A NOVEL MULTIDOMAIN WIDE-VIEWING ANGLE LIQUID-CRYSTAL DISPLAY

A novel and simple method is described to obtain wide-viewing angle twisted-nematic liquid-crystal displays (TN-LCDs) by generating multi-domain splayed (MDS) TN structures within each pixel. These structures are obtained by covering one substrate with a mixture of a low pretilt theta(1) and a high pretilt theta(2) polymer, which phase separates into small domains during coating and drying; and providing the opposing substrate with a polymer that induces an intermediate pretilt angle theta(3) (theta(1) < theta(3) < theta(2)). Both substrates are rubbed, assembled to a twisted cell, and finally filled with a properly doped LC mixture. In this way a MDS-TN display is obtained that contains two types of randomly distributed splayed-TN configurations, with complementary optimum viewing angle, resulting in a wider viewing angle and suppressed gray-scale inversion.