Transflective liquid crystal displays (LCDs) combine the characteristics of transmissive LCDs and reflective LCDs. The pixels of the transflective LCDs are separated into the transmissive and reflective sub-pixels. The transmissive sub-pixels in a transflective display are transmitting with backlight illumination and the reflective sub-pixels are reflecting light from the environment under ambient illumination. Conventional transflective LCDs are commonly fabricated using a double cell gap approach to maintain the same optical characteristics with increasing the voltage. In the double cell gap approach, the cell gap for transmissive mode is doubled to that for the reflective mode. So that, both reflective and transmissive mode has the same optical path difference. But on the other hand,...[ Read more ]

Transflective liquid crystal displays (LCDs) combine the characteristics of transmissive LCDs and reflective LCDs. The pixels of the transflective LCDs are separated into the transmissive and reflective sub-pixels. The transmissive sub-pixels in a transflective display are transmitting with backlight illumination and the reflective sub-pixels are reflecting light from the environment under ambient illumination. Conventional transflective LCDs are commonly fabricated using a double cell gap approach to maintain the same optical characteristics with increasing the voltage. In the double cell gap approach, the cell gap for transmissive mode is doubled to that for the reflective mode. So that, both reflective and transmissive mode has the same optical path difference. But on the other hand, the fabrication would be much more complicated. In a single cell gap approach matching the transmittance versus voltage curve (TVC) with the reflectance versus voltage curve (RVC), different LC modes in the transmissive and the reflective sub-pixels have been suggested recently.

In this thesis, several new configurations of transflective LCD with single cell gap approach are proposed. Three general types of transflective are proposed. Firstly, the transflective configuration using double cell gap approach and patterned retardation film, which are currently using throughout the transflective market. Secondly, the multimode transflective configurations with different electro-optical mode in the transmissive and reflective part. The alignment domains in pixels could be realized by a photo-alignment technique. Lastly, the transflective liquid crystal display without sub-pixel separation. The pixel of the transflective LCD does not separate into the transmissive and reflective region. The pixels are partially transmissive and reflective with the help of a semi transparent mirror.