Patents Examined by William L. Sikes
  • Patent number: 6522376
    Abstract: The present invention discloses a transflective liquid crystal display device, including: a liquid crystal panel including: a) a first substrate having a color filter; b) a second substrate spaced apart from the first substrate, having a switching element, a reflective electrode, and a pixel electrode, the reflective electrode having at least one transmitting hole and reflecting ambient light, the transmitting hole transmitting light and being covered by the pixel electrode, the reflective electrode and the pixel electrode being electrically insulated each other; and c) a liquid crystal layer interposed between the upper and lower substrates; and a back light device providing light toward the transmitting hole.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2003
    Assignee: LG. Philips LCD Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Sung-Il Park, Tae-Wun Ko
  • Patent number: 6522374
    Abstract: A viewing surface in the form of a passive liquid crystal display or front projection viewing screen includes a substrate layer of material having a front side and a back side. A light shaping micro-sculpted surface structure is provided on one side of the substrate layer wherein the microstructure controls the directionality, gain, homogeneity and shape distribution of the light propagated by the screen or display. A reflective layer is deposited on the opposite back side of the substrate layer and reflects light incident upon the substrate layer back through the substrate layer toward a viewing screen surface. This type of construction can be used directly as a viewing screen or can be utilized behind a display such as a liquid crystal display in order to significantly enhance the brightness of such a display or screen. The microstructure can be integral on either the front side of the substrate layer or beneath the reflective layer on the back side of the layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 1998
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2003
    Assignee: Physical Optics Corporation
    Inventors: Rick L. Shie, Jeffrey A. Laine, Gajendra D. Savant
  • Patent number: 6522370
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display unit is used that has data lines made of a molybdenum-alloyed film having a chromium content from 2 wt. % or more, but up to 5 wt. %, or a molybdenum-alloyed film lamination (Mo—Cr) consisting of a first electroconductive film and a second electroconductive film, with the first electroconductive film having a chromium content from 2 wt. % or more, but up to 5 wt. % and the second electroconductive film being provided above the first electroconductive film and containing less chromium than the first electroconductive film does. The use of the data lines composed of these materials enables the following requirements to be satisfied: high dry-etching resistance, low resistance, low ACF contact resistance, low side etching rates, forward tapered wiring cross-sectional shape, and up to two lamination layers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2003
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Takuya Takahashi, Masahiro Ishii, Tsutomu Kasai, Tetsuya Kawamura, Katsumi Tamura, Toshiki Kaneko, Kenichi Onisawa
  • Patent number: 6519018
    Abstract: Homeotropic liquid crystal displays, and methods for their production and use, are provided. The alignment layers of the subject displays have at least one alignment structure rising from a planar substrate. At least a portion of the wall has a bond anisotropy sufficient to align liquid crystal molecules substantially vertical to the planar substrate of the alignment layer. The subject displays find use in a variety of different applications, including in monitors for use in laptop computers, desktop computers, televisions, and the like.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 1998
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2003
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Mahesh Govind Samant, Joachim Stöhr
  • Patent number: 6519014
    Abstract: The invention provides an array substrate for a transflective liquid crystal display device, including: a thin film transistor having gate, data and drain electrodes on a transparent substrate; an insulation layer over the substrate while covering the thin film transistor, the insulating layer having a drain contact hole exposing the drain electrode of the thin film transistor; a reflective electrode having a transmitting hole on the insulation layer; and a transparent electrode covering the reflective electrode entirely, wherein either the reflective electrode or the transparent electrode contacts the drain electrode via the drain contact hole of the insulation layer. The fabrication method is also disclosed. The resistance between the reflective electrode and the transparent electrode can be reduced, and the fabrication method can be simplified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2003
    Assignee: LG. Philips LCD Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Kyoung-Su Ha
  • Patent number: 6515721
    Abstract: In a liquid crystal display device including a pair of substrates between which a liquid crystal layer is interposed, a semiconductor integrated circuit device provided at a periphery of a liquid crystal layer side surface of one substrate of the pair of substrates, a frame member having a display window and covering the substrates, and a spacer provided between the frame member and the periphery of the liquid crystal side surface of the one substrate, the present invention prevents the substrate from being cracked during assembly processes thereof and improves product quality thereof by protruding one side of the spacer toward another substrate of the pair of substrates partly, disposing the semiconductor integrated circuit device along a concave part of the spacer with respect to the another substrate, and providing an adhesive at a surface of the protruded part of the spacer opposite to the liquid crystal layer side surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2003
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi Device Engineering Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Nobutaka Jin, Atsushi Nemoto
  • Patent number: 6515720
    Abstract: A coupling line connecting a pixel electrode to a source electrode and a storage capacitance electrode includes a wiring portion which does not overlap a storage capacitance line or a storage capacitance electrode. Thus, the wiring portion is exposed when viewed from the rear side of the array substrate. Therefore, even if a short circuit occurs between the storage capacitance line and the coupling line or the storage capacitance electrode, a pixel including the short-circuit defect can be improved to a half-lighted state by radiating the laser beam to the wiring portion to electrically cut it.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 1999
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2003
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Tetsuya Iizuka, Takafumi Nakamura, Yasuyuki Hanazawa, Akihiro Kaga
  • Patent number: 6515722
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display has s a liquid crystal cell having a front surface serving as a viewing-side surface and a back surface, a reflecting film is attached to the back surface of the liquid crystal cell, and a light guide panel having a first major surface provided with minute irregularities and a second major surface finished in a smooth flat plane is disposed on the front surface of the liquid crystal cell with the second major surface thereof finished in a smooth flat plane in contact with the front surface of the liquid crystal cell. A light source is disposed beside aside surface of the light guide panel. When the liquid crystal display is used in a dim environment, the light source is turned on. Light emitted by the light source is guided and scattered toward the reflecting film by the light guide panel, so that the light can be transmitted efficiently by the light guide panel and the liquid crystal cell to the reflecting film.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2003
    Assignee: Alps Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Tomoyuki Watanabe
  • Patent number: 6515730
    Abstract: A simple method for preventing oxidization of an aluminum surface of terminal electrode, increase of pressure contact resistance, unstability and reduction of connection reliability is provided. In a terminal electrode part on a reactive matrix substrate, for being connected to an external drive circuit, connecting electrodes are formed by using aluminum or an aluminum alloy, at least their surfaces connected to TCP are covered with an insulating film of aluminum oxide or consisting of a laminate film of aluminum oxide aluminum hydroxide, and the insulating film is selectively removed in a step subsequent to the final step in a cell formation process. In this way, adverse effects of the heat treatment processes such as the annealing in the array formation process and the orientation film sintering of the cell formation process and the oxidization of the connecting electrode surface in the washing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2003
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Akitoshi Maeda
  • Patent number: 6515719
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display apparatus includes a first substrate, a second substrate and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the first substrate and the second substrate. The first substrate includes on a surface facing the second substrate, a plurality of gate bus lines extending into a row direction, a plurality of drain bus lines extending into a column direction, and a plurality of pixels arranged in matrix.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2003
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventors: Hirotaka Yamaguchi, Hiroaki Tanaka, Seiji Suzuki, Hiroaki Matsuyama, Takahiko Watanabe, Yoshihiko Hirai, Masayoshi Suzuki, Toshiya Ishii, Teruaki Suzuki, Syuusaku Kido
  • Patent number: 6515727
    Abstract: Disclosed is a color liquid crystal display device including an upper plate section having color filters, a lower plate section having a patterned electrode structure for each of red, green, and blue pixels, and a liquid crystal interposed between the upper and lower plate sections, wherein the pixels have different electrode widths and different slit widths for different colors, respectively. Respective pixel electrode widths (ER, EG, and EB) associated with the red, green, and blue colors have a relation of “ER≦EG≦EB”, and respective slit widths (SR, SG, and SB) associated with the red, green, and blue colors have a relation of “SB≦SG≦SR”.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2003
    Assignee: LG.Philips LCD., Ltd.
    Inventors: Ki Hyuk Yoon, Jang Jin Yoo
  • Patent number: 6512568
    Abstract: A tetragonal ring shape aperture is formed in the common electrode on one substrate and a cross shape aperture is formed at the position corresponding to the center of the tetragonal ring shape aperture in the pixel electrode on the other substrate. A liquid crystal layer between two electrodes are divided to four domains where the directors of the liquid crystal layer have different angles when a voltage is applied to the electrodes. The directors in adjacent domains make a right angle. The tetragonal ring shape aperture is broken at midpoint of each side of the tetragon, and the width of the aperture decreases as goes from the bent point to the edge. Wide viewing angle is obtained by four domains where the directors of the liquid crystal layer indicate different directions, disclination is removed and luminance increases.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2003
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Jang-Kun Song, Kyeong-Hyeon Kim, Kye-Hun Lee, Hea-Ri Lee
  • Patent number: 6512560
    Abstract: The liquid crystal display element includes a polarization plate, a liquid crystal layer provided in the rear of the polarization plate, for modulating incident light in correspondence with an applied voltage, a selectively reflective layer provided behind the liquid crystal layer, for reflecting a first circular polarization component of incident light, and a back light source arranged in the rear of the selectively reflective layer, for emitting light having intensity peaks for a plurality of predetermined wavelengths. The selectively reflective layer has first reflection factors to the first polarization components of incident light falling within first small regions of visible light, including the plurality of predetermined wavelengths, and has second reflection factors to the first polarization components of incident light falling within second small regions of visible light, not including the plurality of predetermined wavelengths.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2003
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Toshiya Ohtake, Yuzo Hisatake
  • Patent number: 6512564
    Abstract: The liquid crystal display device comprising a pair of substrates with alignment layers formed thereon, and a liquid crystal filled between the substrates. Each pixel has pixel display portions CA, CB and non-display portions DA, EA, DB, EB. The pixel display portions are treated for realizing alignment in a different manner from the non-display portions and the alignment of the pixel display portions is controlled by the alignment of the non-display portions. Moreover, the alignment treatment is executed by the irradiation with ultraviolet rays in an inclined direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2003
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventors: Hidefumi Yoshida, Tsutomu Seino, Yasutoshi Tasaka
  • Patent number: 6512567
    Abstract: An active matrix type display device having first and second substrates, and a plurality of drain lines and gate lines formed on the first substrate and crossing each other in a matrix form. A plurality of pixels are formed by adjoining the drain lines and the gate lines. A gate terminal is connected to the gate line formed on the first substrate, and a drain terminal is connected to the drain line formed on the first substrate. At least a pixel electrode is formed on the first substrate in each pixel, at least a counter electrode is formed on the first substrate in each pixel, and the gate terminal and the drain terminal are formed by the same layer of the counter electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2002
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2003
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Masuyuki Ohta, Masahiro Ishi, Kikuo Ono, Nobuyuki Suzuki
  • Patent number: 6509940
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display device and a fabricating method thereof wherein four masks are used so as to reduce a process. In the device, a gate electrode is formed on a transparent substrate. A gate insulating film is formed on the transparent substrate to cover the gate electrode. An active layer is provided at a portion corresponding to the gate electrode on the gate insulating film. Source and drain electrodes are intervened by an ohmic contact layer on the active layer. A contact portion is connected to and extended from a portion of the drain electrode opposed to the source electrode and has an exposed side surface. A passivation layer is formed on the active layer in such a manner to cover the source and drain electrodes, but to expose the side surface of the contact portion. A pixel electrode is formed on the gate insulating film in such a manner to contact the exposed side surface of the contact portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2003
    Assignee: LG.Philips LCD Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Dong Yeung Kwak, Soon Sung Yoo, Yu Ho Jung, Hu Sung Kim, Dug Jin Park, Yong Wan Kim, Woo Chae Lee, Byung Chul Ahn
  • Patent number: 6509941
    Abstract: A method of making a tiled emissive display having at least two aligned tiles including finishing at least one edge of each tile and aligning the finished edges of such tiles and forming a monolithic structure including aligned tiles, each such aligned tile having a substrate, TFT circuits, drive circuits and bottom pixel electrodes for providing electrical signals to pixels in the corresponding tile. The method also includes coating the aligned tiles with material that produces light when activated by an electric field and forming at least one top pixel electrode over the coated material so that the coated material produces light when activated by an electric field from the electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2003
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Henry R. Freidhoff, Giana M. Phelan
  • Patent number: 6509948
    Abstract: An liquid crystal panel is provided which is suitable for a wide screen and for driving by the transverse electric field. The liquid crystal display is composed of an array substrate on which TFTs are arranged as active switching elements in a matrix form and covered with an orientation film. On the facing surface of the opposing substrate as a color filter, a light shielding film, color layers of red, green, and blue are arranged, and the area excluding the area covered by the light shielding layer is turned into a display pixel area, and all of the surfaces of the opposing substrate are then covered with an orientation film. The cell gap g at the display pixel area is formed so as to be larger than spacers in the cell, and cell gaps of color layers overlapping the light shielding layer are made smaller than spacers. The cell gaps of these overlapped layers hold spaces at an compressed state with the array substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2003
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Seiji Suzuki
  • Patent number: 6509944
    Abstract: A vertically aligned type liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal layer disposed between a plurality of pixel electrodes and a common electrode and containing vertically aligned liquid crystal molecules, the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules being controlled by electric field. An orientation control window is formed in the common electrode. A distance Wp between adjacent pixel electrodes and/or a width Ws of the orientation control window is selected so as to satisfy Wp≧d/2 and/or Ws≧d/2, where d is a distance (or a cell gap) between the pixel electrodes and the common electrode. Viewing angle is widened and a viewing angle characteristic is improved, and abnormal orientation or grittiness of an image is eliminated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2003
    Assignee: Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Norio Koma, Tetsuji Omura, Kiyoshi Yoneda
  • Patent number: 6509938
    Abstract: A light source, a color separator, a plurality of liquid crystal panels, a polarizing plate, a color synthesizing optical unit, and a projecting lens are disposed. The color synthesizing optical unit includes an X prism, a bonding base, a panel retaining member, and a panel installing member. The panel retaining member is fixed on the bonding base. The liquid crystal panels and the polarizing plate are installed on the panel installing member. The panel installing member can be separated from the panel retaining member. By this configuration, deviation of the convergence can be prevented with respect to the liquid crystal panels. Further, in practical use, it is easy to replace or repair the liquid crystal panel or the polarizing plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2003
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takehiro Okada, Shozo Aono, Masanari Hashimukai