Citizen Watch Company, Ltd.

Citizen Holdings Company, Ltd.

Makoto Arai

Yasushi Kaneko

Kazuhiro Okada

Seigo Togashi

Koichi Hoshino

Takeru Yoshino

Yoshihiro Kaneda

An object of the present invention is to provide a liquid crystal panel wherein provisions are made to effectively prevent the infiltration of gas from an end portion of a liquid crystal cell or from areas near cut portions of the liquid crystal cell, and a method for fabricating such a liquid crystal panel. More particularly, the present invention provides a liquid crystal panel includes a liquid crystal cell which includes a first substrate, a second substrate, a sealing member, and a liquid crystal layer provided between the first and second transparent substrates and sealed by the sealing member, a planarizing layer formed so as to cover an end portion of the liquid crystal cell, and a gas barrier layer formed on the planarizing layer. The invention also provides a method for producing such a liquid crystal panel.

Liquid crystal panel with gas barrier layer structure and liquid crystal panel production method

In a liquid crystal display panel, connecting wires, having a two-layer structure formed of an indium-tin oxide (ITO) layer and a low-reflection metal layer each, are formed in a image non-display section on an upper substrate, while a shielding layer is formed in the image non-display section on a lower substrate. The gap between the upper and lower substrates is made uniform in both an image display section and the image non-display section by adjusting the thickness of the shielding layer relatively to that of the color filter layer formed in the image display section on the lower substrate or by adjusting the diameter of spacers arranged in the image non-display section relatively to that of spacers arranged in the image display section.

Liquid crystal display panel

In a liquid crystal display device including a liquid crystal display panel () including a liquid crystal layer () sandwiched between a first substrate () and a second substrate () having transparent electrodes () on inner surfaces opposing to each other, the film thickness of at least one of the transparent electrodes () formed on the first and second substrates () is set so that light passing through the transparent electrode and exhibiting a maximum transmittance has a color within either a region defined by an x value of 0.22 to 0.28 and a y value of 0.21 to 0.31 or a region defined by an x value of 0.28 to 0.34 and a y value of 0.22 to 0.35 in a chromaticity diagram of a CIE 1931 color system using a white light source. This reduces coloring irregularities due to a film thickness error caused during manufacturing of the transparent electrodes to enable performance of uniform display.

Liquid crystal display apparatus

A liquid crystal display comprises a top polarizeran optical compensating element, an anisotropic scattering layera scattering layerand a liquid crystal deviceincorporating therein a reflective layerWhen the direction of viewing direction of the anisotropic scattering layer is designated as the Y-axis direction, and a direction oriented substantially at right angles to the Y-axis direction is designated as the X-axis direction, light entering the anisotropic scattering layer is scattered over a wider angle along the Y-axis direction than along the X-axis direction. Further, the incident angle dependence of the straight-go transmittance of the anisotropic scattering layer is symmetrical about the layer normal, and the straight-go transmittance in the layer normal direction is lower than the straight-go transmittance in any oblique direction.

Liquid crystal display including an anisotropic scattering layer

A metal film is laminated on a glass substrate and a photosensitive resin film is coated on the metal film. The metal film and the photosensitive resin film are selectively removed by means of exposure and development in the area that turns into a transmission area in each pixel that is a unit displaying colors such as red, green, and blue. Thus, a reflection layer and an adjustment layer are left intact in a reflection area of each pixel. Color filters are formed on both the transmission area and the adjustment film. The total thickness of the reflection layer and the adjustment film is controlled to be about the half of the thickness of the color filters in the transmission area.

Color liquid crystal display device and manufacturing method thereof

A TN liquid crystal cell constituted by sandwiching a nematic liquid crystal which is aligned at a twist angle of about 90&deg; between a first and a second transparent substrate each of which has transparent electrodes is used, an absorption-type polarizing film is provided on the outside, which is the visible side, of the second substrate, and a reflection-type polarizing film, a scattering layer, and a mirror reflector are provided in order on the outside, which is the opposite side to the visible side of the TN liquid crystal cell, of the first substrate, thereby constituting a liquid crystal display device for performing a reflection display of information of character and image in an achromatic metallic tone within a bright diffused white background.

Liquid crystal display device

A reflective liquid crystal display device, employing a single polarizing film comprises a liquid crystal element ( ) comprised of a twist aligned nematic liquid crystal layer ( ) sandwiched between a first substrate ( ) thereof, provided with a reflector ( ) and first electrodes ( ) and a second substrate ( ) thereof, provided with second electrodes ( ), a twisted retardation film ( ) deposited on the outer side (the visible side) of the second substrate ( ) of the liquid crystal element ( ), further a retardation film ( ), and a polarizing film ( ) which are sequentially deposited in that order on the outer side of the retardation film ( ). As a result, reflective display bright and in high contrast can be effected.

Liquid crystal display

With a liquid crystal display device comprising an STN liquid crystal element ( ) comprised of 200&deg; to 260&deg; twist aligned nematic liquid crystal ( ) sandwiched between a first substrate ( ) thereof, provided with a reflector ( ) and first electrodes ( ), and a second substrate ( ) thereof, provided with second electrodes ( ), a retardation film ( ), and a polarizing film that are disposed on the outer side of the second substrate ( ) of the STN liquid crystal element, black display of low reflectance can be obtained_in all wavelength regions, thereby enabling bright display in high contrast to be effected by setting a &Dgr;nd value of the STN liquid crystal element indicating a birefringent tendency thereof in a range of 0.7 to 0.8 &mgr;m, a retardation value indicating a birefringent tendency of the retardation film ( ) in a range of 0.35 to 0.40 &mgr;m, and an intersection angle formed by a phase delay axis of the retardation film ( ) and an absorption axis or a transmission axis of the polarizing film ( ) in a range of 30&deg; to 45&deg;.

A liquid crystal layer ( ) composed of a super twisted nematic liquid crystal is sealed between a first substrate ( ) having first electrodes ( ) and a second substrate ( ) having second electrodes ( ), and a color filter is provided on any one of the first substrate ( ) and the second substrate ( ) to form an STN liquid crystal cell ( ), and a polarizing film ( ) is disposed outside the second substrate ( ), which is the visible side of the STN liquid crystal cell ( ), with a twisted retardation film ( ) interposed therebetween, and a diffusing layer ( ), a reflection-type polarizing film ( ) and a light absorbing layer ( ) are disposed in order outside the first substrate ( ), and the liquid crystal layer ( ) is aligned such that major axis directions of molecules located at the middle between the first and second substrates ( ) are parallel to the horizontal axis of a display screen.

Color liquid crystal display device including super twisted nematic liquid crystal with molecular major axis directions parallel to a display screen horizontal axis

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Tokorozawa, Japan

Makoto Arai