Patent Application
20160085122
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device, and particularly to a liquid crystal display device of a transverse electric field mode.
The range of applications and the functionalities of liquid crystal display devices have been increasing. Particularly, display modes having wide viewing angle characteristics, such as MVA (Multi-domain Vertical Alignment) and IPS (In-Plane-Switching), have been developed, and further improvements have been made thereto.
In recent years, liquid crystal display devices of an FFS (Fringe Field Switching) mode, which has evolved from the IPS mode, have been developed. In the IPS mode or the FFS mode, an electric field is generated in an in-plane direction (or an oblique direction) by using the pixel electrode and the common electrode provided on one substrate so as to rotate liquid crystal molecules in a direction parallel to the substrate. Such a display mode is called a “transverse electric field mode (transverse electric field scheme)”.
Known among liquid crystal display devices of the transverse electric field mode are liquid crystal display devices of a dual-domain mode that form two types of liquid crystal domains within one pixel. In such a display device, two types of sub-pixel regions different from each other in terms of the electrode structure (e.g., the direction of the slit provided in the pixel electrode) are provided within one pixel, and liquid crystal molecules of different sub-pixel regions rotate in opposite directions in the presence of an applied voltage.
In a liquid crystal display device of a dual-domain mode, two types of liquid crystal domains whose directors cross each other are formed when a voltage is applied. This reduces the generation of a color shift because the retardation offset is compensated even when observed from a direction parallel to the director of one liquid crystal domain, for example.
However, with small-sized display devices used in mobile devices, or the like, the size of one pixel has decreased as the definition increases, and it is in some cases difficult to form electrode structures (e.g., a plurality of “V”-shaped electrodes/slits) for forming dual domains within one pixel.
In view of this, schemes have been proposed in which different domains are formed in two adjacent pixels, rather than within one pixel. For example, Patent Document No. 1 discloses a technique for liquid crystal display devices of the IPS mode, in which different electrode structures are provided in two adjacent pixels, thereby forming two types of domains of which the directions of liquid crystal molecule rotation are opposite from each other. In the present specification, the scheme in which two types of liquid crystal domains are formed by using two adjacent pixels may be referred to as “pseudo dual-domain”. For example, Patent Document No. 2 discloses a liquid crystal display device of the FFS mode employing a pseudo dual-domain configuration.
In a pseudo dual-domain liquid crystal display device, there are formed two types of liquid crystal domains whose director directions are different from each other between two adjacent pixels in the presence of an applied voltage (see
[Patent Document No. 1] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-29072
[Patent Document No. 2] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-237414
[Patent Document No. 3] International Publication WO 2011/007613
[Patent Document No. 4] International Publication WO 2013/008668
Also, as to schemes of driving liquid crystal display devices, schemes have been used in which voltages of different polarities are applied to a plurality of pixels. For example, known schemes include a scheme in which the polarity of the applied voltage is alternated for each source bus line (the column (column line) inversion driving scheme), and a scheme in which the polarity of the applied voltage is alternated between two pixels adjacent to each other in the up-down and left-right directions (the dot-inversion driving scheme). With the inversion driving scheme described above, the polarity of the voltage applied to each pixel may be inverted every frame (e.g., one vertical scanning period).
Patent Document No. 3 discloses the 2H dot-inversion driving scheme in which the polarity of the voltage is inverted for every two pixels. More specifically, in the liquid crystal display device described in Patent Document No. 3, groups of two pixels on the left side of one source bus line and groups of two pixels on the right side of the source bus line are alternately connected to the source bus line, and the polarity of the signal voltage is alternated between odd-numbered source bus lines and even-numbered source bus lines, thereby realizing a two-horizontal-pixel (2H) dot-inversion driving operation.
According to a study by the present inventors, flicker may be visually perceived more easily if a driving scheme such as the column-inversion driving scheme described above is used with a liquid crystal display device of a transverse electric field mode in which the electrode structure is varied between adjacent pixels, such as the pseudo dual-domain configuration.
The present invention has been made to solve the problems set forth above, and an object thereof is to provide a liquid crystal display device of a transverse electric field mode with which flicker is less observed.
A liquid crystal display device according to an embodiment of the present invention is a liquid crystal display device including a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix pattern, each pixel including a first electrode and a second electrode for generating a transverse electric field, wherein: in a first group of pixels, of the plurality of pixels, arranged in a line along either a row direction or a column direction, pairs of pixels are arranged repeatedly, each pair of pixels including two adjacent pixels that are different from each other in terms of an electrode structure of at least one of the first electrode and the second electrode; and voltages of the same polarity are applied to the two adjacent pixels included in the pair of pixels, and voltages of different polarities from each other are applied to two pixel pairs adjacent to each other in the first group of pixels.
In one embodiment, there are a second group of pixels, adjacent to the first group of pixels, the second group of pixels including a plurality of pixels arranged in the same direction as the first group of pixels, and wherein voltages of different polarities from each other are applied to the pair of pixels included in the first group of pixels and another pair of pixels included in the second group of pixels, the pairs of pixels being adjacent to each other.
In one embodiment, the pair of pixels of the first group of pixels are commonly connected to one source bus line, and another pair of pixels of the second group of pixels that are located diagonally from the pair of pixels commonly connected to the source bus line are commonly connected to the source bus line.
In one embodiment, two adjacent pixels of the pair of pixels each have a plurality of elongate electrode portions or slits in at least one of the first and second electrodes, and the two adjacent pixels are different from each other in terms of a direction in which the plurality of elongate electrode portions or slits extend.
In one embodiment, a polarity of a voltage applied to each of the plurality of pixels is inverted every frame.
In one embodiment, one frame includes a period during which a display signal voltage is applied, and another period during which a display signal voltage is not applied.
In one embodiment, a drive frequency for driving the pixels is 1 Hz or more and 50 Hz or less.
In one embodiment, a drive frequency for driving the pixels is 1 Hz or more and 30 Hz or less.
In one embodiment, the plurality of pixels each include a TFT, and the TFT includes an oxide semiconductor layer as an active layer.
In one embodiment, the oxide semiconductor layer includes an In—Ga—Zn—O-based semiconductor.
In one embodiment, the In—Ga—Zn—O-based semiconductor includes crystalline portions.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a liquid crystal display device of a transverse electric field mode with which flicker is reduced and the viewing angle characteristics are improved.
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First, one factor for the generation of flicker on a liquid crystal display device of a transverse electric field mode will be discussed, based on the findings of the present inventors.
In recent years, liquid crystal display devices have been developed, in which an oxide semiconductor such as an In—Ga—Zn—O-based semiconductor is used as a channel (active layer) of a TFT (thin film transistor). Since oxide semiconductor TFTs have desirable off-leak characteristics, it is possible to employ a mode in which the device is driven while reducing the image-rewriting frequency (drive frequency) compared with conventional techniques. For example, a so-called “intermittent driving operation” (referred to also as “low-frequency driving operation”) has been proposed, in which image data is rewritten at a frequency of 1 to several Hz when displaying a still image, etc. By employing such a driving scheme, it is possible to significantly reduce the power consumption. For example, Patent Document No. 4 discloses an intermittent driving scheme.
Now, terms “frame”, “vertical scanning period”, “drive frequency”, etc., used in the present specification will be explained.
With an ordinary liquid crystal display device driven at 60 Hz, a display signal voltage is applied to a pixel every vertical scanning period (about 1/60 second). That is, when driven at 60 Hz, a display signal is applied to a pixel 60 times per one second. One vertical scanning period is referred to also as one frame.
Note however that with the “intermittent driving operation” scheme, a driving scheme is employed, in which a display signal voltage is applied to a pixel in a predetermined vertical scanning period and then the display signal is not applied in one or more subsequent vertical scanning periods. For example, an intermittent driving operation whose drive frequency is 1 Hz may be performed by supplying a display signal voltage to a pixel in one vertical scanning period (one vertical scanning period of 60-Hz driving operation: 1/60 sec), and then resting while not supplying the display signal to a pixel in the subsequent 59 vertical scanning periods ( 59/60 sec) following the vertical scanning period. Note that with an intermittent driving operation, a voltage may be supplied in a plurality of vertical scanning periods in order to apply an intended display signal voltage to a pixel. For example, a display signal voltage may be supplied to a pixel in the first three vertical scanning periods, and the subsequent 57 vertical scanning periods may be used as an OFF period.
In the present specification, the period assigned for supplying a certain display signal to a pixel is referred to as one frame. With an intermittent driving operation at 1 Hz, one frame includes 60 vertical scanning periods during which signal supply periods and OFF periods are appropriately set. Note that with the 60-Hz driving operation described above, one frame corresponds to one vertical scanning period. As will be understood from the description above, the term “drive frequency” as used in the present specification corresponds to the inverse of one frame period (seconds). For example, where the drive frequency is set to 10 Hz in an intermittent driving operation, one frame period is 0.1 second.
The “frame-inversion driving operation” as used in the present specification means a scheme in which the polarity of the applied voltage is inverted by the unit of one frame. For example, in an intermittent driving operation at 1 Hz, this means that the polarity of the input signal voltage is inverted every second. Note that in an intermittent driving operation, where a signal voltage is applied to a pixel in a plurality of vertical scanning periods in one frame as described above, the polarity of the applied voltage may be inverted every vertical scanning period.
a) to 10(d) show examples of timing with which to apply the display signal voltage Vsource in an intermittent driving scheme (
b) shows an embodiment in which the display signal voltage is applied only in the three vertical scanning periods starting from the beginning of the frame, and the display signal voltage is not applied in the remaining seven vertical scanning periods. Note that
c) shows a driving scheme in which the signal voltage is applied only in the two vertical scanning periods starting from the beginning of the frame while the remaining vertical scanning periods are used as the OFF period, and
Note that while
The factor for the generation of flicker will now be described. Where the intermittent driving operation described above is performed, the pixel voltage is retained over a relatively long gate off period (OFF period).
However, even in this period (e.g., about 0.1 to about 1 second), the retained voltage lowers to some degree, lowering the luminance (in the case of a normally-black configuration). Then, when the next signal voltage is applied at the timing of the next image signal input, even if a signal voltage of the same magnitude is input, there may be a rapid increase of luminance because of the luminance having lowered in the previous frame period.
If such a rapid luminance change occurs at a relatively long cycle, it is likely to be visually perceived as flicker by an observer. This is different from cases where the drive frequency is high, e.g., when driven at 60 Hz or 120 Hz, so that even if luminance changes occur, it is unlikely to be visually perceived as flicker by human eyes because of the short intervals of occurrence. Because of these reasons, it is preferred to employ a driving scheme with which flicker is less likely to be visually perceived, particularly when operated with a drive frequency less than 60 Hz.
On the other hand, the present inventors have found that flicker is more likely to be visually perceived if a column-inversion driving scheme is employed on a liquid crystal display device of a pseudo dual-domain mode. It is believed that one of the reasons for this is that the lowering of the luminance is observed as if it were occurring over two frame periods in a pseudo sense. This phenomenon will now be described in greater detail.
a) to (c) show the polarity of the voltage applied for each pixel for the column-inversion driving operation, the 1H dot-inversion driving operation and the 2H dot-inversion driving operation, respectively, used with a liquid crystal display device of a pseudo dual-domain FFS mode. Note that in the illustrated embodiment, pixels Px of three colors of B (blue), G (green) and R (red) are included, and pixels Px of the same color are arranged along the column direction. In the group of pixels arranged in the column direction, two adjacent pixels have different shapes (electrode structures) from each other.
As shown in
As shown in
Moreover,
Note that
As can be seen from
Next, how the panel luminance changes when each of the driving schemes is used will be described.
The graph shown in
As can be seen from the upper curve of
It is believed that such a pattern of luminance change is formed because as shown in
It is believed that the actually applied voltage varies between two consecutive frames (between the nth frame and the n+1th frame, or between the n−1th frame and the nth frame) because an odd-numbered source bus line and an even-numbered source bus line are significantly different from each other in terms of the line resistance or the electric capacitance associated with the line (e.g., parasitic capacitance). If there is a difference between the electric properties of the lines, the counter voltage Vcom is offset from the optimal value for pixels connected to a predetermined (herein, even-numbered) source bus line as shown in
Thus, frames in which a larger voltage is applied alternate with frames in which a smaller voltage is applied, thereby forming a luminance change waveform as shown in
If the lowering of the luminance occurs continuously over two frame periods (herein, two seconds), rapid luminance increases are observed by the observer with longer intervals. This is likely to be visually perceived as flicker. Note that when driven at 60 Hz or higher, the luminance change occurs with a shorter cycle in the voltage retaining period, and the degree of luminance reduction is also small, so that it is less likely to be recognized as flicker.
As can be seen from the middle curve of
It is believed that this is because where adjacent pixels have different electrode structures as in a pseudo dual-domain configuration, two adjacent pixels of different types are different from each other in terms of the magnitude of the electric resistance or the electric capacitance (e.g., parasitic capacitance). Two adjacent pixels having different liquid crystal orientations is also believed to be a factor. This phenomenon will now be described in greater detail.
Where the 1H dot-inversion driving operation is used, pixels receiving a positive voltage applied thereto and pixels receiving a negative voltage applied thereto alternate with each other in any vertical pixel column. Therefore, the luminance change due to the offset of the optimal counter voltage occurring when employing the column-inversion driving operation described above may be reduced. However, it is believed that also when the 1H dot-inversion driving operation is used, the offset of the optimal counter voltage between two, upper and lower, pixels adjacent to each other in the column direction is not canceled out for the pixel as a whole, and as a result, frames receiving a voltage of a larger absolute value than the intended voltage as a whole alternate with frames receiving a voltage of a smaller absolute value than the intended voltage.
For example, assume that, of a pair of upper and lower pixels, the intended voltage is applied to the upper pixel, whereas a voltage shifted from the intended voltage by ±ε (±ε1 for odd-numbered source bus lines, ±ε2 for even-numbered source bus lines) due to a difference in the electrode structure is applied to the lower pixel. In such a case, in the column direction, a voltage of the same polarity is applied to the lower pixel of any pixel pair, and the voltage offset between ±ε1 and ±ε2 will not be canceled out for the pixel as a whole. Moreover, in the next frame, a similar phenomenon occurs with the opposite polarity. Thus, it is believed that even if signals of the same magnitude are input, the magnitude of the applied voltage fluctuates from one frame to another, so that the luminance reducing pattern over two frames described above is observed.
In contrast, as can be seen from the lower curve of
For example, assume that, of a pair of upper and lower pixels, a voltage offset from the intended voltage by ±ε1 and ±ε2 is applied to the lower pixel. In such a case, in the column direction, the polarity of the voltage applied to the lower pixel is inverted alternately, and the offset of ±ε1 and ±ε2 is therefore canceled out for the pixel as a whole. Thus, it is possible to apply a voltage of an intended magnitude for the pixel as a whole. This similarly applies also to the next frame, and it is believed that this reduces the fluctuation of the magnitude of the applied voltage from one frame to another, thereby forming similar luminance waveform patterns for different frames.
As described above, with a liquid crystal display device of a pseudo dual-domain, it can be seen that to reduce rapid luminance changes occurring with twice the cycle, it is effective to use the dot-inversion driving operation (2H/2V dot-inversion driving operation) of an embodiment in which voltages of the same polarity are applied to two adjacent pixels of different types.
As can be seen from
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described. It should be noted that the present invention is not limited thereto.
In the liquid crystal display device 100, a plurality of pixels Px are arranged in a matrix pattern, and each pixel is connected to a gate bus line 2 and a source bus line 4 via a TFT 5. The gate bus line 2 extends in the x-axis direction shown in the figure for applying the gate ON/OFF voltage to the gate of the TFT 5. The source bus line 4 extends along the y-axis direction shown in the figure for supplying the signal voltage to the pixel via the TFT 5.
The liquid crystal display device 100 operates in the FFS mode. More specifically, as shown in
Note that the TFT substrate 10A includes a gate insulating layer 20, an interlayer insulating layer 22, a common electrode (transparent conductive layer) 18, an upper insulating layer 24, a pixel electrode 19, etc., provided on a transparent substrate 10. Although not shown in
As shown in
The TFT 5 is covered with the interlayer insulating layer 22, the upper insulating layer 24 (
A counter substrate 10B opposing the TFT substrate 10A with the liquid crystal layer LC interposed therebetween includes a color filter layer 32, a black matrix (not shown), an overcoat layer 34, etc., provided on a transparent substrate 30. In the present embodiment, the color filter layer 32 includes color filters of three colors of R, G and B, and are arranged so that pixels of the same color are formed for each vertical pixel column as shown in
Reference is made again to
In each vertical pixel column (e.g., the pixel column Pc1), another pair of pixels PP2 similarly including two different types of pixels Pa and Pb (as with the pair of pixels PP1) is arranged adjacent to the pair of pixels PP1. Between one pair of pixels PP1 and another adjacent pair of pixels PP2, the arrangement of the two types of pixels Pa and Pb is the same. Also in yet another pair of pixels PP3 adjacent to the pair of pixels PP2, the arrangement of the pixels Pa and Pb is the same. In each of the vertical pixel columns Pc1, Pc2, pixels Pa and pixels Pb are provided for every other pixel.
Moreover, as shown in
In the present embodiment, the initial alignment direction of the liquid crystal molecules (the alignment direction in the absence of an applied voltage) is set to be parallel to the y-axis direction shown in
The initial alignment direction is different from the directions D1 and D2 in which the elongate electrode portions 19e extend. More specifically, the direction D1 is off the initial alignment direction by α° counterclockwise, and the direction D2 is off the initial alignment direction by α° clockwise. With such a relationship, in the presence of an applied voltage, liquid crystal molecules in two adjacent pixels Pa and Pb rotate in the opposite directions from each other, thereby forming two liquid crystal domains. The angle α described above is set to 3° to 10°, for example.
The TFT substrate 10A and the counter substrate 10B include, provided thereon, a pair of polarizing elements (not shown) typically arranged in a cross Nicol arrangement. The polarization axis direction (e.g., the transmission axis direction) of these polarizing elements may be set to be parallel or perpendicular to the initial alignment direction.
With the liquid crystal display device 100 having such a configuration, the 2H dot-inversion driving operation described above with reference to
Moreover, voltages of different polarities from each other are applied to a predetermined pair of pixels PP1 along a predetermined vertical pixel column (group of pixels) Pc1 and another pixel pair PP1, adjacent to the pixel pair PP1, along an adjacent pixel column Pc2. That is, in the present embodiment, the dot-inversion driving operation in which one pair of pixels PP1 is treated as one unit (the same polarity) is used.
The applied voltages for all pixels are inverted every frame. Even then, in each frame, voltages of the same polarity are applied to a pair of pixels Pa and Pb, and voltages of different polarities from each other are applied to adjacent pixel pairs PP1 and PP2 (or the pixel pair PP1 along the pixel column Pc1 and the pixel pair PP1 along the pixel column Pc2 adjacent thereto in the horizontal direction).
An example configuration for realizing the 2-dot-inversion driving operation described above with the liquid crystal display device 100 will be described.
As shown in
A configuration where a source bus line is connected to pixels on the left side and pixels on the right side as described above is referred to also as a zigzag (staggered) arrangement (e.g., Patent Document No. 3). With the liquid crystal display device 100, a zigzag arrangement is realized with one pair of pixels being one unit. In the zigzag arrangement, one pair of pixels PP1 included in a predetermined pixel column Pc2 is commonly connected to one source bus line, and another pair of pixels PP2 along the next pixel column Pc1 located diagonally from the pixel pair are also commonly connected to the same source bus line.
Where left and right pixels are arranged alternately two by two with respect to the source bus line 4 as described above, the 2H dot-inversion driving operation shown in
Note however that the 2H dot-inversion driving operation may be realized by a different method. For example, one can employ a conventional configuration where pixels arranged in the column direction are connected to one source bus line, rather than using the zigzag arrangement described above, wherein the source driver may be controlled so that signal voltages of different polarities are actually applied to corresponding pixels.
While the liquid crystal display device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the liquid crystal display device of the present invention may have another configuration.
b) is a cross-sectional view showing an area of a liquid crystal display device 102 of Variation 1 corresponding to one pixel. In the liquid crystal display device 102, the common electrode 18 (
c) is a cross-sectional view showing an area of a liquid crystal display device 104 of Variation 2 corresponding to one pixel. The liquid crystal display device 104 is a liquid crystal display device in an IPS mode, and includes the common electrode 18 and the pixel electrode 19 in the same layer. The common electrode 18 and the pixel electrode 19 each have a comb-like planar shape such that their comb teeth are meshed with each other. With such a configuration, a transverse electric field is produced between the pixel electrode 19 and the common electrode 18, and the liquid crystal molecules can be rotated in-plane by the transverse electric field, thereby producing a display in a transverse electric field mode.
Example and Comparative Examples of the present invention will now be described.
a) to 7(c) show the relationship between the drive frequency and the flicker rate where the column-inversion driving operation (Comparative Example 1), the 1H dot-inversion driving operation (Comparative Example 2) and the 2H dot-inversion driving operation (Example), respectively, are used with a liquid crystal display device (about 5 inches diagonally) operating in a pseudo dual-domain mode. Note that
Herein, the vertical axis represents the visible flicker as flicker rate. The visible flicker is obtained by Fourier-transforming and decomposing a luminance waveform, which has been taken into an oscilloscope, into frequency components, which are multiplied by a human visibility curve. The plots in each figure show a collection of test results for different types of liquid crystal panels. The liquid crystal panels include those using a positive-type liquid crystal material and those using a negative-type liquid crystal material.
As can be seen from
In contrast, as can be seen from
As can be seen from
As shown in
Therefore, when a liquid crystal display device is driven at about 20 Hz, if flickering occurs at half the frequency, it will be very conspicuous; therefore, it is preferred to use the 2H dot inversion to reduce this. Since flickering is easily recognized at about 1 Hz to about 50 Hz, the liquid crystal display device according to an embodiment of the present invention may be driven at about 1 Hz to about 50 Hz, for example. Particularly, when driven at 1 Hz to 30 Hz, the liquid crystal display device of an embodiment of the present invention is expected to provide a significant effect of reducing flicker.
In the liquid crystal display device 100 described above, the TFT 5 may include an oxide semiconductor layer as an active layer. Using an oxide semiconductor layer, it is possible to obtain an appropriate device characteristic (OFF characteristic) for realizing a low-frequency driving operation.
The oxide semiconductor layer provided in the TFT 5 includes, for example, an In—Ga—Zn—O-based semiconductor (hereinafter referred to simply as “In—Ga—Zn—O-based semiconductor”). Herein, an In—Ga—Zn—O-based semiconductor is a ternary oxide of In (indium), Ga (gallium) and Zn (zinc), wherein the proportion (composition ratio) between In, Ga and Zn is not limited to any particular proportion, and includes, for example, In:Ga:Zn=2:2:1, In:Ga:Zn=1:1:1, In:Ga:Zn=1:1:2, and the like. In the present embodiment, the oxide semiconductor layer may be an In—Ga—Zn—O-based semiconductor layer including In, Ga and Zn at a proportion of In:Ga:Zn=1:1:1, for example.
Since a TFT having an In—Ga—Zn—O-based semiconductor layer has a high mobility (more than 20 times that of a-Si TFT) and a low leak current (less than a hundredth of that of a-Si TFT), the TFT can be suitably used as a driver TFT and a pixel TFT. Using a TFT having an In—Ga—Zn—O-based semiconductor layer, it is possible to significantly reduce the power consumption of the display device.
The In—Ga—Zn—O-based semiconductor may be amorphous or may be crystalline, including crystalline portions. A preferred crystalline In—Ga—Zn—O-based semiconductor is a crystalline In—Ga—Zn—O-based semiconductor of which the c axis is generally oriented vertical to the layer plane. The crystal structure of such an In—Ga—Zn—O-based semiconductor is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2012-134475, for example. The entire disclosure of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2012-134475 is herein incorporated by reference.
The oxide semiconductor layer may include another oxide semiconductor, instead of an In—Ga—Zn—O-based semiconductor. For example, it may include a Zn—O-based semiconductor (ZnO), an In—Zn—O-based semiconductor (IZO (registered trademark)), a Zn—Ti—O-based semiconductor (ZTO), a Cd—Ge—O-based semiconductor, a Cd—Pb—O-based semiconductor, CdO (cadmium oxide), an Mg—Zn—O-based semiconductor, an In—Sn—Zn—O-based semiconductor (e.g., In2O3—SnO2—ZnO), an In—Ga—Sn—O-based semiconductor, etc.
While an embodiment of the present invention has been described above, various other modifications can be made thereto. While a liquid crystal display device having a pseudo dual-domain configuration has been described, other configurations may be used. For example, in an embodiment where a main pixel and a sub-pixel, which has a different electrode configuration from the main pixel, are driven separately, the 2H dot-inversion driving operation described above may be used using the main pixel and the sub-pixel as a pair of pixels.
While the above description has been directed to an embodiment where two different pixel configurations are alternately repeated in the column direction, it may be an embodiment where two different pixel configurations are alternately repeated in the row direction. In such a case, flicker can be reduced by using the 2V dot-inversion driving operation (the dot-inversion driving operation for every two vertical pixel columns).
While the above description has been directed to an example where the dot inversion for every two lines is used, flicker can be reduced also by inverting the polarity for every four lines, six lines, . . . , 2n lines (even-numbered lines).
The liquid crystal display device according to an embodiment of the present invention can be used widely a various types of display devices, including medium- to small-sized display devices such as mobile devices and tablet terminals, and display devices for televisions and digital signage.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-102974 | May 2013 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2014/054912 | 2/27/2014 | WO | 00 |
