Patent ID: 7575788

Claim:
A polymer for use as a surface-director alignment layer in a liquid crystal device, said polymer comprising a polymeric backbone and side-chains attached thereto wherein, the polymeric backbone lacks directly coupled ring structures, and each side-chain of at least some of the side-chains (i) comprises at least two unsubstituted and/or substituted phenyls coupled via a coupling selected from the group consisting of a carbon-carbon single bond (—), a carbon-carbon double bond containing unit (—CH═CH—), a carbon-carbon triple bond containing unit (—C≡C—), a methylene ether unit (—CH 2 O—), an ethylene ether unit (—CH 2 CH 2 O—), an ester unit (—COO—) and an azo unit (—N═N—), (ii) exhibits a permanent and/or induced dipole moment that in ordered phase provides dielectric anisotropy, and (iii) is attached to the polymeric backbone via at least two spacing atoms.