Submillisecond-response liquid crystal for high- resolution virtual reality displays

We report a vertically-aligned liquid crystal display (LCD) device with submillisecond response time, high transmittance, and low operation voltage. The top substrate has a common electrode, while the bottom substrate consists of hole-patterned fringing-field-switching (FFS) pixel electrodes. A negative dielectric anisotropy LC is employed. In the voltage-on state, the LC directors are reoriented by the fringing fields surrounding the hole area and by the longitudinal and fringe fields outside the hole area. After design optimization, we are able to achieve 85% peak transmittance under crossed circular polarizers. During the relaxation process, the standing walls exert a strong restoring force, leading to submillisecond gray-to-gray response time. Moreover, this device enables high resolution density because only one thin-film transistor per pixel is needed and the bottom FFS electrode has built-in capacitor. This device is particularly attractive for the emerging virtual reality displays. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America