Patent ID: 7015997

Claim:
A method of producing high reflection (R) and transmission (T) transflective liquid crystal displays (LCDs) with a single gap, comprising the step of: providing a single gap liquid crystal display (LCD) having a licquid crystal layer between a discontinuous pixel electrode and a common electrode, the liquid crystal layer having a cell gap thickness d that is approximately identical throughout the single cell gap liquid crystal display; reducing the birefringence change Δn of reflective pixels (R) in the single gap liquid crystal display (LCD) by approximately ½ by partially switching molecules in the reflective pixels (R) approximately 45 degrees so that total retardation Δnd of the reflective pixels (R) is approximately equal to total retardation Δnd of transmissive pixels in the single gap LCD; and applying an electric field between the discontinuous pixel electrode and the common electrode to generate a fringing field in the reflective pixels (R) to partially switch the liquid crystal molecules to said approximately 45 degrees to achieve said total retardation Δnd in the reflective pixels (R), wherein said total retardation Δnd is achieved without the use of compensators, polarizers and alignment films for obtaining the approximately 45 degree reorientation of the liquid crystal molecules.