Patent ID: 6704073
Filing Date: 2004-03-09
Classification: G02F

Abstract:
A method of making a liquid-crystal sheet material, useful for displays, having polymer-dispersed cholesteric liquid crystals, comprising the steps of:(a) providing an emulsion having cholesteric liquid crystal material dispersed in a gelatin solution; (b) heating the emulsion to reduce the viscosity of the emulsion; (c) coating the heated emulsion onto a substrate have a patterned electrode on its surface; (d) lowering the temperature of the coated emulsion to change the state of the coated emulsion from a liquid to a gel state, thereby forming a coating characterized by a corresponding increased-viscosity state; and (d) drying the coating, while maintaining it in the increased viscosity state, to form a coating in which domains of cholesteric liquid crystals are dispersed in a dried gelatin-containing matrix.