Tunable electro-optic liquid crystal lenses having resistive bridges and methods for forming the lenses

摘要

Electro-optic lenses, including liquid crystals, wherein the power of the lenses can be modified by application of an electric field. In one embodiment, the liquid crystal-based lenses include ring electrodes having a resistive bridge located between adjacent electrodes, and in a preferred embodiment, input connections for several electrode rings are spaced on the lens. In a further embodiment, liquid crystal-based lenses are provided that can increase optical power through the use of phase resets, wherein in one embodiment, a lens includes ring electrodes on surfaces of the substrates on opposite sides of the liquid crystal cell such that a fixed phase term can be added to each set of electrodes that allows for phase change across each group of electrodes to be the same and also be matched with respect to a previous group.

主权项

1. An electro-optic lens device comprising:
a first substantially transparent substrate comprising a first substantially transparent conductive electrode layer operatively connected thereto, the first electrode layer being patterned and comprising a first plurality of ring electrodes that form a first resistive divider network, wherein at least one ring electrode from the first plurality of ring electrodes is electrically connected to an adjacent ring electrode from the first plurality of ring electrodes by a first resistive bridge that electrically bridges a substantially annular insulating gap that is substantially co-planar with the first resistive bridge, the first resistive bridge comprising a resistive path across the insulating gap, the resistive path comprising an electrically conductive material bordered by a non-conductive material or an area free from conductive material, each ring electrode from the first plurality of ring electrodes defining a corresponding continuous ring; a second substantially transparent substrate comprising a second substantially transparent conductive electrode layer operatively connected thereto; and an electroactive liquid crystal material layer present between the first substantially transparent substrate and the second substantially transparent substrate; wherein:
a first sub-plurality of continuous ring electrodes from the first plurality of continuous ring electrodes is connected to a first input connection, the first input connection terminating an input line, the input line extending through a first via that penetrates a first insulating layer that substantially separates the first electrode layer from the input line.