CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application claims priority to Great Britain Patent Application No. 1915823.7, filed Oct. 31, 2019, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

A liquid crystal device may be assembled from a plurality of pre-prepared components, including a liquid crystal cell, one or more polariser components and one or more barrier film components.

The inventors for the present application have worked on developing the production of liquid crystal devices from polymer film components (components including one or more organic polymer films as support films). In particular, the inventors for the present application have worked on an assembly technique involving combining at least barrier film components and polariser components to form sub-assembly components, before combining these sub-assembly components with at least the liquid crystal cell to assemble the liquid crystal device. The inventors have identified the problem of bubbles appearing within the assembled device under high temperature storage conditions, even after drying these sub-assembly components and the liquid crystal cell (and any other assembly components) immediately before combination to assemble the liquid crystal device.

One aim of the present invention is to develop a new assembly technique that better prevents the appearance of bubbles under high temperature storage conditions.

There is hereby provided a method comprising: subjecting at least one or more barrier film components and one or more polariser film components for a liquid crystal display device to a first drying process; thereafter combining at least said barrier film components and polariser components to assemble upper and lower sub-assembly components; subjecting the upper and lower sub-assembly components to a second drying process; and thereafter combining the upper and lower sub-assembly components with at least a liquid crystal cell component to assemble a liquid crystal device.

According to one embodiment, the first drying process comprises either (i) baking the barrier film components and polariser components in an atmospheric pressure environment whose water vapour content has been reduced; and/or (ii) keeping the barrier film components and polariser components in a reduced pressure environment.

According to one embodiment, the second drying process comprises either (i) baking the sub-assembly components in an atmospheric pressure environment whose water vapour content has been reduced; and/or (ii) keeping the sub-assembly components in a reduced pressure environment.

According to one embodiment, each of the upper and lower sub-assembly components comprises, between a stretched polymer dichroic film and one or more barrier coatings, at least one polymer film having a higher water vapour transmission rate (WVTR) than both the stretched polymer dichroic film and the one or more barrier coatings.

According to one embodiment, said at least one high WVTR film comprises one or more of: a support film supporting said one or more barrier coatings of a barrier film component; a support film supporting the stretched polymer dichroic film of a polariser component; and an adhesive film between the barrier film component and the polariser component.

According to one embodiment, the atmospheric pressure environment whose water vapour content has been reduced has a relative humidity of about 0%.

