Patent ID: 7218308

Claim:
A liquid crystal display device including a liquid crystal display panel having a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between a pair of transparent substrates, at least one of said pair of transparent substrates having patterned electrodes on an inner surface thereof, and a backlight disposed behind said liquid crystal display panel, said backlight comprising: at least one discharge tube including a sealed-off transparent tube body, a phosphor film formed on an inner surface of said sealed-off transparent tube body, and a discharge gas sealed within said sealed-off transparent tube body; and a plurality of electrodes spaced in a direction of an axis of said sealed-off transparent tube body and positioned at least partially around a circumference of said sealed-off transparent tube body, wherein at least two adjacent ones of said plurality of electrodes are supplied with voltages opposite in phase from each other, respectively, and said voltages opposite in phase from each other are supplied from two power sources, respectively.