JP2001100243A - Optical writing type medium and optical writing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an optical writing type medium which allows recording by good optical writing to all of various kinds of the optical writing type media varying in recording conditions and a display device using the optical writing type medium. SOLUTION: The optical writing section 12 and a recorder 22 are controlled in such a manner as to attain the recording conditions obtained by previously recording, as bar codes 24, the recording conditions of spatial modulation elements 20 encoded at the corners on the light incident surface side of a writing side transparent substrate 30 of the spatial modulation elements 20, interpreting the bar codes read by a bar code reader 40 disposed in an input/output section 14 and reading the recording conditions corresponding to the data out of a memory 42.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical writing medium and an optical writing apparatus, and more particularly, to an optical writing medium and an optical writing apparatus capable of performing optical writing from a display side.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, an optical writing type spatial modulation device combining a photoconductive switching element and a display element has been developed, and has been put to practical use as a light valve in projectors and the like. LCD, Vo
As described in l.2, No. 1, '98, pp. 3-18, possibilities are being studied in the field of optical information processing.

[0003] As such an optical writing type spatial modulation device, for example, OplusE "1997.1 No206pp115-119,
A light valve of an overhead projector in which an optical writable medium in which a writing side and a reading side have a front-to-back relationship, an optical system for writing on the writing side of the optical writable medium, and an optical system for reading on the reading side are provided. Optical writing type devices have been proposed.

[0004] Also, an optically writable medium which can be separated by using an element having a memory property as a display control element of an optically writable spatial modulation device has been receiving attention. For example,
In the journal of the SID 5/3 1997 pp269-274, set the back side of the display side to a writing device and write from the back side, and after writing is completed, remove it from the writing device so that only optically writable media can be carried A structured optically-written spatial modulation device has been proposed.

In such an optical writing type spatial modulation device, while applying a predetermined voltage to the element, the impedance of the photoconductive switching element is changed according to the amount of light received to control the voltage applied to the display element. Thus, the display element is driven to display an image.

As a photoconductive switching element for controlling the voltage or current applied to the display element by changing the impedance according to the amount of light received, for example, a CCD
There has been proposed a photodiode used for a semiconductor device, an amorphous silicon element used for a contact type image sensor, and the like. Further, the present inventors have studied an OPC element having a dual CGL structure as a photoconductive switching element.

In this dual CGL structure, a charge generation layer (CGL) made of a material that generates charges by light irradiation is provided on both an upper layer side and a lower layer side of a charge transport layer (CTL) made of a charge transporting material. Structure, and according to this structure,
It is applicable to AC driven liquid crystal elements and the like, and does not require high-temperature heat treatment. Therefore, it has an advantage that it can be applied to a flexible substrate such as a PET film, and is expected to be applied in various fields.

As a display control element, for example, a liquid crystal display element such as a nematic liquid crystal, a cholesteric liquid crystal, and a ferroelectric liquid crystal dispersed in a polymer to impart a memory property, or an electrophoretic element has been studied. In particular, ferroelectric liquid crystals have attracted attention.

[0009]

However, such an optical writing type device has the following problems. That is, various types of photoconductor materials and display materials have been proposed for use in the optical writable medium, and the recording conditions differ depending on the combination of the photoconductor material and the display material used.

[0010] Specifically, the optically writable medium is
A structure in which a photoconductor layer and a display element layer are connected in series, and an image is recorded by changing a refractive index by changing a voltage applied to the display element layer by a change in impedance of the photoelectric layer at the time of light irradiation. is there. Therefore, the electrical and optical thresholds required to change the display state for recording, ie, the resistance and capacitance values, which are the electrical characteristic values of each layer, are used to drive the optically writable medium to display an image. Become important to you.

To date, various materials for forming the photoconductor layer and the display element layer have been proposed, and accordingly, various types of optical writing media have been proposed.
These have different driving conditions because the electrical and optical threshold values required to change the electrical property values of the layers provided, ie, the resistance value, the capacitance value, and the display state for recording, are different. It is difficult to record with the same optical writing device.

For example, an organic photoconductive element or amorphous silicon is used as a photoconductive element material for forming the photoconductive layer, but the organic photoconductor and amorphous silicon have different resistance and capacitance. That is, the organic photoconductor has a dielectric constant of about 3 while the amorphous silicon has a dielectric constant of about 12. Therefore, the capacitance is four times different for the same film thickness.

Thus, for example, a photoconductor layer made of an organic photoconductor and a photoconductor layer made of amorphous silicon are formed to have the same film thickness, and each is combined with a display element layer having the same electric characteristics. In this case, the photoconductor layer made of an organic photoconductor can obtain a higher partial pressure than the photoconductor layer made of amorphous silicon. In general, organic photoconductors have high resistance, and amorphous silicon has low resistance.

For this reason, the recording conditions are different even when combined with a display element layer having the same electrical characteristics. Of course, in order to make the electrical characteristics the same, for example, it is conceivable to adjust the film thickness. However, it is necessary to form amorphous silicon four times as thick as the conductor, which is difficult in terms of productivity and cost. .

In addition, various types of material display elements constituting the display element layer include, for example, a liquid crystal element, an electrochromic element, an electrophoretic element, and an electric field rotating type particle element, which have a resistance component and a capacitance component. Different,
The thresholds for turning on and off the display are completely different. For example, the threshold of the electrochromic device is about several volts, while the threshold of the electrophoretic capsule is 50 volts.
About V.

Further, even if the materials constituting the display element layers are of the same kind, the electric threshold values may be completely different.
For example, in a liquid crystal element, an electric threshold value is completely different between a ferroelectric liquid crystal and a cholesteric liquid crystal. Specifically, the electric threshold value of the cholesteric liquid crystal is around 60V, while the electric threshold value of the ferroelectric liquid crystal is about 15V. For this reason, even when the same photoconductive element is used, if the optical and electrical properties of the material forming the display element layer are different, the driving conditions of the optical writing type medium are completely different.

Furthermore, these optically writable media actually have various driving conditions according to the application, from monochrome inexpensive media to color and high resolution media. For this reason,
Until now, there is a drawback in that a recording device corresponding to each medium must be prepared individually.

From the above, the present invention provides an optical writable medium capable of performing recording by good optical writing on all of various optical writable media having different recording conditions, and a display device using the optical writable medium. The purpose is to provide.

[0019]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, one of the first and second embodiments is a transparent one.
An optically writable recording medium, comprising, in order from a transparent electrode layer side, between a pair of electrode layers, at least two types of layers, a display element layer and an optical functional layer, which are laminated. The recording condition of the optical writing type recording medium is recorded magnetically, optically, or mechanically.

That is, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the recording conditions of the optical writable recording medium are recorded on the optical writable recording medium. The recording conditions are, at the time of applying a recording pulse voltage under a predetermined light amount based on the recording mode, at least the size, length, and irradiation light amount of the recording pulse. When recording is performed by using a pulse, a voltage, a peak light quantity of a light irradiation pulse, and a length are used. In addition, the information of the waveform and the auxiliary pulse, the number of times of recording, and the like may be entered, and if the conditions are published in advance, only the information for identifying the type of the medium may be used.

Since such recording conditions are recorded on the optical writing type recording medium, the optical writing can be always performed by driving the optical writing type recording medium under the optimum recording conditions.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an optical writing apparatus for performing optical writing on the optical writing type recording medium according to the first aspect. Reading means for reading the recording conditions recorded on a recording medium, medium driving means for driving the optical writing type recording medium, and optical writing by irradiating the driven optical writing type recording medium with patterned light. An optical writing unit for performing the writing; and a control unit for controlling the medium driving unit and the optical writing unit in accordance with the recording condition read by the reading unit.

That is, the optical writing device of claim 2 is
The reading means reads the recording conditions recorded on the optical writable recording medium, and the control means controls the medium driving means and the optical writing means so that the recording conditions are read by the reading means. It is possible to adjust the driving conditions optimal for the optical writable recording medium. Therefore, it is possible to perform recording by good optical writing on all of various optical writing media having different recording conditions with one optical writing device.

[0024]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As shown in FIG. 1, an optical writing type recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is roughly divided into a recording section 10 for displaying an image and a recording section 10 based on a light pattern.
An optical writing unit 12 for writing an image into the recording unit 10 and an input / output unit 14 for controlling the recording unit 10 and the writing unit 12 are provided.

The recording unit 10 includes a spatial modulation element 20 constituting an image display surface and a recording device 22 for driving the spatial modulation element 20, and the recording device 22 receives a driving signal from an input / output unit 14 described later. Then, a voltage is applied to the spatial modulation element 20 to bring the spatial modulation element 20 into an image displayable state, that is, an on state.

The spatial modulation element 20 includes, for example, between the writing-side transparent substrate 30 and the display-side transparent substrate 31, in order from the writing-side transparent substrate 30,
Photoconductive layer 36, display element layer 34, display side transparent electrode layer 38
Is used.

As the writing-side transparent substrate 30 and the display-side transparent substrate 31, a known transparent substrate such as glass or plastic can be used as appropriate, but a flexible substrate such as a polyester film such as polyethylene terephthalate is used. It is also possible. Note that the thickness of the transparent substrate 30 is preferably about 100 μm to 500 μm.

The writing-side transparent electrode layer 32 and the display-side transparent electrode layer 38 may be constituted by electrodes having a property of transmitting light, and ITO electrodes and the like are preferable. Also,
In this embodiment, the photoconductive layer 36 is an organic photoconductive layer having a dual CGL structure in which a charge generation layer (CGL) is provided on both the upper layer side and the lower layer side of a charge transport layer (CTL) made of a charge transporting material. Although it is composed of a body, it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to an organic photoconductor having a dual CGL structure, and an organic photoconductor having another structure, amorphous silicon, or the like can be selected.

Such a spatial modulation element 20 is, for example,
It can be manufactured by the following procedure. First, benzimidal perylene (BZP) was deposited as a charge generation layer on a substrate 31 on which a 5 nm-thick Au electrode 38 was formed by evaporation to a thickness of 0.08 μm.
To a thickness of

On top of this, 7.2% of a biphenyldiamine-based material as a charge transport layer, 10.8% of polycarbonate bisphenol Z (poly (4,4'-cyclohexylidenediphenylene carbonate)), and monochlorobenzene 8
The 2% solution is further diluted two-fold with monochrome benzene and applied by spin coating to form a 3 μm thick film. Further, a BZP of 0.08 μm was formed thereon as a charge generation layer. After that, a film of Au is formed to a thickness of 5 nm to form an electrode.

Thereafter, an ITO electrode film is formed to a thickness of 20 nm on a glass substrate having a light-shielding film coated on the back surface (ie, the writing-side transparent substrate 30) to form a writing-side transparent electrode layer 32. A 5 μm diameter spherical spacer hayabeads L-25 (manufactured by Hayakawa Rubber Co., Ltd.) with an adhesive is wet-sprayed on this upper layer, and a glass substrate with an ITO electrode film is further adhered so that the ITO electrode film contacts the spacer. Let it.

After performing the above steps at room temperature, in order to bond the spacer and the substrate, the substrate is heated to 110 ° C. and held for 30 minutes to obtain an OPC liquid crystal cell. Thereafter, a cholesteric liquid crystal that selectively reflects green color light is injected into the liquid crystal cell to obtain a display element layer 34. More specifically, as the cholesteric liquid crystal, 72.3 wt% of a nematic liquid crystal E186 (manufactured by Merck) having a positive dielectric anisotropy.
%, Dextrorotatory chiral agent CB15 (Merck) 13.
9 wt% and 13.9 wt% of a dextrorotatory chiral agent CE2 (manufactured by Merck).

The spatial light modulator 20 is obtained by sticking the charge generation layer thus formed and the display element layer 34 via the protective transparent layer 37.

The recording conditions of this spatial modulation element 20 are as follows: drive voltage 300 Vpp, required pulse application time 200 ms,
The pulse period is 40 ms, the light amount is 10 mW / cm ² ,
These were coded and recorded as a barcode 24 at the corner on the light incident surface side of the writing-side transparent substrate 30 as shown in FIG.

The recording device 22 for driving the spatial modulation element 20 includes a connector 46 connected to the above-mentioned write-side transparent electrode layer 32 and display-side transparent electrode layer 38, and a drive pulse generator 48. The drive pulse generation unit 48 detects a trigger signal for outputting a drive waveform input from the input / output unit 14, generates a drive pulse by detecting the trigger signal, and outputs the drive pulse through the connector 46. A drive pulse is applied to 32 and the display-side transparent electrode layer 38. As a result, an electric field is generated between the writing-side transparent electrode layer 32 and the display-side transparent electrode layer 38. The connector 46 is configured to be removable.

The drive pulse has, for example, a waveform storage unit such as a ROM and a DA converter, and converts a waveform read from the ROM into a DA to generate a drive pulse, or an electric circuit such as a pulse generation circuit. It can be configured to generate a pulse in a simple manner. In this embodiment mode, a desired number of pulses obtained by combining a positive pulse and a negative pulse are applied.

The waveform of the driving pulse is not particularly limited, but an AC voltage and a frequency can be applied. The applied voltage is an AC voltage, but a sine wave, a rectangular wave, a triangular wave, or the like can be applied as a waveform. Needless to say, the present invention can be applied to a combination of these or a completely arbitrary waveform. Further, a sub-pulse that cannot be switched by itself may be added to the drive pulse in order to improve display performance and the like. Further, depending on the type of the display element layer 34, it may be effective to apply a slight bias component. In such a case, it is preferable to apply a slight bias component.

The light writing section 12 is roughly divided into a pattern generation section 50 for generating a pattern according to image data, and the pattern generated by the pattern generation section 50 as a light pattern from the image display surface side of the spatial light modulator 20. A light irradiating section 52 for irradiating is provided. Based on an instruction input from the input / output section 14, a light pattern formed according to image data is irradiated from the image display surface side of the spatial light modulator 20 to perform optical writing.

As the pattern generation unit 50, for example, T
A transmission type display such as a liquid crystal display using FT and a simple matrix type liquid crystal display can be applied. As the light irradiating section 52, any one that can irradiate the spatial modulation element 20 with light, such as a fluorescent light, a halogen lamp, and an electroluminescence (EL) light, can be applied.

As described above, the pattern generation unit 50
And the light irradiation unit 52 may be provided separately.
It is good also as composition provided in one. In the case of an integrally provided structure, for example, a light-emitting display such as an EL display, a CRT, and a field emission display (FED) can be applied. In addition to these, any illumination device that can control the amount of light, the wavelength, and the irradiation pattern applied to the spatial modulation element 20 is applicable. Of course, the light source is not limited to white light, but may be colored light obtained using a filter.

The input / output section 14 is provided with a bar code reader 40 for reading the bar code 24 recorded on the spatial light modulator 20.
, A memory 42, and a control unit 58, and are connected online to the recording unit 10 and the optical writing unit 12.

The bar code reader 40 has a spatial modulation element 2
The coded recording condition is read by irradiating the bar code 24 with light and detecting the reflected light. Further, the memory 42 is constituted by a ROM, and stores recording conditions corresponding to the data coded as the barcode 24.

The control unit 58 is connected to an external device such as a personal computer on-line, converts image data input from the outside into image data for display, and converts the bar code data read from the bar code reader 40. The recording condition corresponding to the data is read from the memory 42 after decoding, and the optical writing unit 12 and the recording device 22 are controlled so that the obtained recording condition is satisfied.

For example, when image data is input from an external device, bar code data is decoded, and the recording conditions corresponding to the data are read out from the memory 42, the recording conditions obtained are a driving voltage of 300 Vpp, a necessary pulse application time of 200 ms,
When the pulse period is 40 ms and the light amount is 10 mW / cm ² , the recording device 22
The recording device 22 is controlled so that a drive voltage of pp is applied and a pulse having a period of 40 ms is applied with a pulse application time of 200 ms. At the same time, the light irradiation unit 52 is controlled so that the light amount by the light irradiation unit 52 of the light writing unit 12 is 10 mW / cm ^2, and the pattern generation unit 50 is controlled to generate a pattern corresponding to the image data. To form

Using the optical writing type recording apparatus having such a configuration, a plurality of spatial modulation elements 20 on which different recording conditions are recorded are prepared, and optical recording is sequentially performed. Good image recording could be performed.

In this embodiment, the recording unit 10, the optical writing unit 12, and the input / output unit 14 are connected online. However, for example, radio, electromagnetic waves, infrared rays, ultrasonic waves, etc. The connection may be made offline.

Although a one-dimensional barcode is used in the present embodiment, a two-dimensional barcode may be used. As a recording method other than the barcode, for example, a color such as red, blue and green may be made to correspond to information, or optical recording such as forming pits and marks by a laser or the like may be performed. Of course, the data may be modulated and recorded using the shading.
The area to be recorded can be of course applied to a heat-sensitive material, a material that can be controlled by an electric field, or a material that undergoes deformation or phase change by laser or the like.

As magnetic recording, information recorded in a pattern in which information can be identified by a magnetic head can be applied. In the recording area, a magnetic substance mixed with a binder and applied to a substrate on a stripe, or a magnetic material directly produced in a recording area by vapor deposition or the like can be applied.

As the mechanical recording, for example, a method of identifying by the presence or absence of a hole at a predetermined position in a recording area can be applied. In this case, since it is difficult to increase the amount of information, the information only indicates the type of the medium, and the recording apparatus separately refers to the recording conditions according to the type.

As the electrical recording, a method in which a contact or non-contact IC chip or the like is provided in a recording area is applicable. In this case, predetermined data indicating recording conditions and types are stored in the IC chip.

In general, it is desirable to use an unused area of the optical writing medium as the information area of the recording condition. For example, the four corners of the medium, the upper and lower centers or the left and right centers. The recording condition may be a rewritable area. This can be applied to a medium that determines the write conditions by testing the write characteristics of the optical write medium, and the extracted recording conditions are written to the recording information area.

Further, when reading the recording conditions recorded by a method other than the barcode, a reading apparatus suitable for the recording method can be appropriately selected. For example, when optically recorded, laser reading, CCD reading, and the like can be applied. When magnetically recorded, reading by a magnetic head is applicable. If the data is recorded electrically, connect the terminal to the connector to read the data, and use a non-contact type reader to provide an electromagnetic coupling antenna so that the data can be read. Is possible.

[0053]

As described above, according to the present invention, various types of optical writing media having different recording conditions can be used.
There is an effect that recording by good optical writing can be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an optical writing type recording apparatus according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a top view of the spatial light modulator shown in FIG. 1 as viewed from a writing-side transparent substrate side.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Recording part 12 Optical writing part 14 I / O part 20 Spatial modulation element 22 Recording device 24 Barcode 30 Writing side transparent substrate 31 Display side transparent substrate 32 Writing side transparent electrode layer 34 Display element layer 36 Photoconductive layer 37 Protective transparent layer 38 display side transparent electrode layer 40 barcode reader 42 memory 46 connector 48 drive pulse generator 50 pattern generator 52 light irradiator 58 controller

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A structure in which at least two types of layers, a display element layer and an optical functional layer, are laminated between a pair of transparent electrode layers in order from the transparent electrode layer side. An optically writable recording medium, wherein the recording conditions of the optically writable recording medium are recorded magnetically, optically, or mechanically. 2. A reading means for reading the recording conditions recorded on the optical writable recording medium according to claim 1, a medium driving means for driving the optical writable recording medium,
An optical writing unit for performing optical writing by irradiating the driven optical writing type recording medium with patterned light; and the medium driving unit and the optical writing unit according to the recording conditions read by the reading unit. An optical writing device comprising: