Abstract: A normally white twisted nematic liquid crystal display which uses multigap liquid crystal cells where the gaps are selected to have a cell gap which is less than that which would produce a maximum transmittance during an on-state and thereby provides for reduced hue variation over viewing angle.

Abstract: An organically modified sol-gel method of preparing substantially crack-free aluminosilicates films is provided. Chelated aluminum alkoxide and polydimethylsiloxane are mixed in a 1:1 ratio by weight in a solvent and refluxed at approximately the boiling temperature of the solvent to produce a sol-gel liquid including polymerized aluminosilicates. The sol-gel liquid is cooled to room temperature. Additional solvent is added to the sol-gel liquid to reduce its viscosity. A substrate is coated with the reduced viscosity sol-gel liquid. The coating of sol-gel liquid on the substrate is dried to produce an organically modified aluminosilicates sol-gel film. The sol-gel film is heated, to enhance polymerization of the sol-gel film and to evaporate residual solvent, and then cooled.

Abstract: A system and apparatus for enhancing the satellite based navigation systems which includes providing an aircraft with an interrogating radar for interrogating beacons disposed at a predetermined location in front of a runway wherein the beacons are radar-activated passively powered runway beacons.

Abstract: An optical device for transforming light and an associated liquid crystal display is disclosed. The device includes a layer of cholesteric material of the type which transmits light having a first circular helicity and reflects light having a second circular helicity. A quarter-wave plate positioned on a first side of the layer of cholesteric material converts the transmitted light having the first circular helicity into linearly polarized light. A compensator including a positively birefringent C-plate layer is disposed between the layer of cholesteric material and the quarter-wave plate. The compensator reduces undesirable phase effects in the transmitted light introduced by the layer of cholesteric material. The disclosed LCD employs the optical device to increase backlighting efficiency while improving field of view and chromaticity of the display.

Abstract: A liquid crystal display having an non-uniform heat producing element disposed therein which produces more heat around the periphery of the display by providing a transparent heating element on the display surface and a plurality of shorting bars which provide for a lower impedance path around the display periphery, and therefore a higher current and higher heat generation in the resistive film disposed immediately about the shorting bars.

Abstract: The power factor/harmonic correction circuitry accomplishes this by using a non-linear ramp signal and/or by using a negative feedforward technique. The power factor/harmonic correction circuitry accomplishes the feedforward technique by using a modulated ramp circuit which adds to the ramp signal a constant value that is proportional to the input voltage. Furthermore, the power factor/harmonics correction circuitry can provide improved performance and stability by using a non-linear ramp circuit which produces the non-linear ramp signal which has an increasing slope over the switching cycle.

Abstract: An enhanced modular avionics system for communication and processing in an air transport aircraft including a modular avionic cabinet having a first scsi bus for a first processor and associate memory wherein the first scsi bus extends across a first portion of the cabinet and a second scsi bus for connection to a second processor and associate memory which extends across a second portion of the cabinet where the first portion of the cabinet and the second portion of the cabinet together equal the entire cabinet and there is no overlapping between the first portion and the second portion. Also shown is an extended bus which extends the entire length of the cabinet. The extended bus is located a predetermined distance from the top edge of the cabinet, while the first and second buses are located in a parallel line with each other and with the extended bus, the same predetermined distance from the bottom edge of the cabinet.

Abstract: A system for preventing theft of cargo from a cargo area of a truck is disclosed. The system includes a lock for locking shut a door to the cargo area of the truck when the lock is engaged. The lock allows the door to the cargo area to be opened when the lock is disengaged. A receiver receives a signal from a remote location. The lock is controlled in response to the signal received from the remote location such that the lock is disengaged when the signal received from the remote location is indicative of predetermined information.

Abstract: An optical O-plate compensation device, in accordance with the invention, uses an inorganic thin film which is grown by physical vapor deposition at oblique incidence. The resulting thin film exhibits a biaxial form birefringence and performs, in a liquid crystal display (LCD), in a similar manner to uniaxial films with its extraordinary axis oriented obliquely at about 45.degree. with respect to the surface of the film. The invention makes possible a significant improvement in the gray scale properties and contrast ratios of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) over a wide range of viewing angles.

Abstract: A twisted/splayed O-plate compensation device, in accordance with the invention, is comprised of an organic liquid crystal polymer thin film and possibly one or more other birefringent layers. The O-plate thin film is a birefringent medium with its optical symmetry axis, on average, oriented obliquely with the surface of the film. Within this constraint, the direction of the material's optical symmetry axis is allowed to vary continuously along the axis normal to the film surface. Such films may be fabricated by applying thin layers of chiral doped nematic or semectic liquid crystal monomer solutions in inert solvents to transparent substrates. The carrier solvents are then evaporated and the monomers polymerized by UV irradiation. Compensation devices may also be comprised of multiple layers of twisted/splayed O-plate material in conjunction with A-plates, C-plates, and simple O-plates. Fabrication techniques for twisted/splayed O-plates are described.

Abstract: A system and method for monitoring and recording the mileage a truck travels within a particular state including a GPS receiver, an odometer, and a memory device which contains state boundary information and a processor for determining on a continual basis whether the positioned information received from the GPS receiver is in a particular state boundary and for recording mileage of the truck when the position and state boundary comparison determines that a change in state boundaries has occurred. Additionally, a storage device for storing the data output by the processor which includes the desired mileage within a particular state information is included.

Abstract: A monolithic O-plate optical compensator device, in accordance with the invention, comprises a plurality of thin-film compensation layers which are deposited on a single substrate. As used herein, the term "monolithic" is meant to imply that the O-plate and other thin-film compensator layers are formed by depositing (e.g., via solvent casting or vacuum deposition) one layer on top of another layer; with or without the use of surface modification treatments such as adhesion layers, alignment layers, and the like.

Abstract: A FOG design is disclosed that eliminates the need for spatially averaging the output of a readout optical fiber by using a short coherence length light source and decorrelating the orthogonal fiber modes in the birefringent readout optical fiber prior to them being received by the photodetector. The orientation of the optical output of the readout optical fiber with respect to the photodetector is at an angle other than normal incidence, which is designed to reduce the reflections from the photodetector back into the readout optical fiber. The coherence length of the source and the length and birefringence of the readout optical fiber are selected so that there is a complete decorrelation of the polarization states of the light as they pass through the readout optical fiber.

Abstract: A wide viewing angle liquid crystal display and method of operating the same are disclosed. Each of a plurality of pixel elements of the display have individually driveable first and second pixel sub-elements. A desired average gray scale intensity for a first pixel element is determined. First and second drive voltages are determined as a function of the desired average gray scale intensity for the first pixel element. The first drive voltage is provided to the first pixel sub-element to drive it to a first gray scale intensity. The second drive voltage is provided to the second pixel sub-element to drive it to a second gray scale intensity. The average gray scale intensity for the first pixel element, which is a function of the first and second gray scale intensities, has reduced viewing angle dependence.

Abstract: Newton rings on a liquid crystal display (LCD) are avoided by connecting the frame of the LCD to the chassis without deflecting the frame outward toward the chassis. A first connecting mechanism coupled to the frame and to the chassis at least partially secures the frame to the chassis by prohibiting movement of the frame relative to the chassis in a first direction, but allows at least partial movement of the frame relative to the chassis in a second direction non-parallel to the first direction. A second connecting mechanism coupled to the frame and to the chassis at least partially secures the frame to the chassis by prohibiting movement of the frame relative to the chassis in the second direction, but allows at least partial movement of the frame relative to the chassis in the first direction. In combination, the coupling mechanisms prohibit movement of the frame relative to the chassis in both the first and second directions.

Abstract: A quadrifilar antenna has first, second, third and fourth quadrature antenna elements with signals in a respective quadrature phase relationship. The antenna elements are coupled through a quadrature matching network to a transceiver circuit representing a load or a source. The matching network includes first, second and third transmission lines which are arranged in a "Z" configuration. The first transmission line matches impedances between the first and second antenna elements and communicatively couples the second antenna element with a quarter wavelength phase shift of its signals to the first antenna element. The second transmission line matches impedances between the third and fourth antenna elements and communicatively couples the fourth antenna element with a quarter wavelength phase shift of its signals to the third antenna element.

Abstract: An optical component assembly is created with reduced defects in the adhesion and alignment between the optical components. A first rigid optical component is placed into a cavity. A second rigid optical component is placed into the cavity such that it is supported by a first support device which prevents a first end of the second rigid optical component from contacting a corresponding first end of the first rigid optical component. Air is evacuated from a chamber formed between the first and second rigid optical components. The support of the first support device is removed so that the first end of the second rigid optical component comes into contact with the first end of the first rigid optical component with a layer of adhesive material sandwiched therebetween. A force is applied to urge surfaces of the first and second rigid optical components toward one another to improve adhesion between the two.

Abstract: A novel normally-white dual-domain twisted nematic liquid crystal display exhibits dramatically improved contrast and gray scale linearity stability over a wide range of viewing angles as compared to conventional dual-domain twisted nematic displays. The display incorporates one or more pixelated compensator layers internal to the liquid crystal cell. A pixelated compensator layer has a pattern wherein the orientation or retardation of the compensator layer varies according to the tilt domain structure of the display's liquid crystal material. Such a pixelated compensator layer allows optimal compensation for each of the differently oriented liquid crystal tilt domains. The pixelated compensator layer(s), and possibly one or more non-pixelated compensator layers, may be deposited on either a display's active matrix substrate or its (passive) color filter substrate, or a combination thereof.

Abstract: An improved discrete media display apparatus and a method for quickly drawing high quality lines on discrete media displays where only pixels are rendered in the line drawing of a vector generator and then individual element intensities within a pixel are generated in response to predetermined pixel configuration and pixel distance and angle information from the desired line.

Abstract: An improved normally white super-twist nematic (OMI) liquid crystal display exhibits a dramatically improved horizontal viewing angle as compared to conventional OMI displays. The display's liquid crystal cell has a twist angle greater than about 180.degree. and less than about 270.degree., preferably between 220.degree. and 250.degree., and a phase retardation of between 500 nanometers (nm) and 850 nm. The improved display includes a novel compensator which incorporates, as one of its compensation elements, a positively birefringent oblique compensator layer (referred to as an O-plate compensator layer). Additionally, a positively birefringent A-plate compensator layer and one or more negatively birefringent C-plate compensator layers may be used in the display.