MULTICOLOR FLAT PANEL DISPLAY USING TUNABLE BIREFRINGENCE FILTERS

THE PROPOSED WORK AIMS TO DEVELOP A MULTICOLOR FLAT PANEL INFORMATION DISPLAY BY COMBINING A MONOCHROME, HIGH-INFORMATION-CONTENT PANEL WITH AN ELECTRICALLY TUNABLE COLOR FILTER. MULTICOLOR IMAGES ARE PRESENTED BY SEQUENTIALLY PRESENTING MONOCHROME IMAGES IN THE THREE PRIMARY COLORS WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY TUNING THE FILTER FOR THE CORRECT ILLUMINATION COLOR. WE PROPOSE TO MAKE NOVEL TUNABLE COLOR FILTERS FROM FERROELECTRIC LIQUID CRYSTALS (FLCS), WHOSE FAST, LOW-POWER SWITCHING PERMITS FILTER PROGRAMMING WELL WITHIN THE 10 MS ALLOWED FOR THREE PRIMARY COLORS AT VIDEO FRAME RATE (30 HZ). THIS ELECTROOPTIC FILTER COULD BE COMBINED WITH ANY BROAD-SPECTRUM DISPLAY TO GIVE MULTICOLOR IMAGES. FLCS CAN ALSO BE USED TO MAKE THE INFORMATION-CONTAINING FLAT PANEL ITSELF; THE RESULTING DISPLAY'S FAST SWITCHING CAPABILITY MAKES IT ESPECIALLY WELLSUITED TO THE FRAME SEQUENTIAL COLOR CONCEPT. WE PROPOSE TODEVELOP THE COLOR FILTER DURING PHASE I, AND INTEGRATE FILTERS WITH MONOCHROME FLAT PANELS INTO FULL-SCALE DISPLAYSDURING PHASE II.