Patent ID: 8334955

Claim:
A liquid crystal display device comprising: a first substrate and a second substrate having plural pixels defined between the first and the second substrate; a first and a second polarizing layer on an exterior surface of the first and the second substrate, respectively; a first and a second alignment layer on an inner surface of the first and the second substrate, respectively; a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the first and second alignment layer, the liquid crystal layer treated so that liquid crystal molecules are aligned parallel to the surfaces of the first and second substrate in the absence of applied electric fields; and each of the plural pixels comprising: a first group and second group of electrodes each having at least one common electrode and at least one pixel electrode formed on the inner surface of the same one of the first and the second substrates; an insulating layer formed between the pixel and the common electrode in each group; and a thin-film transistor formed on the same substrate having the pixel electrode and the common electrode; and wherein the common electrode is formed above the pixel electrode in the first electrode group and the pixel electrode is formed above the common electrode in the send electrode group generating electric fields containing both horizontal field components and vertical electric field components that dominate within the regions above and below the first and second group of electrodes and generating electric fields having horizontal field components and vertical field components that are weaker than the horizontal field components within the regions of the liquid crystal layer between the first and second group of electrodes.