Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Tohoku University

Shoichi Ishihara

Shuichi Kozaki

Yoshinori Tanaka

Katsuji Hattori

Koichi Miyachi

Takehisa Sakurai

Seiji Shibahara

Kenji Nakao

Tsuyoshi Uemura

Iichiro Inoue

Mitsuhiro Murata

Hirofumi Wakemoto

Tadashi Ohtake

Keisuke Tsuda

Yutaka Ishii

Hirofumi Kubota

Tatsuo Uchida

Baku Katagiri

Takako Koide

Yoshihiro Matsuo

Takahiro Ishinabe

Tohru Kawakami

Yoshito Suzuki

Ryoichi Yamamoto

Yoshihiro Hashimoto

Junichi Kobayashi

Katsumi Adachi

Shin-ichiro Hatta

Masako Nakamura

Kazuo Sekiya

Daiichi Suzuki

Takahiro Wada

Shigehiro Sato

Mika Nakamura

Keizo Nakajima

Teijiro Kitao

Hiroshi Yoneno

Masahiro Nishizawa

Yukio Numata

Jun-ichiro Setsune

Toshihiro Matsumoto

Mitsutaka Okita

Kazuo Yokoyama

Akihito Jinda

Kiyoshi Ogishima

Yosuke Iwata

Junichi Asada

Sadayoshi Hotta

Tetsu Ogawa

Yoneharu Takubo

Hiroshi Watanabe

Seiichi Nagata

Hiroshi Yamazoe

Kazuhisa Morimoto

Hiroshi Satani

Fumiko Yokotani

Takeshi Fujii

Katsunori Ehara

Teruhisa Matsushita

Yusaku Nishimura

A backlight system () includes a light emitting section () and an imaging optical system. The imaging optical system includes a first microlens array (MLA) and a second microlens array (MLA). The lenses (A) separates the beams of light emitted from the light emitting section () by RGB, and causes them to be converged at a pitch same as a pitch at which the picture elements are arrayed. The lenses (A) are provided in one-to-one correspondence to the picture elements such that the lenses (A) have their respective focal points at positions onto which beams of light having passed through the lenses (A) are converged. The lenses (A) thus deflect the beams of light which have passed through the lenses (A) in a substantially vertical direction with respect to the display surface of the liquid crystal panel.

Backlight system and LCD device using the same

Picture element electrodes () and common electrodes () are provided in one of two substrates facing each other. Each picture element () has a plurality of sub picture elements (). In a range in which a signal voltage of an image signal is low, a display is carried out only in a first sub picture element () having narrower electrode spacing, whereas in a range in which the signal voltage of the image signal is high, a display is carried out in both of the first sub picture element () and a second sub picture element () having wider electrode spacing.

Liquid crystal display element, liquid crystal display device, and display method employed in liquid crystal display element

An vertical alignment type liquid crystal display element () which controls an orientation of liquid crystal molecules () in a liquid crystal layer () by use of a transverse electric field so as to carry out display. A CF-side first insulating layer () and a CF-side second insulting layer () which have respective different dielectric constants are provided, within a pixel in a planar view, on or above a CF substrate () so that a first electric field region () and a second electric field region () which differ in shapes of equipotential lines are formed in the pixel due to generation of a transverse electric field.

Liquid crystal display element comprising at least two insulating layers having different dielectric constants and at least two pixel regions which differ in shapes of equipotential lines

A vertical alignment liquid crystal panel based on a transverse electric field drive system is provided which shows few changes in color when looked squarely at. A liquid crystal panel () is a vertical alignment liquid crystal panel based on a transverse electric field drive system, which carries out a display by driving, with a transverse electric field, a liquid crystal layer () sandwiched between substrates (), and the substrate () is provided with an insulating layer () having at least two regions that are different in relative permittivity from each other in a pixel () composed of a red subpixel (R), a green subpixel (G), and a blue subpixel (B). Those regions of the insulating layer () which correspond to the blue, green, and red subpixel (B,G,R) in the liquid crystal panel () have relative permittivities of 3, 3 to 7, and 4 to 7, respectively.

Liquid-crystal panel and liquid-crystal display device

The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device that can suppress a display defect due to collapse of liquid crystal alignment. The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device comprising a liquid crystal display element including a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer hermetically interposed between the pair of substrates, wherein the liquid crystal layer includes a p-type liquid crystal material that is homeotropically aligned with respect to surfaces of the pair of substrates when no voltage is applied; one of the pair of substrates comprises a comb-shaped electrode and a first alignment layer configured to control alignment of the p-type liquid crystal material; the other of the pair of substrates comprises a second alignment layer configured to control alignment of the p-type liquid crystal material; and the first alignment layer has an anchoring energy of not greater than 1.5&#xd7;10J/m.

Liquid crystal display device comprising a P-type liquid crystal material and a first alignment layer having an anchoring energy

A backlight system includes: a light-emitting section () having a plurality of light sources that emit beams of light at different dominant wavelengths from one another; and an imaging optical system () including a plurality of microlenses () that focus beams of light emitted from the light-emitting section (), the backlight system irradiating a liquid crystal panel with beams of light having passed through the imaging optical system (), the liquid crystal panel including a plurality of pixels arrayed at a predetermined pitch from each other, on the assumption that the pitch at which the pixels are arrayed is denoted as P and the imaging optical system () has an imaging magnification of (1/n), the light sources () being arrayed at a pitch (P) given as P=n&#xd7;P, the microlenses () being arrayed at a pitch (P) given as P=(n/(n+1))&#xd7;P.

Backlight system and liquid crystal display device using the same

The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device capable of preventing occurrence of flickers. The liquid crystal display device including a first substrate and a second substrate disposed to face each other, and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the first substrate and the second substrate, wherein the liquid crystal layer includes a liquid crystal molecule having positive dielectric anisotropy; the liquid crystal molecule is perpendicularly aligned relative to a surface of the first substrate when no voltage is applied; the first substrate includes a pixel electrode to which an image signal is supplied, a common electrode to which a common signal is supplied, an insulating film, and a lower layer wiring connected to the pixel electrode; the lower layer wiring, the insulating film, and the common electrode are stacked in the stated order towards the liquid crystal layer side; the image signal is supplied to the pixel electrode through the lower wiring; the pixel electrode has a pixel comb-tooth portion; the common electrode has a common comb-tooth portion; the pixel comb-tooth portion and the common comb-tooth portion are planarly disposed to face each other in a pixel; the liquid crystal device has at least two regions having spacings of different lengths between the pixel electrode and the common electrode from each other in the pixel; the lower layer wiring overlaps the common comb-tooth portion and extends along the common comb-tooth portion; and a width of a part of the lower layer wiring which is overlapped with the common comb-tooth portion is substantially the same as or smaller than a width of a part of the common comb-tooth portion which is overlapped with the lower layer wiring.

Liquid crystal display device

A thin backlight system includes: a light emitting section emitting lights that have different dominant wavelengths; and a plurality of light transmitting portions, the thin backlight system deflecting the lights and then converging the lights on the plurality of light transmitting portions. The thin backlight system further includes: an imaging optical system provided to face surfaces, of the plurality of light transmitting portions, on which the lights are converged. The imaging optical system including a plurality of identical lenses arranged in a vertical and/or a horizontal direction at a pitch determined by multiplying a pitch at which the plurality of light transmitting portions are arranged in a vertical and/or a horizontal direction by the number of types of the different dominant wavelengths and being configured to converge the lights from the light emitting section on light transmitting portions to which the different dominant wavelengths of the lights correspond.

Thin backlight system and liquid crystal display device using the same

A liquid crystal display element, a liquid crystal display device, and a method for displaying with a liquid crystal display element, wherein picture element electrodes () and a common electrode () are provided, each of a plurality of sub-picture elements () is provided with the common electrode () and a corresponding one of the picture element electrodes () in such a manner that the sub-picture elements () have different distances (a first distance dand a second distance d) between the common electrode () and their corresponding ones of the picture element electrodes (), display in a low gray scale region is carried out by means of a first sub-picture element () that is a sub-picture element () in which the distance is short, display in a middle gray scale region is carried out by means of a second sub-picture element () that is a sub-picture element () in which the distance is long, and display in a high gray scale region is carried out by means of the first sub-picture element () and the second sub-picture element ().

Liquid crystal display element, liquid crystal display device, and method for displaying with liquid crystal display element

A liquid crystal panel () includes a pair of substrates () and a liquid crystal layer () sandwiched between the substrates (). At least one of the substrate () is provided with combtooth electrodes (). The liquid crystal layer () is driven by a transverse electric field generated between the combtooth electrodes (). The liquid crystal layer () contains liquid crystal molecules () that align themselves perpendicularly to surfaces of the substrates when no electric field is applied. The liquid crystal panelsatisfies 0.33&#x2266;S/(S+L)&#x2266;0.64, where L is the width of each of the combtooth electrodes () and S is the electrode interval.

Liquid crystal panel and liquid crystal display device

A liquid crystal panel () includes a liquid crystal layer formed with a p-type liquid crystal. The liquid crystal layer exhibits homogeneous orientation while no voltage is applied. Further, an electric field is applied to the liquid crystal layer in a direction same as dipole moments (&#x3bc;) of liquid crystal molecules () to which no voltage is applied. With these arrangements, it is possible to provide a liquid crystal panel and a liquid crystal display device, each of which adopts a new display mode that can achieve a wide viewing angle equivalent to an IPS mode, can achieve a high-speed response like an OCB mode or exceeding the OCB mode, and does not require an initial operation for orientation conversion to the bend orientation.

Liquid crystal panel, liquid crystal display device, and display method of liquid crystal panel

Surface light source device includes: point light sources (); light guide plate () having (i) two end parts in length direction, one of which serves as incident surface (), and (ii) two end parts in thickness direction which serve as exit surface () and back surface (), light guide plate () directing light, emitted from point light sources (), incident on incident surface (), so as to cause light to exit from substantially entire area of exit surface (); and reflector () which reflects, toward incident surface (), part of light which is emitted from point light sources () and is then reflected from incident surface (). Incident surface () has elliptic arc () which is concave part having surface shape along elliptic arc identical to elliptic arc which is part of ellipse () having two focal points corresponding to point light sources () and reflector (). Point light sources () and reflector () are provided on ellipse focal point lines (and) obtained by moving two focal points in width direction of light guide plate ().

Surface light source device

A display panel includes (i) a first substrate and a second substrate, which face each other, (ii) a medium layer being sandwiched between the first and second substrate, and (iii) first electrodes and second electrodes being provided on that side of the first substrate which faces the second substrate, the display panel performing display operation by generating an electric field between the first and second electrodes. The display panel is configured such that the medium layer comprises a medium that is optically isotropic when no electric field is applied thereon, and whose optical anisotropy magnitude is changeable by and according to the electric field applied thereon; and the first and second electrodes are transparent electrodes, and a distance between the first and the second electrodes is shorter than a distance between the first substrate and second substrate. This configuration attains gives the display panel high response speed and high transmissivity.

Display panel and display device having medium whose optical anisotropy magnitude changes according to electric field

A liquid crystal panel includes: a p-type liquid crystal material sandwiched by a pair of substrates and comb-teeth shape electrodes for applying, to the p-type liquid crystal material, an electric field parallel to a substrate surface. The p-type liquid crystal material is aligned vertically with respect to the substrate surface at the time when no electric field is applied. The comb-teeth shape electrodes have an electrode width of 5 &#x3bc;m or less, and an electrode spacing of 15 &#x3bc;m or less. A product of a dielectric constant anisotropy &#x394;&#x3b5; and a refractive index anisotropy &#x394;n of the p-type liquid crystal material is 1.3 or more and 3.1 or less.

A dichroic filter column () is provided on an incident surface (). At least one of two end parts of a light guide plate () in a thickness direction is divided into a plurality of light guide paths (), in a width direction of the light guide plate () by a plurality of cutout grooves (). Portions of the plurality of light guide paths () on an incident surface () side are aligned in accordance with positions of a plurality of dichroic filters (), respectively. The plurality of dichroic filters () are elements of the dichroic filter column ().

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Shoichi Ishihara