Out-Active-Matrix-LCD

• US 5,510,915 A
• Filed: 08/02/1994
• Issued: 04/23/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Transmarine Enterprises Limited
• Original Assignee: Shichao Ge, Xiaoqin Ge, Xi Huang
• Inventors: Ge, Shichao, Huang, Xi, Ge, Xiaoqin
• Primary Examiner(s): Gross, Anita Pellman
• Assistant Examiner(s): Abraham, Fetsum
• Application Number:
  US08/283,616
• Time in Patent Office: 630 Days
• Field of Search: 359/57, 359/58, 359/59, 359/88
• US Class Current: 349/42
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133305 Flexible substrates, e.g. plastics, organic film
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/13336 Combining plural substrates to produce large-area displays, e.g. tiled displays
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133512 Light shielding layers, e.g. black matrix G02F1/136209 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133622 Colour sequential illumination
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/1362 Active matrix addressed cells G02F1/134336, G02F1/134363 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 2201/42 Arrangements for providing conduction through an insulating substrate

Abstract

A new kind of Active-Matrix LCD, called Out-Active-Matrix LCD ("OAM-LCD"), is formed by depositing the active-matrix on the outside surface of the LCD substrate. Each active component is connected with a related dot electrode of the LCD cell through thin conductive lead, which is hidden in the substrate. This OAM-LCD not only makes the large screen LCD feasible, but also is easy to manufacture. The OAM-LCD can use transmission LC or scattering LC. This new OAM-LCD can be used for making large screen hang-on-wall TV, and super large screen mosaic video display both indoor and outdoor applications. OAM-LCD'"'"'s features include high brightness, high efficiency, good color quality, long lifetime, low cost and high contrast, especially under high ambient illumination, such as trader direct sunlight.

Claims

1. An OutSide-Active-Matrix LCD (OAM-LCD), comprising:

a first and a second transparent substrate placed alongside and spaced part from each other, the two substrates having internal surfaces facing each other and outside surfaces, each of the outside surfaces being on the other side of a substrate from the internal surface of such substrate;

one or more transparent electrodes deposited on the internal surface of the first substrate;

a LC layer between the two substrates;

a separated electrode array deposited on the internal surface of said second substrate, forming a display matrix with the transparent electrodes deposited on the internal surface of the first substrate;

a series of thin conductive leads in said second substrate;

a series of conductive leads deposited on the outside surface of said second substrate;

an active matrix circuit deposited on the outside surface of the second substrate, said active matrix being deposited immediately adjacent to said conductive leads;

each of said thin conductive leads has two connecting ends, one of which being connected with one of said related separated electrode deposited on the internal surface of the second substrate and the other being connected with one of said conductive leads deposited on the outside surface of the second substrate, through which said thin conductive leads make connection with the outside-active-matrix;

means for driving the LCD by means of said outside-active-matrix.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the outside-active-matrix is constructed using conventional electronic devices comprising conventional transistors, diodes, ICs, thick film circuit, thin film circuit, and hybrid circuit.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the outside-active-matrix may further comprise a variety of high quality and high speed components to achieve a fast LCD response time.

4. The device of claim 3 wherein the high quality components have high operating voltages in a range from 5 to 500 volts.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein each of the thin conductive leads may be further made of multi-leads to secure its connection with the separated electrode deposited on the internal surface of the second substrate to guarantee the reliability of the electrical connection between the separated electrode array and the outside-active-matrix.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the conductive leads and the outside-active-matrix are deposited on the outside surface of the second substrate, said device further comprising a single layer or a multi-layer of PCB to connect the separated electrode array and the outside-active-matrix.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the first or the second substrate has a filter array on the internal surface or outside surface to obtain a multi-color or a full-color display.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the first or the second substrate further comprises a polarizer located at its outside surface.

9. A reflective OAM-LCD, comprising:

a transparent face substrate and a back substrate placed alongside and spaced apart from each other, the two substrates having internal surfaces facing each other and outside surfaces, each of the outside surfaces being on the other side of a substrate from the internal surface of such substrate;

one or more transparent electrodes deposited on the internal surface of said face substrate;

a LC layer;

a series of separated electrodes deposited on the internal surface of said back substrate, forming a display matrix with the transparent electrodes deposited on the internal surface of the face substrate;

a series of thin conductive leads deposited on the outside surface of said back substrate;

an active matrix circuit deposited on the outside surface of said back substrate;

wherein each of the thin conductive leads has two connecting ends, one of which being connected with a related electrode deposited on the internal surface of the back substrate and the other being connected with the conductive lead deposited on the outside surface of the back substrate through which the thin conductive leads make connection to the outside-active-matrix circuit;

a polarizer at or near the outside surface of the face substrate;

means for driving of the LCD by said outside-active-matrix circuit.

10. The device of claim 9 wherein the electrodes are transparent electrodes, said device further comprising a reflective plate at the back of said back substrate to reflect incident light.

11. The device of claim 9, wherein the electrodes on the internal surface of the back substrate are reflective electrodes, and wherein the reflective electrodes have a monochromic or a multi-color or R, G, B fluorescent material to obtain a higher contrast monochromic or multi-color or full-color display.

12. A scattering OAM-LCD, comprising:

a parallel light backlight emitting parallel incident light;

a focusing lens array plate having a series of focusing lens, each focusing lens comprises of one or more lenses;

a scattering LCD, comprising;

a transparent back substrate and face substrate placed alongside and spaced apart from each other, the two substrates having internal surfaces facing each other and outside surfaces, each of the outside surfaces being on the other side of a substrate from the internal surface of such substrate;

a separated transparent electrode first array deposited on the internal surface of said back substrate;

a second array of transparent electrodes deposited on the internal surface of said face substrate, forming a display matrix with said electrodes in said first array deposited on the internal surface of the back substrate;

a scattering LC layer between the two arrays and the two substrates;

means for focusing said parallel incident light emitted from said backlight on the outside surface of said back substrate to form a series of focus points by said focusing lens array;

a series of conductive leads deposited on the outside surface of said back substrate between said focus points;

an outside-active-matrix circuit deposited on the outside surface of said back substrate between focus points, and connected with said conductive leads;

a projection lens array plate having a series of projection lenses located at the front of said scattering LCD, each projection lens comprises of one or more lenses;

a black aperture array plate having a series of apertures located at the front of the projection lens array plate;

said apertures being aligned with the related projection lenses, focusing lenses and separated electrodes so that light originally from the backlight through the focus points, the scattering LC layer and focused by the projection lens array plate will pass through the apertures;

a face plate located at the front of the aperture array plate having some optical structure for adjusting the viewing angle and the direction of the output light and for obtaining the high brightness and high contrast of the display image;

means for applying the ON operating voltage to the scattering LCD, so that the LCD is in a transparent state, and so that the incident light from the focusing lens can go through the LCD, and then focused in the aperture by the projection lens, and through the aperture to face plate as output from the device in the ON state;

means for applying the OFF operating voltage to the scattering LCD, so that the LCD is in a scattering state, and so that the incident light from the focusing lens is scattered by the LCD, wherein the most part of this scattered light will be absorbed by the black aperture plate, and a small part of them can go through the small aperture as output from the device in the OFF state;

means for modulating the intensity of the output light according to data signal in order to display an image, using the ON state and OFF state.

13. A scattering OAM-LCD, having only one lens for one image dot, comprising:

a parallel light backlight to emit the parallel light;

a scattering LCD, comprising;

a transparent back substrate and face substrate placed alongside and spaced apart from each other, the two substrates having internal surfaces facing each other and outside surfaces, each of the outside surfaces being on the other side of a substrate from the internal surface of such substrate;

a first array of one or more transparent electrodes on the internal surface of the back substrate;

a second separated transparent electrode array on the internal surface of the face substrate, forming a display matrix with said transparent electrodes on the back substrate;

a face plate located so that the LCD is between the face plate and the backlight;

a black aperture array plate between the face plate and the LCD;

said facing plate having optical structures for adjusting the viewing angle and the direction of the output light and for obtaining the high brightness and high contrast of display image;

means for focusing the light emitted from the backlight on the outside surface of the face substrate at focus points;

a series of conductive leads are deposited on the outside surface of the face substrate between the focus points;

an outside-active-matrix on the outside surface of the face substrate between the focus points;

a series of thin conductive leads in the face substrate, each of the thin conductive leads has two connecting ends and one of which is connected to a related separated electrode, and the other end is connected with the conductive leads and then to the outside-active-matrix;

a series of chambers located at the black aperture array plate between focus points neighboring the LCD to hold the components of the active-matrix;

said apertures being respectively aligned along a common optical axis with the related focusing lenses and the separated electrodes;

means for applying the ON operating voltage to the scattering LCD, so that the LCD is in a transparent state, and the incident light from the focusing lens can go through the LCD, and then focused in the aperture by the focusing lens, and through the aperture through the face plate as output from the device in an ON state;

means for applying the OFF operating voltage to the scattering LCD, so that the LCD is in a scattering state, and the incident light from the focusing lens is scattered by the LCD, wherein most of this scattered light will be absorbed by the black aperture plate, and only a small part of the light can go through the small aperture as output from the device in an OFF state;

means for modulating the intensity of the output light according to the data signal and to display an image, using the ON state and OFF state.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein the scattering LCD is a Polymer Dispersed LCD ("PDLCD")

15. The device of claim 13, wherein the scattering LCD layer includes a black dye to decrease the scattering light intensity of the scattering state of the LCD, and to increase the contrast of the display.

16. The device of claim 13, wherein the face plate includes a holographic film or a lens array for adjusting the viewing angle and the direction of the output light to obtain a high level of contrast of the display image.

17. The device of claim 13, wherein the back substrate or the face substrate includes a monochromic, multi-color or R, G, B color filter array deposited on the internal surface or the outside surface, to obtain the monochromic, multi-color or full-color displays.

18. The device of claim 13, wherein the parallel light backlight comprises a diffusing flat light source, and a holographic film to convert diffusing light into parallel light.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein the diffusing flat light source includes R, G, B cold cathodes or hot cathode fluorescent lamps for the generation of red, green and blue pulse light sequentially in response to display signals so as to generate a full-color image without color filter.

20. The device of claim 13, wherein the parallel light backlight further comprises an optional optical fiber plate to convert the diffusing light to the parallel light.

21. The device of claim 13, wherein the apertures have sizes in a range from 1/100 to 1/2 of the pixel pitch to increase the contrast of the display image.

22. The device of claim 13, wherein the distance between the said scattering LCD and the said aperture is in a range from 1/10 to 100 times of the pixel pitch to increase the contrast of the display image.

23. The device of claim 13, wherein the backlight further comprises of a point light source and a parabolic or elliptical reflector and/or a Fresno lens or a lens plate, and IR, UV absorbing plate.

24. The device of claim 13, wherein the backlight further comprises of a line light source and a parabolic or elliptical cylindrical reflector and/or a Fresnal lens or a lens plate and a series of slit apertures, which are paralleled with the line light sources.

25. The device of claim 13, wherein the backlight comprises a high intensity point light source and a series of optical fibers, to generate the parallel light.

26. The device of claim 13, wherein the backlight comprises several light sources and a brightness auto-adjust circuit for adjusting the brightness uniformity.

27. The device of claim 13, wherein the backlight further comprises R, G, B line light sources each line light source corresponding to a pixel line of pixel dots for providing a line of image dots in the large screen or mosaic super large screen full-color display.

28. A method of achieving high brightness and high efficiency color display without color filter, employing a device comprising:

an OAM-LCD divided into groups of lines, said OAM-LCD including an active-matrix circuit on an outside surface for driving the lines;

a backlight comprises a R, G, B color sequential pulse light source;

said method comprising;

(a) applying electrical signals to said circuit to sequentially address each of the lines in a group to cause LCD cells in each line to reach transmission saturation state;

(b) causing one of R, G or B color light to be emitted by the source and passed through a line when LCD cells in such line reaches transmission saturation state to generate an image of said one of the colors;

(c) repeating steps (a), (b) for generating images of the remaining two colors of R, G, or B color light; and

(d) repeating steps (a), (b), (c) in order to provide a full color image.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the LCD is a PDLCD said method further comprising modulating the intensity of the output light by analogy or digital derived according to data signal.

30. A mosaic OAM-LCD, used for assembling a large screen or super large screen display, comprising:

an array of OAM-LCDs, used for assembling the large screen or super large screen display, each OAM-LCD comprising;

a parallel light backlight;

an LCD with a layer of LC cells, an outside-active-matrix and conductive leads for driving the LCD cells;

a projection lens array having a series of projection lenses, each projection lens comprising one or more lenses;

a black aperture array plate, said lenses focusing light from said backlight towards the LC cells and apertures in the aperture array plate;

means for assembling said array to form a large screen or super large screen display.

31. The device of claim 30, wherein the projection lens array plate and/or face plate can be no used to further comprising a face plate for an assembled mosaic display screen.

32. The device of claim 30, wherein the array of OAM-LCDs share a continuous face plate and/or a continuous aperture plate for an assembled mosaic display screen.

33. An outside-active-matrix LCD (OAM-LCD), comprising:

a first and a second transparent substrate placed alongside and spaced apart from each other, the two substrates having internal surfaces facing each other and outside surfaces, the outside surface of each substrate being on the other side of such substrate from its internal surface;

a liquid crystal (LC) layer between the two substrates;

a first array of one or more transparent electrodes between the internal surface of the first substrate and the LC layer;

a second separated electrode array between the LC layer and the internal surface of said second substrate, one of or the two arrays forming a display matrix;

an active matrix circuit at or near the outside surface of the second substrate;

means for electrically connecting at least some of the electrodes in the second array to said active matrix circuit;

means for applying electrical potentials to the two arrays to drive the LCD by means of said active matrix circuit.

34. The device of claim 33, said electrically connecting means including conductive leads, each of at least some of said conductive leads electrically connecting a corresponding electrode in the second array to the circuit.

35. The device of claim 33, said second array being an array of dot electrodes.

36. The device of claim 33, wherein the outside-active-matrix circuit comprises components operable in a voltage range up to about 500 volts.

37. The device of claim 33, wherein said electrically connecting means includes a single layer or a multi-layer of PCB connecting the electrodes of the second array and the circuit.

38. The device of claim 33, wherein the first or the second substrate includes a filter array to obtain a multi-color or a full-color display.

39. The device of claim 33, wherein the first and/or the second substrates further comprises a polarizer facing its outside surface.

40. The device of claim 33, said second array of separated electrodes having light reflective surfaces.

41. The device of claim 40, wherein the reflective electrodes have a monochromic or a multi-color or R, G, B fluorescent material to obtain a higher contrast monochromic or multi-color or full-color display.

42. The device of claim 33, wherein said second array of the electrodes are transparent electrodes, said device further comprising a reflective plate facing the outside surface of the second substrate to reflect incident light towards the LC layer.

43. The device of claim 33, said LC layer being substantially transparent when the applying means causes the circuit and the two arrays to apply an ON signal to the layer, and said LC layer being substantially opaque because of light scattering in the layer when the applying means causes the circuit and the two arrays to apply an OFF signal to the layer, said device being a scattering LCD, said device further comprising:

a parallel light backlight to emit parallel incident light towards the outside surface of the first substrate;

a black aperture plate having an array of apertures for controlling light from the backlight through the LC layer; and

at least one focusing lens array between the backlight and the aperture array plate and having a series of focusing lens, each focusing lens comprising one or more lenses for focusing said parallel incident light emitted from said backlight through the LC layer when it is transparent and through the apertures along paths unimpeded by the circuit.

44. The device of claim 43, further comprising a face plate located at the front of the aperture array plate having some optical structure for adjusting the viewing angle and the direction of the output light and for obtaining the high brightness and high contrast of the display image.

45. The device of claim 43, further comprising means for modulating the intensity of the output light according to the data signal and to display the image, using the ON state and OFF state.

46. The device of claim 43, said lenses focusing light from the backlight on the outside surface of said second substrate to form a series of focus points by said focusing lens array.

47. The device of claim 46, said circuit comprising components on the outside surface of said second substrate between focus points.

48. The device of claim 46, further comprising a second focusing lens array having an array of focusing lenses, each focusing lens of the second array comprises one or more lenses for focusing the light from said focus points along said paths towards the apertures.

49. The device of claim 46, said circuit comprising components on the outside surface of said second substrate, said first substrate defining therein an array of chambers between focus points to hold the components.

50. The device of claim 43, said circuit comprising components on the outside surface of said second substrate, said electrically connecting means comprising conductive leads each connecting a component to a separated electrode in the second electrode array.

51. The device of claim 43, said second electrode array including an array of dot electrodes, wherein for at least some dot electrodes, each dot electrode is aligned with a focusing lens and an aperture along one of said paths for displaying one image dot.

52. The device of claim 33, wherein the scattering LCD is a Polymer Dispersed LCD ("PDLCD").

53. The device of claim 33, wherein the scattering LCD layer includes a black dye to decrease the scattering light intensity of the scattering state of the LCD, and to increase the contrast of the display.

54. The device of claim 33, wherein the face plate includes a holographic film or a lens array for adjusting the viewing angle and the direction of the output light to obtain a high level of contrast of the display image.

55. The device of claim 33, wherein the back substrate or the face substrate includes a monochromic, multi-color or R, G, B color filter array deposited on the internal surface or the outside surface, to obtain the monochromic, multi-color or full-color displays.

56. The device of claim 33, said device including a parallel backlight that comprises a diffusing flat light source, and a holographic film to convert diffusing light into parallel light.

57. The device of claim 56, wherein the diffusing flat light source includes R, G, B cold cathode or hot cathode fluorescent lamps for the generation of red, green and blue pulse light sequentially in response to display signals so as to generate a full-color image without color filter.

58. The device of claim 33, said device including a parallel backlight that comprises an optional optical fiber plate to convert the diffusing light to the parallel light.

59. The device of claim 33, said device further comprising an aperture plate between the LC layer and the second substrate, wherein the aperture sizes in a range from 1/100 to 1/2 of the pixel pitch to increase the contrast of the display image.

60. The device of claim 33, said device further comprising an aperture plate between the LC layer and the second substrate, wherein the distance between the LC layer and the said aperture plate is in a range from 1/10 to 100 times of the pixel pitch to increase the contrast of the display image.

61. An outside-active-matrix LCD (OAM-LCD), comprising:

a first and a second transparent substrate placed alongside and spaced apart from each other, the two substrates having internal surfaces facing each other and outside surfaces, the outside surface of each substrate being on the other side of such substrate from its internal surface;

a liquid crystal (LC) layer between the two substrates;

at least one focusing lens array having a series of focusing lens, each focusing lens comprising one or more lenses for focusing parallel incident light from a backlight source toward the device through the LC layer when it is transparent, said lenses focusing light from the backlight on the outside surface of said second substrate to form a series of focus points by said focusing lens array;

an active matrix circuit at or near the outside surface of the second substrate, said circuit comprising components on the outside surface of said second substrate between focus points.

62. The device of claim 61, said circuit comprising components on the outside surface of said second substrate, said first substrate defining therein an array of chambers between focus points to hold the components.