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. 28, 2003
Filed:
Aug. 28, 1998
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Osaka, JP;
Abstract
A liquid crystal display device of the present invention includes: a liquid crystal cell having a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween; a pair of polarizing plates interposing the liquid crystal cell therebetween; and a phase compensation element provided between at least one of the polarizing plates and the liquid crystal cell. A refractive index anisotropy value of the liquid crystal layer along a plane parallel to a surface of the liquid crystal cell is smaller in a black display than in a white display. The phase compensation element has three principal refractive indices nx, ny and nz respectively along x, y and z axes thereof which are perpendicular to one another, and when nx and ny are the principal refractive indices along a plane parallel to a surface of the liquid crystal cell with nz being the principal refractive index along a thickness direction of the liquid crystal cell, wherein the x axis is parallel to an absorption axis of one of the polarizing plates closer to a viewer viewing the liquid crystal display device, and the principal refractive indices nx, ny and nz satisfy the following expressions: nz<(nx+ny)/2; and nx≠ny.