Patent ID: 7760430

Claim:
A two-dimensional/three-dimensional (2D/3D) switchable autostereoscopic display apparatus comprising: a display panel which provides an image; and a lenticular unit comprising: a first lenticular lens sheet and a second lenticular lens sheet disposed so that lens sides of the first and second lenticular lens sheets face each other; a half-wave plate, interposed between the first and second lenticular lens sheets, which rotates the polarization of an incident light beam by 90 degrees; a first electro-optical medium and a second electro-optical medium disposed in a space between the first lenticular lens sheet and the half-wave plate and a space between the second lenticular lens sheet and the half-wave plate, respectively, wherein the first and second electro-optical media have refractive indices with respect to extraordinary rays that vary according to whether or not electric fields are applied to the first and second electro-optical media; and transparent electrodes which apply electric fields to the first and second electro-optical media; wherein the lenticular unit has a two-dimensional mode and a three-dimensional mode, and in the two-dimensional mode, the lenticular unit transmits the image from the display panel as a single image, and in the three-dimensional mode, the lenticular unit separates the image from the display panel into a right-eye image and a left-eye image; wherein a non-zero-electrical field is applied for achieving the two-dimensional mode; and wherein a zero electrical field is applied for achieving the three-dimensional mode.