Patent ID: 7009666

Claim:
A bistable, backlit cholesteric liquid crystal display, comprising: a) a layer of cholesteric liquid crystal material located between first and second substrates, said cholesteric liquid crystal material including focal conic and reflective planar textures that are stable in an absence of an electric field, said second substrate being closer to an exterior of the display than said first substrate; b) drive electronics adapted to electrically address regions of the cholesteric liquid crystal material effective to cause said cholesteric liquid crystal material to exhibit the focal conic and planar textures resulting in an image; c) a bi-directional circular polarizer having opposing sides, wherein said bi-directional circular polarizer circularly polarizes light incident from either of said opposing sides including passing circularly polarized light to said layer of cholesteric liquid crystal material; d) a transflector having a light reflective side and a light transmitting side, the light reflective side being adapted to reflect light received from said bi-directional circular polarizer, said bi-directional circular polarizer being located between said transflector and said first substrate; and e) a light source adapted to be selectively energizable to emit light, said light passing through said transflector from said light transmitting side toward said light reflecting side.