Dual mode operation of bistable chiral splay nematic liquid crystal cell using horizontal switching for dynamic operation

We propose a dual mode liquid crystal display (LCD), which can realize dynamic and memory operating LCD modes in a display panel. Horizontal switching and bistable chiral splay nematic LCD modes are used for the dynamic and memory operations, respectively. As the horizontal switching is applied to the dynamic operation, it is possible to use the same LC texture of splay for realizing dark states of both the dynamic and memory operations. Because, for each operation, pixel division is not required in the proposed dual mode LCD, there is no decrease in aperture ratio and resolution. In order to obtain superior display performance for both operations, a wideband half-wave configuration is employed to the proposed dual mode LCD. Due to the wideband configuration, very low light leakages at the dark state and good dispersion characteristics for the entire visible range are obtained. As a result, the proposed dual mode LCD shows a high contrast ratio of over 100: 1 for both the dynamic and memory operations. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3103769]