Fringe field switching of a twisted nematic liquid crystal device for a single-cell-gap transflective display

We propose an optical configuration of a twisted nematic liquid crystal device driven by a fringe field for a single-cell-gap transflective display. The dark state of the reflective part is realized by a nematic liquid crystal layer with a twist angle of 63.6 degrees and retardation of 194 nm, while a quarter-wave plate is inserted for the dark state of the transmissive part. Wavelength dispersion of the liquid crystal layer is suppressed by introducing a half-wave plate. Different directions of electric fields rotate liquid crystals to 15 degrees for the bright state of the reflective part, but to -30 degrees for that of the transmissive part. With the proposed configuration, we can realize a high-brightness single-gamma transflective display in a single-cell-gap structure without any in-cell retardation layers. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.