Liquid crystal display

• US 7,050,132 B2
• Filed: 02/10/2004
• Issued: 05/23/2006
• 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): Schechter, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): DUONG, TAI V
• Application Number:
  US10/774,625
• Publication Number:
  US 20040160537A1
• Time in Patent Office: 833 Days
• Field of Search: 349/106, 349/107, 349/108, 349/109, 349/113, 349/114, 359/891, 345/88
• 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 device comprising:

a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer interposed between said substrates, said device including a plurality of pixels;

at least some of said pixels each including a light reflecting display section and a light transmitting display section;

at least a portion of said light transmitting display section and at least a portion of said light reflecting display section being provided with color filters, respectively,

wherein light passing through the color filter associated with said light reflecting display section is reflected to again pass through the color filter, and light passing through the color filter associated with said light transmitting display section passes through the color filter only once, and

wherein transmittance with respect to the color filter is different between said light transmitting display section and said light reflecting display section.

2. The liquid crystal display of claim 1, wherein the transmittance of said light reflecting display sections is greater than the transmittance of said light transmitting display sections.

3. The liquid crystal display of claim 1, wherein the transmittance of said light transmitting display sections is greater than the transmittance of said light reflecting display sections.

4. The liquid crystal display of claim 2, wherein said light transmitting display sections are provided with color filters, and said light reflecting display sections are partially provided with color filters.

5. The liquid crystal display of claim 3, wherein said light reflecting display sections are provided with color filters, and said light transmitting display sections are partially provided with color filters.

6. The liquid crystal display of claim 2, wherein said light transmitting display sections are provided with color filters, said light reflecting display sections are at least partially provided with color filters, and the color filters in said light reflecting display sections have greater transmittance than the color filters in said light transmitting display sections.

7. The liquid crystal display of claim 2, wherein said light transmitting display sections are provided with color filters, said light reflecting display sections are at least partially provided with color filters, and the color filters in said light reflecting display sections have greater brightness than the color filters in said light transmitting display sections.

9. The liquid crystal display of claim 1, wherein, each of R, G, and B pixels includes said light reflecting display section and said light transmitting display section.

8. The liquid crystal display of claim 8, wherein said light reflecting display sections are provided with color filters, said light transmitting display sections are at least partially provided with color filters, and the color filters in said light transmitting display sections have greater chroma than the color filters in said light reflecting display sections.

10. A liquid crystal display device comprising:

a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer interposed between said substrates, said device including a plurality of pixels;

at least some of said pixels each including a light reflecting display section and a light transmitting display section;

wherein said light transmitting display sections are provided with color filters, and said light reflecting display sections are partially provided with color filters.

11. The liquid crystal display of claim 10, wherein the characteristics of the color filters in the light transmitting display sections are substantially the same as the characteristics of the color filters in the light reflecting display sections.

12. The liquid crystal display of claim 10, wherein the brightness of the color filters in the light reflecting display sections is at least as bright as the brightness of the color filters in the light transmitting display sections.

13. A liquid crystal display device comprising:

a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer interposed between said substrates, said device including a plurality of pixels;

at least some of said pixels each including a light reflecting display section and a light transmitting display section;

said light transmitting display sections and said light reflecting display sections comprising color filters;

wherein said color filters of said light reflecting display sections have a transmission color of different brightness than said color filters of said light transmitting display sections.

14. The liquid crystal display of claim 13, wherein said color filters of said light reflecting display sections have a transmission color of greater brightness than said color filters of said light transmitting display sections.

15. The liquid crystal display of claim 13, wherein said color filters of said light reflecting display sections encompass only a portion of said light reflecting display sections.

16. The liquid crystal display of claim 15, wherein said color filters of said light reflecting display sections have a transmission color of greater brightness than said color filters of said light transmitting display sections.

17. A liquid crystal display device comprising:

a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer interposed between said substrates, said device including a plurality of pixels;

at least some of said pixels each including a light reflecting display section and a light transmitting display section;

said light transmitting display sections and said light reflecting display sections comprising color filters;

wherein said color filters of said light transmitting display sections have a transmission color of different chroma than said color filters of said light reflecting display sections.

18. The liquid crystal display of claim 17, wherein said color filters of said light transmitting display sections have a transmission color of better chroma than said color filters of said light reflecting display sections.

19. The liquid crystal display of claim 18, wherein said color filters encompass only a portion of said light transmitting display sections.

20. A liquid crystal display device comprising:

a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer interposed between said substrates, said device including a plurality of pixels;

at least some of said pixels each including a light reflecting display section and a light transmitting display section;

said light transmitting display sections and said light reflecting display sections comprising color filters;

wherein said color filters compensate for differences in the brightness of said light transmitting display sections and said light reflecting display sections, respectively.

21. The liquid crystal display of claim 20, wherein said color filters of said light reflecting display sections have a transmission color of greater brightness than said color filters of said light transmitting display sections.

22. The liquid crystal display of claim 20, wherein said color filters of said light transmitting display sections have a transmission color of greater brightness than said color filters of said light reflecting display sections.

23. The liquid crystal display of claim 20, wherein

said color filters associated with said light reflecting display sections encompass only a portion of said light reflecting display sections;

and

said color filters associated with said light transmitting display sections encompass substantially all of said light transmitting display sections.

24. The liquid crystal display of claim 20, wherein

said color filters associated with said light transmitting display sections encompass only a portion of said light transmitting display sections;

and

said color filters associated with said light reflecting display sections encompass substantially all of said light reflecting display sections.

25. A liquid crystal display device comprising:

a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer interposed between said substrates, said device including a plurality of pixels;

at least some of said pixels each including a light reflecting display section and a light transmitting display section;

said light transmitting display sections and said light reflecting display sections comprising color filters;

wherein light passing through a color filter associated with a light reflecting display section is reflected to again pass through the color filter, and light passing through a color filter associated with a light transmitting display section passes through the color filter only once;

wherein said color filters compensate for differences in the number of times light passes through the liquid crystal layer in said light transmitting display sections and said light reflecting display sections, respectively.

26. The liquid crystal display of claim 25, wherein the color filters associated with said light transmitting display sections and said light reflecting display sections encompass differing areas of said light transmitting display sections and said light reflecting display sections, respectively.

27. The liquid crystal display of claim 26, wherein

said color filters associated with said light reflecting display sections encompass only a first portion of said light reflecting display sections;

and

said color filters associated with said light transmitting display sections encompass a relatively greater second portion of said light transmitting display sections.

28. The liquid crystal display of claim 25, wherein said color filters of said light transmitting display sections have a transmission color of different chroma than said color filters of said light reflecting display sections.

29. The liquid crystal display of claim 28, wherein said color filters of said light transmitting display sections have a transmission color of better chroma than said color filters of said light reflecting display sections.

30. The liquid crystal display of claim 25, wherein said color filters of said light reflecting display sections have a transmission color of different brightness than said color filters of said light transmitting display sections.

31. The liquid crystal display of claim 30, wherein said color filters of said light reflecting display sections have a transmission color of greater brightness than said color filters of said light transmitting display sections.

32. The liquid crystal display of claim 25, wherein said color filters compensate for differences in brightness of the display caused by differences in the number of times light passes through the liquid crystal layer in said light transmitting display sections and said light reflecting display sections, respectively.