Disclosed is a black powder comprising silica particles that contain carbon. Each of the silica particles is single-layered. The content of carbon contained in the surfaces of the silica particles measured by an X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is 1% by mass or less.

A privacy glazing structure may include an electrically controllable optically active material, such as a liquid crystal material, sandwiched between a flexible substrate and a rigid substrate. The flexible substrate and the rigid substrate may each have a conductive layer deposited on the surface facing the optically active material. The flexible substrate may be bonded about its perimeter to the rigid substrate and may be sufficiently flexible to conform to non-planarity of the rigid substrate. As a result, the flexible substrate may adopt the surface contour of the rigid substrate to maintain a uniform thickness of optically active material between the flexible substrate and the rigid substrate.

The present application relates to a method for producing a substrate which includes a step of exposing and developing a photosensitive resin composition layer formed on a surface of a substrate base layer to produce spacers. The method for producing a substrate of the present application can uniformly form spacers having a height according to a desired cell gap and can also freely control the height of the spacers.

A privacy glazing structure may include an electrically controllable optically active material, such as a liquid crystal material, sandwiched between a flexible substrate and a rigid substrate. The flexible substrate and the rigid substrate may each have a conductive layer deposited on the surface facing the optically active material. The flexible substrate may be bonded about its perimeter to the rigid substrate and may be sufficiently flexible to conform to non-planarity of the rigid substrate. As a result, the flexible substrate may adopt the surface contour of the rigid substrate to maintain a uniform thickness of optically active material between the flexible substrate and the rigid substrate.

A light attenuator comprises a cell comprising a first substrate and a second substrate spaced apart from the first substrate. A layer between the substrates contains an electrophoretic ink, a surface of the layer adjacent the second substrate comprising a monolayer of closely packed protrusions projecting into the layer. The protrusions have surfaces defining a plurality of depressions in the volumes there between. The ink includes charged particles of at least one type, the particles being responsive to an electric field applied to the cell to move between a first extreme light state, in which particles are maximally spread within the cell to lie in the path of light through the cell and to strongly attenuate light transmitted through the cell; over the surface of the protrusions, which deflect the particles from their path from the first substrate to the second substrate; to a second extreme light state in which the particles are maximally concentrated within the depressions to remove them from the path of light through the cell and to substantially transmit light through the cell.

A spacer-containing tape for enabling the formation of a fine and uniform gap between various members and substrates for general purposes at low cost without the necessity of performing a spacer forming step specialized for each substrate or member on which spacers are to be disposed includes a spacer-dispersed layer containing at least a binder resin layer and a plurality of spacers. In this spacer-containing tape, the plurality of spacers are distributedly disposed independently from each other on one surface of the binder resin layer. It is preferable that the spacers be distributedly disposed regularly on the one surface of the binder resin layer. The area occupancy ratio of the spacers is preferably 35% or less.

A substrate, an optical device include the same, and a method of making the same are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, a substrate includes a base layer, a plurality of column spacers disposed on the base layer, and a ball spacer attached to or embedded in at least one of the plurality of column spacers. The spacers having excellent dimensional accuracy and adhesiveness on the substrate.

Provided is a dimming laminate which can effectively suppress occurrence of color unevenness and light omission. The dimming laminate according to the present invention includes a first transparent base material, a second transparent base material, and a dimming layer disposed between the first transparent base material and the second transparent base material. In this dimming laminate, the dimming layer includes a resin spacer, the resin spacer is a plurality of resin particles, and the resin spacer does not contain resin particles having a particle diameter of 1.4 times or more an average particle diameter of the resin particles or contains 0.0006% or less of the resin particles having a particle diameter of 1.4 times or more the average particle diameter of the resin particles, relative to 100% of the whole number of the resin particles.

A light control sheet including a first transparent electrode, a second transparent electrode, a liquid crystal layer formed between the first transparent electrode and the second transparent electrode, and spacers included in the liquid crystal layer. The spacers have an average size of 3 μm-50 μm, and the spacers have a size distribution that has a plurality of discrete peaks.

In some implementations, a liquid crystal on silicon panel includes a backplane with an electrical contact formed on the backplane, a first alignment layer disposed on the backplane and interfacing with the electrical contact, a conductive layer that is light transmissive, a second alignment layer disposed on the conductive layer, and a plurality of beads in an electrically-conductive adhesive between the first alignment layer and the second alignment layer. Electrically-conductive particles within the electrically-conductive adhesive may make the electrically-conductive adhesive electrically-conductive. A first set of the electrically-conductive particles may puncture the first alignment layer to contact the electrical contact, and a second set of the electrically-conductive particles may puncture the second alignment layer to contact the conductive layer. An electrical connection of the electrical contact and the conductive layer may be via a plurality of the electrically-conductive particles.