公开(公告)号：US06205691B1

公开(公告)日：2001-03-27

申请号：US09255530

申请日：1999-02-22

申请人： Susan L. Urda ,  Katherine M. Fyler

发明人： Susan L. Urda ,  Katherine M. Fyler

IPC分类号： G09F1302

CPC分类号： G09F13/02

摘要： A display device resembling neon tubing includes a transparent substrate with one or more elongate, continuous grooves formed in the substrate from a rear surface thereof. The groove is shaped to represent an informational image, such as a letter, symbol, character or design, for communicating a message to a viewer. A layer of a roughness is formed within an arcuate groove surface of substantially constant diameter along the length of the groove to thereby uniformly disperse light that may be incident on the groove toward the front surface of the substrate in an arcuate path. A blocking layer covers the rear surface of the substrate adjacent the groove for permitting the transmission of light only through the groove to thereby create a sharp contrast between light incident on the groove and the blocking layer. The diameter of the groove is preferably approximately equal to the diameter of conventional neon tubing. With this arrangement, light incident along the length of the roughened, arcuate groove surface exits the front surface of the substrate in an arcuate path with substantially uniform intensity along the length of the groove to thereby create a three dimensional tubular appearance that is visually similar to neon tubing.

摘要翻译： 类似于氖管的显示装置包括具有从其后表面形成在基板中的一个或多个细长连续凹槽的透明基板。 凹槽被成形为表示用于将消息传递给观看者的信息图像，例如字母，符号，字符或设计。 在沿着槽的长度的大致恒定直径的弧形槽表面内形成粗糙层，从而均匀地分散可能以弓形路径朝向基板的前表面入射的光。 阻挡层覆盖邻近凹槽的基板的后表面，以允许仅透过凹槽来传输光，从而在入射到凹槽和阻挡层之间的光线之间产生尖锐的对比度。 槽的直径优选近似等于常规氖管的直径。 通过这种布置，沿着粗糙的弧形槽表面的长度入射的光沿着凹槽的长度以基本上均匀的强度以弓形路径离开基板的前表面，从而产生视觉上类似于 氖管。