Multicompartment electro-optic display device

摘要

An electro-optic display device having at least two separate compartments for receipt of electro-sensitive material that is utilized in the formation or establishment of a display symbol as a result of an electrically imposed field. One compartment in the display contains the electrodes which form the various segments of the variable symbol to be displayed. The other compartment is the background area that will contrast visually with the segment portions that make up or establish the symbol to be displayed. The choice of material makes the background compartment optically equivalent to the portion of the symbol compartment that is not displaying a particular symbol. The electro-optic device preferably has a liquid crystal material with a dye to create a light absorption type of electro-optic display rather than a light modulation type of display. This invention allows dye displays that normally portray light characters on a dark background to be portrayed as dark characters on a light background. In a second embodiment of the invention one compartment contains a liquid crystal material with a particular set of electro-optical characteristics and additional compartments contain different materials with different sets of electro-optical characteristics. Each compartment is used for information display. This invention allows a higher density of information to be presented on a single display device by allowing higher levels of multiplexing to be employed. RELATED