Patent ID: 8111360

Claim:
A transflective liquid crystal display (LCD) unit comprising: a liquid crystal (LC) panel including a LC layer driven in a lateral-electric-field mode, said LC panel defining an array of pixels on said LC layer, said pixels each including a reflective area and a transmissive area, said LC layer in said reflective area having an effective retardation of λ/4, said LC layer in said transmissive area having an effective retardation of λ/2, said LC layer in said reflective area and said LC layer in said transmissive area being driven in an inverted driving scheme, where λ is a wavelength of light; first and second polarizing films sandwiching therebetween said LC panel, said first polarizing film passing the light passed by said LC layer in said reflective area and said transmissive area, said second polarizing film passing the light passed by said LC layer in said transmissive area; and a retardation film disposed in said reflective area between said first polarizing film and said LC layer, said retardation film providing a retardation of λ/2 to the light passed by said retardation film, wherein an angle θ between an optical axis of said retardation film and a polarized direction of the light passed by said first polarizing film and incident onto said retardation film is in a range of 0 degree<θ<22.5 degrees.