Design and Wrinkling Behavior of a Contact Lens With an Integrated Liquid Crystal Light Modulator

A new design of a spherically molded liquid crystal cell intended for embedding in a contact lens is proposed. Wrinkle formation in these cells was investigated and a correlation was found between the total thickness of the cell and its smoothness. Smooth cells with minimal thickness were obtained by using an asymmetric configuration with a thin layer at the convex side and a thicker but threshold dependent layer at the concave side. Active liquid crystal cells filled with a guest-host liquid crystal mixture exhibited uniform light modulation along their surface, paving the way towards a modulation-based contact lens display.