Wire electrode structure based on 2 or 3 terminal device employed in a

Abstract

An active matrix LCD employs a two-terminal or three-terminal switch structure employing an electrically conductive wire. The wire has an insulating layer thereon forming a wire structure. The wire structure is placed in a groove in a transparent substrate and an electrode layer is deposited on the insulating layer at spaced intervals to form an array of diodes connected in parallel. By applying a suitable voltage to the wire, all of the diodes in parallel are turned on to charge the electrodes to desired electrical potentials on one side of the liquid crystal material. An array of electrodes matching the position of the diodes on the other side of the liquid crystal material are charged to the desired potentials in order to control the color and brightness of the display by controlling the light transmittance of the liquid crystal cells between the two sets of electrodes. In another embodiment, a three-terminal switch device is used instead, where the switch includes an insulating layer on a conductive wire and a semiconductor layer on top of the insulating layer. A conductive layer is then formed on top of the semiconductor layer to provide a source and a drain electrode with the wire acting as the gate of an array of transistors. When the common gate of the transistors is at On potential, the drain electrodes may be charged to the desired potentials in order to control the color and brightness of the display.