Tokihiko Shinomiya

Development of “Advanced TFT‐LCD” with good legibility under any ambient light intensity

— A new LCD referred to as an “Advanced TFT-LCD” has been developed. It consists of both transmissive and reflective electrodes in every pixel. Its subjective legibility and characteristics, such as contrast ratio, color gamut, and luminance, have been investigated at several ambient illumination intensities. As a result, it was confirmed that Advanced TFT-LCDs offer better legibility than transmissive LCDs under any ambient illumination intensity.

Deviation of layer normal from rubbing direction in SSF-LC

Abstract Deviation angle δ of the layer normal away from the rubbing direction in surface-stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal(SSF-LC) was studied using liquid crystal(LC) mixtures possessing smectic A(SmA) phase and cells with one rubbed substrate. The dependence of δ on the properties of LC, cell spacing, temperature, and external field suggested that δ originated from the twist in the nematic phase and electroclinic effect in SmA phase due to the surface field.

The states of surface-stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal with high-pretilt aligning film

Surface-stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal with high-pretilt (about 15°) aligning film rubbed in parallel showed three types of states: C1-uniform (C1U), C1-twisted (C1T), and C2 states. In the C1 state, the uniform state (C1U) showing extinction positions and the twisted state (C1T) showing no extinction position were observed. On the other hand, the C2 state showed only one state showing extinction positions. The properties of these three states were investigated and their orientational model will be discussed in combination with the molecular orientation on the surface of the aligning film.

A 40‐in. (1‐m) diagonal direct‐view TFT‐LCD by seamless‐connection technique

We have realized the worlds largest-size 40-in.-diagonal TFT-LCD by seamless panel-connection technology. This technology can easily make a large display degrading affecting the advantages of TFT-LCDs. In this paper, we discuss several techniques for a seamless connection.

Layer Tilt Angle of Chevron Structure in Surface-Stabilized Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals

Smectic layer structures of some surface-stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal cells were studied using high-resolution X-ray analysis. The cells were constructed of two glass plates coated with a polymer aligning film rubbed in parallel and exhibited a typical chevron layer structure. The correlation between the layer tilt angle and the molecular tilt angle was investigated in detail, taking into account the differences between the molecular tilt and apparent tilt angles. It was confirmed that the layer tilt angle correlated with the molecular tilt angle though it was slightly smaller, and the ratio of the layer tilt angle to the molecular tilt angle gradually decreased as the molecular tilt angle increased.