Abstract: A liquid crystal display device having a pair of substrates, a liquid crystal layer filled between the pair of substrates and a plurality of pixel electrodes and common electrodes formed on one of the pair of substrates for supplying an electric field to the liquid crystal layer. The liquid crystal display device is configured so that a response time between a lowest brightness level and a highest brightness level is less than 16.7 ms, and the liquid crystal layer contains a range of 40% or more weight percentage to 100% or less weight percentage of a constituent component with a dielectric anisotropy of ???1.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a nematic bistable display device, characterized in that it comprises control means (40) for producing, after the anchoring is broken, hybrid textures in which two bistable textures coexist in a controlled proportion within the same pixel, these being separated by 180° volume disclination lines or by 180° reorientation walls on one of the surfaces, and means (40) for the long-term stabilization of the hybrid textures by transformation of the volume lines into surface walls and the immobilization of these walls on the surface.

Abstract: A transmissive LCD is placed in optical series with pixels of an image. The transmissive LCD is set to full transmissivity when bright pixels of the image pass through the transmissive LCD. Transmissivity is decreased where pixels darker than a darkening threshold pass through the transmissive LCD. A darkening curve representative of an amount of darkening performed by the transmissive LCD provides an amount of darkening to be performed on each pixel. Preferably, the darkening curve gradually darkens pixels more as the pixels themselves are darker. The darkening curve may be implemented as a formula or a look-up table in software or drive electronics that energize the transmissive LCD. Both the darkening threshold and the darkening curve may be user selectable.

Abstract: A liquid crystal display including a pair of substrates having electrodes and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the substrates. A bank-shaped projection made of an insulating material is formed on the electrode, and each of the display pixels is divided into two or more regions having different capacitances by capacitive coupling. Additionally, voltages corresponding to the capacitances are applied to the respective regions in the application of a driving voltage.

Abstract: A liquid crystal (LC) display device includes a LC panel and a driving circuit. The LC panel exhibits, in its voltage-transmittance characteristics, an extreme transmittance at a voltage equal to or lower than a lowest gray-level voltage. The driving circuit supplies to the LC panel a predetermined driving voltage overshooting a gray-level voltage corresponding to an input image signal of a current vertical period, according to a combination of an input image signal of an immediately preceding vertical period and the input image signal of the current vertical period.

Abstract: To reduce viewing angle dependence of ? characteristics in a normally black liquid crystal display. Each pixel 10 has a first sub-pixel 10a and a second sub-pixel 10b which can apply mutually different voltages to their respective liquid crystal layers. Relationships ?V12 (gk)>0 volts and ?V12 (gk)??V12 (gk+1) are satisfied at least in a range 0 <gk?n?1 if it is assumed that ?V12=V1?V2, where ?V12 is the difference between root-mean-square voltage V1 applied to the liquid crystal layer of the first sub-pixel 10a and root-mean-square voltage V2 applied to the liquid crystal layer of the second sub-pixel 10b.

Abstract: A liquid crystal display device, and a method of fabricating such a liquid crystal display device, that uses a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC). Additives are added to the ferroelectric liquid crystal. The additives are then used to form polymer networks, beneficially by exposure to ultraviolet light. Suitable additives include an acrylate compound.

Abstract: A liquid crystal display device, and a method of fabricating such a liquid crystal display device, that uses a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC). Additives are added to the ferroelectric liquid crystal. The additives are then used to form polymer networks, beneficially by exposure to ultraviolet light. Suitable additives include an acrylate compound.

Abstract: An electronic display is formed using an array of hollow tubes filled with an electrophoretic material sandwiched between two plates. The hollow tubes have either barrier walls or an electrostatic barrier, which restrict the flow of electrophoretic particles within the hollow tubes. The flow of electrophoretic particles over these barriers is controlled using electric fields, which makes it possible to matrix address the electrophoretic displays. Wire electrodes built into the hollow tubes and electrodes on the two plates are used to address the display. The plates are preferably composed of glass, glass-ceramic, polymer/plastic or metal, while the hollow tubes are preferably composed of glass, polymer/plastic or a combination of glass and polymer/plastic. Color is optionally imparted into the display using colored tubes, adding a color coating to the surface of the tubes, or adding the color to the electrophoretic material.

Abstract: A plasma-addressed liquid crystal display device capable of high-speed drive and improved viewing characteristic is composed of a liquid crystal cell structure and plasma cell structure stacked with each other. The liquid crystal cell structure is formed by sandwiching a liquid crystal having a spontaneous polarization between a first transparent substrate having therein transparent electrode stripes and an alignment film covering the electrode stripes, and a dielectric sheet having thereon an alignment film. The plasma cell structure is formed of a second transparent substrate having thereon cathode stripes and anode stripes disposed alternately with a spacing therebetween, stacked via stripe-shaped partitions disposed along the anode stripes onto the dielectric sheet so as to form plasma channels between the partitions filled with an ionizable gas sealed up therein.

Abstract: In order to reduce the effects of impact on liquid crystal devices a polymer network is introduced into ferroelectric liquid crystal cells. A liquid crystal device comprises two spaced cell walls each bearing electrode structures and treated on at least one facing surface with an alignment layer, a layer of a smectic liquid crystal material enclosed between the cell walls, characterised in that the liquid crystal material contains a small amount of monomer. The liquid crystal material may also contain a photoinitiator. The monomer material may be cured to produce the polymer networks the curing many be carried out in the presence of an electric or magnetic field. Further, the monomer may be cured in an isotropic or liquid crystal phase.

Abstract: A mixture of a ferroelectric or anti-ferroelectric liquid crystal material and a monomer having a single photopolymeric functional group is injected in the space between two electrode substrates while heat is applied. After cooling of the mixture it is irradiated with ultraviolet light at a temperature at which the liquid crystal material remains in the smectic phase so as to polymerise the monomer. Areas of liquid crystal material requiring different threshold voltages for switching are thereby produced. Alternatively such areas can be produced by changing the conditions applied to a mixture of liquid crystal material with a suitable dopant so as to cause separation of the dopant out of the liquid crystal material in order to provide a polarity of nucleation points for controlling domain formation within the liquid crystal material. Such control of domain formation can be used to provide greyscale in a liquid crystal device.

Abstract: The liquid crystal display device is composed of at least one optical retardation compensator plate 2 (and 3) inserted between a liquid crystal display element 1 and polarizer plates 4 and 5. The liquid crystal display element 1 is composed of a pair of electrode substrates 6 and 7 and a liquid crystal layer 8 sealed therebetween. The polarizer plates 4 and 5 flank the liquid crystal display element 1. The optical retardation compensator plate 2 (and 3) has a negative refractive index anisotropy (n.sub.a =n.sub.c >n.sub.b). The direction of a principal refractive index n.sub.b parallel to the normal to the surface and the direction of either a principal refractive index n.sub.a or n.sub.c in the surface incline either clockwise or counterclockwise around the direction of the principal refractive index n.sub.c or n.sub.a in the surface.

Abstract: A liquid crystal device is constituted by a chiral smectic liquid crystal and a pair of substrates sandwiching the chiral smectic liquid crystal therebetween and each having thereon an electrode for applying a voltage to the liquid crystal. At least one of the substrates being provided with an alignment control film comprising a specific aromatic polyimide which has been subjected to a uniaxial aligning treatment. The chiral smectic liquid crystal assumes bistability in a chiral smectic temperature range when incorporated in a test cell which is not provided with an alignment control film and has been subjected to shearing treatment. In the liquid crystal device including the polyimide alignment control film, the chiral smectic liquid crystal at least has a voltage-transmittance characteristic such that an effective tilt angle and a transmittance continuously change depending on an electric field applied thereto.

Abstract: A parallel field active matrix liquid crystal display comprising a means for varying the intensity of an applied electric field. The intensity of the applied electric field is varied by insulating film slits or electric field shield pixel electrodes. Insulating film slits are defined by removing an insulating film between electrode pairs, in any one or more of a plurality of pairs of electrodes including pixel electrodes and common electrodes within a unit pixel of a display pixel. Alternatively, electric field shield pixel electrodes for shielding part of an electric field are patterned in the same layer as pixel electrodes above several common electrodes of a plurality of pairs of electrodes including pixel electrodes and common electrodes within a unit pixel of a display pixel.

Abstract: A liquid crystal display element is arranged so that a scanning line electrode group and a signal line electrode group, which are formed by arranging a plurality of electrodes parallel, are placed in a direction where they intersect each other, and liquid crystal intervenes between these electrode groups, and input directions of signal voltages to be applied to the signal line electrode group are opposite in some electrode. As a result, nonuniformity of temperature on a display screen, which is caused by heat generation according to driving of the liquid crystal and causes variations of a driving property of the liquid crystal, is suppressed, and thus a satisfactory display state is realized.

Abstract: Monomers with photopolymerization characteristics and an initiator for polymerization are added to a liquid crystal composition having a ferroelectric liquid crystal phase (S5). In a state (S6) where coexist two domains which differ from each other in directions of molecular major axes in the ferroelectric liquid crystal phase, light is projected to the liquid crystal layer to form a polymer reticulate structure therein (S7). As a result, this state is made a stable one and the liquid crystal shows macroscopic switching behaviors among two states causing dark and bright displays respectively, and the above-described state causing halftone display.

Abstract: A gate insulating film, a lower-layer pixel electrode, an inter-layer insulating film, and an upper-layer pixel electrode, in that order, are provided on a transparent insulating substrate. The lower-layer pixel electrode and the upper-layer pixel electrode are connected to the drain electrode of a TFT, and a plurality of holes are provided in the upper-layer pixel electrode. Where the upper-layer pixel electrode lies, the image signal voltage is applied directly to the liquid crystal, but where there are holes in the upper-layer pixel electrode, a divided capacitance voltage of the serial capacitances of the liquid crystal and the inter-layer insulating film is applied. In this way, it becomes possible to effectively form within the same pixel several domains with different viewing angle characteristics, without giving rise to disturbance of alignment.

Abstract: In order to the effects of impact on liquid crystal devices a polymer network is introduced into ferroelectric liquid crystal cells. A liquid crystal device comprises two spaced cell walls each bearing electrode structures and treated on at least one facing surface with an alignment layer, a layer of a smectic liquid crystal material enclosed between the cell walls, characterised in that the liquid crystal material contains a small amount of monomer. The liquid crystal material may also contain a photoinitiator. The monomer material may be cured to produce the polymer network; the curing may be carried out in the presence of an electric or magnetic field. Further, the monomer may be cured in an isotropic or liquid crystal phase.

Abstract: A liquid crystal display device comprises a pair of substrates opposing each other, each having an electrode and an aligning film on an inner surface, a layer of bistable nematic liquid crystal sealed in a space between substrate, and two polarizing plates. A reset pulse voltage high enough to align the molecules almost vertically to the substrates is applied to the layer of liquid crystal. Then, a first state-selecting pulse voltage lower than the reset pulse voltage is applied between the electrodes, whereby the molecules of the liquid crystal assume a first metastable aligned state. Alternatively, a second state-selecting pulse voltage lower than the reset pulse voltage is applied between the electrodes, whereby the molecules of the liquid crystal assume a second metastable aligned state.

Abstract: Driver apparatus and methods of driving at least a portion of a cholesteric liquid crystal ("CLC") panel to a state having a given reflectivity. One of the methods includes the steps of: (1) initially driving the portion to a nematic phase, (2) subsequently driving the portion to a cholesteric phase focal-conic state, the cholesteric phase focal-conic state providing a known reference state for subsequent driving of the portion and (3) thereafter driving the portion to the state having the given reflectivity.

Abstract: A color display panel has a multiplicity of pixels each including a first color dot composed of a plurality of sub-dots having mutually different areas and a second color dot composed of a plurality of sub-dots having mutually different areas. Each of the first and second color dots includes at least one first sub-dot and at least one second sub-dot having an effective area smaller than that of the first sub-dot. The first or second sub-dot of the second color dot is disposed between the first and second sub-dots of the second color dot. The thus-constituted color display panel allows easy resolution conversion and multi-level gradational display.

Abstract: A reflective liquid crystal display device has a liquid crystal cell formed by laminating upper and lower orientation layers 11 and 21, upper and lower electrodes 14 and 24, upper and lower substrates 12 and 22, and upper and lower polarizers 13 and 23 arranged in order above and below a liquid crystal layer 10 so that they may face their counterparts respectively. The liquid crystal cell is provided with viewing angle dependence so that the light transmission ratio of the dark display section to the bright display section for the light incident at the required angle may be less than 2 at the required azimuth angle of the liquid crystal cell, and the direction of the required azimuth angle is aligned with the direction of the main light source incident into the liquid crystal cell.

Abstract: A liquid crystal display element is manufactured as follows: First, a mixture containing a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) composition and a monofunctional monomer is injected into the space between opposing two electrode substrates, each of which is constituted by a substrate, an electrode, an alignment film and a polarization plate; next, the mixture is heated by irradiating it with ultraviolet light to a temperature at which the FLC composition exhibits a nematic phase or an isotropic phase so that the monomer is polymerized, and then it is cooled off. With this arrangement, isotropic micro structural elements, which locally give different threshold-value characteristics in the above-mentioned mixture, are formed into a striped structure so that a liquid crystal layer is formed. This striped structure is formed when the polymer that has been formed as a result of the polymerization is allowed to be sandwiched between smectic layers in the FLC composition during the cooling process.

Abstract: An object of the technology of our invention is to solve a luminance defect viewed as a "seam" or the like and to provide a liquid crystal display device having a screen for equally displaying an image. For example, when an exposing process is performed for one conductor layer or a dielectric layer, a total of four photomasks are used corresponding to four shot areas. A light insulation layer of a photomask used for the exposing process for patterning for example a signal line is formed so that it becomes a projection pattern of the signal line. The photomasks corresponding to adjacent shot areas are formed so that patterns of the light insulation layers of the boundary portion are engaged with each other on the plane.

Abstract: A liquid crystal display unit including a plurality of subpixels in each pixel provides superior gradation over a wide viewing angle, and is produced with no increase in manufacturing cost and no deterioration of desired properties (such as reduction in brightness, contrast and response). No additional manufacturing step is required since a control capacitor electrode is formed at the same time as source and drain electrodes constituting a thin-film transistor. By controlling the ratio of display area and the difference in applied voltage of the subpixels, preferable viewing angle properties are obtained. The display properties at the boundary of subpixels are improved by controlling the gap width and the direction of boundary of the subpixels, thus providing a bright display.

Abstract: A ferroelectric liquid crystal device in which a ferroelectric liquid crystal is interposed between a pair of electrode substrates facing each other, and in which pixels are formed at intersections of upper and lower electrodes. A threshold gradient is provided in each pixel, and a light-shielding electrode portion is formed along at least a part of the periphery of each pixel so that no domain wall is formed at the boundary between the shielding electrode portion and a pixel portion adjacent to the shielding electrode portion.

Abstract: A multi-domain halftone gray scale active matrix liquid crystal display utilizing a mono-gap configuration for achieving a very wide viewing angle at a low-cost. The substrate of the display has areas having a rub or an alignment of different directions from the direction of the rub or alignment in other adjacent areas. Each pixel of the gray scale matrix has a plurality of subpixels such that each subpixel turns on at a different voltage than that of the other subpixels. The areas involving different rubs or alignments on the substrates may be areas of pixels or subpixels. At least one compensating retardation layer is formed on the display. The technique of enabling the combining of multiple domains and compensation with halftone grayscale pixels results in a display having significantly wider viewing angles than either a multi-domain display or a halftone grayscale display, whether compensated for or not.

Abstract: A liquid crystal display apparatus for a matrix display is constituted by a plurality of data electrodes, a plurality of scanning electrodes disposed opposite to and intersecting the data electrodes so as to form a pixel at each overlapping of the data electrodes and scanning electrodes, a liquid crystal layer disposed between the data electrodes and scanning electrodes, and plural gradation electrodes disposed at each pixel. The gradation electrodes are capacitively coupled to each other and capacitively or electrically coupled to an associated one of the scanning electrodes and data electrodes so as to apply stepwise different voltages across the liquid crystal layer between the gradation electrodes and an opposite one of the data electrodes and scanning electrodes.

Abstract: A ferroelectric liquid crystal display device, and a gray scale display apparatus and method adopting the liquid crystal display device. In the ferroelectric liquid crystal display device, the region of a pixel is divided into a plurality of sub-regions having a predetermined size and a dielectric layer is formed on top of or beneath each transparent electrode of the divided sub-regions in the same thickness, wherein the permittivity of the dielectric layers is similar and the optical transmittance thereof is different, or both permittivity and optical transmittance of the dielectric layers are different. Then, the state of the ferroelectric liquid crystal corresponding to a specific sub-region is changed using a voltage sharing method adopting the principle of voltage drop by resistance. As a result, the transmittance of each divided sub-region can be different relatively, so that the gray scale display can be achieved with the further fractionized gray scale levels.

Abstract: A liquid crystal display unit including a plurality of subpixels in each pixel provides superior gradation over a wide viewing angle, and is produced with no increase in manufacturing cost and no deterioration of desired properties (such as reduction in brightness, contrast and response). No additional manufacturing step is required since a control capacitor electrode is formed at the same time as source and drain electrodes constituting a thin-film transistor. By controlling the ratio of display area and the difference in applied voltage of the subpixels, preferable viewing angle properties are obtained. The display properties at the boundary of subpixels are improved by controlling the gap width and the direction of boundary of the subpixels, thus providing a bright display.

Abstract: A liquid crystal device is constituted by a pair of substrates having mutually opposing electrodes thereon, and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the substrates so as to form a pixel comprising a pair of the opposing electrodes and the liquid crystal layer therebetween. The liquid crystal layer in a pixel is divided into a plurality of regions having mutually different liquid crystal layer thicknesses, and the pixel is constituted so as to show an applied voltage-transmittance characteristic having an improved linearity. More specifically, for example, the liquid crystal layer in a pixel is provided with locally varying thicknesses by forming on a substrate pluralities of stripe-shaped projections and indentations at locally different indentation widths so that the projections have a smaller width in a region having a smaller indentation width than in a region having a larger indentation width.