Patents Examined by Charles Chang
  • Patent number: 9645451
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display device using a liquid crystal exhibiting a blue phase and having a novel structure, and a method for manufacturing the liquid crystal display device. A plurality of structure bodies (also referred to as ribs, protrusions, or projecting portions) are formed over the same substrate, and a pixel electrode and an electrode (a common electrode at a fixed potential) corresponding to the pixel electrode are formed thereover. An electric field is applied to the liquid crystal layer exhibiting a blue phase by using the pixel electrode that has an inclination and the electrode corresponding to the pixel electrode, which also has an inclination. A shorter distance between the adjacent structure bodies allows a strong electric field to be applied to the liquid crystal layer, which results in a reduction in power consumption for driving the liquid crystal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2017
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Daisuke Kubota, Akio Yamashita, Tetsuji Ishitani, Tomohiro Tamura
  • Patent number: 9638960
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display device according to the present invention has a display area that includes a plurality of pixels (Px). The display area is made up of n kinds of domains (where n is an integer that is equal to or greater than two and equal to or smaller than four). The directors of the n kinds of domains define mutually different alignment directions. If the domain structure of each pixel (Px) is defined by the kinds of the domains that form the pixel (Px), the number k of the kinds of the domains that form the pixel (Px), and the arrangement of the domains in the pixel (Px), the display area includes a pixel, of which k is less than n and of which the domain structure is different from the domain structures of adjacent pixels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2017
    Assignee: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Isamu Miyake, Tomohiko Mori, Iichiroh Inoue
  • Patent number: 9632348
    Abstract: A pixel array is disposed on a first substrate and comprises a pixel having a first electrode layer including a plurality of electrode portions. A light-blocking layer is disposed on a second substrate along a first direction and includes a first and second light-blocking portions. The first electrode layer is between the first and second light-blocking portions. The first light-blocking portion has a first edge away from the first electrode layer, and the electrode portions include a first electrode portion adjacent to the first light-blocking portion. A brightness distribution of the pixel along the first direction has a first maximum brightness corresponding to a first position on the second substrate. PTB denotes the minimum width from the first position to the first edge, Px denotes the width of the pixel along the first direction, conforming to the following equation: 3.9 + 77.1 ? ? - Px 2.7 + 4.5 ? ? - Px 34.3 + 0.5 - Px 0.1 ? P ? ? T ? ? B ? 8.9 + 77.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2017
    Assignee: INNOLUX CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yu-Lun Hsu, Yi-Chin Lee, Chao-Hsiang Wang, An-Chang Wang
  • Patent number: 9635787
    Abstract: Disclosed is a display device that includes a display panel and a multi-layered panel provided adjacent the display panel. The multi-layered panel may include a front plate located toward the display panel, a rear plate provided parallel to the front plate, and a honeycomb mesh interposed between the front plate and the rear plate. The honeycomb mesh may have a plurality of hexagonal cells. A metal plate may be coupled to a rear surface of the multi-layered panel and a drive board may be seated on the metal plate. At least one of the front plate or the rear plate may include at least one opening that extends parallel to a shorter side of the display device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2017
    Assignee: LG ELECTRONICS INC.
    Inventors: Seunghyun Yun, Jaewook Kwon, Yongseong Kim, Woohyuk Choi, Inkeun Ryu
  • Patent number: 9632356
    Abstract: Reflection plate, backlight unit and liquid crystal display are provided. In one aspect, there is provided a reflection plate comprising a bottom portion and a side wall portion that extends from circumferences of the bottom portion, wherein an upper surface of the bottom portion includes a diffusion reflection surface and an inner surface of the side wall portion includes a mirror reflection surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2017
    Assignee: Samsung Display Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kyung Min Kim, Byung Seo Yoon, Hee Kwang Song
  • Patent number: 9625729
    Abstract: A liquid crystal lens includes a lower substrate, an upper substrate disposed opposite to the lower substrate, a plurality of lower lens electrodes disposed on the lower substrate and corresponding to a unit liquid crystal lens, an upper lens electrode disposed on substantially an entire surface of the upper substrate, a spacer disposed between the lower substrate and the upper substrate, and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the lower substrate and the upper substrate, where the lower lens electrodes includes a flat-shaped central lens electrode disposed at a central portion thereof and has a width wider than a width of other lower lens electrodes corresponding to the unit liquid crystal lens, and the spacer is disposed only on the central lens electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2017
    Assignee: SAMSUNG DISPLAY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Soo Hee Oh
  • Patent number: 9625756
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display includes first and second insulating substrates facing to each other, and a plurality of pixels comprising a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns and divided into a first pixel group comprising only the pixels on a first row and a second pixel group comprising each of the remaining pixels on second to last rows. The pixels of the first pixel group have a first opening ratio, and the pixels of the second pixel group have a second opening ratio different from the first opening ratio. The first opening ratio is smaller than the second opening ratio, and the first opening ratio is about 60% to about 80% of the second opening ratio; and the pixels of the first pixel group but not the pixels of the second pixel group have a light interception pattern in an opening portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2017
    Assignee: Samsung Display Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Dong-Gyu Kim
  • Patent number: 9618800
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides a method for producing spacers in a liquid crystal panel, comprising: (a) exposing a material layer adjacent to a side of a thin film transistor substrate of said liquid crystal panel by a mask with a pre-set pattern, in order to form a groove in said material layer, wherein the exposure energy of said exposure ranges from 10 to 100 mJ/cm2; (b) forming a main spacer and a side spacer in an opposite substrate, wherein the height of the side spacer is higher than that of the main spacer; and (c) assembling a TFT substrate and the opposite substrate together, such that the main spacer of the opposite substrate abuts against the TFT substrate, and the side spacer extends into said groove. The present disclosure also provides a liquid crystal panel obtained by said method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2017
    Assignee: SHENZHEN CHINA STAR OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Sikun Hao, Yuzhi Wu
  • Patent number: 9618791
    Abstract: The present disclosure describes an optical stack that includes an asymmetric diffuser. As described herein, use of an asymmetric diffuser in an optical stack reduces undesirable defects in a display while maintaining optical gain and/or contrast of the display. The asymmetric diffuser is less diffusive along a first direction that is parallel with linearly extending structures of an associated light directing film.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2017
    Assignee: 3M INNOVATIVE PROPERTIES COMPANY
    Inventors: Adam D. Haag, Tri D. Pham, Steven H. C. Kong, Stephen J. Etzkorn, Robert L. Endres, Matthew B. Johnson
  • Patent number: 9614179
    Abstract: The invention discloses a display panel, a method of manufacturing the same and a display device so as to simplify a process of transmitting an electrical signal between a first substrate and a second substrate of the display panel at a lower cost. The display panel includes a first substrate and a second substrate disposed opposite to each other. The first substrate has a concave groove surrounded by a convex section and facing the second substrate. The display panel also includes an electrode layer on the surface of the groove and having at least one first conductive section extending outward from inside of the concave groove to the top end face of the convex section; and at least one second conductive section on the second substrate and electrically connected with the respective first conductive section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2017
    Assignees: SHANGHAI TIANMA AM-OLED CO., LTD., TIANMA MICRO-ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Zhiyong Xiong, Dong Qian
  • Patent number: 9612488
    Abstract: The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device by which it is possible to attain both high transmittance and wide viewing angle even if the pixels are small.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2017
    Assignee: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hiroshi Tsuchiya, Tsuyoshi Okazaki
  • Patent number: 9612477
    Abstract: The present invention discloses a transparent display device comprising a display panel, an array of polarization light splitting sheets provided on the side of the display panel on which no polarizer is provided, and at least one polarization light sources provided at a side of the array and emitting a polarized light polarized along a certain direction towards an inner surface of at least one polarization light splitting sheets in the array. The polarized light polarized in the certain direction, emitted by a corresponding polarization light source and incident onto the inner surface of the polarization light splitting sheet can be reflected to the display panel, and the polarized light polarized in a direction perpendicular to the certain direction, coming from an ambient light and incident onto an outer surface of the polarization light splitting sheet can be transmitted to the display panel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2017
    Assignee: BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Shang Wang
  • Patent number: 9612447
    Abstract: A device for 3D wide angle viewing, comprising of goggles made of opaque material installed with a set of Vector Light Sources (VLSs) which emit narrow light beams each pointing only in one direction. The set of VLSs is divided into two subsets. All the VLSs included in each subset are pointed towards the center location of their subset. The device enables viewing of a pair of stereoscopic images when the center locations are adjusted to fit the locations of pupils of the user. Each pixel of the stereoscopic images is focused because it is emitted by VLS. The VLSs are constructed by installing each light source at the end of a narrow tunnel which has the pointing direction of its VLS. Altogether, all the VLSs are arranged as two sets of concentric vectors. The light sources could be Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), Liquid Cristal Displays (LCDs) or laser diodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2017
    Inventor: Jezekiel Ben-Arie
  • Patent number: 9612480
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method of producing a phase device operating at at least one wavelength (?) comprising a cell containing a liquid crystal possessing a helical structure, inserted between two alignment layers possessing rubbing axes and means for applying a voltage to said cell, said helical structure exhibits a number of helical turns k, said liquid crystal exhibiting a defined angle of twist ? between the rubbing axes of the two alignment layers, characterized in that it comprises the following steps: —the determination of a compensation angle ? satisfying the following equation: (formula) with: N the integer closest to (formula) the angle of twist ?=2K????n: the birefringence of the liquid crystal; d: the thickness of the liquid crystal cell; ?: the wavelength of the light beam which passes through the liquid crystal cell; the rubbing of one of the faces in a direction of alignment of said liquid crystal molecules, defining the angle of twist: ?=2K???.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2017
    Assignee: Commissariat A L'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives
    Inventors: Umberto Rossini, Laurence Clerc
  • Patent number: 9606390
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention disclose a capacitive in-cell touch panel and a display device, in which at least a touch sense electrode (6) is disposed on a color film substrate (1), at least a touch drive electrode (5) is disposed on a TFT array substrate (2), the touch drive electrode (5) is electrically connected to a gate line (7) in the TFT array substrate (2), wherein each touch drive electrode (5) comprises a plurality of touch drive sub-electrode (51) arranged in the same row and disposed between adjacent columns of pixel units. The capacitive in-cell touch panel and the display device provided by the embodiments of the invention employ an input display signal of the gate line (7) electrically connected to the touch drive electrode (5) as the touch drive signal to realize the touch control function, thereby avoiding the addition of an IC for touch drive and reducing the production cost.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2017
    Assignee: Beijing COE Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Haisheng Wang, Cheng Li, Xue Dong, Xiaoliang Ding, Dong Chen, Chuncheng Che, Hailin Xue
  • Patent number: 9599832
    Abstract: The objective is to provide a stereoscopic display device that can be switched among 2D display mode, 3D display mode and mirror mode. The device includes: a display panel (12); a switch liquid crystal panel (14); an absorptive polarizer (16); and a reflective polarizer (22). The switch liquid crystal panel (14) is located closer to the viewer than the display panel (12) is. The absorptive polarizer (16) is located closer to the viewer than the switch liquid crystal panel (14) is. The reflective polarizer (22) is located between the display panel (12) and the switch liquid crystal panel (14). The reflective polarizer (22) has a transmission axis (L6) perpendicular to the transmission axis (L3) of the absorptive polarizer (16) and passes those components of light entering the reflective polarizer (22) that are parallel to the transmission axis (L6) while reflecting those components that are perpendicular to the transmission axis (L6).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2017
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takehiro Murao, Ryoh Kikuchi, Takuto Yoshino, Hiroshi Fukushima, Tomoo Takatani
  • Patent number: 9599869
    Abstract: A display apparatus includes a backlight assembly which generates a light and a display panel which receives the light to display an image, the display panel including a first substrate, a second substrate which faces the first substrate and is disposed closer to the backlight assembly than the first substrate, a gate line disposed on the first substrate, a data line disposed on the gate line and insulated from the gate line, a thin film transistor disposed on the first substrate and electrically connected to the gate line and the data line, and a reflection preventing layer disposed between the first substrate and the gate line to reduce an amount of a reflected light reflected by the gate line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2017
    Assignee: SAMSUNG DISPLAY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Joonyong Park, Sanggab Kim, Changoh Jeong, Taeho Kang, Kyungseop Kim, Gwan Ha Kim, Byeong-Beom Kim, Honglong Ning, Sangwon Shin, Sukyoung Yang, Yunjong Yeo, Dongmin Lee, Shin Il Choi, Hyunju Kang, Sangwoo Sohn, Jungha Son, Yu-Gwang Jeong, Gugrae Jo, Jinho Hwang
  • Patent number: 9599848
    Abstract: An exemplary display device providing touch function includes scanning lines and data lines thereby defining lots of sub-pixel units. Each sub-pixel unit includes a pixel electrode, a storage capacitor, a compensation capacitor connected between the pixel electrode and a corresponding scanning line. In each pixel unit defined by n number adjacent sub-pixel units, both of a ratio of capacitance values between the storage capacitors formed in the corresponding sub-pixel units and a ratio of capacitance values between the corresponding compensation capacitors are respectively substantially equal to a ratio of areas between the corresponding pixel electrodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2017
    Assignee: INNOLUX CORPORATION
    Inventors: Po-Sheng Shih, Po-Yang Chen
  • Patent number: 9600105
    Abstract: A touch panel device is provided, having a cover plate, a first mask layer, a signal trace layer and a second mask layer. The cover plate has a visible area and a shield area at a side of the visible area. The shield area is divided into first, second area, third areas sequentially from the visible area to an edge of the shield area. The first mask layer disposed in the first and second areas of the shield area over a surface of the cover plate, wherein the first mask layer has a flat surface. The signal trace layer is disposed in the first area of the shield area over the flat surface. The second mask layer is at least disposed in the third area near the edge of the cover plate. A viscosity of the second mask layer is larger than a viscosity of the first mask layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2017
    Assignee: TPK Touch Solutions (Xiamen) Inc.
    Inventors: Yuh-Wen Lee, Keming Ruan, Ho-Hsun Chi, Fengming Lin, Xianbin Xu, Chuandai Tang
  • Patent number: 9599762
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a wire grid polarizer capable of securing a high brightness and reducing the number of processes, a liquid crystal device including the wire grid polarizer, and a method of manufacturing the wire grid polarizer. According to the present invention, the wire grid polarizer, including first grids arranged in parallel at certain intervals over a substrate and second grids formed on the first grids, can be formed using only an imprint process, a deposition process, and a wet etch process. Accordingly, the number of processes and the process costs and time can be reduced, and high reliability can be guaranteed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2017
    Assignee: LG INNOTEK CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Young Jae Lee, Jin Su Kim, Jun Lee, Ki-Cheol Kim