We developed a set of formulations that enable the capabilities found in Liquid Crystal (LC) optical shutters for various wearable devices that requires light control, dimmable lenses. The selection of these materials has arisen after many years of development and come from a variety of different vendors. There is certainly no “off the shelf set of materials that can be used to replicate the formulations, nor do the patent applications published in the past provide sufficient knowledge to replicate current-day LC materials. The interaction of materials within the LC formulations platform is complex and difficult to reverse engineer.

Dichroic dyes dissolved in a LC formulation provide the most attractive route for the fabrication of direct-view optical shutter that don’t require the use of a polarizer. The absorbance of the dye depends on the alignment of the dye molecules, which tends to follow the alignment of the liquid crystal. In this way, dichroic-based devices provide both a controllable absorption and a controllable scattering effect, leading to an attractive direct view device.

While our strongest intellectual property lies in the area of materials, there are also considerable barriers to entry in many of the fabrication processes it employs. We successfully developed and scaled our technology to enable fabrication of LC lenses in high volume and at very good yields. As is normal for almost all technologies, it takes significant effort to initiate and scale a new set of manufacturing processes.

Unique Liquid Crystal (LC) formulations injected into an empty cell, in a roll-to-roll production line. Designed and built for large-scale mass production.

We can proudly state that our products are based on several areas of unique technology with electro- optical material providing a key component. The technology yields an attractive film-based electro-optical lenses produced using a proven set of manufacturing processes, enabling to capitalize rapidly in current and emerging applications for ubiquitous LC lenses. Our intellectual property lie in several areas, but most significantly in material formulations and manufacturing processes.