Patent ID: 8174650

Claim:
A liquid crystal display device, comprising in the following order: a first polarizer; a first birefringent layer; a first quarter-wave plate; a liquid crystal cell; a second quarter-wave plate; a second birefringent layer; and a second polarizer having an absorption axis orthogonal to an absorption axis of the first polarizer, wherein the first birefringent layer satisfies Nz>0.9 and has an in-plane slow axis orthogonal to the absorption axis of the first polarizer; the first quarter-wave plate has an in-plane slow axis forming an angle of about 45° with the absorption axis of the first polarizer; the liquid crystal cell displays a black screen by aligning liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal cell vertically to a substrate surface; the second quarter-wave plate has an in-plane slow axis orthogonal to the in-plane slow axis of the first quarter-wave plate; the second birefringent layer satisfies Nz<0.1 and has an in-plane slow axis parallel to the absorption axis of the second polarizer; and wherein the first birefringent layer satisfies 2.0≦Nz≦4.0 and, in units of nm, −15+(72−9.6×ΔNz1)≦Rxy(nm)≦15+(72−9.6×ΔNz1), wherein ΔNz1 represents a biaxial parameter of the first birefringent layer defined as |Nz−1|.