Alignment films in a liquid crystal display device and a method of manufacturing the same

A method of aligning an alignment film used to orient liquid crystal molecules in a liquid crystal display device, said method comprising the steps of:

• forming an alignment film a substrate, said alignment film being composed of at least two different types of polymers, each type of polymer exhibiting differing alignment variation in response to ultra-violet ray irradiation;
• irradiating said alignment film with ultra-violet rays at an oblique angle with respect to a surface of said alignment film;
• wherein said alignment film is comprised of a mixture of polymer x1 which exhibits a change of pre-tilt angle of at least 2° when irradiated with 0.5 (J/cm2) of ultra-violet rays and a polymer x2 in which the change of pre-tilt angle is 0.5° when irradiated with 0.5 (J/cm2) of ultra-violet rays.

A method of aligning an alignment film used to orient liquid crystal molecules in a liquid crystal display device, said method comprising the steps of:

• forming an alignment film a substrate, said alignment film being composed of at least two different types of polymers, each type of polymer exhibiting differing alignment variation in response to ultra-violet ray irradiation;
• irradiating said alignment film with ultra-violet rays at an oblique angle with respect to a surface of said alignment film,
• wherein a pre-tilt angle of one type of said at least two types of polymers changing from an initial vertical orientation to a random horizontal orientation in response to ultra-violet irradiation, and another type of said at least two types of polymers generally retains said initial vertical orientation.

An alignment film applied to opposing faces of a pair of substrates in a liquid crystal display device and aligning liquid crystal layer disposed therebetween, the alignment film comprising:

• a material containing at least two types of polymers with differing alignment variation rates in response to ultra-violet ray irradiation, both said two types of polymers having a prescribed initial alignment for the liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal layer;
• wherein an alignment of one of the two polymers readily changes from said initial vertical alignment to a second horizontal alignment in response to ultraviolet light exposure, and the other of the two polymers is highly resistant to changes in alignment in response to ultraviolet light exposure.