Liquid crystal display device

• US 8,169,555 B2
• Filed: 09/18/2007
• Issued: 05/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Japan Display West Incorporated (Japan Display Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Mitsui, Masashi, Koma, Norio, Onogi, Tomohide, Segawa, Yasuo
• Primary Examiner(s): Nelms, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, SANG V
• Application Number:
  US11/902,032
• Publication Number:
  US 20080068523A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,687 Days
• Field of Search: 349/37
• US Class Current: 349/37
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133371 Cells with varying thickness of the liquid crystal layer
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133555 Transflectors
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133631 with a spatial distribution of the retardation value
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133742 for homeotropic alignment
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/134345 Subdivided pixels, e.g. for grey scale or redundancy
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/134363 for applying an electric field parallel to the substrate, i.e. in-plane switching [IPS]
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/134372 for fringe field switching [FFS] where the common electrode is not patterned
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/1393 the birefringence of the liquid crystal being electrically controlled, e.g. ECB-, DAP-, HAN-, PI-LC cells G02F1/1396, G02F1/141 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2300/0434 Flat panel display in which a field is applied parallel to the display plane
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2300/0456 with a reflective area and a transmissive area combined in one pixel, such as in transflectance pixels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2300/0491 Use of a bi-refringent liquid crystal, optically controlled bi-refringence [OCB] with bend and splay states, or electrically controlled bi-refringence [ECB] for controlling the color
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2300/0809 Several active elements per pixel in active matrix panels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3614 Control of polarity reversal in general
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3655 Details of drivers for counter electrodes, e.g. common electrodes for pixel capacitors or supplementary storage capacitors

Abstract

A liquid crystal display device includes a first substrate having a first electrode and a second electrode, a second substrate, a liquid crystal interposed between the first substrate and the second substrate, pixels each having a transmissive portion for performing a transmissive display and a reflective portion for performing a reflective display, and a driving circuit driving the pixels. Here, a third electrode is disposed in the second substrate opposed to the first substrate with the liquid crystal interposed therebetween. The first electrode is disposed in the transmissive portion along with the second electrode and is also disposed in the reflective portion along with the third electrode. The driving circuit is provided to independently apply potentials to the second electrode and the third electrode.

Claims

1. A liquid crystal display device comprising:

a first substrate;

a second substrate;

a liquid crystal interposed between the first substrate and the second substrate; and

pixels each having a transmissive portion for performing a transmissive display and a reflective portion for performing a reflective display,

wherein the first substrate includes;

a plurality of data lines and a plurality of gate lines;

a plurality of switching elements disposed to form a pair corresponding to each intersection between the plurality of data lines and the plurality of gate lines;

first electrodes disposed in the reflective portion and the transmissive portion connected to output terminals of the pair of switching elements, respectively; and

a plurality of second electrodes disposed only in the transmissive portion and driving the liquid crystal by applying an electric field between the first electrodes and the second electrodes,

wherein the second substrate includes a third electrode third electrode being disposed only in the reflective portion and driving the liquid crystal by applying an electric field between the first electrodes and the third electrode, and

wherein the potential of the second electrode and the potential of the third electrode are opposite in phase to each other; and

wherein the third electrodes in odd rows of the gate lines and the second electrodes in even rows thereof are connected as a first common electrode terminal to each terminal to each other outside the display area and the third electrodes in the even rows of the gate lines and the second electrodes in the odd rows thereof are connected as a second common electrode terminal to each other outside the display area, and

wherein the potential of the first common electrode terminal and the potential of the second common electrode terminal are opposite in phase to each other and the potential is alternated every vertical scanning period.

2. The liquid crystal display device according to claim 1, wherein the third electrodes of the gate lines are connected as a reflective-display common electrode terminal to each other outside a display area,

wherein the second electrodes of the gate lines are connected as a transmissive-display common electrode terminal to each other outside the display area, and

wherein the potential of the reflective-display common electrode terminal and the potential of the transmissive-display common electrode terminal are opposite in phase to each other and the potential is alternated every horizontal period.

3. The liquid crystal display device according to claim 2, wherein the first substrate has a reflective-display storage capacitor disposed in the reflective portion.

4. The liquid crystal display device according to claim 3, wherein the reflective-display storage capacitor has a reflective-display storage capacitor electrode that forms a storage capacitor along with the first electrode, and

wherein the potential of the reflective-display storage capacitor electrode is equal to the potential of the reflective-display common electrode terminal.

5. The liquid crystal display device according to claim 1, wherein the thickness of the liquid crystal is set so that a phase difference of the reflective portion is Δ

nd=λ

/4 and a phase difference of the transmissive portion is Δ

nd=λ

/2.