Patent ID: 7916256

Claim:
A liquid crystal display device comprising: a pair of spaced and opposed substrates; an electrode and a first alignment layer formed on one substrate and an electrode and a second alignment layer formed on the other substrate; liquid crystal filled between said pair of substrates; and a plurality of pixels, wherein each pixel has four different alignment quadrants, with liquid crystal molecules in each consecutive quadrant, in a counter clockwise direction around the center of the pixel, being oriented at +90 degrees relative to liquid crystal molecule orientations in the previous quadrant when a voltage is applied, wherein said first alignment layer is treated to define two different pretilt directions for the liquid crystal molecules within the four alignment quadrants, wherein, when viewed in a direction vertical to the substrates, the two different pretilt directions are opposite each other and both extend in a generally parallel direction to a first boundary defined between two regions in which the two different pretilt directions are defined, and wherein said second alignment layer is treated to define another two different pretilt directions for the liquid crystal molecules within the four alignment quadrants, wherein, when viewed in a direction vertical to the substrates, the another two different pretilt directions are opposite each other and both extend in a generally parallel direction to a second boundary defined between two regions in which the another two different pretilt directions are defined.