Patents by Inventor Miharu Otani

Miharu Otani 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: 9500911
    Abstract: Provided is a liquid crystal display panel in which both the prevention of low-temperature bubble defects and the prevention of unevenness in brightness by pressure can be achieved without the need of forming multiple types of spacers differing in the height. In a liquid crystal display panel comprising a plurality of spacers 14 arranged between a pair of transparent substrates 11 and 12 and a liquid crystal 13 encapsulated between the transparent substrates, the spacers 14 are of a uniform height and each spacer 14 is substantially in a trapezoidal shape in which the ratio between the top area and the bottom area is 0.3 or less. The spacers 14 are formed on one of the transparent substrates 11 and 12. The spacers 14 are arranged at appropriate density so that the contact area ratio of the spacers' top surfaces in contact with the opposing substrate per unit area is within a range of 0.8%-1.0%.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2016
    Assignee: Japan Display Inc.
    Inventors: Toshimasa Ishigaki, Daisuke Sonoda, Miharu Otani, Tsutomu Ishibashi
  • Patent number: 9488884
    Abstract: In a liquid crystal display device having wall structures, the generation of low-temperature shock bubbles is suppressed. Also, electrodes and the like within substrates are prevented from being damaged during manufacturing. The liquid crystal display device includes a first substrate, a second substrate that is disposed to face the first substrate, a liquid crystal layer that is disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate, wall structures that are formed on the first substrate, pixel electrodes that are disposed on at least side wall of the wall structures, a common electrode that is formed on the first substrate, and a plurality of pixels including the pixel electrodes and the common electrode, in which higher portions are partially disposed on a surface of the second substrate, and the higher portions come into contact with the wall structures to bring the first substrate into contact with the second substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2016
    Assignee: Japan Display Inc.
    Inventors: Takato Hiratsuka, Osamu Itou, Miharu Otani, Toshimasa Ishigaki, Daisuke Sonoda
  • Patent number: 9244312
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display device has a TFT substrate, a color filter (CF) substrate, a liquid crystal layer, wall structures formed on the TFT substrate, pixel electrodes provided on at least the sides of the wall structures, and common electrodes and counter electrodes formed on the TFT substrate and on the CF substrate to face each other, and a number of pixels are provided to include the TFT substrate, the CF substrate and the liquid crystal layer, wherein a light blocking region is provided around each of the number of pixels, each wall structure is arranged in the light blocking region, a support formed of a transparent and elastic material is arranged on an upper surface of each wall structure, the CF substrate is supported by the supports, and the liquid crystal layer is driven by electrical fields generated by the pixel electrodes, the common electrodes and the counter electrodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2016
    Assignee: JAPAN DISPLAY INC.
    Inventors: Miharu Otani, Takato Hiratsuka, Osamu Itou
  • Patent number: 9223067
    Abstract: A display device includes a first substrate, a second substrate, a first polarization element film which is directly formed on a surface of the second substrate on a side opposite to a side where the first substrate is arranged, and a first polarization layer which is formed in contact with a surface of the first polarization element film on a side opposite to a side where the second substrate is arranged. The first polarization element film is made of an aligned lyotropic liquid crystal material, and the first protective layer is made of a material having a refractive index smaller than a refractive index of the first polarization element film in a transmission axis direction, and has a thickness smaller than a thickness of the first polarization element film.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignees: JAPAN DISPLAY INC., PANASONIC LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Takato Hiratsuka, Masaya Adachi, Hiroshi Sasaki, Miharu Otani
  • Publication number: 20150103295
    Abstract: A display device includes a first substrate, a second substrate, a first polarization element film which is directly formed on a surface of the second substrate on a side opposite to a side where the first substrate is arranged, and a first polarization layer which is formed in contact with a surface of the first polarization element film on a side opposite to a side where the second substrate is arranged. The first polarization element film is made of an aligned lyotropic liquid crystal material, and the first protective layer is made of a material having a refractive index smaller than a refractive index of the first polarization element film in a transmission axis direction, and has a thickness smaller than a thickness of the first polarization element film.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2014
    Publication date: April 16, 2015
    Inventors: Takato Hiratsuka, Masaya Adachi, Hiroshi Sasaki, Miharu Otani
  • Publication number: 20150077694
    Abstract: Provided is a liquid crystal display panel in which both the prevention of low-temperature bubble defects and the prevention of unevenness in brightness by pressure can be achieved without the need of forming multiple types of spacers differing in the height. In a liquid crystal display panel comprising a plurality of spacers 14 arranged between a pair of transparent substrates 11 and 12 and a liquid crystal 13 encapsulated between the transparent substrates, the spacers 14 are of a uniform height and each spacer 14 is substantially in a trapezoidal shape in which the ratio between the top area and the bottom area is 0.3 or less. The spacers 14 are formed on one of the transparent substrates 11 and 12. The spacers 14 are arranged at appropriate density so that the contact area ratio of the spacers' top surfaces in contact with the opposing substrate per unit area is within a range of 0.8%-1.0%.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 17, 2014
    Publication date: March 19, 2015
    Inventors: Toshimasa ISHIGAKI, Daisuke SONODA, Miharu OTANI, Tsutomu ISHIBASHI
  • Patent number: 8922738
    Abstract: In a display device which includes: a first substrate; a second substrate; and a thin film polarizer which is directly formed on a surface of the second substrate on a side opposite to the first substrate, the thin film polarizer includes a polarization element film and a protection layer which is laminated to the polarization element film, the polarization element film is made of an aligned lyotropic liquid crystal material, and the protection layer has a refractive index smaller than a refractive index of the polarization element film in a transmission axis direction. The protection layer may have a thickness smaller than a thickness of polarization element film.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 30, 2014
    Assignees: Japan Display Inc., Panasonic Liquid Crystal Display Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takato Hiratsuka, Masaya Adachi, Hiroshi Sasaki, Miharu Otani
  • Publication number: 20140268001
    Abstract: To suppress generation of low temperature impact bubbles and a damage in an electrode, etc. on a wall structure in manufacturing process, the liquid crystal display device according to the present invention includes a first substrate; a second substrate which is provided so as to face the first substrate; a liquid crystal layer which is provided between the first substrate and the second substrate; a wall structure which is formed on the first substrate; a pixel electrode which is provided at least on a side surface of the wall structure; a common electrode which is formed on the first substrate; and a plurality of pixels which include the pixel electrode and the common electrode, in which a high portion is provided at a portion of the wall structure, and the first substrate comes into contact with the second substrate at the high portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 11, 2014
    Publication date: September 18, 2014
    Applicant: Japan Display Inc.
    Inventors: Takato HIRATSUKA, Osamu ITOU, Miharu OTANI, Toshimasa ISHIGAKI, Daisuke SONODA
  • Publication number: 20140036209
    Abstract: In a liquid crystal display device having wall structures, the generation of low-temperature shock bubbles is suppressed. Also, electrodes and the like within substrates are prevented from being damaged during manufacturing. The liquid crystal display device includes a first substrate, a second substrate that is disposed to face the first substrate, a liquid crystal layer that is disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate, wall structures that are formed on the first substrate, pixel electrodes that are disposed on at least side wall of the wall structures, a common electrode that is formed on the first substrate, and a plurality of pixels including the pixel electrodes and the common electrode, in which higher portions are partially disposed on a surface of the second substrate, and the higher portions come into contact with the wall structures to bring the first substrate into contact with the second substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 2, 2013
    Publication date: February 6, 2014
    Applicant: Japan Display Inc.
    Inventors: Takato HIRATSUKA, Osamu ITOU, Miharu OTANI, Toshimasa ISHIGAKI, Daisuke SONODA
  • Publication number: 20130329146
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display device has a TFT substrate, a color filter (CF) substrate, a liquid crystal layer, wall structures formed on the TFT substrate, pixel electrodes provided on at least the sides of the wall structures, and common electrodes and counter electrodes formed on the TFT substrate and on the CF substrate to face each other, and a number of pixels are provided to include the TFT substrate, the CF substrate and the liquid crystal layer, wherein a light blocking region is provided around each of the number of pixels, each wall structure is arranged in the light blocking region, a support formed of a transparent and elastic material is arranged on an upper surface of each wall structure, the CF substrate is supported by the supports, and the liquid crystal layer is driven by electrical fields generated by the pixel electrodes, the common electrodes and the counter electrodes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 12, 2013
    Publication date: December 12, 2013
    Inventors: Miharu OTANI, Takato HIRATSUKA, Osamu ITOU
  • Patent number: 8570462
    Abstract: Provided is a liquid crystal display device including: a liquid crystal cell (15) including a first substrate (110), a second substrate (111), and a liquid crystal layer (160) sealed between the first substrate and the second substrate; a first polarization member (210) for transmitting light in a predetermined polarization direction; and a second polarization member (220) for transmitting light in another polarization direction which is orthogonal to the predetermined polarization direction. At least one of the first polarization member and the second polarization member includes a multilayer thin film polarizer including a plurality of thin film polarizers which are stacked so that transmission axes of the plurality of thin film polarizers are aligned. The multilayer thin film polarizer includes a thin film polarizer formed in a predetermined film thickness by coating with dye molecules which are aligned by a shear stress.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2013
    Assignees: Hitachi Displays, Ltd., Panasonic Liquid Crystal Display Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takato Hiratsuka, Masaya Adachi, Miharu Otani, Jun Tanaka, Chie Yoshizawa
  • Patent number: 8237895
    Abstract: In a transflective liquid crystal display device including a transmission display portion and a reflection display portion, a dichroic ratio of a polarizing layer contained in a reflection region is increased to enhance display performance. The liquid crystal display device includes: the transmission display portion and the reflection display portion which are formed for each pixel; a reflective layer formed in the reflection display portion; a first substrate having a principal surface opposed to a liquid crystal layer; a second substrate opposed to the first substrate via the liquid crystal layer; and a polarizing layer formed above the reflective layer via an underlying layer thereof on the principal surface of the first substrate. The polarizing layer is made of chromonic liquid crystalline molecules, and an interface between the polarizing layer and the underlying layer has one of a siloxane structure and a silazane structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2012
    Assignees: Hitachi Displays, Ltd., Panasonic Liquid Crystal Display Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Miharu Otani, Jun Tanaka, Kazuhito Masuda, Masaya Adachi, Takato Hiratsuka
  • Patent number: 8154693
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to increase the dichroic ratio of the built-in polarizing layer in reflective regions so that the display performance improves in a semi-transmission type liquid crystal display device having a transmissive display portion and a reflective display portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignees: Hitachi Displays, Ltd., Panasonic Liquid Crystal Display Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Miharu Otani, Jun Tanaka, Kazuhito Masuda, Masaya Adachi, Takato Hiratsuka
  • Patent number: 8031305
    Abstract: A transflective liquid crystal display includes a first substrate, a second substrate, and liquid crystal intercalated between the first and second substrates in which each pixel includes a reflection area and a transmission area. The second substrate includes pixel electrodes and common electrodes to drive the liquid crystal. In the reflection area, a reflective layer is arranged between the pixel and common electrodes and the second substrate, and a polarizing layer is disposed between the pixel and common electrodes and the reflective layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2011
    Assignee: Hitachi Displays, Ltd.
    Inventors: Masaya Adachi, Chieko Araki, Jun Tanaka, Miharu Otani, Osamu Itou, Shinichiro Oka
  • Patent number: 8013961
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to implement a bright liquid crystal display device having a high contrast ratio and a wide viewing angle. A liquid crystal display device according to the present invention has: a number of data lines; gate lines formed so as to cross the number of data lines; a number of switching elements formed in locations where the number of data lines and the number of gate lines cross; a reflection area and a transmission area formed within each pixel; a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between first and second substrates; a common electrode placed between the first substrate and the liquid crystal layer; and a pixel electrode placed between the second substrate and the liquid crystal layer, and the common electrode has slits or protrusions, and the data lines overlap the slits in the common electrode or protrusions of the common electrode in the direction of normal to a surface of the first substrate in the configuration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2011
    Assignee: Hitachi Displays, Ltd.
    Inventors: Masaya Adachi, Miharu Otani, Jun Tanaka
  • Publication number: 20110194052
    Abstract: In a display device which includes: a first substrate; a second substrate; and a thin film polarizer which is directly formed on a surface of the second substrate on a side opposite to the first substrate, the thin film polarizer includes a polarization element film and a protection layer which is laminated to the polarization element film, the polarization element film is made of an aligned lyotropic liquid crystal material, and the protection layer has a refractive index smaller than a refractive index of the polarization element film in a transmission axis direction. The protection layer may have a thickness smaller than a thickness of polarization element film.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 8, 2011
    Publication date: August 11, 2011
    Inventors: Takato Hiratsuka, Masaya Adachi, Hiroshi Sasaki, Miharu Otani
  • Patent number: 7986041
    Abstract: As etch-stop films or Cu-diffusion barrier films used in insulation films constituting conductor layers of a stacked structure, films having smaller dielectric constant than silicon nitride films are used, and an insulation film at a lower-layer part of the stacked structure is made to have smaller dielectric constant than that at an upper-layer part thereof, and further this insulation film is a silicon oxide (SiO) film and has, in the interior thereof, nano-pores of from 0.05 nm or more to 4 nm or less in diameter as chief construction. This makes it possible to dramatically reduce effective dielectric constant while keeping the mechanical strength of the conductor layers themselves, and can materialize a highly reliable and high-performance semiconductor device having mitigated the wiring delay of signals which pass through wirings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2011
    Assignee: Renesas Electronics Corporation
    Inventors: Jun Tanaka, Miharu Otani, Kiyoshi Ogata, Yasumichi Suzuki, Katsuhiko Hotta
  • Patent number: 7952663
    Abstract: In a transflective liquid crystal display device having a first substrate, a second substrate, a liquid crystal layer disposed between the two substrates and a reflective region and a transmissive region in each pixel; the second substrate has a pixel electrode to drive the liquid crystal layer and a common electrode; the reflective region of the second substrate is formed with an in-cell polarizer between the pixel electrode and common electrode and the reflector. In this invention, the thickness of the liquid crystal layer is set greater in the reflective region than in the transmissive region. The difference in the liquid crystal layer thickness between the reflective region and the transmissive region is provided by forming a step in the first substrate or the second substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2011
    Assignee: Hitachi Displays, Ltd.
    Inventors: Chieko Araki, Masaya Adachi, Osamu Itou, Shoichi Hirota, Shinichiro Oka, Jun Tanaka, Miharu Otani
  • Publication number: 20110007243
    Abstract: Provided is a liquid crystal display device including a liquid crystal panel including: a first substrate on which a plurality of drain lines and a plurality of gate lines are formed, the plurality of gate lines crossing the plurality of drain lines; a second substrate which is arranged opposite to the first substrate via a liquid crystal; and an optical anisotropic film formed on a side of one of the first substrate and the second substrate, the side not being in contact with the liquid crystal; in which a region surrounded by the plurality of drain lines and the plurality of gate lines serves as a pixel region, in which the optical anisotropic film is formed of molecules which chemically bond to one of the first substrate and the second substrate in an aligned state.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 3, 2010
    Publication date: January 13, 2011
    Inventors: Jun Tanaka, Miharu Otani, Masaya Adachi, Takato Hiratsuka
  • Patent number: 7830082
    Abstract: An active matrix type organic light emitting diode display serving as a bottom emission type device coupling out emission of an organic electroluminescence layer from a substrate where thin film transistors are formed or as a top emission type device coupling out the emission on the opposite side to the substrate. In a suitable layer (102, 106, 107) in each device, an insulating film containing SiO is formed. The insulating film is porous with nano pores in the film. The porous insulating film is controlled as to film density, film refractive index, nano pore diameter in film, average nano pore diameter in film and maximum nano pore diameter in film so that the refractive index is lower than that of a transparent electrode or a transparent substrate of the display holding the organic electroluminescence layer therebetween, and nano pores are present in the film.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2010
    Assignee: Hitachi Displays, Ltd.
    Inventors: Jun Tanaka, Kiyoshi Ogata, Masaya Adachi, Miharu Otani