Patent ID: 6894751

Claim:
A process for making an optical compensator, comprising the steps of: a) applying a liquid comprising a nematic liquid-crystal compound in a solvent carrier onto the orientation layer on a transparent support to form a liquid-crystal-containing coating; b) drying the liquid-crystal-containing coating, thereby forming a liquid-crystal-containing layer; c) optionally heating the liquid-crystal-containing layer to a temperature that is above 50° C.; d) cooling the liquid-crystal-containing layer to near or below its isotropic nematic phase transition temperature T c for at least 5 seconds to form a positively birefringent nematic phase, thereby forming an anisotropic nematic liquid-crystalline layer; e) polymerizing and/or curing the anisotropic nematic liquid-crystalline layer with radiation at a temperature below the T c of the anisotropic nematic liquid-crystalline layer to form an integral component.