Patent ID: 7474295

Claim:
A display apparatus, comprising: a first substrate provided with a plurality of closed containers, a fluid filled in the closed containers, a plurality of charged particles which have a relative dielectric constant different from said fluid and are dispersed and held in said fluid, and a pair of electrodes for generating an electric field in the closed containers, said display apparatus displaying an image formed by a positional distribution of charged particles in each of the closed containers, wherein said pair of electrodes are disposed opposite to each other and provide a non-uniform distance between their electrode surfaces so as to generate an electric field having a non-uniform electric field strength in each of the closed containers, wherein a DC voltage is applied between said pair of electrodes to distribute said charged particles at one of the electrode surfaces of said pair of electrodes and a neighborhood thereof, and wherein an AC voltage is applied between said pair of electrodes to gather said charged particles at a maximum electric field strength position and a neighborhood thereof or at a minimum electric field strength position and a neighborhood thereof, depending on a difference in relative dielectric constant between the charged particles and said fluid.