VISUAL DISPLAY BY ELECTRIC CONTROL OF SCATTERING OF LIGHT FROM A BEAM GUIDED N ELASTOMER FILM

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to digitally addressable display panels and more particularly to deformable elastomer display panels.

Description of the Prior Art 26 There currently exists a need for a flat display panel which YO07.S-0:

,10748,, 1 is relatively both simple and inexpensive to manufacture, sturdy, 2 consumes little power, and is capable of multi-color operation. While 3 ..several types of display panel», such as g;is discharge, electrochf omic, /, and liquid crystal are available, each type of panel is disadvantageous in one of the above-noted areas. For example, the gas panel requires a 6 relatively large electric power for operation and, consequently, the 7 metallization used for the conducting lines must be relatively thick in 8 order to prevent a large voltage drop along the lines. In addition, the 9 gas panel requires a relatively complex fabrication operation.

A flat display panel of the light modulator type is disclosed 11 in U.S. Patent No. 3,796,480 to Preston, Jr., et al, wherein the light 12 modulator includes a rigid glass plate having an array of holes arranged 13 in rows and columns. A plurality of spaced apart, reflective and 14 conductive strips is stretched across the glass plate, and a separate electrode is located underneath each column of holes. Electric signals 16 applied to the strips and electrodes produce electrostatic deflections 17 in the portions of the membrane above the holes. The deflection over 18 any one hole is dependent on the signal applied to the strip above the 19 hole and the signal applied to the electrode below the hole. In operation, the deflections occur at the portions of the membrane and reflective 21 strips extending over the hole, and thereby phase modulate portions of a 22 beam of light reflected from the portions of the reflective strips above 23 the holes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 26 It is an object of the present invention to provide a defor- 27' mable membrane display panel which is simple to fabricate. It is another 28 object to provide a deformographic membrane display panel which is 29 simple in structure and operates with edge illumination.

These and other objects are achieved by the present invention YO975-054 -2- 1 which provides an edge-lighteâ visual display panel of the digitally 2 addressed type, comprising a substrate of an electrically insulating 3 material, such as glass, having a generally flat upper surface, with a 4 plurality of lower, parallel conducting lines deposited on the upper surface in spaced apart relation. A transparent, electrically insulating S and deformable film of elastomer material is deposited on top of the ' lower conducting lines and the substrate. A plurality of upper, parallel ° conducting lines is deposited on the upper surface of the deformable 9 elastomer film with such upper conducting lines extending in a direction substantially perpendicular to the lower conducting lines. A source of 11 light is provided at the edge of the elastomer film and directs the 12 light into the elastomer film at angles which permit complete internal 13 reflection across the elastomer film, except at the locations where the 14 film is deformed. A voltage difference is applied across selected pairs of the upper and lower conducting lines to produce a deformation of the 16 elastomer film at the locations where the excited upper and lower lines 17 cross over one another. The light being reflected in the elastomer film 18 is scattered at the location of the deformation and detected by an 19 observer of the panel.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 21 FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of the display device of the 22 present invention including a side view of the panel; 23 FIG. 2 is a top view of the display panel shown in FIG. 1; 24 FIG. 3 is a close-up view of a section of the display panel : indicating the upper and lower conducting lines in their inactivated 26 state; 27 FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 wherein the elastomer is 28 deformed to permit the internally reflected light to escape from the 29 elastomer in the area of the deformation; and Y0975-054 -3- 1 FIG. 5 shows one source of edge illumination for the display 2 panel.

3 DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFKRRED EMBODIMENTS 4 Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown the flat display device of the present invention which includes an insulating substrate 6 10 having an array of lower, parallel conducting lines 12 deposited 7 thereon by conventional processes, such as evaporation or sputtering.

8 The upper surface of the substrate 10 is coated with a thin, transparent, 9 elastic film 14 having a refractive index which is greater than that of the underlying substrate 10. The relatively low refractive index substrate 11 10 may be comprised of glass while the elastomer film 14 may comprise a 12 deformable silicone material having a thickness in the order of about 1 13 to 20 mils. An upper array of parallel conducting lines 16 is evaporated 14 or sputtered onto the elastomer film 14 with the upper lines 16 running generally perpendicular to the lower lines 12 so as to provide a matrix 16 of cross-over points of the upper and lower lines covering substantially 17 the entire panel display. One or more light sources 18 and prisms 18 are mounted along the edges of the elastomer film 14 to provide light 19 which is coupled into the film from the edges thereof. The light source 18 has around it a parabolic reflector 22 such that the light is injected 21 into the diagonal of the prism 20 and reflected from the lower surface 22 of the prism 20 at angles which provide both efficient coupling of the 23 light from the prism into the film 14 and internal reflection across such film.

24 The lower surface of the elastomer film 14 is indicated by numeral 24.

The upper and lower conducting lines 16 and 12 are respectively 26 connected to convehtional driver circuits 26, as illustrated by the 27 cables 28 and 30, respectively. Drivers 26 provide the power for producing 28 the electric.field which is sufficient to deform the elastomer membrane 29 14. Select matrix gates 32 enable the appropriate drivers 26 to be YO975-054 -4- 1 energized for providing a voltage potential across selected pairs of the 2 upper and lower conducting lines 16 and 12. The select matrix gates 3 simply consist of an array of AND gates which are enabled in accordance 4 with the output signals provided by a display input 34. In operation, a request for a particular display is transformed by conventional means in ° the display unit 34 into selected combinations of inputs for the upper 7 and lower conducting lines 16 and 12. The select matrix gates 32 receive these inputs and enable the appropriate drivers 26. At the cross-over 9 point where an upper conducting line 16 and a lower conducting line 12 are both provided with a voltage difference therebetween, such as is 11 indicated by the dotted circle 36 in FIGS. 2 and 4, an electrical force 12 is created at that location which attempts to pull the upper and lower 13 conducting lines together. This force results in a deformation of the 14 elastomer film which is largest in the vicinity of the cross-over point as indicated in FIG. 4 by the circled area 36. As shown in FIG. 4, the 16 light propagating through the film, indicated by the. arrows 38 and 40, 17 is scattered in the area 36 and detected by an observer of the display 18 panel.

19 FIG. 3 shows the light beams 38 and 40 propagating across the elastomer film 14 in an area where no deformation of the film has 21 occurred, in which case the beams 38 and 40 are internally reflected 22 across the elastomer film 14 without any light being scattered outside 23 of the panel. In this case, the top area of the panel shown in FIG. 3 24 will appear dark to the viewer since no voltages are applied across upper and lower conductors which intersect.

26 Well known light principles provide that where a beam of light 27 is incident upon the interface between two dielectric materials of 28 differing refractive indices, n and n?, then, depending upon the 29 relative magnitudes of the indices, the angle of incidence, and the polarization of the light, the beam may be reflected, transmitted, or a combination of the two. If n-n-, there exists an angle. 0 = sin (n_/n,), 1 <i in J. L YO975-054 1 beyond which complete reflection occurs where the light is transmitted 2 in the first material (n ). This angle 0 is foirmed between the light 3 beam and the normal line extending perpendicular to the plane of the 4 surface between the two materials. If the high index region is bounded above and below by lower index regions, then radiation can be confined 6 to the middle if its angle of incidence, 9, is greater than e . In the m 7 example shown in FIG. 3, the elastomer film 14 represents the material 8 having the refractive index n , the substrate 10 has the refractive 9 index n2 and the air or any other transparent, insulating layer adjacent to the top surface 42 of film 14 has a refractive index of n . Thus, O 11 the relatively high index region n is bounded above and below by lower 12 index regions n and n .

13 Actually, because the electric field must satisfy boundary 14 conditions at the upper and lower interfaces of the elastomer film 14, the light is permitted to propagate at only discrete angles. If the 16 thickness of the middle region n is much larger than the wavelength of 17 the light, the discreteness is not evident, since the allowed angles are so close together. This is not true when the thickness of middle region is on the same order as the wavelength of the light. Even when the light is confined to the middle region, n , the electric field extends 21 into the upper and lower regions, n and n . The amplitudes, however, decrease exponentially with distance in a direction perpendicular to the interface of the regions. If a region of high refractive index n (where n >n >n ) is placed above the film and separated by a thin region having a refractive index n and a thickness which is less than a 29 meral 44 in FIG. 5 and can be simply the natural air gap resulting from the mounting of the prism 20 onto the top surface 42 of the elastomer film wavelength of the light radiation, then power may be efficiently transferred between the two. This is the basis for the prism coupler 20 shown in greater detail in FIG. 5. Here, this thin region n is indicated by nu- YO975-054 -6- 1 14. This air gap 44 is represented by the refractive index n while the 2 prism 20 has the refractive index n . Alternately, a thin film of 3 material having a low refractory index in the order of air can be placed 4 between the lower surface 46 of prism 20 and the top surface 42 of elastomer film 14.

6 Referring to FIG. 5, light is injected into the diagonal of 7 the prism 20 and allowed to be reflected from the lower surface 46. The 8 angle at which light strikes the lower surface 48 of the prism 9 determines whether the light is coupled into the elastomer film 14 for a range of angles so that there is complete internal reflection. If 11 the light beam is nondivergent, as when a laser is used as the light 12 source, power can be selectively injected at a single angle or a very 13 narrow range of angles.

14 It has been found that the light being guided through the elastomer film 14 can be broken into component modes or a range of angle 16 values which are permitted to pass the light across the film. As the 17 thickness of the elastomer film 14 decreases, the number of guided 18 njodesj or the range of angular values, permitted also decreases.

19 As described above in connection with FIG. 3, the upper surface 42 of the elastomer film 14 can have deposited thereon, between such 21 surface and the metal conducting lines 16, a buffer film having a 22 refractive index which is lower- than that of the elastomer film 14. The 23 use of this transparent outer buffer film at 42 can be used in cases 24 where it is desirable to minimize the intensity of the light impinging upon the metal conducting lines 16 as well as minimizing the scattering 26 of light from the edge of the metallization.

27 The elastomer film material 14 may be the commercially available 28 Emerson and Cuming 2CN, Eccogel 1265 or Dow-Corning XR-63-493. It has 29 been found desirable to provide a film thickness in the order of 1 to mils, there being a minimum film thickness required to produce a deformation YO975-054 -7- 1 of the elastomer film 14 to provide sufficient scattering of the light 2 which is visible. In addition, this minimum film thickness is partially 3 determined by the width of the conducting lines 16 so that a sufficiently 4 large area is distorted adjacent to the conducting line which is causing the déformation of the film. A typical conducting line width of about 4 6 mils and 500 angstroms thick can be used where the elastomer film has a 7 thickness of about 6 mils. It is to be understood that the conducting 8 lines 12 and 16 can be substituted by an array of disk-like electrodes 9 which are spaced apart and located on both sides of the elastomer film 14 such that the application of a voltage potential across oppositely 11 positioned electrodes will create a field therebetween to deform the 12 elastomer film.

13 One method of fabricating the display panel comprises employing 14 a Pyrex glass disk which is ground and polished, having a refractive index of 1.47. A silver film, 2,000 angstroms thick and 4 mils wide, is 16 evaporated onto the disk substrate and forms the lower conducting lines 17 12. Next, the elastomer film 14 is spun at 1,000 rpm for one minute 18 onto the substrate 10 and deposited approximately 6 mils thick, and 19 then cured at an elevated temperature. This is accomplished by exposing the elastomer film to a d.c. discharge of 1,000 volts at 0.05 Torr for 21 30 seconds to permit evaporation upon its upper surface. Upper conducting 22 lines 500 Angstroms thick are then deposited upon the cured elastomer 23 film through a mask. Electrical contact to the upper and lower conducting 24 lines is made with a conducting epoxy. The right angle prism 20 is placed upon the film 14 and adhered thereto. The thin film of air 26 trapped b.etween thp lower surface 44 of the prism 20 and the upper 27 surface 42 of the elastomer film 14 assists in the injection of light 28 from the prism into the film. Light from either a fluorescent or 29 incandescent or a He-Ne laser can be focussed through the diagonal side of the prism 20 onto the elastomer film 14 and propagated across the film YO975-054 -8- 1 as shown by the arrows.

2 While the invention has been particularly shown and described 3 'with reference to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood 4 by those skilled in the art that the foregoing and other changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and 6 scope of the invention.

YO975-054 -9- The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1 1. A visual display panel, comprising:

2 a substrate of an electrically insulating material having a 3 'generally flat upper surface; A a plurality of lower, parallel conducting lines deposited on said upper surface of said substrate; 6 a transparent, deformable film of elastomer material on top of 7 said lower conducting lines and said substrate; 8 a plurality of upper, parallel conducting lines deposited on the 9 upper surface of said deformable elastomer film, said conducting lines extending in a direction substantially perpendicular to said lower conducting 11 lines; 12 light source means for directing light into said deformable 13 elastomer film near the edge portion thereof, said light being internally 14 reflected within said elastomer film as it is propagated across the length thereof ; 16 means for providing a voltage difference across selected pairs 17 of said upper and lower conducting lines to produce a deformation of said 18 elastomer film at the locations where the excited upper and lower lines 19 cross over one another; whereby said light is scattered at the location of said deformation and 21 detected by an observer of the panel.

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