Patents by Inventor Yutaka Sawayama

Yutaka Sawayama has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20230305201
    Abstract: A reflection plate includes a substrate, an insulation film disposed on the substrate and including projection portions and recesses on an uneven surface, and a reflection film disposed on the uneven surface and having a surface that conforms to the uneven surface and reflecting light. The projection portions are arranged at intervals and are inclined with respect to a normal direction of a surface of the substrate. The recesses are between the projection portions that are adjacent to each other. The projection portions include a first projection portion, a second projection portion, and a third projection portion that are inclined in different directions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 15, 2023
    Publication date: September 28, 2023
    Inventors: Yutaka SAWAYAMA, Yoshimasa CHIKAMA, Masamitsu YAMANAKA, Hideki KITAGAWA
  • Patent number: 9921430
    Abstract: A display component includes a glass substrate GS including a display area AA and a non-display area NAA surrounding the display area AA, a color filter 29 overlapping a surface of the glass substrate GS in the display area AA, a CF board side alignment film 32 disposed in at least the display area AA to cover the color filter 29 and partially including a thickness variation portion 36 that gradually decreases thickness thereof toward an outer side, and a film forming control portion 37 disposed in the non-display area NAA to be next to the display area AA and overlapping the surface of the glass substrate GS and configured to form the CF board side alignment film 32 such that the thickness variation portion 36 is in the non-display area NAA.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2018
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tetsuya Kida, Yutaka Sawayama, Hiroyuki Okazoe, Yoshiyuki Ihara
  • Publication number: 20160124255
    Abstract: A display component includes a glass substrate GS including a display area AA and a non-display area NAA surrounding the display area AA, a color filter 29 overlapping a surface of the glass substrate GS in the display area AA, a CF board side alignment film 32 disposed in at least the display area AA to cover the color filter 29 and partially including a thickness variation portion 36 that gradually decreases thickness thereof toward an outer side, and a film forming control portion 37 disposed in the non-display area NAA to be next to the display area AA and overlapping the surface of the glass substrate GS and configured to form the CF board side alignment film 32 such that the thickness variation portion 36 is in the non-display area NAA.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 18, 2014
    Publication date: May 5, 2016
    Applicant: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tetsuya KIDA, Yutaka SAWAYAMA, Hiroyuki OKAZOE, Yoshiyuki IHARA
  • Patent number: 8687156
    Abstract: Provided is a liquid crystal display panel which allows high quality display by suppressing a disturbance of liquid crystal molecule alignment caused by formation of liquid crystal alignment control protrusions. The liquid crystal display panel of the present invention is a liquid crystal display panel including a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the pair of substrates, one of the pair of the substrates including a colored layer, a light-shielding layer, and walled liquid crystal alignment control protrusions projecting toward the other substrate, the liquid crystal alignment control protrusions including a main protrusion and a secondary protrusion lower than the main protrusion, the secondary protrusion being provided on the colored layer along a borderline between the colored layer and the light-shielding layer, and the light-shielding layer having a narrower width in a region adjacent to the secondary protrusion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 1, 2014
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Shunsuke Okadome, Yutaka Sawayama
  • Patent number: 8681299
    Abstract: Provided is a liquid crystal display panel which allows high quality display by suppressing a disturbance of liquid crystal molecule alignment caused by formation of liquid crystal alignment control protrusions. The liquid crystal display panel of the present invention is a liquid crystal display panel including a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the pair of substrates, one of the pair of the substrates including a colored layer, a light-shielding layer, and walled liquid crystal alignment control protrusions projecting toward the other substrate, the liquid crystal alignment control protrusions including a main protrusion and a secondary protrusion lower than the main protrusion, and the secondary protrusion not being provided along a borderline between the colored layer and the light-shielding layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2014
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Daisuke Kitano, Yutaka Sawayama
  • Patent number: 8675162
    Abstract: Provided is a liquid crystal display panel which allows high quality display by suppressing a disturbance of liquid crystal molecule alignment caused by formation of liquid crystal alignment control protrusions. The liquid crystal display panel of the present invention is a liquid crystal display panel including a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the pair of substrates, one of the pair of the substrates including a colored layer, a light-shielding layer, and walled liquid crystal alignment control protrusions projecting toward the other substrate, the liquid crystal alignment control protrusions including a main protrusion and a secondary protrusion lower than the main protrusion, the secondary protrusion being provided on the colored layer along a borderline between the colored layer and the light-shielding layer, and the total of the height of the secondary protrusion and that of the colored layer being substantially the same as the height of the light-shielding layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2014
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takafumi Kawanishi, Yutaka Sawayama
  • Publication number: 20130183612
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method for producing a substrate for a liquid crystal display panel and a photomask each of which can suppress misalignment of liquid crystal molecules due to liquid crystal alignment control projections. The present invention relates to a method for producing a substrate for a liquid crystal display panel. The substrate includes liquid crystal alignment control projections, and the liquid crystal alignment control projections include a main projection and a sub-projection. The sub-projection is linear and is lower than the main projection. The production method includes a step of forming a positive photosensitive resin film and a step of exposing the photosensitive resin film to light through a photomask. The photomask has a light-control region for forming the sub-projection. The light-control region has a slit-shaped translucent part.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 27, 2011
    Publication date: July 18, 2013
    Applicant: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yutaka Sawayama, Yasuo Fujii
  • Publication number: 20120327344
    Abstract: Provided is a liquid crystal display panel which allows high quality display by suppressing a disturbance of liquid crystal molecule alignment caused by formation of liquid crystal alignment control protrusions. The liquid crystal display panel of the present invention is a liquid crystal display panel including a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the pair of substrates, one of the pair of the substrates including a colored layer, a light-shielding layer, and walled liquid crystal alignment control protrusions projecting toward the other substrate, the liquid crystal alignment control protrusions including a main protrusion and a secondary protrusion lower than the main protrusion, and the secondary protrusion not being provided along a borderline between the colored layer and the light-shielding layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 26, 2010
    Publication date: December 27, 2012
    Applicant: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Daisuke Kitano, Yutaka Sawayama
  • Publication number: 20120287384
    Abstract: Provided is a liquid crystal display panel which allows high quality display by suppressing a disturbance of liquid crystal molecule alignment caused by formation of liquid crystal alignment control protrusions. The liquid crystal display panel of the present invention is a liquid crystal display panel including a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the pair of substrates, one of the pair of the substrates including a colored layer, a light-shielding layer, and walled liquid crystal alignment control protrusions projecting toward the other substrate, the liquid crystal alignment control protrusions including a main protrusion and a secondary protrusion lower than the main protrusion, the secondary protrusion being provided on the colored layer along a borderline between the colored layer and the light-shielding layer, and the light-shielding layer having a narrower width in a region adjacent to the secondary protrusion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 26, 2010
    Publication date: November 15, 2012
    Applicant: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Shunsuke Okadome, Yutaka Sawayama
  • Publication number: 20120287385
    Abstract: Provided is a liquid crystal display panel which allows high quality display by suppressing a disturbance of liquid crystal molecule alignment caused by formation of liquid crystal alignment control protrusions. The liquid crystal display panel of the present invention is a liquid crystal display panel including a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the pair of substrates, one of the pair of the substrates including a colored layer, a light-shielding layer, and walled liquid crystal alignment control protrusions projecting toward the other substrate, the liquid crystal alignment control protrusions including a main protrusion and a secondary protrusion lower than the main protrusion, the secondary protrusion being provided on the colored layer along a borderline between the colored layer and the light-shielding layer, and the total of the height of the secondary protrusion and that of the colored layer being substantially the same as the height of the light-shielding layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 26, 2010
    Publication date: November 15, 2012
    Applicant: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takafumi Kawanishi, Yutaka Sawayama
  • Publication number: 20120249945
    Abstract: The present invention provides a liquid crystal display panel that prevents disturbances of the alignment of liquid crystal molecules by means of a liquid crystal alignment control projection, thereby providing high display quality. The liquid crystal display panel of the present invention comprises a pair of substrates; and a liquid crystal layer inserted between the substrates, wherein one of the substrates comprises a wall-shaped liquid crystal alignment control projection projecting toward the other substrate, the liquid crystal alignment control projection comprises a main projection and a sub-projection that is lower than the main projection, and the sub-projection decreases in height with the increasing distance from the main projection.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 15, 2010
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Inventors: Ryoh Tamura, Yutaka Sawayama
  • Patent number: 8049846
    Abstract: A reflection-type display device includes an optical modulation layer 34, a pair of substrates 30 and 32 between which the optical modulation layer 34 is retained, an electrode structure 52, 44 for causing pixel-by-pixel changes in the optical characteristics of the optical modulation layer 34. One of the pair of substrates 32 has a corner cube array composed of a plurality of corner cubes 36. The corner cube array 36 has a plurality of projections 46 defining an interval between the pair of substrates 30 and 32, the plurality of projections 46 being disposed in peak portions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2011
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Sayuri Fujiwara, Kiyoshi Minoura, Makoto Kanbe, Yutaka Sawayama
  • Patent number: 7714956
    Abstract: A front-illuminating device of the present invention, which is placed over the entire surface of an object to be illuminated such as a reflection-type liquid crystal display device when it is used, is provided with a light source and a light-directing body. The light-directing body has an incident surface on which light from the light source (light-source light) is made incident, a first light-releasing surface for releasing the light toward the object to be illuminated, and a second light-releasing surface which faces the first light-releasing surface and releases reflected light from the object to be illuminated. The second light-releasing surface is formed into a step shape in which slanting portions and flat portions are alternately placed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2010
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yutaka Sawayama, Yukihiro Sumida, Takeshi Masuda, Tsuyoshi Ebi
  • Patent number: 7656477
    Abstract: A reflective display device includes: a light modulating layer; two substrates, between which the light modulating layer is interposed; and an electrode structure that changes the optical properties of the light modulating layer on a pixel-by-pixel basis. One of the two substrates includes a corner cube array in which a plurality of corner cubes are arranged. The corner cube array includes a principal surface that defines a retroreflective surface, a bottom, and a plurality of conductive members that are arranged between the principal surface and the bottom. A portion of the upper surface of each of the conductive members defines a part of the principal surface of the corner cube array. The part is located in a lowest-level portion of its associated corner cube including the lowest-level point thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2010
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yutaka Sawayama, Makoto Kanbe
  • Patent number: 7551247
    Abstract: A reflection-type display device 200 includes: an active switch layer 201s including a plurality of switching elements 201t; a plurality of pixel electrodes 207 each connected to a corresponding one of the plurality of switching elements 201t; a reflective layer 205 formed between the active switch layer 201s and the plurality of pixel electrodes 207; and a modulation layer 213 provided at a side of the pixel electrodes 207 facing a viewer, the modulation layer 213 being capable of switching between a first state and a second state of respectively different optical characteristics. The reflective layer 205 is connected to neither the plurality of switching elements 201t nor the plurality of pixel electrodes 207.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2009
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Sayuri Fujiwara, Yutaka Sawayama, Kiyoshi Minoura, Makoto Kanbe
  • Patent number: 7522243
    Abstract: A display device includes a substrate, a circuit element, an interlayer film, and an electrode. The circuit element is provided on the substrate. The interlayer film is provided over the circuit element and includes an interlevel dielectric layer and an interconnecting member that runs through the interlevel dielectric layer. The electrode is provided on the interlayer film. The electrode and the circuit element are electrically connected together by way of the interconnecting member. The electrode on the interlayer film has a substantially uniform surface shape.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2009
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Sayuri Fujiwara, Yutaka Sawayama
  • Patent number: 7518676
    Abstract: A method of making a micro corner cube array includes the steps of: preparing a substrate, at least a surface portion of which consists of cubic single crystals and which has a surface that is substantially parallel to {111} planes of the crystals; and etching the surface of the substrate anisotropically, thereby forming a plurality of unit elements for the micro corner cube array on the surface of the substrate. Each of these unit elements is made up of a number of crystal planes that have been formed at a lower etch rate than the {111} planes of the crystals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2009
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kiyoshi Minoura, Shun Ueki, Yasuhisa Itoh, Ichiroh Ihara, Yutaka Sawayama, Kohji Taniguchi
  • Patent number: 7360907
    Abstract: A method of making a micro corner cube array includes the steps of: providing a substrate, at least a surface portion of which consists of cubic single crystals and which has a surface that is substantially parallel to {111} planes of the crystals; and dry-etching the surface of the substrate anisotropically with an etching gas that is reactive with the substrate, thereby forming a plurality of unit elements of the micro corner cube array on the surface of the substrate. Each of the unit elements is made up of a number of crystal planes that have been etched at a lower etch rate than the {111} planes of the crystals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2008
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Ichiro Ihara, Kiyoshi Minoura, Yutaka Sawayama
  • Patent number: 7293884
    Abstract: A corner cube reflector includes a two-dimensional arrangement of unit elements. The unit elements are arranged at a pitch of 200 ?m or less. As viewed in a direction from which incoming light is coming, each unit element has a peak point and a bottom point. A peak portion, including the peak point, has an excessive portion and/or a missing portion as compared with an ideal peak portion of an ideal corner cube. The level of the peak point is lower than that of the ideal peak point of the ideal corner cube. An average level difference h2 between the level of the bottom point and that of an ideal bottom point of the ideal corner cube is smaller than an average level difference h1 between the level of the peak point and that of the ideal peak point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2007
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yutaka Sawayama, Sayuri Fujiwara, Makoto Kanbe, Kiyoshi Minoura, Ichiro Ihara
  • Publication number: 20070081244
    Abstract: A corner cube reflector includes a two-dimensional arrangement of unit elements. The unit elements are arranged at a pitch of 200 ?m or less. As viewed in a direction from which incoming light is coming, each unit element has a peak point and a bottom point. A peak portion, including the peak point, has an excessive portion and/or a missing portion as compared with an ideal peak portion of an ideal corner cube. The level of the peak point is lower than that of the ideal peak point of the ideal corner cube. An average level difference h2 between the level of the bottom point and that of an ideal bottom point of the ideal corner cube is smaller than an average level difference h1 between the level of the peak point and that of the ideal peak point.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 28, 2006
    Publication date: April 12, 2007
    Applicant: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yutaka Sawayama, Sayuri Fujiwara, Makoto Kanbe, Kiyoshi Minoura, Ichiro Ihara