Reflective liquid crystal display with integrated compensation for skew angle rotation and birefringence effects
AssigneePhilips Electronics North America Corporation
InventorsMary Lou Jepsen, Sjoerd Stallinga, Peter J. Janssen, Jeffrey A. Shimizu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A reflective liquid crystal (R-LCD) display device in which both the residual retardance of an R-LCD and the skew-angle effect of the analyzer may be compensated by a single compensator which has its optical axis oriented at an angle of from 1 to 30 degrees to the plane of polarization of the incident beam, eliminating the need for two separate compensators.
Claims15
A reflective liquid crystal display module comprising a reflective liquid crystal display, and an integrated compensator, the liquid crystal display comprising a front transmissive surface, a rear reflective surface, and a layer of liquid crystal material in contact with orientation layers on the front and rear surfaces, the liquid crystal having director molecules near the front and rear surfaces with a preferred direction of orientation determined by the orientation layers, the integrated compensator having its optical axis oriented at an angle within the range of from about 1 to 30 degrees with respect to the preferred direction of the front director molecules, and able to compensate for both residual birefringence of the liquid crystal display and for skew angle effect.
A display system comprising:
- (a) at least one reflective liquid crystal display module comprising a reflective liquid crystal display, and an integrated compensator, the liquid crystal display comprising a front transmissive surface, a rear reflective surface, and a layer of liquid crystal material in contact with orientation layers on the front and rear surfaces, the liquid crystal having director molecules near the front and rear surfaces with a preferred direction of orientation determined by the orientation layers, the integrated compensator having its optical axis oriented at an angle within the range of from about 1 to 30 degrees with respect to the preferred direction of the front director molecules, and able to compensate for both residual birefringence of the liquid crystal display and for skew angle effect;
- (b) means for directing plane polarized light onto the reflective liquid crystal display;
- and
- (c) means for analyzing the light reflected by the reflective liquid crystal display.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.