Patent ID: 8619012

Claim:
A display element corresponding to a pixel of a display, comprising: a first electrode having a flat surface connected to a first addressable line of the display; a plurality of second electrodes, each second electrode connected to a corresponding second addressable line of the display, each second electrode having a flat surface; a liquid crystal layer situated between the first and the second electrodes, and having a plurality of individually turned-on steps organized into a number of groups corresponding to a number of the second electrodes; a conductor disposed between the second electrodes and the liquid crystal layer, the conductor having a flat surface in physical contact with the flat surface of the plurality of second electrodes wherein the individually turned-on steps are defined by varying the heights of the liquid crystal layer and the conductor along the width of the display element between the first electrode and the plurality of second electrodes to form a plurality of discrete conductive steps in physical contact with the liquid crystal layer, wherein, for each group of the individually turned-on steps, each individually turned-on step of the group has a turn-on voltage threshold at which the step is turned on upon a voltage applied between the first electrode and the second electrode to which the group corresponds equal to or greater than the turn-on voltage threshold, and wherein each group of the individually turned-on steps corresponds to a different color of the pixel, as one of red, green, and blue.