Patents Assigned to Epson Imaging Devices Corporation
  • Publication number: 20090002294
    Abstract: A horizontal electric field-type liquid crystal display panel includes a plurality of scanning lines that are disposed parallel to each other, a common wiring, a plurality of signal lines that are disposed in a direction for intersecting the plurality of scanning lines, a switching element that is disposed near an intersection between the scanning line and the signal line, a first electrode formed in an area partitioned by the scanning line and the signal line, and a second electrode that is formed to be overlapped with the first electrode though an insulation film disposed on the first electrode and has a plurality of slits in the shape of a stripe. A shield electrode formed of a conductive material is formed on the surface of the insulation film disposed on the scanning line, and the shield electrode is connected to the common wiring through a contact hole formed on the common wiring.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 15, 2008
    Publication date: January 1, 2009
    Applicant: Epson Imaging Devices Corporation
    Inventors: Masahiro HORIGUCHI, Hideki KANEKO
  • Publication number: 20090004408
    Abstract: An electro-optical device is provided which includes an electro-optical panel; and a metal frame configured to accommodate the electro-optical panel therein. The metal frame includes a plurality of side walls and corner portions provided between the side walls. A distal end of at least a portion of at least one of the side walls has a folding portion having a structure that inner surfaces are opposed to each other. At least one of the corner portions adjacent to the side wall having the folding portion has a seamless curved shape.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 26, 2008
    Publication date: January 1, 2009
    Applicant: EPSON IMAGING DEVICES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Daisuke NAKANISHI, Yasunori ONISHI, Naruo HASHINO
  • Publication number: 20090002623
    Abstract: An electro-optic device includes a pixel section and a terminal section through which a semiconductor circuit or a wiring board is mounted around the pixel section. The terminal section has a multilayer structure including a terminal connection wire including an uppermost layer containing titanium, a terminal interlayer made of an electroconductive material capable of being wet-etched, and a terminal transparent electroconductive film in that order from below.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 27, 2008
    Publication date: January 1, 2009
    Applicant: EPSON IMAGING DEVICES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Nobuhiko ODA, Satoshi ISHIDA, Masaaki AOTA, Tomoyasu HIRATA, Kazuyoshi SAKAI, Kosuke TAKASU
  • Publication number: 20090002930
    Abstract: An electro-optic device includes: an electro-optic panel; a panel supporting member for supporting the electro-optic panel from one of front side and back side of the electro-optic panel; a mounted member to be mounted to the panel supporting member from the other one of the front side and the back side. The electro-optic panel includes at least two outer edges opposing to each other in plan view; and the mounted member includes a pair of panel positioning guides for guiding the electro-optic panel by guiding the two outer edges respectively.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 20, 2008
    Publication date: January 1, 2009
    Applicant: Epson Imaging Devices Corporation
    Inventors: Daisuke NAKANISHI, Yasunori Onishi
  • Publication number: 20080316399
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display includes an element substrate, pixel electrodes and a common electrode that are formed on the element substrate, a counter substrate, a liquid crystal layer that is formed between the counter substrate and the element substrate, first and second polarizing plates that are provided on an emitting side of display light and an opposite side, respectively, and a retardation film that is provided in a reflective region to be disposed between the liquid crystal layer and the first polarizing plate. Each pixel has a transmissive region where transmissive display light is emitted and a reflective region where reflective display light is emitted. The retardation of the retardation film has smaller temperature dependency than the retardation of the liquid crystal layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 23, 2008
    Publication date: December 25, 2008
    Applicant: EPSON IMAGING DEVICES CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hiroshi WADA
  • Publication number: 20080311817
    Abstract: A display device includes a pair of glass substrates. On the side of each of the pair of glass substrates, a press mark is formed between a first end of each of the pair of glass substrates and a position at least 0.3 mm but no more than 3 mm away from the first end, another press mark is formed between a second end of each of the pair of glass substrates and a position at least 0.3 mm but no more than 3 mm away from the second end, a scribing groove having a predetermined scribing amount is formed between the press marks, and there are rib marks in the scribing groove.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 17, 2008
    Publication date: December 18, 2008
    Applicant: EPSON IMAGING DEVICES CORPORATION
    Inventor: Satoru KAWAMOTO
  • Publication number: 20080309304
    Abstract: The electro-optical device is directly connected to a battery and includes a display panel, a driver, and a voltage adjusting circuit. The driver amplifies an input voltage and supplies the amplified voltage to the display panel. The voltage adjusting circuit includes a plurality of conversion circuits, a switching unit, and a control circuit. The plurality of conversion circuits convert a voltage input from the battery into different voltages and supply the converted voltages to the driver. The switching unit performs switching for supplying the voltage to one of the plurality of conversion circuits. The control circuit controls the switching unit to switch the conversion circuit that supplies the voltage input from the battery when it is detected that a voltage gain of the driver has changed. Thus, the power consumption can be reduced without having an adverse effect on image display.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 17, 2008
    Publication date: December 18, 2008
    Applicant: EPSON IMAGING DEVICES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Fusashi Kimura, Masaki Takahashi, Atsunari Tsuda
  • Publication number: 20080309850
    Abstract: The invention is directed to a higher contrast in a display device having a lighting device as a front light. A lighting portion is attached to a reflective liquid crystal display portion. A first transparent substrate and a second transparent substrate made of a glass substrate etc. are attached to each other with a sealing layer coated on those peripheral portions therebetween. The back surface of the first transparent substrate is attached to the reflective liquid crystal display portion, and an organic EL element is formed on the front surface of the first transparent substrate. The organic EL element is sealed in a space surrounded by the first transparent substrate, the second transparent substrate, and the sealing layer. The organic EL element is formed in a region corresponding to a pixel region of the reflective liquid crystal display portion. A desiccant layer is formed on the front surface of the second transparent substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 26, 2008
    Publication date: December 18, 2008
    Applicants: SANYO ELECTRIC CO., LTD., Epson Imaging Devices Corporation
    Inventors: Kenji TANASE, Kazunobu MAMENO, Norio KOMA, Manabu TAKEMOTO
  • Publication number: 20080309635
    Abstract: A capacitive input device includes a translucent substrate; first translucent electrode lines, extending in a first direction; second translucent electrode lines, extending in a second direction intersecting with the first direction; interlayer insulating layers; and relay electrodes. The first translucent electrode lines intersect with the second translucent electrode lines at intersecting portions. Portions of one of each first translucent electrode line and each second translucent electrode line are connected to each other with the intersecting portions. Portions of the other are separated from each other with the intersecting portions. The translucent interlayer insulating layers overlie the first or second translucent electrode line portions connected to each other with the intersecting portions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2008
    Publication date: December 18, 2008
    Applicant: EPSON IMAGING DEVICES CORPORATION
    Inventor: Mutsumi MATSUO
  • Patent number: 7466371
    Abstract: The invention is directed to narrowing a frame of a liquid crystal display device including a display pixel region and a dummy pixel region adjacent thereto. The display pixel region including a plurality of pixels each having a pixel selection TFT and a pixel electrode connected thereto is formed on a first substrate. The dummy pixel region including a plurality of dummy pixels each having a pixel selection TFT and a pixel electrode connected thereto and shielded from light by a black matrix is formed adjacent to the display pixel region. A driving TFT, that is, a sampling TFT is further formed being superposed on the pixel electrode of the dummy pixel. That is, the pixel electrode of the dummy pixel is superposed on at least a portion of a channel region of the sampling TFT with a planarization insulation film interposed therebetween.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2008
    Assignee: Epson Imaging Devices Corporation
    Inventor: Hiroshi Matsuda
  • Publication number: 20080303988
    Abstract: The transmission axis of the first polarizing plate is approximately perpendicular to an initial alignment axis of liquid crystal molecules of a liquid crystal layer of the liquid crystal panel. The first and second phase difference layers are optically positive uniaxial. The first phase difference layer has a first phase-lag axis that is approximately parallel to a surface of the first phase difference layer and is approximately perpendicular to the initial alignment axis, and the second phase difference layer has a second phase-lag axis that is approximately perpendicular to the surface of the second phase difference layer. The relationship between a phase difference value Ra of the first phase difference layer and a phase difference value Rc of the second phase difference layer satisfies “105 [nm]?Ra?165 [nm]” and “55 [nm]?Rc?115 [nm]”.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 10, 2008
    Publication date: December 11, 2008
    Applicant: EPSON IMAGING DEVICES CORPORATION
    Inventor: Toshiharu MATSUSHIMA
  • Publication number: 20080303983
    Abstract: The invention is directed to a higher contrast in a display device having a lighting device as a front light. A lighting portion is attached to a reflective liquid crystal display portion. A first transparent substrate and a second transparent substrate made of a glass substrate etc. are attached to each other with a sealing layer coated on those peripheral portions therebetween. The back surface of the first transparent substrate is attached to the reflective liquid crystal display portion, and an organic EL element is formed on the front surface of the first transparent substrate. The organic EL element is sealed in a space surrounded by the first transparent substrate, the second transparent substrate, and the sealing layer. The organic EL element is formed in a region corresponding to a pixel region of the reflective liquid crystal display portion. A desiccant layer is formed on the front surface of the second transparent substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 13, 2008
    Publication date: December 11, 2008
    Applicants: SANYO ELECTRIC CO., LTD., EPSON IMAGING DEVICES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kenji TANASE, Kazunobu MAMENO, Norio KOMA, Manabu TAKEMOTO
  • Publication number: 20080297466
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a liquid crystal display panel, an illumination unit for the liquid crystal display panel, a plurality of photodetectors, and a control unit Cnt to control the brightness of the illumination unit. The photodetectors are TFT ambient light photosensors LS1 to LS3, for example, which produce outputs that require time to reach a predetermined value, which the time is correlated with the intensity of ambient light. Detection circuits coupled to the photodetectors include circuits (Cmp1 to Cmp3) logically inverted when an output from the TFT ambient light photosensors LS1 to LS3 reaches a predetermined value. The control unit Cnt includes a discrimination implement Maj that determines that the intensity of ambient light has changed when outputs from the majority of the detection circuits are logically inverted.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 28, 2008
    Publication date: December 4, 2008
    Applicant: EPSON IMAGING DEVICES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takashi KUNIMORI, Yasushi YAMAZAKI, Masanori YASUMORI
  • Patent number: 7459753
    Abstract: An electro-optical device includes a substrate having a display region; TFTs each including a first electrode in the display region, a first insulating layer on the first electrode, a second electrode on the first insulating layer, and a second insulating layer on the second electrode; and terminals each including a first metal on a protruding section extending from the display region, which is located at the same level and made of the same metal as the first electrode, a second metal which is located at the same level and made of the same metal as the second electrode, and which partly overlaps the first metal in plan view, and a portion of the first insulating layer. The first insulating layer separates the first and second metals and the first metal is electrically connected to the first electrode or the second metal is electrically connected to the second electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2008
    Assignee: Epson Imaging Devices Corporation
    Inventors: Masahiro Horiguchi, Hideki Kaneko
  • Publication number: 20080291363
    Abstract: An electro-optic device includes a light source, a light guide panel configured to output light beams emitted from the light source through a light exit plane; a display panel illuminated by the light beams outputted from the light exit plane of the light guide panel passing therethrough; a prism sheet provided between the light guide panel and the display panel and formed with prisms having a triangular cross-section on a surface on the side of the display panel; and a light diffusing member provided between the light guide panel and the prism sheet. The prisms each having a ridge line extending substantially vertically to the direction of emission of the light beam emitted from the light source, and an apex angle is set to a range from 60° to 70°.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 20, 2007
    Publication date: November 27, 2008
    Applicant: EPSON IMAGING DEVICES CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yasunori ONISHI
  • Publication number: 20080291223
    Abstract: A driving circuit of an electro-optical device includes scanning lines, data lines, capacitor lines respectively corresponding to the scanning lines, and pixels provided at intersections of the scanning lines and the data lines. The driving circuit includes a scanning line driving circuit that selects the scanning lines in a predetermined order and a capacitor line driving circuit that selects a first power supply line when a first scanning line is selected and selects a second power supply line when a second scanning line that is spaced predetermined lines away from the first scanning line is selected until the first scanning line is selected again to thereby apply a voltage of the selected one of the power supply lines to the capacitor line, the capacitor line driving circuit applying the voltage of the second power supply line to all the capacitor lines when all the scanning lines are not selected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 15, 2008
    Publication date: November 27, 2008
    Applicant: EPSON IMAGING DEVICES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Katsunori YAMAZAKI, Koji SHIMIZU
  • Publication number: 20080284962
    Abstract: A transverse field type liquid crystal display panel has multiple scan lines 12 and common wires 13 provided in parallel, multiple signal lines 17 provided in the direction crossing the scan lines 12, and common electrodes 14 and pixel electrodes 21 formed in the regions delimited by the multiple scan lines 12 and signal lines 17. At least part of the surface of an insulator laid over the scan lines 17 is covered by shield electrodes 22 constituted of a conductive material. Thanks to such structure, there can be provided a transverse field type—that is, an IPS mode or FFS mode—liquid crystal display panel that is equipped with a device for preventing burn-in due to the voltage that is applied to the scan lines.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 8, 2007
    Publication date: November 20, 2008
    Applicant: EPSON IMAGING DEVICES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masahiro HORIGUCHI, Hideki KANEKO, Hidetoshi MURAI, Hayato KURASAWA, Yasuo SEGAWA
  • Publication number: 20080278667
    Abstract: A display device includes an active matrix circuit for display, a plurality of bus lines which are connected to the active matrix circuit and which are used to transmit driving signals, driving circuits which supply the driving signals to the plurality of bus lines, the plurality of bus lines and the driving circuits being arranged on a substrate, and optical sensors arranged on the substrate. The optical sensors are arranged in a plurality of sub regions separated using the plurality of bus lines. The plurality of sub regions are arranged between the active matrix circuit and each of the driving circuits.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 8, 2008
    Publication date: November 13, 2008
    Applicant: EPSON IMAGING DEVICES CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yutaka KOBASHI
  • Publication number: 20080273152
    Abstract: In a transflective type liquid crystal display device of an FFS system, a plurality of pixels has a transmissive display area for emitting transmissive display light and a reflective display area for emitting reflective display light, and the reflective display area is equipped with a retardation layer. Polarization axes of polarizers are perpendicular to each other and an alignment direction of the liquid crystal layer is parallel to or perpendicular to the polarization axis of the first polarizer. The angle of a slow axis of the retardation layer is not less than 20° and not more than 25° or not less than 60° and not more than 75° with respect to the polarization axis of the first polarizer. A retardation value of the liquid crystal layer in the reflective area exceeds a quarter wavelength, and a retardation value of the retardation layer exceeds a half wavelength.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 22, 2008
    Publication date: November 6, 2008
    Applicant: EPSON IMAGING DEVICES CORPORATION
    Inventor: Toshiharu MATSUSHIMA
  • Patent number: 7446845
    Abstract: The occurrence of the poor electric connection between the outer circuit and the liquid crystal display device can be reduced in the manufacturing method of the outer circuit and liquid display device of this invention. The liquid crystal display device has the pixel region 100P and the outer connection region 107. There are the gate metal layer 15 disposed on the gate insulating film 12, the interlayer insulating film 16 covering the gate metal layer 15, the first conductive layer 19 covering the gate metal layer 15 located on the interlayer insulating film 16, the passivation film 20 with the second opening 22 exposing the part of the first conductive layer 19 that covers the gate metal layer 15, and the second conductive layer 26 covering the first conductive layer 19 exposed from the second opening 22 in the outer connection region. The metal bump 50 of the outer circuit is connected on the second conductive layer 26 through thermal pressure treatment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2008
    Assignee: Epson Imaging Devices Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroshi Matsuda, Hideki Kawada