An automatic darkening and glare reducing
liquid crystal mirror for vehicles is disclosed. The mirror has a front substrate (101) of transparent glass or plastic and a back substrate (109) of glass orplastic with a highly reflective or transflective mirrored
coating (108). The front and back substrates are spaced apart a small distance to define a
liquid crystal cell between the substrates and aliquid
crystal fluid (106) incorporating dichroic dyes is contained within the
liquid crystal cell. A conductive thin film (102) is applied onto the interior surface of the front substrate and the reflective or transflective
coating (108) of the back substrate also is conductive. An alignment compound is deposited on the conductive thin film (102) and on the reflective or transflective
coating (108) and the alignment compound bounds the
liquid crystal cell. An electronic
control circuit is adapted to apply selectively a
voltage signal to the conductive thin film and the reflective or transflective coating (108) to affect the
transmittance of the liquid
crystal fluid, and thereby the
darkness of the mirror. The nature of the alignment compound determines a home or rest alignment of the liquid
crystal molecules, either parallel or perpendicular to the substrates, and thus determines whether the mirror is normally dark (a '
dark mode' mirror) or normally bright (a 'bright mode' mirror). Application of a
voltage signal to a
dark mode mirror lightens it while application of a
voltage signal to a bright mode mirror darkens the mirror. A headlight sensor (302) and an ambient sensor (301) are coupled to the electronic
control circuit and the circuit is configured to darken the mirror in response to signals from the sensors indicating that the ambient
light intensity is below a predetermined threshold (equivalent to nighttime) and the intensity of light from headlights impinging on the mirror is above a predetermined threshold (equivalent to a glare condition).