The present invention relates to a filter, and more particularly, to a reflective filter.
The demand for liquid crystal displays (LCDs) has been increasing rapidly in recent years in conjunction with the advance of video communication technology, especially for those being employed as displaying device in electrical consumer products, such as cellular phones, digital watches, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc. In responding to this demand, high priority is now being given to establishing means for supplying low-power solutions for such liquid crystal displays and thus many researches have invest their efforts in the development of reflective LCDs or transflective LCDs.
Generally, for enhancing its color imaging performance, both of the aforesaid reflective LCD or transflective LCD are structured with a color filter. Please refer to
Taking one resin pattern containing red pigment 140, referring hereinafter as red resin pattern, for example, it will absorb green and blue light while only allowing red light to pass therethrough. However, it is noted that after filtered by the color filter 100, only about one third of a white beam is actually used for color display so that it is the cause of poor light utilization efficiency. In addition, the color filter demonstrate poor spectrum resolution as it is generated by the filtering of those red, green, and blue resin patterns 140,150, 160, and thus, it will cause an image to demonstrate unsatisfactory color saturation.
For improvement, a reflective color filter is provided as disclosed in WO9517690, entitled “Color Filter Array”, which filters light according to the Fabry-Perot cavity interference. Nevertheless, as wave bands of colored light generated thereby are still comparatively too wide, that is, it can not generate narrow-banded red, green, and blue light beams, so that the aforesaid reflective color filter still demonstrate poor spectrum resolution and thus, it will still cause an image to demonstrate unsatisfactory color saturation.
The primary object of the present invention is to provide a reflective filter with improved light utilization efficiency, capable of producing red, green and blue light of improved spectrum resolution so as to enhance color saturation of an image.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a reflective filter, comprising: a substrate; and an optical film structure including a reflective layer, a spacing layer, a transflective layer and a transparent layer in sequence; wherein the reflective layer is disposed on the substrate; the spacing layer is disposed on the reflective layer; the transflective layer is disposed on the spacing layer; and the transparent layer is disposed on the transflective layer.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the reflective layer can be made of a material selected from the group consisting of aluminum (Al), silver (Ag), platinum (Pt), and the alloys thereof; while the transflective layer can be made of a material selected from the group consisting of chromium (Cr), platinum (Pt), nickel (Ni), palladium (Pd), and the alloys thereof.
In another exemplary embodiment of the invention, an array of pixels, referring as pixel array, is defined in the optical film structure while the pixel array is composed of a plurality of red light areas, a plurality of green light areas and a plurality of blue light areas, in which the thicknesses of different portions of the spacing layer with respect to the red light, the green light and the blue light areas are different from each other.
In another exemplary embodiment of the invention, a plurality of gaps is structured in the pixel array while enabling each gap being formed between any two neighboring pixels of the pixel array.
In another exemplary embodiment of the invention, the reflective filer further comprises a plurality of light-shield structures, being disposed on the substrate at positions relating to those gaps formed between pixels of the pixel array.
In another exemplary embodiment of the invention, in addition, a plurality of openings are structured in the optical film structure while enabling each opening to penetrate the whole optical film structure and reach the substrate.
In another exemplary embodiment of the invention, the spacing layer is composed of a first spacing film and a second spacing film in sequence, in that the first spacing film is disposed on the reflective layer while the second spacing film is disposed on the first spacing film.
To sum up, in the reflective filter of the invention, after lights of a light source are traveling trough the transparent layer, the transflective layer and the spacing layer to be reflected by the reflective layer, the reflected lights will interfere with each other in the transparent layer where they are purified into narrow-banded colored lights, by which the reflective filter is capable of producing colored lights of improved spectrum resolution so as to enhance color saturation of an image, In addition, as the filtering of the reflective filter of the invention is performed by an non-absorption fashion, so that there is less light being lost in the filtering process and thus the light utilization efficiency is enhanced.
Further scope of applicability of the present application will become more apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein below and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention and wherein:
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For your esteemed members of reviewing committee to further understand and recognize the fulfilled functions and structural characteristics of the invention, several exemplary embodiments cooperating with detailed description are presented as the follows.
Please refer to
When a light beam 50 impinges on the reflective filter 200, a portion of the light beam 50 will travel passing trough the transparent layer 228, the transflective layer 226 and the spacing layer 224 sequentially and strike upon the reflective layer 222 where it is reflected as a reflected light beam 50′, while another portion of the light beam 50 is reflected by the transflective layer 226 as another reflected light beam 50″. Thereafter, both of the two reflected light beams 50′, 50″ are shooting out of the reflective filter 200 following their respective reflected paths while interfering with each other as they are traveling following the paths, forming a colored light beam 52 by the interference to be discharged out of the reflective filter 200. In fact, other reflected light beams 50′″ caused by secondary or multiple reflection will also interfere with each other. However, those interferences between reflected light beams 50′″ is not going to affect the color characteristics of light reflected by the reflective filter 200 as significant as that of the two reflected light beams 50′, 50″. Thus, it is concluded that the reflective filter 200 is capable of filtering the light beam 50 and then generating a colored light beam 52 of high resolution accordingly.
As the light beam 50 can be considered to be converted into the colored light beam 52 by the reflective filter 200 based on optical interference, no significant energy loss will occur during the process. That is, the light utilization efficiency of the reflective filter 200 is higher than those other conventional color filters as it is not going to cause a mass light loss.
In this exemplary embodiment, the reflective layer 222 can be made of a material selected from the group consisting of aluminum (Al), silver (Ag), platinum (Pt), and the like; while the transflective layer 226 can be made of a material selected from the group consisting of chromium (Cr), platinum (Pt), nickel (Ni), palladium (Pd), and the like. In addition, the refractive index of the spacing layer 224 is ranged between 1.2 and 2.6, which is made of a material selected from the group consisting of an oxide, a nitride, a fluoride and a transparent organic substance. In detail, the spacing layer 224 is made of a material selected from the group consisting of indium tin oxide (ITO), silicon Oxide, silicon nitride, MgF2, LiF, Al2O3, ZrO2, Nb2O5, and polyimide, whichever is capable of causing the light beam 50 to gain in the optical interference.
Moreover, the extinction coefficient of the transparent layer 228 is smaller than 0.2 while its refractive index is ranged between 1.2˜2.6. The transparent layer is made of a material selected from the group consisting of an oxide and a transparent organic substance, such as indium tin oxide (ITO), indium zinc oxide (IZO), Aluminum zinc oxide (AZO), TiO2 and polyimide, etc., whichever is capable of causing the interference between the two reflected light beams 50′, 50″ while narrowing the bandwidth of the resulting colored light beam 52.
It is noted that the foregoing description only depicting the process of using the reflective filter to generate a monochromatic light. However, by structuring an array of pixel in the optical film structure 220, the reflective filter 200 is capable of generating light beams of various colors.
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Although the reflective filter 300 showing in the exemplary embodiment of
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To go a step further, the principle of the reflective filter of the invention is to design and dispose a matching pair of the transflective layer 226 and the transparent layer 228 in a manner that they can cause colored lights to interfere and thus purify into a narrow-banded colored light of a single peak.
The table 2, table 3, table 4, table 5, table 6, table 7 listed as following illustrate other experimental parameters of a spacing layer 224 used in the reflective filter 300.
Please refer to
In all the aforesaid exemplary embodiments, the spacing layers are all a single layer structure, designed for light to interfere therein. However, it can be a layer composed of multiple films, whereas different films thereof can be made of different materials. Please refer to
As the two spacing films 424a, 424b are made of different material, the optical interference can be repetitively caused in such spacing layer 424 for achieving a specific gain before traveling into the transflective layer 226 for generating a corresponding specific colored light. The table 8 listed as following illustrates experimental parameters of a spacing layer 224 used in the reflective filter 300.
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To sum up, the reflective filter has the following advantages:
The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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096114256 | Apr 2007 | TW | national |