Patent ID: 7094360

Claim:
A resin blend comprising: one or more primary liquid crystal monomer at a ratio to one or more secondary monomer, said secondary monomer and said ratio being adapted to maintain said resin blend in a nematic liquid crystalline state after addition of inorganic filler at a temperature of 20° C. for about 30 minutes or more, the resin blend having a polymerization shrinkage of 3 vol. % or less, the primary liquid crystal monomer having the following general structure: wherein X and Y comprise polymerizable groups; R 2 is a bulky organic group having a bulk greater than R 1 and R 3 , said bulk being adapted to provide sufficient steric hindrance to achieve a nematic state at room temperature while suppressing crystallinity of liquid crystal monomers made using the mesogens at room temperature; and, R 1 and R 3 are selected from groups less bulky than R 2 ; said secondary monomer comprising one or more mesogens having the following general structure: wherein: n is from about 2 to about 5; R 2 is a bulky organic group; R 10 independently is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and methyl groups; R 14 independently is selected from the group consisting of substituted and unsubstituted alkyl groups having from about 2 to about 6 carbon atoms, provided that said substituted alkyl groups consist essentially of one or fewer methyl substituents; R 13 independently is selected from the group consisting of alkylene groups having from about 2 to about 12 carbon atoms.