Patent ID: 7113240

Claim:
A liquid crystal display device in which a pair of substrates carrying respective electrodes thereon face each other across a liquid crystal layer having a negative dielectric anisotropy, said liquid crystal layer being sealed between the substrates, said liquid crystal display device including an insulating layer that varies electric field orientations in a pixel region when a voltage is applied between the pair of substrates, a pair of polarizers being disposed at respective outer sides of said substrates; said insulating layer comprising a plurality of insulating patterns each having a dielectric constant different from a dielectric constant of a surrounding area surrounding at least one of said insulating patterns, said plurality of insulating patterns controlling an in-plane direction of liquid crystal molecules in liquid crystal forming said liquid crystal layer in a tilted state in which a voltage is applied across said electrodes, said liquid crystal layer including a first region in which liquid crystal molecules of said liquid crystal layer undergo transition to said tilted state upon application of a first voltage across said electrodes and a second region in which said liquid crystal molecules undergo transition to said tilted state upon application of a second voltage larger than said first voltage in magnitude across said electrodes, a width of said insulating patterns being set larger than a width of a gap between any two adjacent ones of said insulating patterns on the same substrate.