Electro-Optical Panel With Nested Cooling Channels
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electro-optical devices, such as liquid crystal devices in projection-type display devices, face challenges in increasing cooling efficiency due to the deterioration of liquid crystal materials from increased temperatures caused by light sources, and previous cooling methods using refrigerants through frames are inefficient.
Innovation Solution
An electro-optical device design featuring a translucent first and second member with a space between them, where a lens surface with a protruding curved surface overlaps with pixel electrodes, and communicates with inlet and outlet passages for refrigerant flow, allowing for efficient cooling of the liquid crystal panel.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If a refrigerant is passed through a frame that holds the liquid crystal panel to cool the panel, then the liquid crystal panel can be cooled, but the cooling efficiency is difficult to increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent embeds the refrigerant passage directly within the liquid crystal panel structure itself, nesting the cooling system inside the panel rather than placing it externally in the frame. This allows the refrigerant to flow through channels formed between the substrates, directly cooling the liquid crystal layer from within, thereby significantly improving cooling efficiency compared to external frame-based cooling methods.
2Temperature
If the liquid crystal panel is cooled using external frame-based refrigerant flow, then the panel temperature can be reduced, but the cooling efficiency remains low
Solution Approach 1:
The refrigerant passage is nested within the panel structure, allowing direct thermal contact between the refrigerant and the liquid crystal layer. This internal nesting eliminates the thermal resistance of the frame structure and enables more efficient heat transfer from the liquid crystal panel to the refrigerant, reducing energy loss in the cooling process.
3Illumination intensity
If a lens surface with protruding curved surface is formed to optimize refractive index difference, then light modulation performance is improved, but the device structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the lens function with the existing substrate structure by forming the lens surface directly on one of the substrates. This integration combines the optical lensing function with the structural substrate, eliminating the need for separate lens components and reducing overall device complexity while still achieving improved light modulation performance through optimized refractive index differences.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a protruding curved surface (lens surface) on the substrate to create a spherical or curved optical interface. This curvature optimizes the refractive index difference at the interface, improving light modulation performance by enhancing light control and reducing optical aberrations, while the curvature is formed directly on the substrate to avoid adding separate complex optical components.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration enhances cooling efficiency by directly cooling the electro-optical panel and improves light modulation and image display performance by optimizing the refractive index difference at the lens surface, leading to better light utilization and image quality.
Implementation Method 1
the space communicates with an inlet passage through which a refrigerant flows into the space, and also communicates with an outlet passage through which the refrigerant flows out of the space
Implementation Method 2
a lens surface having a protruding curved surface is formed at either one of a surface, opposed to the second member, of the first member, and a surface, opposed to the first member, of the second member, the lens surface overlapping, in plan view, with each one of the plurality of pixel electrodes
Data Source
AI summary
An electro-optical device includes an electro-optical panel and a frame configured to support the electro-optical panel. The electro-optical panel includes a first member being a translucent substrate body, a second member being a translucent film and opposed to the first member, and pixel electrodes provided at an opposite side from the first member with respect to the second member. Lens surfaces having a protruding curved surface and each overlapping, in plan view, with each one of pixel electrodes are formed at a surface of the second member that is opposed to the first member. Since an inlet passage and an outlet passage, each of which communicates with the space, are formed between the first member and the second member, a refrigerant is caused to pass through the space by way of the frame, whereby it is possible to cool the electro-optical panel.