Design and fabrication of reflective nematic displays with only one polarizer

Reflective LCDs (RLCDs) have high brightness and are free from viewing parallax. They also cost less materials to construct and are compatible with existing manufacturing and driving practices. In this paper, a parameter space description of RLCD as a function of polarizer angle, liquid crystal twist angle and birefringence is discussed. It is shown that all published RLCD modes can be depicted in this parameter space, including the twisted-nematic-electrically controlled birefringence (TN-ECB) modes, the hybrid field effect (HFE) mode, the mixed-mode TN (MTN), and the self-compensated TN (SCTN) mode. Additionally we show several new RLCD modes, including the reflective TN (RTN) and the reflective STN (RSTN) which can be obtained from searching the parameter space systematically. All RLCD modes are related by a variation of the 3 LCD parameters. The RTN and RSTN modes have applications to both direct view and projection display systems. Sample RTN and RSTN displays were fabricated. Experimental results show good agreement with theoretical predictions.