JPS62150322A - Liquid crystal element - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To increase an injection speed of a liquid crystal without enlarging the number of injection ports of the liquid crystal or its size, by providing a step difference or a groove on a part except an electrode part of a substrate. CONSTITUTION:A groove 7 for shortening the injection time is provided on opposed surfaces of a pair of substrates 1, by etching or forming. A cell gap of a part on which the groove 7 has been provided becomes thick, and accordingly, a liquid crystal is injected into this part first, and thereafter, it is injected to a part where the cell gap is thin. That is to say, there is virtually an effect being equal to that which has extended a length portion of the groove 7 with respect to an injection port, and the injection time to the whole element can be improved remarkably. Also, a chemical influence of the liquid crystal and a sealing agent can be reduced, and also generation of an air foam can be suppressed.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field] The present invention relates to an element structure of a liquid crystal element.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention aims to increase the liquid crystal injection speed, improve productivity, and reduce manufacturing costs by providing steps or grooves in a part of the substrate in a liquid crystal element.

[Conventional technology]

The element structure of a conventional liquid crystal element is a flat substrate structure except for the thickness of the electrode portion, as shown in FIG.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, the above-mentioned conventional technology has a problem in that when the cell gap of the liquid crystal element is thin, the liquid crystal injection speed is slow and productivity is poor.

As is well known, liquid crystal elements are becoming denser and larger, and liquid crystal materials using ferroelectric liquid crystals are being put into practical use. Devices using ferroelectric liquid crystals generally have a thin cell gap of around 2 microns, and
N liquid crystals are also moving toward thinner cell gaps to increase speed.

For this reason, liquid crystal must be injected into a large-sized device with a thin cell gap, making it extremely difficult for liquid crystal to enter the liquid crystal device.

The present invention is intended to solve these problems, and its purpose is to provide an element structure for a liquid crystal element that allows liquid crystal to be easily injected into a thin and large-sized liquid crystal element in a short time. It is in.

[Means to solve the problem]

In the liquid crystal element of the present invention, in which a liquid crystal is sandwiched between two substrates having opposing electrodes, there is a step difference in a part of at least one of the two substrates excluding the electrode part. Or, it is characterized by having a groove.

[For production]

According to the above configuration of the present invention, the cell gap becomes thick in the portion where the step or groove is provided, and therefore liquid crystal is first injected into this portion and then into the thinner portion of the cell gap. That is, the effect is equivalent to that of expanding the injection port by the length of the step or groove, and the injection time for the entire device can be greatly improved.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the structure of a liquid crystal element according to an embodiment of the present invention, with FIG. 1(a) being a plan view and FIG. 1(b) being a sectional view. Grooves 7 for shortening injection time are provided on opposing surfaces of a pair of substrates 1 made of glass or plastic by etching or molding. The shape of the groove 7 can be set arbitrarily, but the groove 7 should be approximately parallel to the electrode on the same substrate and have a depth of 5.
A width of ~100 μm was carried out at 1 to 311. Furthermore, after providing electrodes 2, an insulating film 3, and an alignment film 4 on this substrate 1, the respective substrates were combined to assemble a liquid crystal element with a cell gap of about 2 μm. At this time, each electrode is formed in a stripe shape,
Pyphenylester μ early ferroelectric liquid crystal was heated to a temperature at which it became an isotropic liquid phase and injected under vacuum through an injection port into this element, which was arranged in a lattice shape with the dots perpendicular to each other. The element size at this time was approximately 170×27011. Vacuum degree is 1x
The evacuation time was 1 hour at 10-" Torr. When the depth of the groove 7 was 10 μm and the width was 11111, the time required for injection was about 3 hours. For comparison, at this time, When injection was performed using a conventional liquid crystal surface having the same shape and no grooves 7, it took about 12 hours under the same conditions.

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an example showing the structure of a liquid crystal element in a second embodiment of the present invention. The difference from the first embodiment is that a step 8 is provided instead of a groove.

A step with a width of 50 .mu.m and a width of 5 ml was provided by etching on the opposing surfaces of the pair of substrates 1 to approximately deepen the edge of the element. After the element was assembled, this step chamber was formed to extend all around the inside of the spacer 5. The other configurations including the cell thickness were the same as in the first example, and the liquid crystal was injected. The injection time at this time was approximately 2 hours.

The above embodiment shows an example of the present invention, and the shape of the groove or step can be arbitrarily set to the extent that it does not affect the electrode structure. In addition to display elements, it is also possible to use liquid crystal elements such as electronic shutters.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to greatly improve the injection speed of liquid crystal into thin and large liquid crystal elements, thereby improving the productivity of liquid crystal elements and reducing manufacturing costs such as electric heating costs. This is the result. Furthermore, since high-speed injection is possible without increasing the number or size of the liquid crystal injection ports, the chemical influence between the liquid crystal and the sealant can be reduced, and the generation of bubbles can also be suppressed.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a liquid crystal element of the present invention, FIG. 1(&) is a plan view, and FIG. 1(b) is a sectional view. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a second embodiment of the liquid crystal device of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional liquid crystal device. 1...Substrate 2...Transparent electrode 3... Insulating film 4... Orientation film 5... Spacer
6...Liquid crystal 7...Groove part 8...More than the step part (Mi front crystal vermilion) 4th side 1st eye Figure '1 (I2) ■／l#IX１Figure Z

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a liquid crystal element in which a liquid crystal is sandwiched between two substrates having opposing electrodes, a step or a groove is provided in a part of at least one of the two substrates excluding the electrode part. A liquid crystal element featuring: