Enhanced off-axis viewing performance of liquid crystal display employing a fiberoptic faceplate in conjunction with dual negative retarders and a brightness enhancing film on the illumination source

A direct-view, rear-illuminated liquid crystal display device, comprising in sequential order:

• A) a backlight source;
• B) a rear diffuser layer;
• C) a light shaping film,
• D) a rear linear polarizer;
• E) a liquid crystal cell including
• i) a rear glass layer with addressing elements and pixel ITO electrodes,
• ii a liquid crystal layer,
• iii) a common ITO electrode,
• iv) a front polarizer, and
• v) a front fiber-optic faceplate as a front containing element substantially adjacent to said front polarizer, said front fiber-optic faceplate including optical fibers and cladding material, said front fiber-optic faceplate having a plurality of fibers, and
• F) wherein said liquid crystal cell is constructed to produce a highly anisotropic light distribution possessing extremely high contrast around a narrow meridian of the display viewing volume and is comprised of:
• i) a first negative retardation film located between the front polarizer and the liquid crystal layer,
• ii) a second negative retardation film located between the rear polarizer and the liquid crystal layer,
• iii) said first negative retardation film has indices of refraction n.sub.x1 and n.sub.y1, on the plane of the first retardation film and an index of refraction n.sub.z1 in a thickness direction, a distance dri which is the thickness of the first retardation film, the indices of refraction of the first retardation film are described by the equation nz.sub.1 <n.sub.x1 =n.sub.y1, and an optical path length of the first retardation film is approximately described by the equation .DELTA.nd=(n.sub.z1 -n.sub.x1)d.sub.r1,
• iv) said second negative retardation film has indices of refraction n.sub.x2 and n.sub.y2 on the plane of the second retardation film and an index of refraction n.sub.z2 in a thickness direction, a distance d.sub.r which is the thickness of the second retardation film, the indices of refraction of the second retardation film are described by the equation n.sub.z2 <n.sub.x2 =n.sub.y2, and an optical path length of the second retardation film is approximately described by the equation .DELTA.nd=(n.sub.z2 -n.sub.x2)d.sub.r2,
• v) said liquid crystal layer, in an homeotropically aligned state, has indices of refraction n.sub.e and n.sub.o where index of refraction n.sub.e extends in a thickness direction of the liquid crystal layer and the index of refraction n.sub.o is perpendicular to the index of refraction n.sub.e and extends in the direction in the plane of the liquid crystal layer, the index of refraction n.sub.e is always greater than the index of refraction n.sub.o, for a positive optically anisotropic liquid crystal material, said liquid crystal layer has a distance d.sub.c which is the thickness of the liquid crystal layer, and an optical path length of the liquid crystal layer is approximately described by the equation .DELTA.nd=(n.sub.e -n.sub.o)d.sub.c, and
• vi) a sum of the optical path lengths of the two retardation films must be substantially equal to an absolute value of the optical path length of the liquid crystal layer and is opposite in sign to the value of the optical path length of the liquid crystal layer.