Sony Corporation Global Headquarters

The light illuminated from the high-voltage mercury lamps used in general high brightness projectors includes short wavelength high-energy UV light. Normal projectors have UV-cut filters to eliminate this UV light, but a very small amount of UV light still passes through.
The inorganic alignment film employed in “BrightEra” devices does not easily absorb the small amount of UV light that cannot be eliminated by UV-cut filters, and the use of inorganic material also strengthens the molecular coupling in the alignment film. This greatly increases reliability with respect to long-term illumination by intense light.
This allows the use of bright light sources with even higher output, which makes it possible to increase the projector brightness without increasing the panel size. In addition, conventional organic alignment films aligned the LCD materials by rubbing the alignment film surface. However, by changing to an inorganic alignment film and modifying the film structure, alignment force is manifest simply by forming the alignment film. This eliminates the need to physically process the LCD alignment and provides an extremely even video image.