Patent ID: 7403248

Claim:
A liquid crystal display device comprising: a liquid crystal layer taking on a roughly vertically aligned state in a black display state; first and second polarizing plates placed to face each other via the liquid crystal layer so that transmission axes of the polarizing plates are substantially orthogonal to each other; at least one first phase plate placed between the liquid crystal layer and the first polarizing plate and/or the second polarizing plate; at least one second phase plate placed between the at least one first phase plate, and the first polarizing plate or the second polarizing plate whichever is farther from the at least one first phase plate; and an illuminator for illuminating the liquid crystal layer with light, wherein the at least one first phase plate has biaxial optical anisotropy and an in-plane retardation Re<190 nm, and has functions of compensating part of thickness-direction retardation of the liquid crystal layer in the black display state and suppressing light leakage caused by deviation of the transmission axes of the first polarizing plate and the second polarizing plate from mutual orthogonal relationship in a tilted viewing angle direction, the at least one second phase plate has negative uniaxial optical anisotropy and has a function of compensating the thickness-direction retardation of the liquid crystal layer in the black display state in cooperation with the at least one first phase plate, wherein the liquid crystal layer includes a liquid crystal material having negative dielectric anisotropy and presents display in a normally-black mode; and wherein the illuminator illuminates the liquid crystal layer with light via the second polarizing plate, and the at least one first phase plate is placed between the first polarizing plate and the liquid crystal layer.