accordance with the invention.
In Fig. 2, a low-pressure mercury cold-cathode
discharge tube 1 has electrodes, not shown, and a phosphor 3 coated on the inside of the tube 1. The phosphor is made from a calcium sulphate host lattice incorporating europium. The low-pressure mercury emits light mostly at a wavelength around 254 nm; this light is incident on the phosphor which in turn emits narrowband UV radiation 5 centred at 388 nm and having a bandwidth of 13nm FWHM. The quantum efficiency was measured to be 85% which is comparable to conventional phosphors.
The light 5 emitted by the phosphor is then passed through a collimator 7 and a modulator, here a liquid- crystal modulator 9, and is then incident on a display phosphor 11 upon which images can be displayed. The liquid crystal is of a type suited to the 388 nm wavelength, and is equipped with orthogonal arrays of ITO electrodes, alignment layers and polarisers in the usual way. The output phosphor 11 can be pixellated to correspond with the modulator pixels, or it can be a uniform layer. Here the polarisers can be cholesteric, since such polarisers are well adapted to work with a narrow range of wavelengths. The liquid crystal can then either modulate circularly polarised light or have the light converted to linearly polarised light by a quarter-wave plate.
The fact that the input-light phosphor 3 following the invention is a narrow-band phosphor means that the cholesteric polariser can operate at a narrower band of wavelengths for a given collimation and contrast ratio, and the compensation films can be simpler or even omitted for a given collimation and contrast ratio. Also the fact that the input light is only just sub- visible means that the transmission and lifetime of components are improved. A further advantage of the narrow-band source light is that it is easier to collimate the light, in particular by adding a
collimating dielectric stack as the collimator 7, as described in PCT/GB 98/01203.
The CaS04 : Eu2+ phosphor can be produced from a range of synthesis routes and has previously been reported in Dhopte et al, Journal of Luminescence 50
(1991) pages 187-195 (North-Holland) or in US-A-3669897 (Wachtel) . For the present embodiment the following process can be employed to produce the phosphor:
For bulk amounts :
CaS04: • Dissolve 500g Ca(N03)2 in 31 water;
• Add 10ml concentrated H2S04, filter and discard residue; • Add 250ml concentrated H2S04 to filtrate to precipitate CaS04 and filter again;
• Wash with water until pH of washings is about 6, followed by rinsing in IPA.
• Dry precipitate in oven overnight . • This gives a yield of about 80%.
Phosphor: • Mix 120g CaS04 with 1. lg Eu203.
• Add 16g (NH4)2S04 and mix;
• Place the mixture in a large silica firing tube and purge for 20 mins with Argon;
• Place the tube in a tube furnace at 950°C for 45 mins, keeping the Argon flowing;
• Take the tube out of the furnace and cool while still having Ar flowing through it;
• When cooled, mix 20g NH4C1 with the sample and then put back into the tube, purge with Ar for 20 mins and fire for 30 mins at 920°C.
• Upon cooling, grind the sample and sieve through a fine mesh.
The amount of NH4C1 was in excess and the sample is over-reduced to produce the blue-emitting CaS:Eu2+ which oxidises rapidly to CaS04:Eu2+. This ensures a more complete conversion of Eu3+ to Eu2+.
For small amounts:
• Mix 16.8g CaS04 with 0.88g EU203
• Same method as above but slightly lower ratios of (NH4)2S04 and NH4C1. • Add lOg CaS04.
• Add 2g mixture of CaS04 + EU203.
• Add 1.6g (NH4)2S04 for first firing, 30 mins,
• Add 1. Og NH4C1 for second firing, 30 mins.
Or (for very small amounts) :
• Prepare 2.5g CaS04
• 0.5g mixture • 0.6g (NH4)2S04
• 0.5g NH4C1
NOTE : If instead of excess (NH4)2S04 and NH4C1 a reducing atmosphere, e.g. Ar/H2, is used, a sulphide is produced, which emits red.
The powder thus prepared can be coated on to the inside of a glass tube in any known way, and electrodes and a gas filling introduced to produce a lamp. Several linear tubes, or a single serpentine tube, can be used as a backlight for the display, or a TIR lightguide with tubes along its sides can be constructed as a diffuse light source.
CLAIMS :
1. A display comprising an ultra-violet light source, a phosphor (3) that emits UVA light (5) when struck by light from this source, a device (9) for modulating the light emitted by the phosphor and a display output material (11) acting as a display surface and emitting visible light when excited by the UVA light; in which the phosphor has a narrow-band emission spectrum with a FWHM of less than about 14 nm.
2. A display as claimed in Claim 1, in which the bandwidth of the narrow-band phosphor is in the region of 13-14 nm FWHM.
3. A display as claimed in claim 2 , in which the phosphor is Eu2+-doped CaS04 and emits wavelengths around 388 nm.
4. A display as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the modulator (9) is a liquid-crystal cell.
5. A display as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the display output material is itself a phosphor or a mixture of phosphors.
6. A display according to any preceding claim, in which the UV light source is a gas discharge in a vessel (1) lined by the first phosphor.
7. A display according to claim 6, in which the gas discharge is a mercury discharge.
8. A display according to any preceding claim, in which the modulator (9) includes cholesteric polarisers optimised to work over the narrow emission
Claims
band of the source phosphor.
9. A display according to any preceding claim and further including a collimator (7) between the UVA source and the modulator.
10. A method of preparing a lamp, in which CaS04:Eu2+ phosphor is prepared by heating a mixture of CaS04, (NH4)2S04 and EU203 in an inert atmosphere, cooling the resultant mixture, adding a reducing agent, in particular NH4C1, heating again in an inert atmosphere and grinding or otherwise processing to the required particle size.
11. A method according to claim 9, in which the resulting powder is applied to a discharge tube and the tube is assembled with a liquid-crystal device.
Applications Claiming Priority (3)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
GBGB9726570.6A GB9726570D0 (en) | 1997-12-16 | 1997-12-16 | Liquid-crystal display using UV light source |
GB9726570 | 1997-12-16 | ||
PCT/GB1998/003688 WO1999031546A1 (en) | 1997-12-16 | 1998-12-16 | Liquid-crystal display using uv light source |
Publications (1)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
EP1040382A1 true EP1040382A1 (en) | 2000-10-04 |
Family
ID=10823696
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
EP98960001A Withdrawn EP1040382A1 (en) | 1997-12-16 | 1998-12-16 | Liquid-crystal display using uv light source |
Country Status (3)
Country | Link |
---|---|
EP (1) | EP1040382A1 (en) |
GB (1) | GB9726570D0 (en) |
WO (1) | WO1999031546A1 (en) |
Families Citing this family (1)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
EP2140502B1 (en) | 2007-04-17 | 2017-04-05 | Philips Lighting Holding B.V. | Illumination system |
Family Cites Families (5)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US3669897A (en) * | 1969-11-14 | 1972-06-13 | Westinghouse Electric Corp | Divalent europium activated alkaline earth metal sulfates and method of preparation |
US4678285A (en) * | 1984-01-13 | 1987-07-07 | Ricoh Company, Ltd. | Liquid crystal color display device |
KR100315106B1 (en) * | 1994-07-26 | 2002-02-19 | 김순택 | Display device |
US5666174A (en) * | 1995-08-11 | 1997-09-09 | Cupolo, Iii; Anthony M. | Emissive liquid crystal display with liquid crystal between radiation source and phosphor layer |
GB9608114D0 (en) * | 1996-04-19 | 1996-06-26 | Screen Tech Ltd | Liquid crystal display |
-
1997
- 1997-12-16 GB GBGB9726570.6A patent/GB9726570D0/en not_active Ceased
-
1998
- 1998-12-16 WO PCT/GB1998/003688 patent/WO1999031546A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
- 1998-12-16 EP EP98960001A patent/EP1040382A1/en not_active Withdrawn
Non-Patent Citations (1)
Title |
---|
See references of WO9931546A1 * |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
WO1999031546A1 (en) | 1999-06-24 |
GB9726570D0 (en) | 1998-02-11 |
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