High-brightness color liquid crystal display panel employing light recycling therein

A reflective cholesteric liquid crystal color filter comprising:

• a first layer of reflective cholesteric liquid crystal color filters of one handedness having at least a first light reflecting portion reflecting a first bandwidth around a first center wavelength and a second light reflecting portion reflecting a second bandwidth around a second center wavelength and,
• a second layer of reflective cholesteric liquid crystal color filters of the same handedness as the first layer having at least a third light reflecting portion reflecting a third bandwidth around a third center wave length, and a fourth light reflecting portion reflecting a forth bandwidth around a forth center wavelength, the second layer of reflective cholesteric liquid crystal color filters adjacent the first layer of reflecting cholesteric liquid crystal color filters such that adjacent first and second layer reflecting portions reflect different wavelengths of incident light of the same handedness and transmit the remaining wavelengths,
• wherein,
• the first reflecting portion overlaps the third and fourth reflecting portions and the fourth reflecting portion overlaps the first and second reflective portions,
• the second reflecting portion and the third reflecting portion do not overlap each other and reflect the same wavelengths,
• such that these bands of wavelengths are transmitted through the two layers, further comprising a layer of reflective color filters forming a black matrix by overlapping the color filters in the first and second layers to reflect the colors not reflected by the first and second layers.

A reflective cholesteric liquid crystal color filter comprising:

• a first layer of reflective cholesteric liquid crystal color filters of one handedness having at least a first light reflecting portion reflecting a first bandwidth around a first center wavelength and a second light reflecting portion reflecting a second bandwidth around a second center wavelength and,
• a second layer of reflective cholesteric liquid crystal color filters of the same handedness as the first layer having at least a third light reflecting portion reflecting a third bandwidth around a third center wavelength, and a fourth light reflecting portion reflecting a forth bandwidth around a forth center wavelength, the second layer of reflective cholesteric liquid crystal color filters adjacent the first layer of reflecting cholesteric liquid crystal color filters such that adjacent first and second layer reflecting portions reflect different wavelength of incident light of the same handedness and transmit the remaining wavelengths wherein,
• the first bandwidth includes the colors blue and green, and the third bandwidth includes the colors green and red,
• the second bandwidth includes the color blue and the fourth bandwidth includes the color red,
• a clear transparent portion in the second layer is paired vertically with the first bandwidth,
• a clear transparent portion in the first layer is paired vertically with the first bandwidth,
• and the fourth reflective portion in the second layer is paired vertically with the second reflective portion in the first layer,
• such that red is transmitted through the bandwidth, blue is transmitted through the third bandwidth and green is transmitted through the second and fourth bandwidths to provide the primary colors for a display.

A reflective cholesteric fluid crystal color filter comprising:

• a first layer of reflective cholesteric liquid crystal color filters of one handedness having at least a first light reflecting portion reflecting a first bandwidth around a first center wavelength, a second light reflecting portion reflecting a second bandwidth around a second center wavelength and a third light reflecting portion reflecting a third bandwidth around a third center wavelength and,
• a second layer of reflective cholesteric liquid crystal color filters of the same handedness as the first layer having at least a fourth light reflecting portion reflecting a forth bandwidth around a forth center wavelengths, a fifth reflecting portion having a fifth bandwidth around a fifth center wavelength and a sixth reflecting portion having a sixth bandwidth around a six center wavelength, the second layer of reflective cholesteric liquid crystal color filters adjacent the first layer of reflective cholesteric liquid crystal color filters such that adjacent first and second layer reflecting portions reflect different wavelengths of incident light of the same handedness and transmit the remaining wavelengths wherein
• the bandwidths and center wavelengths of the first layer an the second layer are the same, and overlap each other such that the first reflecting portion is vertically adjacent the fourth and fifth reflective portions, the second reflective portion is vertically adjacent the fifth and sixth reflective portions and the third reflective portion is vertically adjacent the sixth and fourth reflective portions,
• further comprising a third and a forth layer identical to the first and second layers with opposite handedness, the third and layers aligned to match the reflecting portion positions of the first and second layers, such that any incident light with a selected color is transmitted through the color filters and incident light for all other colors is reflected.