Transflective liquid crystal display with integral heating unit and temperature sensor

Abstract

A heated transflective liquid crystal display device has the heating element positioned behind the transflector to keep the heater out of the reflective light path. This construction significantly improves brightness of the display in the reflective mode. The heating element is positioned between the cell transflector and a temperature sensing thermistor. The thermal gradient of the path between the heating element and the thermistor matches that of the path between the heating element and the liquid crystal cell. As a result, the trip point of the heating element can be set much closer to the minimum cell operating temperature than hitherto possible thereby reducing the power consumption of the display. This invention relates to liquid crystal display devices, and more particularly to liquid crystal displays incorporating a heating unit. While the instant invention will be described in the context of a cell of the guest-host variety, the invention is by no means limited thereto. The invention is equally applicable and useful in a liquid crystal display utilizing a liquid crystal solution of the twisted nematic type.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.