A hybrid aligned nematic reflective liquid crystal display driven by a fringe-field

We have designed a novel reflective nematic liquid crystal (LC) cell driven by a fringe electric field, in which the LCs are hybrid aligned in the initial state. Due to the hybrid alignment of the LC, the effective retardation value of the cell is greatly reduced when viewed in the normal direction and such a cell retardation value of 0.28 mum equals a quarter wave plate viewed in the normal direction. This means that the new reflective device can have a large cell gap of greater than 3 mum, which is advantageous when manufacturing the cell and, in addition, the device shows excellent electro-optic characteristics.