The present invention relates to a method for producing a viewing angle compensator for liquid crystal displays which diminishes the view angle dependency of the liquid crystal display. More specifically, the method of making the view angle compensator involves applying a coating of an optically active polyester containing as a constituent a hydrocarbon unit selected from the group consisting of bulky aromatic units, polycyclic hydrocarbon units and ortho-substituted aromatic units, or a composition containing a liquid crystalline polyester which contains the said hydrocarbon unit as a constituent and also contains an optically active compound to a light transmitting substrate. The foregoing coating is heat-treated at a temperature higher than the glass transition point of the polyester to form a cholesteric orientation. The heat-treated coating is thereafter cooled to a temperature lower than the glass transition temperature to solidify a cholesteric structure.
A process is provided for producing efficiently an optically active liquid crystalline polymer compound excellent in mechanical strength or optical characteristics at low cost, in which in that a liquid crystal polymer compound having in its main chain or side chain an ester bond is reacted with an optically active low molecular weight compound having a hydroxyl group so as to introduce the low molecular weight compound in the polymer compound as a unit having an optically active group.
A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display having both wide angle viewing and fast response is described. A key feature of the method is the addition to the liquid crystal of a small amount of a monomer, selected from among the diacrylates or the monoacrylates, as well as a chiral dopant. Once the display has been assembled, the usual turn-on voltage (about 5 volts) is applied. After allowing the orientations of the directors to stabilize, the liquid crystal is irradiated with ultraviolet light for a few seconds. This causes the dissolved monomer to polymerize in place. The UV irradiation and applied voltage are then terminated. Defects that slow down the director stabilization are now prevented from re-forming so that the next time voltage is applied, the system responds in a few milliseconds. Adding a photoinitiator, in addition to the monomer, is an option.
A reflective guest-host liquid crystal display device includes an optical reflective layer and a quarter wavelength plate (1/4 wavelength phase shifter) inside the device provides improved contrast an brightness of the display with a paper-white tone.
Liquid crystal displays in which the phase compensation layer comprises an amorphous optically anisotropic polymer, the optical anisotropy being written in, by irradiation with polarized light, in the pre-selected manner according to size and direction.
A method to fabricate a photo-patterned organic compensator for liquid crystal displays, and the resulting compensator structure, are described. One illustrative fabrication method comprise: (1) depositing a thin film of polymerizable liquid crystal material onto one of a display's substrates; (2) orienting the liquid crystal material's director to a specified direction; (3) polymerizing the deposited thin film through an aperture mask; (4) removing the aperture mask; and (5) curing/annealing the thin film layer to yield a planar structure having substantially birefringent and isotropic regions. Complete pixelated compensators may be created by layering two or more such two-region thin films.
