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1 × 4 optical switch based on electrowetting
Author(s) -
Wang JinHui,
Li Lei,
Yuan RongYing,
Wang QiongHua
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of the society for information display
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.578
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1938-3657
pISSN - 1071-0922
DOI - 10.1002/jsid.609
Subject(s) - electrowetting , materials science , transmittance , optics , voltage , optoelectronics , optical switch , liquid crystal , electrode , dome (geology) , cylinder , dielectric , electrical engineering , physics , mechanical engineering , paleontology , quantum mechanics , biology , engineering
In this paper, we report a 1 × 4 optical switch using deformable liquid droplet. The deformation is produced by the electrowetting on dielectric phenomenon. The device consists of a dyed oil and a transparent conductive liquid sealed in a transparent cylinder. The top glass cover of the device has four independently addressable electrodes for the actuation of the liquid dome in each direction. In the voltage‐off state, incident light is absorbed by the dyed liquid. When the voltage is applied to the liquid, the dome of the transparent liquid is uplifted and then spreads to four different directions because of the effect of electrostatic force. Accordingly, the transparent liquid pushes the dyed oil out to form a light path. The device with simple structure can freely control multiple switch apertures through changing the driven voltage. In addition, we analyze the electro‐optical characteristics such as transmittance, response time (open time ~110 ms, close time ~160 ms), contrast ratio (~661:1).