Low reflectivity flat panel display
First Claim
1. A flat panel display for providing improved resolution through decreased reflection of incident light, comprising:
- a substrate;
an array of electrodes disposed on said substrate for activating selected pixels of an array of pixels;
a polarizer disposed on said electrode array for polarizing light received by said electrode array;
a layer of anti-reflective transparent material disposed on said polarizer, said transparent material having an index of refraction and a viewing surface containing a plurality of surface details distributed about the viewing surface; and
a layer of anti-reflective coating disposed on said viewing surface and having an index of refraction no greater than the index of refraction of said transparent material, said transparent material and said anti-reflective coating producing very low actual and viewer-perceived reflectance while providing a clear and high contrast display of display-generated images to a viewer of said display.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
An improved flat panel display provides reduced reflection of incident light on the display to improve display visibility. The display includes a transparent top cover panel such as glass which is bonded or laminated to the display polarizer. The outer viewing surface of the top cover panel carries a plurality of integral surface features defined in the surface, which may comprise etched bumps or micro-machined tetrahedron-shaped protuberances that may be truncated, smoothed, and/or variously oriented and sized to further reduce incident light reflectivity. A multi-layer HEA coating on the featured surface defines a graduated transition layer with an index of refraction that gradually, and preferably smoothly, varies from layer to layer of the HEA coating from the index of refraction of the top cover panel to the index of refraction of the ambient air or other material which the outermost viewable surface of the display presents an image to an observer or viewer.
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Citations
33 Claims
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1. A flat panel display for providing improved resolution through decreased reflection of incident light, comprising:
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a substrate;
an array of electrodes disposed on said substrate for activating selected pixels of an array of pixels;
a polarizer disposed on said electrode array for polarizing light received by said electrode array;
a layer of anti-reflective transparent material disposed on said polarizer, said transparent material having an index of refraction and a viewing surface containing a plurality of surface details distributed about the viewing surface; and
a layer of anti-reflective coating disposed on said viewing surface and having an index of refraction no greater than the index of refraction of said transparent material, said transparent material and said anti-reflective coating producing very low actual and viewer-perceived reflectance while providing a clear and high contrast display of display-generated images to a viewer of said display. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. In a flat panel display operative for generating an image viewable by an observer of the display situated before a front of the display and through an ambient medium that is disposed between the observer and the display and which has an associated index of refraction,
a transparent material sheet located at the front of the display and through which an image operatively generated by the display is viewable by an observer situated before a viewing surface of the transparent material sheet, said material sheet having an associated index of refraction, a plurality of outwardly projecting surface features defined unitarily on and distributed about the viewing surface of the transparent material sheet so that the surface features project outwardly toward the observer, and a multi-layer HEA coating applied over said viewing surface of the transparent material sheet so as to cover said plural surface features and thereby provide an anti-reflective coating over said material sheet viewing surface, each layer of the multi-layer coating having a respective index of refraction, the index of refraction of a first layer of the multiple coating layers which is disposed against said viewing surface being substantially equal to the index of refraction of the material sheet, the index of refraction of an outermost layer of the multiple coating layers which is most remote from said first layer being substantially equal to the index of refraction of the ambient medium, and the index of refraction of each other layer of the multiple coating layers between the first and outermost layers being between the indices of refraction of said first and outermost layers so that the multi-layer HEA coating has an effective index of refraction that gradually varies from the substantially the index of refraction of the material sheet to substantially the index of retraction of the ambient medium to thereby define a graduated transition layer for minimized reflectance between the display and the observer of light incident on the display.
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28. A method for improving observer visibility of images generated by a flat panel display as viewed by an observer situated before a transparent material sheet through which the display-generated images are viewable and which is located at the front of the flat panel display, wherein the observer views the display-generated images through an ambient environment disposed between the observer and the display and which has an associated environment index of refraction, comprising the steps of:
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processing a front viewing surface of a transparent material sheet of the display through which an image operatively generated by the display is viewable by the observer situated before the viewing surface to define unitarily on the viewing surface a plurality of outwardly projecting surface features distributed about the viewing surface of the transparent material sheet so that the surface features project outwardly toward the observer, the material sheet having an associated material index of refraction, and said surface features being configured for reducing direct reflection from the viewing surface toward the observer of light incident on the display; and
applying a multi-layer HEA coating to the viewing surface on which the plural surface features are defined so as to cover the plural surface features and thereby provide an anti-reflective coating over the material sheet viewing surface, each layer of the multi-layer HEA coating having a respective layer index of refraction, the layer index of refraction of a first layer of the multiple coating layers which is disposed against said viewing surface being substantially equal to the material index of refraction of the material sheet, the layer index of refraction of an outermost layer of the multiple coating layers which is most remote from said first layer being substantially equal to the medium index of refraction of the ambient medium, and the index of refraction of each other layer of the multiple coating layers being between the layer indices of refraction of said first and outermost layers so that the multi-layer HEA coating has an effective index of refraction that gradually varies from the material index of refraction of the material sheet to the medium index of retraction of the ambient medium to thereby define a graduated transition layer for minimized reflectance between the display and the observer of light incident on the display. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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Specification