JPH0815672A - Liquid crystal device and its production - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent linear contact of liquid crystals with transparent electrode and to facilitate connection to external circuits by providing a liquid crystal device with a highpolymer film on the surface facing a planar high polymer substance dispersed with liquid crystals and providing the surface of the high- polymer film with transparent electrodes. CONSTITUTION:The planar high-polymer substance 1 is composed of a photopolymn. type polymer and the liquid crystals 2 are dispersed in the planar high-polymer substance 1. The opposite surface of the planar high-polymer substance 1 is provided with the high-polymer film 3 to securely and tightly adhere the transparent electrodes 4 to the high-polymer substance 1, by which generation of defects, such as hysteresis, is prevented. Namely, there are no more parts where the transparent electrodes 4 and the liquid crystals 2 come into direct contact with each other if the high-polymer film 3 is disposed between the planar high-polymer substance 1 dispersed with the liquid crystals 2 or the meshed high-polymer substance impregnated with the liquid crystals 2 and the transparent electrodes 4. The generation of the defects is thus prevented. Since the transparent electrodes 4 exist on the outer side of the liquid crystal device, the connection to the external circuits is facilitated.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid crystal device and a method for manufacturing the same, and more particularly to a liquid crystal device in which a liquid crystal is dispersed in a plate-like polymer or a liquid crystal is impregnated in a network polymer and a method for producing the same. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional liquid crystal device is shown in FIG. In FIG.
11 is a plate polymer, 12 is a liquid crystal, 14 is a transparent electrode, 1
6 is a glass substrate. On one glass substrate 16,
A transparent electrode 14 'serving as a pixel electrode and a switching transistor 17 for applying a voltage to the transparent electrode 14' are formed. The polymer body 11 in which the liquid crystal 12 is dispersed is sandwiched between the glass substrates 16 on which the transparent electrodes 14 and 14 'are formed. The particle size of the liquid crystal 12 is usually formed to be several μm.

In this liquid crystal device, the transparent electrodes 14 and 14 'are used.
When no voltage is applied to the liquid crystal 12, liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal 12 are regulated by the inner wall surface of the polymer body 11 and randomly arranged for each liquid crystal 12, as shown in FIG. as a result,
Light incident from the transparent electrode 14 side is scattered by a large number of liquid crystals 12 and becomes milky white as a liquid crystal device. Therefore, the other transparent electrode 14 'side cannot be visually recognized from the transparent electrode 14 side. When a voltage having a potential difference is applied to the transparent electrodes 14 and 14 ', the liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal 12 are aligned perpendicularly to the transparent electrodes 14 and 14', as shown in FIG. 6B. The light incident from the transparent electrode 14 side is the other transparent electrode 1
The light is transmitted to the 4 ′ side and becomes transparent as a liquid crystal device. Therefore, from one transparent electrode 14 side to the other transparent electrode 14 '
The side is visible. In such a liquid crystal device, since it is possible to control the light transmission state and the light shielding state without using a polarizing plate,
It has been attracting attention as a liquid crystal device that can effectively use light.

In the liquid crystal device as described above, a photocurable resin material, a liquid crystal material and a photopolymerization initiator are mixed between two substrates 16 having transparent electrodes 14 and 14 'formed on opposite surfaces. Then, the photocurable resin material is irradiated with ultraviolet rays to cure the photocurable resin material to aggregate the liquid crystal material, thereby forming the polymer body 11 in which a large number of liquid crystals 12 are dispersed.

[0005]

However, in this conventional liquid crystal device, the photocurable resin material is cured between the two substrates 16 on which the transparent electrodes 14 and 14 'are formed to form a photocurable resin material. Since the liquid crystal material is phase-separated, the liquid crystal 12 that comes into direct contact with the transparent electrodes 14 and 14 'is always generated. Thus, the liquid crystal 1 is formed on the transparent electrodes 14 and 14 '.
At the portion where 2 is in contact, the transparent electrodes 14 and 14 ′ are not in close contact with the polymer 11 and cause a defect such as hysteresis.

A glass substrate 16 is provided outside the transparent electrode 14.
Therefore, there is also a problem that the connection point between the transparent electrode 14 and the external circuit is restricted.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and it is possible to prevent the liquid crystal from directly contacting the transparent electrode and easily connect to an external circuit. An object of the present invention is to provide a liquid crystal device and a manufacturing method thereof.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, in a liquid crystal device according to the present invention, a polymer film is provided on opposite surfaces of a plate-like polymer body in which a large number of liquid crystals are dispersed. A transparent electrode is formed on the outer side of the film, or a polymer film is provided on the opposite surface of the mesh polymer impregnated with liquid crystal, and the transparent electrode is formed on the outer side of the polymer film.

Further, in the method for manufacturing a liquid crystal device according to the present invention, two substrates, which are coated with a photo-curable resin material and are semi-cured, are arranged so that the photo-curable resin material faces each other, and By injecting a mixture of a photocurable resin material, a liquid crystal material, and a photopolymerization initiator into the composition and irradiating with light, the photocurable resin material applied on the substrate and the photocurable resin material injected between the substrates are injected. At the same time, it is cured to form a plate-like polymer having a polymer film on the opposite surface and liquid crystal is dispersed in the plate-like polymer, or a network polymer having a polymer film on the opposite surface is formed. At the same time as the formation, the liquid crystal is impregnated in the network polymer, and then the substrate is peeled off, and then the transparent electrode is formed on the high-purity film.

[0010]

As described above, when the polymer film is provided between the transparent electrode and the plate-like polymer in which the liquid crystal is dispersed or the mesh polymer in which the liquid crystal is impregnated, the portion where the transparent electrode and the liquid crystal directly contact each other It is possible to prevent the occurrence of defects such as hysteresis.

Also, since the transparent electrode is located outside the liquid crystal device, connection with an external circuit is facilitated.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of a liquid crystal device according to the present invention, in which 1 is a plate-like polymer, 2 is a liquid crystal, and 3 is a liquid crystal.
Is a polymer film and 4 is a transparent electrode.

The plate polymer 1 is composed of a photopolymerizable polymer such as urethane acrylate oligomer and ester acrylate oligomer.

A large number of droplet-shaped liquid crystals 2 having a particle diameter of several μm are dispersed in the plate-like polymer 1. The liquid crystal 2 is composed of a p-type nematic liquid crystal having a dielectric anisotropy Δε of about 1 to 30 and a refractive index anisotropy Δn of 0.1 to 0.3.

A polymer film 3 is provided on the opposing surfaces of the plate polymer 1. The polymer film 3 is formed to have a thickness of, for example, about 0.1 to 5 μm in order to firmly adhere the transparent electrode 4 described later to the polymer body 1. That is, when a gap is formed at the interface between the plate polymer 1 and the transparent electrode 4, it causes a defect such as hysteresis. Therefore, it is desirable that the polymer film 3 be formed of the same material as the polymer body 1 such as a photopolymerizable polymer such as urethane acrylate oligomer or ester acrylate oligomer.

A transparent electrode 4 is provided outside the polymer film 3. This transparent electrode 4 is made of, for example, tin oxide (Sn
It is formed of O ₂ ) or indium tin oxide (ITO).

Thus, the transparent electrode 4 is formed on the surface of the polymer body 1.
By providing the above, the connection point with the external circuit is not restricted, and this liquid crystal device can be used by stacking in a plurality of stages.

Next, a method of manufacturing the liquid crystal device according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. First, as shown in FIG.
A photocurable resin material 3'is applied onto a substrate 5 such as glass or PET film. Next, as shown in FIG. 2B, 1 to 500 mJ / cm ^{2 is} added to the photocurable resin material 3 '.
It is semi-cured by irradiating about 1 to 60 seconds of ultraviolet rays. Next, as shown in FIG. 3C, two substrates 5 coated with the semi-cured photo-curable resin material 3 ′ are arranged so that the photo-curable resin material 3 ′ faces each other. A polymer material 6 in which a photopolymerizable polymer, liquid crystal and a polymerization initiator are sufficiently mixed is injected between the substrates 5. The photopolymerizable polymer and the liquid crystal are mixed in a ratio of about 1: 9 to 5.5.
Next, as shown in FIG. 3D, 1 to 500 mJ / cm ²
The photopolymerizable polymer 1 and the liquid crystal 2 are phase-separated by irradiating about 1 to 300 seconds of ultraviolet rays, and the polymer 1 is formed by curing the photopolymerizable polymer. At this stage, the liquid crystal 2 aggregates and becomes a state in which many are dispersed in the polymer 1. At the same time, the semi-cured photo-curable resin material 3 '
Is also cured to form the polymer film 3 integrated with the polymer 1. Next, as shown in FIG. 2E, the substrate 5 is attached to the polymer film 3
After peeling from the part, finally, as shown in FIG. 2F, the transparent electrode 4 is formed on the polymer film 3 by, for example, a sputtering method or the like to complete.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing another embodiment of the liquid crystal device according to the present invention. This liquid crystal device is also almost the same as the liquid crystal device shown in FIG. 1, but in this embodiment, a plurality of transparent electrodes 4 ′ serving as pixel electrodes on one side of the plate-like polymer body 1 and the respective transparent electrodes 4 ′. A glass substrate 6 provided with a switching transistor 7 for applying a voltage to is arranged. When the pixel electrode 4'and the switching transistor 7 are provided on the glass substrate 6 in this way, it can be used as a liquid crystal display device.

The invention described in claim 3 is also substantially the same as the invention described in claim 1, but in the invention described in claim 3, as shown in FIG. 8, the liquid crystal 9 is impregnated in the network polymer 8. Thus, the network polymer 8 impregnated with the liquid crystal 8
2C, a semi-cured photo-curable resin material 3 ′ shown in FIG. : 9 or the like so as to increase the liquid crystal, or by selecting the material. In addition, in FIG.
Reference numeral 3 is a polymer film formed on the opposing surfaces of the network polymer 8, and reference numeral 4 is a transparent electrode formed on the polymer film 3.

[0021]

As described above, according to the liquid crystal device of the present invention, a polymer film is provided on opposite surfaces of a plate-like polymer body in which a large number of liquid crystals are dispersed, and a transparent film is provided outside the polymer film. The transparent electrode and the liquid crystal are in direct contact with each other because the polymer film is provided on the opposite surface of the network polymer impregnated with the electrode or the liquid crystal and the transparent electrode is formed outside the polymer film. Since there are no parts, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of defects such as hysteresis. Further, since the transparent electrode is located outside the device, connection with an external circuit is facilitated.

According to the method of manufacturing a liquid crystal device of the present invention, two substrates, which are coated with a photo-curable resin material and are semi-cured, are arranged so that the photo-curable resin material faces each other. By injecting a mixture of a photocurable resin material, a liquid crystal material, and a photopolymerization initiator between the substrates and irradiating with light,
The photo-curable resin material applied on the substrate and the photo-curable resin material injected between the substrates are simultaneously cured to form a plate-like polymer body having a polymer film on the opposite surface and liquid crystal It is dispersed in the body or a network polymer having a polymer film on the opposite surface is formed and liquid crystal is impregnated in the network polymer, and then the substrate is peeled off, and then the high polymer film is formed on the film. Since the transparent electrode is formed, it is possible to manufacture a liquid crystal device without a portion where the transparent electrode and the liquid crystal are in direct contact with each other, and it is possible to prevent defects such as hysteresis of the liquid crystal device from occurring.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing an embodiment of a liquid crystal device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing another embodiment of the liquid crystal device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing an embodiment of a liquid crystal device according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing a conventional liquid crystal device.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the operation principle of a conventional liquid crystal device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Polymer, 2 ... Liquid crystal, 3 ... Polymer film,
4 ... Transparent electrode

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A liquid crystal device in which a polymer film is provided on opposite surfaces of a plate-shaped polymer body in which liquid crystal is dispersed, and a transparent electrode is provided on the polymer film. 2. A substrate, which is obtained by applying a photocurable resin material and semi-curing the photocurable resin material, is disposed so that the photocurable resin material faces each other, and the photocurable resin material, the liquid crystal material, and By injecting a mixture of a resin and a photopolymerization initiator and irradiating with light, the photocurable resin material applied on the substrate and the photocurable resin material injected between the substrates are simultaneously cured to form a polymer on opposite surfaces. A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal device, comprising forming a plate-shaped polymer body having a film, dispersing liquid crystal in the plate-shaped polymer body, peeling the substrate, and then forming a transparent electrode on the high-resolution film. 3. A liquid crystal device in which a polymer film is provided on opposite surfaces of a network polymer impregnated with liquid crystal, and a transparent electrode is provided on the polymer film. 4. Two substrates, which are coated with a photo-curable resin material and are semi-cured, are arranged so that the photo-curable resin materials face each other, and the photo-curable resin material, the liquid crystal material, and By injecting a mixture of a resin and a photopolymerization initiator and irradiating with light, the photocurable resin material applied on the substrate and the photocurable resin material injected between the substrates are simultaneously cured to form a polymer on opposite surfaces. A method for producing a liquid crystal device, comprising forming a network polymer having a film, impregnating liquid crystal into the network polymer, and then peeling off the substrate, and then forming a transparent electrode on the polymer film.