Patent ID: 8228470

Claim:
A liquid crystal display apparatus comprising: a liquid crystal display device having a screen region on which a plurality of pixels for controlling light transmission are arranged in a matrix; a surface light source which irradiates illumination light toward the screen region of the liquid crystal display device; and a view angle limiting device arranged between the liquid crystal display device and the surface light source; wherein the view angle limiting device includes: a first substrate and a second substrate which are arranged to face each other, first retardation layers which give a phase difference of ½ of a wavelength to a ray of transmission light, and which are arranged on a facing surface of the first substrate facing toward the second substrate, so as to protrude from the facing surface of the first substrate toward the second substrate; second retardation layers which give a phase difference of ½ of a wavelength to a ray of transmission light, and which are arranged on a facing surface of the second substrate facing toward the first substrate, so as to protrude from the facing surface of the second substrate toward the first substrate, and so as to avoid a region which overlaps with the first retardation layers; and a polarizing film arranged between the second substrate and the surface light source, wherein the first retardation layers and the second retardation layers are formed such that when a facing distance between the first substrate and the second substrate is controlled to be shortest, (i) the first retardation layers come into contact with the second substrate, and (ii) the second retardation layers come into contact with the first substrate.