Patents Examined by Tai V. Duong
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Patent number: 5940157Abstract: A liquid crystal display panel includes a first electrode substrate having a transparent electrode array, and a second electrode substrate having a second transparent electrode array which extends perpendicularly to the electrode array of the first substrate. The substrates overlap each other with separation walls interposed therebetween. The separation walls are formed in the spaces between individual transparent electrodes of one of the arrays and extend in parallel therewith. Liquid crystal, such as antiferroelectric liquid crystal, fills the space between the two electrode substrates. The liquid crystal near the separation walls is not properly oriented, and light leaks therethrough in the dark state of the liquid crystal. To prevent the light leakage, metal electrodes are formed along the separation walls so that the metal electrodes intercept the light passing through the liquid crystal near the separation walls. Thus, a high display contrast is realized.Type: GrantFiled: October 17, 1997Date of Patent: August 17, 1999Assignee: Denso CorporationInventors: Koji Nakamura, Takayuki Fujikawa
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Patent number: 5936693Abstract: An underlying electrode is formed on nearly the entire surface of an opposing substrate and a color filter is formed on the underlying electrode. An overcoat layer is formed on the color filter. A stripe-shaped overlying electrode connected to the underlying electrode and extending to a part of each pixel area is formed on the overcoat layer, and an alignment film is formed on the overlying electrode. Formed on a TFT substrate are TFT's, pixel electrodes and another alignment film which covers the TFT's and pixel electrodes. A liquid crystal is provided between both substrates. When a drive voltage is applied between the underlying electrode and the pixel electrodes, the drive voltage is applied almost directly to the liquid crystal between the overlying electrode and the pixel electrodes, and a drive voltage dropped by the color filter and overcoat layer is applied to the liquid crystal between the underlying electrode and the pixel electrodes.Type: GrantFiled: September 26, 1995Date of Patent: August 10, 1999Assignee: Casio Computer Co., Ltd.Inventors: Tetsushi Yoshida, Takashi Miyashita, Yoshinaga Miyazawa, Toshihiro Mannouji, Hiroko Awata, Yasushi Nakajima
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Patent number: 5936692Abstract: The invention relates to a multi-domain liquid-crystal display device comprising two substantially parallel substrates which are provided with an electrode layer and an orientation layer. A layer of a nematically ordered liquid-crystalline material comprising a chiral dopant is sandwiched between the substrates. The layer is structured in such a manner that the pixels of the layer are composed of at least two types of sub-pixels in which the twist senses of the liquid-crystalline material are mutually opposite. This construction in accordance with the invention is achieved by differentiating the composition of the chiral dopant in the different types of sub-pixels. This is attained by employing isomerizable chiral dopants and/or diffusion techniques in combination with local exposure of the liquid-crystal layer. The invention also provides methods of manufacturing such multi-domain liquid-crystal display devices.Type: GrantFiled: June 2, 1998Date of Patent: August 10, 1999Assignee: U.S. Philips CorporationInventor: Peter Van De Witte
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Patent number: 5933209Abstract: The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device which is capable of improving moisture resistance of a liquid crystal injection port by preventing peeling of a sealant therein. The liquid crystal display device has a pattern for preventing peeling of a sealant which is provided, through an insulating film, in a contact portion between a TFT substrate and the sealant in the liquid crystal injection port by arranging ITO having higher adhesion to the sealant than that to a glass substrate as the TFT substrate in a predetermined pattern. This causes the ITO of the pattern for preventing peeling of the sealant to improve the adhesion between the sealant and the TFT substrate in the liquid crystal injection port.Type: GrantFiled: February 11, 1997Date of Patent: August 3, 1999Assignee: Sony CorporationInventor: Kenichi Yonemoto
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Patent number: 5926239Abstract: A backlight for a color liquid crystal display uses various techniques for activating colored phosphors, which emit colored light to each one of several sub-pixels within a particular liquid crystal display pixel. Activation of the colored phosphors may be performed using field emission devices, both diode and triode, a fluorescent lamp, thin film electroluminescent light, an ultraviolet lamp, a thermionic emitter, or a high-intensity glow discharge lamp. LCD panels are manufactured using less than four glass substrates.Type: GrantFiled: November 22, 1996Date of Patent: July 20, 1999Assignee: SI Diamond Technology, Inc.Inventors: Nalin Kumar, Zvi Yaniv
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Patent number: 5923392Abstract: The liquid crystal display device of the present invention comprises a liquid crystal layer of a nematic liquid crystal having positive dielectric anisotropy and including a chiral material, the liquid crystal layer being interposed between a pair of substrates with transparent electrodes each having an aligning layer which are arranged substantially in parallel to provide a twist angle of 160-300.degree., a driving means to apply a voltage across the electrodes attached to the substrates which interpose the liquid crystal layer, a pair of polarizing plates arranged outside the liquid crystal layer, and at least one birefringent plate provided between the liquid crystal layer and the polarizing plate at at least one side of the liquid crystal layer, wherein the product .DELTA.n.sub.1 .multidot.d, of the anisotropy of refractive index .DELTA.n, of liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal layer and the thickness d, of the liquid crystal layer is in a range of 0.4-1.5 .mu.Type: GrantFiled: February 26, 1997Date of Patent: July 13, 1999Assignee: Asahi Glass Company Ltd.Inventors: Minoru Akatsuka, Yuji Sohda, Kazutoshi Sawada
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Patent number: 5920368Abstract: A composite material includes a cholesteric liquid crystal; a polymer which is distributed in phase-separated domains and provides an effective form-retention property for the composite material; and an additional material which is dissolved in the cholesteric liquid crystal and maintains a cholesteric phase of the liquid crystal and bistability of a focal conic state and a planar state of the liquid crystal.Type: GrantFiled: December 3, 1997Date of Patent: July 6, 1999Assignee: Minolta Co., Ltd.Inventors: Takuji Hatano, Kiyofumi Hashimoto, Nobuyuki Kobayashi
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Patent number: 5917565Abstract: The efficiency of utilizing light for obtaining polarization is enhanced by making at least part of the polarized component available that has formerly been unused. Due to a mutual difference in reflection/transmission characteristic between the s-wave component and p-wave component, the reflected light 205 (s-wave (x.sub.1 %), p-wave (y.sub.1 %)) and the transmitted light 206 (s-wave (x.sub.2 %), p-wave (y.sub.2 %)) have the respective s-wave polarized and p-wave polarized components at a different ratio (x.sub.1 .noteq.x.sub.2, y.sub.1 .noteq.y.sub.2).Type: GrantFiled: February 28, 1996Date of Patent: June 29, 1999Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventor: Masaru Suzuki
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Patent number: 5909260Abstract: In a plasma addressed liquid crystal display panel, a separating layer having a lower dielectric constant than the material of the upper substrate is interposed between the data drive electrodes and the upper substrate.Type: GrantFiled: May 16, 1997Date of Patent: June 1, 1999Assignee: Tektronix, Inc.Inventors: Kevin J. Ilcisin, Thomas S. Buzak, Paul C. Martin
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Patent number: 5909261Abstract: A plasma addressed electro-optical display is disclosed which is capable of improving current resistance of discharge electrodes disposed below cover glass to be similar to that of discharge electrodes in an effective frame and which, therefore, is enabled to be free from disconnection the reliability to be improved.Type: GrantFiled: December 9, 1997Date of Patent: June 1, 1999Assignee: Sony CorporationInventors: Atsushi Seki, Masatake Hayashi, Takahiro Togawa, Saori Ariji
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Patent number: 5907383Abstract: A method for producing a liquid crystal display device including a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer held between the pair of substrates, wherein the liquid crystal layer includes a polymeric region and a liquid crystal region substantially surrounded by the polymeric region, and liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal region are axis-symmetrically oriented, the method including the steps of: injecting a precursor mixture containing a liquid crystal material and a polymerizable material between the pair of substrates; heating the precursor mixture to a first temperature which is equivalent to or higher than a miscible temperature of the precursor mixture; cooling the precursor mixture from the first temperature to a second temperature which is lower than the miscible temperature; forming the polymeric region substantially surrounding the liquid crystal region by polymerizing the polymerizable material; and providing a tilt angle to the liquid crystal molecules in a liquid crystal droplet phType: GrantFiled: March 10, 1998Date of Patent: May 25, 1999Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki KaishaInventors: Takashi Kurihara, Yasuhiro Kume, Kenji Majima
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Patent number: 5905552Abstract: A pair of transparent substrates are arranged to oppose each other and bonded to each other through a seal member. A polymer dispersed liquid crystal layer and spacers are provided between the pair of transparent substrates. A plurality of pixel electrodes respectively provided with TFTs are disposed in a matrix form on the counter surface of one substrate opposing the other substrate, and the spacers for regulating the gap between the substrates are fixed, through resin films, to remaining regions of the counter surface of one substrate obtained by excluding pixel regions corresponding to the pixel electrodes from the region inside the seal member. A black mask is formed on the remaining regions of the counter surface of the other transparent substrate, and a flat counter electrode opposing the plurality of pixel electrodes is formed on the black mask.Type: GrantFiled: August 15, 1996Date of Patent: May 18, 1999Assignee: Casio Computer Co., Ltd.Inventors: Tetsushi Yoshida, Jiro Takei
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Patent number: 5905548Abstract: A liquid crystal display device is provided which has a large aperture ratio and which can prevent any leak occurrence and/or short circuiting between a pixel electrode and the opposite electrode. An organic interlayer dielectric film having a low dielectric constant is formed on a glass substrate and on a thin film transistor, also on a bus line for supplying an electric signal to the thin film transistor. Pixel electrodes operative to apply an electric field to the liquid crystal through the thin film transistor are formed on the organic interlayer dielectric film.Type: GrantFiled: January 13, 1998Date of Patent: May 18, 1999Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki KaishaInventor: Shinji Shimada
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Patent number: 5905551Abstract: An upper case and a lower case are fixed without using screws so that assemblage workability is improved. An electric appliance can be divided into plastic upper case, metal-plate-made lower case, and logic package having print substrates. As a result, the electric appliance is easy to make.Type: GrantFiled: December 10, 1997Date of Patent: May 18, 1999Assignee: Hitachi Telecom Technologies Ltd.Inventors: Kazuo Sanpei, Tatsuo Yamauchi
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Patent number: 5905554Abstract: The invention pertains generally to miscible polymer blends which can be used in optical applications, particularly in liquid crystal displays and optical adhesives, in that they are essentially birefiringence-free. The polymeric blend alloy includes a first polymer having an inherent positive birefringence and a second polymer having an inherent negative birefringence, the first and second polymers being soluble within each other to predefined limits. The polymer blend is an essentially birefringence-free film layer suitable for use in liquid crystal displays which has adequate mechanical properties, such as dimensional stability, permeability to water vapor, scratch-resistance and insensitivity to temperature, in that it is possible for them to be processed continuously and flexibly to all the required shapes. The polymer blends can be prepared not only from solvent solutions, but by melt-mixing as well.Type: GrantFiled: January 6, 1997Date of Patent: May 18, 1999Assignee: The University of AkronInventor: Thein Kyu
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Patent number: 5897186Abstract: Display device comprising an electro-optical medium, for example an LCD of the (super)twisted nematic type in which the capacitive influence on the switching behaviour of extra (dummy) electrodes employed to neutralize the difference in electro-optical behaviour (discoloration) is compensated by giving the extra electrodes a fixed voltage or by providing a pattern of the dummy electrodes on the other substrate, particularly on non-overlapping parts of the picture electrodes.Type: GrantFiled: December 1, 1995Date of Patent: April 27, 1999Assignee: U.S. Philips CorporationInventor: Reinder Smid
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Patent number: 5893624Abstract: Drawn configurations of transparent electrodes from connection terminals to pixels in a liquid crystal display device are made different from each other according to the positional relationship between the pixels and the connection terminals, so that the resistance value of a drawn portion and the difference in resistance values between adjoining pixels are made low. This structure improves not only the picture quality of a liquid crystal display device with a wide pitch screen in which a multi-output terminal IC is connected by using fine electrodes, but also the patterning yield.Type: GrantFiled: July 8, 1997Date of Patent: April 13, 1999Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.Inventors: Tsutomu Matsuhira, Satoshi Arai
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Patent number: 5889572Abstract: A liquid crystal display device which reduces the width of the frame and effectively utilizes the corner of the device. The liquid crystal display device comprises a liquid crystal display element; printed circuit boards arranged along at least two adjoining sides of the liquid crystal display element and mounting electronic components to drive the liquid crystal display element; a case to accommodate the liquid crystal display element and the printed circuit boards; and an interconnect board provided at the corner made by the two sides of the liquid crystal display element to electrically connect the printed circuit boards, the interconnect board being arranged to overlap the liquid crystal display element.Type: GrantFiled: September 30, 1996Date of Patent: March 30, 1999Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi Device Engineering Co., Ltd.Inventors: Hiroyuki Takahashi, Takayuki Iura, Yoshio Sugaya
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Patent number: 5886761Abstract: A photoresist 10 is exposed to light from behind a substrate by using as photomask a wiring electrodes 2 and 4 and a switching element 8 which are individually composed of an opaque member, whereby a passivation layer 9 for the switching element 8 is patterned. By virtue of this method, a photomask becomes unnecessary and jogs of the passivation layer 9 can be formed outside the transparent pixel electrode 7. Therefore, an unsatisfactory orientation of a liquid crystal can be made invisible without enlarging the black matrix of a counter substrate. Furthermore, since a passivation layer can be removed in portions not requiring the passivation layer, image-sticking can be reduced and the quality of displayed picture can be greatly improved. The present invention makes it possible to reduce the number of photomasks used for production of an actively addressing substrate and improve the picture quality of a liquid crystal display.Type: GrantFiled: October 5, 1995Date of Patent: March 23, 1999Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.Inventors: Tohru Sasaki, Makoto Tsumura, Masaru Takabatake, Masaaki Kitajima
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Patent number: 5886679Abstract: A driver circuit to drive a display by inverting the voltage polarity operates with a reduced power consumption. The driver circuit includes a driving voltage selector circuit including positive and negative driving voltage selector circuits alternately arranged therein and a circuit which conducts a change-over operation between a state in which signals respectively from the positive and negative driving voltage selector circuits are respectively outputted to first and second terminals in a first horizontal period and a state in which signals respectively from the positive and negative driving voltage selector circuits are respectively sent to second and first terminals in a second horizontal period.Type: GrantFiled: March 25, 1996Date of Patent: March 23, 1999Assignee: NEC CorporationInventors: Kohei Matsuda, Sei Saitoh