Brightness enhancement article

US6280063A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• 3M INNOVATIVE PROPERTIES COMPANY · US

Inventors

• Bettie C. Fong · Woodbury, US
• Wade D. Kretman · Afton, US
• Keith M. Kotchick · Windom, US
• Sanford Cobb, Jr. · Woodbury, US
• Richard A. Miller · Racine, US
• Todd R. Williams · Lake Elmo, US
• Kazuhiko Toyooka · Tsuruoka, JP

Key dates

• Filing date: May 9, 1997
• Grant date: Aug 28, 2001
• Expiry date: May 9, 2017

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G02B5/045
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A brightness enhancement article that includes: (a) a transparent, flexible substrate; (b) a first major surface having an array of prisms with blunted or rounded peaks characterized by a chord width, cross-sectional pitch width, and radius of curvature in which the chord width is equal to about 20-40% of the cross-sectional pitch width and the radius of curvature is equal to about 20-50% of the cross-sectional pitch width; and (c) a second major surface characterized by a plurality of light scattering protrusions. The article has a haze value between about 20-60% and a transmission value no greater than about 94% when measured under conditions in which the first surface has a substantially planar topography.