Electrowetting pixels with improved transmittance using dye doped liquid crystals

Electrowetting display pixels have been created using a dye doped liquid crystal as the dielectric liquid in a simple electrowetting architecture. In addition to electrowetting, the dye doped liquid crystal reorients, giving two mechanisms to modulate the light. We show that realignment of the liquid crystal, due to the electric field, occurs both before and during electrowetting. The transmission of the pixel has been compared to the transmission of a pixel containing an isotropic liquid, using a simple mathematical model, and we show that electrical realignment of the LC improves the transmission of the pixel. We show a 6.8% gain in the transmission during electrowetting, and before electrowetting occurs.