Patent ID: 8169580

Claim:
A method for fabricating a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, the method comprising: providing first and second substrates including four subpixels comprising RGB color pixels and an electrically controlled birefringence (ECB) control pixel; using a first masking process comprising: forming a gate electrode and a gate line on the first substrate; and forming a gate insulating layer on the gate electrode and the gate line; using a second masking process comprising: forming an active pattern and an ohmic-contact layer on the gate insulating layer; forming source and drain electrodes on the active pattern and forming a data line crossing the gate line to define a pixel area; using a third masking process comprising: forming a passivation layer on the active pattern, the source and drain electrodes, and the data line; removing a portion of the passivation layer through a half-tone mask to form a first contact hole exposing a portion of the drain electrode, and removing the gate insulating layer and the passivation layer of the ECB control pixel to form a hole opening the pixel area of the ECB control pixel; and selectively removing the gate insulating layer and the passivation layer of the ECB control pixel through the half-tone mask to leave a portion of the thickness of the gate insulating layer in the vicinity of the pixel area of the ECB control pixel; using a fourth masking process to form a pixel electrode RGB, a common electrode and a pixel electrode ECB comprising: forming a pixel electrode within the pixel area of the RGB color pixels such that the pixel electrode is connected with the drain electrode through the first contact hole, and forming a common electrode alternately disposed with the pixel electrode to generate an in-plane field; and forming another pixel electrode within the hole opening the pixel area of the ECB control pixel such that the another pixel electrode is connected with the drain electrode via the first contact hole; and attaching the first and second substrate.