Patent ID: 7057700

Claim:
A light deflection device, comprising: a light path deflection element, further comprising: a pair of transparent substrates; an alignment layer, between the substrates for homeotropically aligning liquid crystal molecules therebetween; a liquid crystal layer, forming in a chiral smectic C phase without existence of electric field; at least two spacers, for limiting a thickness of the liquid crystal layer between the substrates; at least two electrodes, for creating an electric field substantially parallel to the liquid crystal layer; a plurality of electrode lines, substantially arranged parallel to a desired light path shift direction on regions containing light paths on at least one of the substrates; and a voltage applying device, capable of switching direction of the electric field between the substrates, wherein by switching the direction of the applied electric field, and a light path of a transmitted light through the light deflection device is deflected to a direction substantially perpendicular to both a normal direction of the liquid crystal layer and the direction of the electric field, and wherein the voltage applying device is set to apply stepwise different voltage values to the electrode lines at a specific time.