Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G02—OPTICS
  • G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
  • G02B6/00—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings
  • G02B6/10—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings of the optical waveguide type
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G02—OPTICS
  • G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
  • G02B6/00—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings
  • G02B6/0001—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings specially adapted for lighting devices or systems
  • G02B6/0011—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings specially adapted for lighting devices or systems the light guides being planar or of plate-like form
  • G02B6/0033—Means for improving the coupling-out of light from the light guide
  • G02B6/005—Means for improving the coupling-out of light from the light guide provided by one optical element, or plurality thereof, placed on the light output side of the light guide
  • G02B6/0053—Prismatic sheet or layer; Brightness enhancement element, sheet or layer
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G02—OPTICS
  • G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
  • G02B5/00—Optical elements other than lenses
  • G02B5/04—Prisms
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G02—OPTICS
  • G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
  • G02B5/00—Optical elements other than lenses
  • G02B5/04—Prisms
  • G02B5/045—Prism arrays
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G02—OPTICS
  • G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
  • G02B6/00—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings
  • G02B6/0001—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings specially adapted for lighting devices or systems
• • 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

Definitions

• a method of distributing a plurality of protrusions on a light directing film includes the steps of: (a) providing a light directing film that includes a plurality of microstructures extending along a first direction, where each microstructure includes a peak extending along the first direction; (b) overlaying a continuous grid on the light directing film, where the grid includes a plurality of same size and shape grid cells, such that each grid cell includes the same number of microstructure peaks; (c) dividing each grid cell into a same number of sub-cells such that each sub-cell includes a single microstructure peak; (d) choosing a single sub-cell in each grid cell; and (e) placing a leading edge of a protrusion in each randomly chosen sub-cell.
• FIG. 16A-16D are schematic representations of various stages or steps in a method of distributing a plurality of protrusions on a light directing film.
• the elevated portions are longer than the average length of the elevated portions.
• the longer elevated portions result from the overlap of multiple, such as two or more, or three or more, or four or more, elevated portions.
• the longer elevated portions result from the overlap of two, three, or four elevated portions.
• non-elevated portions 170 of each microstructure 150 have the same constant peak height along the first direction.
• FIG. 7 is a schematic side-view of a microstructure 150 of light directing film 100, where non-elevated portions 170 of the microstructure have the same peak height 158 along first direction 142.
• non- elevated portions 170 of the microstructures in the plurality of microstructures 150 have the same constant peak height along the first direction.
• substrate 130 can be or include any material that may be desirable in an application.
• substrate 130 can include or be made of glass and/or polymers such as polyethylene terapthalate (PET), polycarbonates, and acrylics.
• PET polyethylene terapthalate
• the substrate can have multiple layers.
• substrate 130 can provide any function that may be desirable in an application.
• substrate 130 may primarily provide support for the other layers.
• a substrate 130 may polarize light by including, for example, a reflective or absorbing polarizer, or diffuse light by including an optical diffuser.
• Microstructures 150 form a periodic pattern along a second direction 143 that is perpendicular to first direction 142.
• the periodic pattern has a pitch or period P defined as the distance between adjacent or neighboring microstructure peaks 156.
• microstructures 150 can have any period that may be desirable in an application. In some cases, the period P is less than about 500 microns, or less than about 400 microns, or less than about 300 microns, or less than about 200 microns, or less than about 100 microns.
• the resulting pattern of the elevated portions was made uniform by requiring each grid cell to include preferably a single leading edge of an elevated portion, and when such an arrangement was not obtainable after a few iterations or trials, the grid cell was allowed to instead include a portion of an elevated portion, where the elevated portion had a length that was greater than the average length of the elevated portions, or the prescribed length L.
• F is the fraction of area covered by the elevated portions and is given by:
• Each grid cell included a single leading edge of an elevated portion.
• the location of the leading edge coincided with a sub-cell of the grid cell, where the sub-cell was chosen randomly.
• the location of the newly located elevated portion was randomly changed to avoid overlap, or to avoid violating the minimum spacing requirement.
• the elevated portions continued to overlap, or be spaced apart less than the pre-determined distance, after a finite number of iterations, the location of the newly located elevated portion was fixed resulting in an elevated portion that was longer than the prescribed length.
• leading edge 1662 of protrusion 1660 is placed in each chosen sub-cell, such that leading edges 1662 of protrusions 1660 are on the same side of the protrusions and trailing edges 1664 of the protrusions are on the opposite side of the protrusions.

Landscapes

• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Optics & Photonics (AREA)
• Nonlinear Science (AREA)
• Mathematical Physics (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Crystallography & Structural Chemistry (AREA)
• Optical Elements Other Than Lenses (AREA)
• Liquid Crystal (AREA)
• Planar Illumination Modules (AREA)
• Shaping Of Tube Ends By Bending Or Straightening (AREA)

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Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

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Citations (7)

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• 2011
  • 2011-08-01 EP EP11746710.0A patent/EP2601547A1/en not_active Withdrawn
  • 2011-08-01 WO PCT/US2011/046082 patent/WO2012018707A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2011-08-01 SG SG2013006937A patent/SG187635A1/en unknown
  • 2011-08-01 TW TW100127238A patent/TWI506302B/zh not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2011-08-01 KR KR1020137004759A patent/KR101835167B1/ko not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2011-08-01 US US13/813,572 patent/US9164220B2/en active Active
  • 2011-08-01 JP JP2013523239A patent/JP6006207B2/ja active Active
  • 2011-08-01 CN CN201180036898.2A patent/CN103026275B/zh active Active
• 2016
  • 2016-06-03 JP JP2016111986A patent/JP6174758B2/ja active Active

Patent Citations (7)

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