Patents by Inventor Masakazu Shibasaki

Masakazu Shibasaki has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7956969
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display device including a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the pair of substrates, as well as a source electrode, a Cs intermediate electrode, and a pixel electrode formed on one of the pair of substrates. The liquid crystal display device also includes vertical alignment films formed on the pair of substrates and polymer layers formed on the vertical alignment films, wherein a contact hole, which connects the source electrode and the pixel electrode, and another contact hole, which connects the pixel electrode and the Cs intermediate electrode, are both formed at a liquid crystal domain boundary.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2011
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroyasu Inoue, Kenichi Nagaoka, Yuji Nakahata, Yoji Taniguchi, Tetsuya Fujikawa, Yohei Nakanishi, Kazutaka Hanaoka, Yuichi Inoue, Masakazu Shibasaki
  • Patent number: 7944534
    Abstract: The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device used as a display part of an electronic apparatus which exhibits high brightness and favorable display quality. The liquid crystal display device includes a pair of substrates which are arranged to face each other in an opposed manner; vertical-alignment type liquid crystal which is sealed between the pair of substrates; a plurality of pixel regions, each pixel region including a sub pixel having a pixel electrode on one substrate and a sub pixel having a pixel electrode on one substrate, a slit formed between the pixel electrodes; and a singular point control part which includes projecting portions which are formed on end portions of the pixel electrodes on the slit-side and controls singular points of the liquid crystal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2011
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yasutoshi Tasaka, Takahiro Sasaki, Yohei Nakanishi, Masakazu Shibasaki, Takashi Sasabayashi, Hidefumi Yoshida, Tsuyoshi Kamada, Hideaki Tsuda, Kazuya Ueda
  • Publication number: 20110102713
    Abstract: The present invention provides a multi-domain type liquid crystal display device with a vertical alignment liquid crystal layer that can get a display operation done without making the viewer sense any unnaturalness and with the decrease in optical transmittance minimized. In the liquid crystal display device of this invention, the liquid crystal layer of each pixel has liquid crystal regions in which liquid crystal molecules tilt in multiple different directions when a voltage is applied between first and second electrodes. Each pixel has an opaque portion arranged on a boundary between the liquid crystal regions. The opaque portion is provided for at least one of the substrates so that when a voltage is applied between the first and second electrodes, the liquid crystal molecules neighboring the boundary will tilt while turning one of their end portions, which is closer to the substrate with the opaque portion, away from the boundary.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2009
    Publication date: May 5, 2011
    Inventors: Yoshito Hashimoto, Hiroyuki Ohgami, Masayuki Soga, Masakazu Shibasaki, Masumi Kubo
  • Publication number: 20110058134
    Abstract: When radiating light onto a liquid crystal composition containing a photosensitive material, the alignment of liquid crystal molecules is adjusted by applying a voltage to the liquid crystal composition layer, to achieve substantially orderly alignment of the liquid crystal molecules, or the alignment of the liquid crystal molecules is made uniform by adjusting the structure of the liquid crystal display device, or any display defect is driven out of the display area. When radiating light to the liquid crystal composition containing the photosensitive material, the alignment of the liquid crystal molecules can be adjusted so as to achieve substantially orderly alignment of the liquid crystal molecules, and the liquid crystal display device can thus be driven stably.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 15, 2010
    Publication date: March 10, 2011
    Applicant: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hiroyasu Inoue, Kenichi Nagaoka, Yuji Nakahata, Yoji Taniguchi, Tetsuya Fujikawa, Yohei Nakanishi, Kazutaka Hanaoka, Yuichi Inoue, Masakazu Shibasaki
  • Patent number: 7903215
    Abstract: The invention relates to a liquid crystal display in which a polymeric component included in a liquid crystal layer is polymerized while adjusting a voltage applied to the liquid crystal layer to regulate the direction of alignment of liquid crystal molecules during polymerization and a method of manufacturing the same. The invention provides a liquid crystal display in which image sticking is mitigated and a method of manufacturing the same. In a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display in which a liquid crystal composition including a polymeric component that is optically or thermally polymerized is sealed between substrates and in which the polymeric component is polymerized while applying a voltage to the liquid crystal composition to regulate the direction of alignment of liquid crystal molecules during driving, a configuration is employed such that a polymerization initiator in the liquid crystal composition has a concentration x that satisfies 0?x?0.002 (% by weight).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2011
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yohei Nakanishi, Hiroyasu Inoue, Yuji Nakahata, Kengo Kanii, Kazutaka Hanaoka, Masakazu Shibasaki, Yuichi Inoue
  • Publication number: 20110037915
    Abstract: The invention relates to a liquid crystal display device and provides a liquid crystal display device which can achieve high display quality. A liquid crystal display device is provided with first and second TFTs each having a gate electrode connected to an nth gate bus line and a drain electrode connected to a drain bus line; a first pixel electrode connected to a source electrode of the first TFT; a second pixel electrode connected to a source electrode of the second TFT; a third TFT having a gate electrode connected to an (n+1)th gate bus line and a source electrode connected to the second pixel electrode; and a buffer capacitance portion having a buffer capacitance electrode which is formed in the same layer as the first and second pixel electrodes and is connected to a drain electrode of the third TFT and a buffer capacitance electrode connected to a storage capacitance bus line.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 6, 2010
    Publication date: February 17, 2011
    Applicant: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yasutoshi Tasaka, Yohei Nakanishi, Masakazu Shibasaki, Tsuyoshi Kamada, Hidefumi Yoshida, Hideaki Tsuda
  • Publication number: 20110025970
    Abstract: There is provided a liquid crystal display device of high image quality, which has high brightness and excellent viewing angle characteristics. A liquid crystal display device of the present invention includes a pair of polarizing plates, a first electrode, a second electrode provided so as to oppose the first electrode, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the first electrode and the second electrode. Each of a plurality of pixels includes a first region and a second region which are separated by a line parallel to or perpendicular to the directions of the transmission axes of the pair of polarizing plates. The first electrode includes, in each of the first region and the second region, a plurality of first branch portions extending in a first direction and a plurality of second branch portions extending in a second direction that is different from the first direction. Each of the plurality of first branch portions in the first region has a first width.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 25, 2008
    Publication date: February 3, 2011
    Inventors: Yoshito Hashimoto, Hiroyuki Ohgami, Masakazu Shibasaki, Masumi Kubo, Yuichi Iyama, Masayuki Soga
  • Publication number: 20110007252
    Abstract: The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device which allows an improvement in contrast ratio by compensating retardation given in a liquid crystal layer, even if a retardation layer has an inclined portion, and a desired retardation is varied at the inclined portion. The present invention is a vertical alignment liquid crystal display device, including: a pair of substrates facing each other; a liquid crystal layer disposed between the pair of substrates; a transmissive display region; and a reflective display region, wherein one of the pair of substrates includes a ?/4 retardation layer in the reflective display region, the ?/4 retardation layer protruding towards the liquid crystal layer, the ?/4 retardation layer includes an inclined portion inclined to a flat face of the substrate, and an azimuth of the inclined portion is substantially parallel to a slow axis azimuth of the ?/4 retardation layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 10, 2008
    Publication date: January 13, 2011
    Inventors: Yoshito Hashimoto, Hiroyuki Ohgami, Masayuki Soga, Katsuhiro Kikuchi, Masakazu Shibasaki, Yuichi Iyama, Masumi Kubo
  • Patent number: 7868981
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display device including a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the pair of substrates, as well as a source electrode, a Cs intermediate electrode, and a pixel electrode formed on one of the pair of substrates. The liquid crystal display device also includes vertical alignment films formed on the pair of substrates and polymer layers formed on the vertical alignment films, wherein a contact hole, which connects the source electrode and the pixel electrode, and another contact hole, which connects the pixel electrode and the Cs intermediate electrode, are both formed at a liquid crystal domain boundary.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2011
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroyasu Inoue, Kenichi Nagaoka, Yuji Nakahata, Yoji Taniguchi, Tetsuya Fujikawa, Yohei Nakanishi, Kazutaka Hanaoka, Yuichi Inoue, Masakazu Shibasaki
  • Publication number: 20110001691
    Abstract: A pixel of a liquid crystal display device of the present invention includes a liquid crystal layer 42, a pixel electrode 12 and a counter electrode 22 opposing each other via the liquid crystal layer, a pair of vertical alignment films 32a, 32b, and alignment sustaining layers 34a, 34b formed by a photopolymerized material on surfaces of the alignment films which are closer to the liquid crystal layer. The pixel electrode has cruciform trunk portions 12h, 12v which are positioned so as to coincide with polarization axes of the pair of polarizing plates and a plurality of branch portions 12a, 12b, 12c, and 12d extending from the cruciform trunk portions in directions of approximately 45°. The counter electrode has a cruciform opening 22a which is positioned so as to oppose the cruciform trunk portions. When a predetermined voltage is applied across the liquid crystal layer, four liquid crystal domains are formed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 20, 2009
    Publication date: January 6, 2011
    Inventors: Yoshito Hashimoto, Hiroyuki Ohgami, Masakazu Shibasaki, Masumi Kubo, Masayuki Soga
  • Patent number: 7834949
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display device is provided with first and second TFTs each having a gate electrode connected to an nth gate bus line and a drain electrode connected to a drain bus line; a first pixel electrode connected to a source electrode of the first TFT; a second pixel electrode connected to a source electrode of the second TFT; a third TFT having a gate electrode connected to an (n+1)th gate bus line and a source electrode connected to the second pixel electrode; and a buffer capacitance portion having a buffer capacitance electrode which is formed in the same layer as the first and second pixel electrodes and is connected to a drain electrode of the third TFT and a buffer capacitance electrode connected to a storage capacitance bus line. The buffer capacitance portion establishes capacitive coupling.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2010
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yasutoshi Tasaka, Yohei Nakanishi, Masakazu Shibasaki, Tsuyoshi Kamada, Hidefumi Yoshida, Hideaki Tsuda
  • Publication number: 20100283928
    Abstract: An active matrix liquid crystal display device includes: a liquid crystal layer; two substrates sandwiching the liquid crystal layer; and electrodes respectively provided in the two substrates, the electrodes applying voltage across the liquid crystal layer. A first electrode (15) in the substrate including a pixel selecting element (11) has a striped electrode pattern (15c) aligning liquid crystal molecules along a stripe line direction when voltage is applied across the liquid crystal layer. A contact (25h) of the first electrode (15) with the selecting element (11) is formed in a region opposed to, along a film thickness direction, a first region to which a signal liner (GLi) is allocated. This provides a liquid crystal display device in which a contact is made with the pixel electrode having the striped electrode pattern having the periodical arrangement, while alignment disorder of the liquid crystal molecules is not reflected on display.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 11, 2008
    Publication date: November 11, 2010
    Inventors: Hiroshi Yoshida, Yasutoshi Tasaka, Noritaka Ajari, Kohhei Tanaka, Ryohji Yayotani, Keisuke Yoshida, Yoshito Hashimoto, Masayuki Soga, Hiroyuki Ohgami, Masakazu Shibasaki
  • Patent number: 7830345
    Abstract: One picture element is divided into first and second sub-picture element regions. A sub-picture element electrode connected directly (not via capacitive coupling) to a source electrode of a TFT is placed in the first sub-picture element region and a sub-picture element electrode capacitively coupled to a control electrode connected to a source electrode is placed in the second sub-picture element region. A transparent resin film is formed in the first sub-picture element region and this makes a liquid crystal layer thickness in the second sub-picture element region thicker than that of the first sub-picture element region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2010
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hidefumi Yoshida, Yasutoshi Tasaka, Hideaki Tsuda, Yohei Nakanishi, Tsuyoshi Kamada, Masakazu Shibasaki
  • Patent number: 7826027
    Abstract: It is an object of the invention to provide a substrate for a liquid crystal display, a liquid crystal display having the same, and a method of manufacturing the same which make it possible to provide a display having high luminance and preferable display characteristics to be used in display sections of information apparatuses and the like. Each pixel is defined by gate bus lines extending in the horizontal direction and drain bus lines extending in the vertical direction. TFTs are formed in the vicinity of intersections between the bus lines, and resin overlap sections for shielding the TFTs from light are formed above the same. No black matrix is formed on a common electrode substrate which is provided in a face-to-face relationship with a TFT substrate, and the bus lines and the resin overlap sections formed on the TFT substrate function as a black matrix.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2003
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2010
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Manabu Sawasaki, Yuichi Inoue, Masakazu Shibasaki
  • Publication number: 20100253897
    Abstract: There is provided a liquid crystal display device of high picture quality with high brightness and small display unevenness. A vertical alignment type liquid crystal display device which has a plurality of pixels includes: a first electrode which includes, in each of the plurality of pixels, a plurality of first branch portions extending in a first direction and a plurality of second branch portions extending in a second direction that is different from the first direction; a second electrode disposed so as to oppose the first electrode; and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the first electrode and the second electrode, wherein a width of each of the plurality of first branch portions and the plurality of second branch portions is in a range not less than 1.4 ?m and not more than 8.0 ?m.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 11, 2008
    Publication date: October 7, 2010
    Applicant: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Ohgami, Yoshito Hashimoto, Masakazu Shibasaki, Yuichi Iyama, Masumi Kubo, Masayuki Soga
  • Publication number: 20100231838
    Abstract: It is an object of the invention to provide a substrate for a liquid crystal display, a liquid crystal display having the same, and a method of manufacturing the same which make it possible to provide a display having high luminance and preferable display characteristics to be used in display sections of information apparatuses and the like. Each pixel is defined by gate bus lines extending in the horizontal direction and drain bus lines extending in the vertical direction. TFTs are formed in the vicinity of intersections between the bus lines, and resin overlap sections for shielding the TFTs from light are formed above the same. No black matrix is formed on a common electrode substrate which is provided in a face-to-face relationship with a TFT substrate, and the bus lines and the resin overlap sections formed on the TFT substrate function as a black matrix.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 27, 2010
    Publication date: September 16, 2010
    Applicant: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Manabu Sawasaki, Yuichi Inoue, Masakazu Shibasaki, Naoto Kondo, Tetsuya Fujikawa, Takashi Takagi, Tomonori Tanose, Tomoshige Oda, Akira Komorita, Katsunori Misaki, Shiro Hirota
  • Patent number: 7751003
    Abstract: The invention relates to a transflective liquid crystal display capable of display in both of transmissive and reflective modes and a method of manufacturing the same and provides a transflective liquid crystal display which can achieve high display characteristics in both of the transmissive and reflective modes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2010
    Assignees: Fujitsu Limited, AU Optronics Corporation
    Inventors: Hidefumi Yoshida, Yasutoshi Tasaka, Kunihiro Tashiro, Katsufumi Ohmuro, Tsuyoshi Kamada, Kazuya Ueda, Masakazu Shibasaki
  • Publication number: 20100118010
    Abstract: The invention relates to a liquid crystal display device including a first transistor, a plurality of sub-picture element electrodes formed in a picture element region, a control electrode formed in capacitance coupling with at least one of the plural sub-picture element electrodes, the control electrode being applied with a display voltage from the first transistor, and an auxiliary capacitance bus line held at a predetermined voltage level and constituting an auxiliary capacitance between the auxiliary capacitance bus line and the control electrode. A second transistor is provided between the sub-picture element electrode coupled with the control electrode by the capacitance coupling and the auxiliary capacitance bus line or between the sub-picture element electrode coupled with the control electrode by the capacitance coupling and the sub-picture element electrode connected to the first transistor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 15, 2010
    Publication date: May 13, 2010
    Inventors: Masakazu Shibasaki, Yasutoshi Tasaka, Hideaki Tsuda, Yohei Nakanishi, Hidefumi Yoshida, Tsuyoshi Kamada
  • Publication number: 20100110357
    Abstract: The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device used as a display part of an electronic apparatus which exhibits high brightness and favorable display quality. The liquid crystal display device includes a pair of substrates which are arranged to face each other in an opposed manner; vertical-alignment type liquid crystal which is sealed between the pair of substrates; a plurality of pixel regions, each pixel region including a sub pixel having a pixel electrode on one substrate and a sub pixel having a pixel electrode on one substrate, a slit formed between the pixel electrodes; and a singular point control part which includes projecting portions which are formed on end portions of the pixel electrodes on the slit-side and controls singular points of the liquid crystal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 5, 2010
    Publication date: May 6, 2010
    Applicant: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yasutoshi Tasaka, Takahiro Sasaki, Yohei Nakanishi, Masakazu Shibasaki, Takashi Sasabayashi, Hidefumi Yoshida, Tsuyoshi Kamada, Hideaki Tsuda, Kazuya Ueda
  • Publication number: 20100103206
    Abstract: This invention relates to an image processing method for improving the quality of an image to be displayed on a display device and to a liquid-crystal display device using the same, and aims at providing an image processing method for providing wide viewing angle and excellent tonal-intensity viewing angle characteristic and a liquid-crystal display device using the same. Combined together are a higher-luminance pixel to be driven higher in luminance than the luminance data of an image to be displayed and a lower-luminance pixel to be driven lower in luminance than the luminance data, to determine a luminance on the higher-luminance pixel and luminance on the lower-luminance pixel as well as an area ratio of the higher-luminance and lower-luminance pixels in a manner obtaining a luminance nearly equal to a desired luminance based on the luminance data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 17, 2009
    Publication date: April 29, 2010
    Applicant: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Kamada, Hidefumi Yoshida, Yoshio Koike, Toshiaki Suzuki, Tetsuya Kobayashi, Yasutoshi Tasaka, Masakazu Shibasaki, Kunihiro Tashiro, Kazuya Ueda, Katsuyoshi Hiraki