Patent ID: 8212978

Claim:
A liquid crystal apparatus comprising: a liquid crystal panel having a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer arranged between the pair of substrates and driven by an electric field having a component parallel to the substrates; a first polarizing plate and a second polarizing plate arranged with the liquid crystal panel interposed therebetween, wherein each of the first and the second polarizing plates includes a polarizer and a protection film; and a retardation film arranged between the first polarizing plate and the liquid crystal panel or between the second polarizing plate and the liquid crystal panel, wherein an in-plane phase difference (Re 2 ), an Nz value, and an average refractive ratio (Nave) of the retardation film are set to values ranging from 200 nm to 300 nm, from 0.4 to 0.8, and from 1.4 to 2.0, respectively, when an in-plane phase difference (Re1) and a thickness direction phase difference (Rth) of the protection film are set to values ranging from 0 nm to 5 nm and from 0 nm to 20 nm, respectively, to obtain a wider angle of visibility.