The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 14, 2003
Filed:
May. 15, 1998
Yoko Katsuya, Nara, JP;
Shinji Shimada, Kashihara, JP;
Kiyoshi Ogishima, Nara, JP;
Yutaka Takafuji, Nara, JP;
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Osaka, JP;
Abstract
A liquid crystal layer, made of a liquid crystal material having a negative dielectric anisotropy, is sealed between an opposing substrate and a pixel substrate that are arranged face to face with each other; thus, a liquid crystal panel of the birefringence control type is constructed. In this liquid crystal panel, the liquid crystal molecules, provided as the liquid crystal material, are kept in an oriented state in which they incline by an angle in the range of 3° to 10° with respect to the direction that is normal to the opposing substrate and the pixel substrate. Upon application of a driving voltage to the liquid crystal layer, since the pretilt angle, which is the initial angle of inclination of the liquid crystal molecules, is set at a value greater than that of a conventional apparatus, the occurrence of reverse tilt regions can be suppressed. Thus, the disclination line, which is formed by the effect of electric potentials exerted between the adjacent pixels, is shifted toward the edge of the pixel. The shift of the disclination line suppresses the occurrence of disclination in a wider region, thereby increasing the effective reflectance of the pixels.