Liquid crystal display

• US 6,900,863 B2
• Filed: 06/24/2002
• Issued: 05/31/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Okamoto, Masayuki, Mitsui, Seiichi, Hiraki, Hajime
• Primary Examiner(s): Chowdhury, Tarifur R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): DUONG, TAI V
• Application Number:
  US10/177,149
• Publication Number:
  US 20030067570A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,072 Days
• Field of Search: 349/113, 349/114, 349/106, 349/129, 349/130, 349/180, 349/61, 349/117, 349/119, 349/128, 349/141, 349/165, 349/191
• US Class Current: 349/114
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133371 Cells with varying thickness of the liquid crystal layer
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133514 Colour filters
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133555 Transflectors
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133638 Waveplates, i.e. plates with a retardation value of lambda/n
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133753 with different alignment orientations or pretilt angles on a same surface, e.g. for grey scale or improved viewing angle
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 2202/04 dye

Abstract

A liquid crystal display is furnished with: a liquid crystal display element having a pair of substrates, to which alignment members are provided to their respective opposing surfaces, and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched by the pair of substrates; an alignment mechanism for providing at least two different director configurations simultaneously on different arbitrary regions used for display in the liquid crystal layer; and a reflection film provided to at least one of the different arbitrary regions showing different director configurations; wherein the different arbitrary regions showing different director configurations are used for a reflection display section for showing reflection display and a transmission display section for showing transmission display, respectively. Examples of the alignment mechanism include an alignment film to which the alignment treatment is applied in different orientations in the reflection display section and transmission display section, respectively, an insulation film having different film thicknesses in the reflection display section and transmission display section, and so forth.

Claims

1. A liquid crystal display including a liquid crystal display element having:

a pair of oppositely positioned substrates; and

a liquid crystal layer sandwiched by the pair of substrates,

the liquid crystal display comprising a reflection display section and a transmission display section, wherein

an area of the reflection display section accounts for 30% or more and 90% or less of a total of areas of the reflection display section and the transmission display section,

an alignment mechanism for providing at least two different director configurations simultaneously on different arbitrary regions used for display in the liquid crystal layer, wherein

reflecting means is provided to at least one of the different arbitrary regions showing different director configurations in the liquid crystal layer; and

the different arbitrary regions showing different director configurations are used for the reflection display section for reflective display and the transmission display section for transmission display respectively.

2. The liquid crystal display of claim 1, wherein

when the transmission display section shows light display, the reflection display section also shows light display, and when the transmission display section shows dark display, the reflection display section also shows dark display.

3. The liquid crystal display of claim 1, wherein

the liquid crystal layer is thinner in the reflection display section than in the transmission display section.

4. The liquid crystal display of claim 1, further comprising a polarization plate provided to at least one of the pair of substrates on a surface which does not touch the liquid crystal layer.

5. The liquid crystal display of claim 1, wherein

at least one of the pair of substrates includes a vertical aligning alignment film on a surface touching the liquid crystal layer at a region corresponding to at least one of the reflection display section and the transmission display section.

6. The liquid crystal display of claim 1, wherein

a color filter having a transmission color is provided in at least a region corresponding to the reflection display section among regions constituting a display region of each pixel in one of the pair of substrates.

7. The liquid crystal display of claim 1, wherein

the reflection display section has reflecting means having protrusion and depressions provided thereon.

8. A liquid crystal display including a liquid crystal display element having:

a pair of oppositely positioned substrates; and

a liquid crystal layer sandwiched by the pair of substrates,

the liquid crystal display comprising a reflection display section and a transmission display section, wherein

an area of the reflection display section accounts for 30% or more and 90% or less of a total of areas of the reflection display section and the transmission display section, wherein

the liquid crystal layer is thinner in the reflection display section than in the transmission display section,

the liquid crystal layer is aligned with a twist between the pair of substrates at a twist angle in a range between 60 and 100°

inclusive, and wherein

when the transmission display section shows light display, the reflection display section also shows light display, and when the transmission display section shows dark display, the reflection display section also shows dark display.

9. A liquid crystal display including a liquid crystal display element having:

a pair of oppositely positioned substrates; and

a liquid crystal layer sandwiched by the pair of substrates,

the liquid crystal display comprising a reflection display section and a transmission display section, wherein

an area of the reflection display section accounts for 30% or more and 90% or less of a total of areas of the reflection display section and the transmission display section,

a polarization plate provided to at least one of the pair of substrates on a surface which does not touch the liquid crystal layer, wherein

the liquid crystal layer is aligned with a twist between the pair of substrates at a twist angle in a range between 60° and

100°

inclusive.

10. A liquid crystal display including a liquid crystal display element having:

a pair of oppositely positioned substrates; and

a liquid crystal layer sandwiched by the pair of substrates,

the liquid crystal display comprising a reflection display section and a transmission display section, wherein

an area of the reflection display section accounts for 30% or more and 90% or less of a total of areas of the reflection display section and the transmission display section, and

a polarization plate provided to at least one of the pair of substrates on a surface which does not touch the liquid crystal layer, wherein

the liquid crystal layer is aligned with a twist between the pair of substrates at a twist angle in a range between 0° and

40°

inclusive.

11. The liquid crystal display of claim 10, wherein

the liquid crystal layer is aligned with a twist between the pair of substrates at a twist angle of 0′

.

12. A liquid crystal display including a liquid crystal display element having:

a pair of oppositely positioned substrates; and

a liquid crystal layer sandwiched by the pair of substrates,

the liquid crystal display comprising a reflection display section and a transmission display section, wherein

an area of the reflection display section accounts for 30% or more and 90% or less of a total of areas of the reflection display section and the transmission display section, wherein;

a color filter having a transmission color is provided in a region corresponding to the transmission display section among regions constituting a display region of each pixel in one of the pair of substrates; and

a color filter having the same brightness as the color filter provided in a region corresponding to the transmission display section of the substrate is provided in at least part of a region corresponding to the reflection display section among regions constituting the display region.

13. The liquid crystal display of claim 12, wherein

the liquid crystal layer is thinner in the reflection display section than in the transmission display section.

14. The liquid crystal display of claim 12, wherein

the reflection display section has reflecting means having protrusion and depressions provided thereon.

15. A liquid crystal display including a liquid crystal display element having:

a pair of oppositely positioned substrates; and

a liquid crystal layer sandwiched by the pair of substrates,

the liquid crystal display comprising a reflection display section and a transmission display section, wherein

an area of the reflection display section accounts for 30% or more and 90% or less of a total of areas of the reflection display section and the transmission display section, wherein

a color filter having a transmission color is provided in a region corresponding to the transmission display section among regions constituting a display region of each pixel in one of the pair of substrates; and

a color filter having a transmission color brighter than the color filter provided in a region corresponding to the transmission display section of the substrate is provided in at least a part of a region corresponding to the reflection display section among regions constituting the display region.

16. A liquid crystal display including a liquid crystal display element having:

a pair of oppositely positioned substrates; and

a liquid crystal layer sandwiched by the pair of substrates,

the liquid crystal display comprising a reflection display section and a transmission display section, wherein

an area of the reflection display section accounts for 30% or more and 90% or less of a total of areas of the reflection display section and the transmission display section, wherein

a color filter having a transmission color is provided in at least a region corresponding to the transmission display section among regions constituting a display region of each pixel in one of the pair of substrates; and

an area of a portion of the reflection display section where a color filter is not provided is specified in accordance with a luminous transmittance of the transmission color of the color filter.

17. A liquid crystal display including a liquid crystal display element having:

a pair of oppositely positioned substrates; and

a liquid crystal layer sandwiched by the pair of substrates,

the liquid crystal display comprising a reflection display section and a transmission display section, wherein

an area of the reflection display section accounts for 30% or more and 90% or less of a total of areas of the reflection display section and the transmission display section, wherein

a color filter having a transmission color is provided in at least a region corresponding to the reflection display section among regions constituting a display region of each pixel in one of the pair of substrates, and wherein

an area of a portion of the transmission display section where a color filter is not provided is specified in accordance with a luminous transmittance of the transmission color of the color filter.

18. The liquid crystal display of claim 17, wherein

the liquid crystal layer is thinner in the reflection display section than in the transmission display section.

19. The liquid crystal display of claim 17, wherein

the reflection display section has reflecting means having protrusion and depressions provided thereon.

20. A liquid crystal display including a liquid crystal display element having:

a pair of oppositely positioned substrates; and

a liquid crystal layer sandwiched by the pair of substrates,

the liquid crystal display comprising a reflection display section and a transmission display section, wherein

an area of the reflection display section accounts for 30% or more and 90% or less of a total of areas of the reflection display section and the transmission display section, wherein

a color filter having a transmission color in a region corresponding to the reflection display section among regions constituting a display region of each pixel in one of the pair of substrates; and

a color filter having a transmission color with chroma as good as or better than the chroma of that of the color filter provided in a region corresponding to the reflection display section in the substrate is provided in a at least a part of a region corresponding to the transmission display section among regions constituting the display region.

21. A liquid crystal display including a liquid crystal display element having:

a pair of oppositely positioned substrates; and

a liquid crystal layer sandwiched by the pair of substrates,

the liquid crystal display comprising a reflection display section and a transmission display section, wherein

an area of the reflection display section accounts for 30% or more and 90% or less of a total of areas of the reflection display section and the transmission display section, wherein

the liquid crystal layer is thinner in the reflection display section than in the transmission display section,

the liquid crystal layer is aligned with a twist between the pair of substrates at a twist angle in a range between 0° and

40°

inclusive, and wherein

when the transmission display section shows light display, the reflection display section also shows light display, and when the transmission display section shows dark display, the reflection display section also shows dark display.