Novel Structure for Reduced Operating Voltage in Fringe-Field Switching Mode with Negative Liquid Crystal

A novel structure for the fringe-field switching (FFS) mode for negative liquid crystal is proposed to lower the operating voltage compared to that of conventional structures. The novel structure consists of a patterned oxide layer between pixel electrodes (second ITO) and the decrease of oxide thickness between common (first ITO) and pixel electrodes. The electric field strengthened by the novel structure results in higher transmittance, especially at the center position of the electrode space at low voltage; as a result, V-op at that position decreases, but the maximum transmittance decreases because of an increase in the retardation and a decreasing slope of V-T curve over V-op at that position becomes steeper. Finally, the total V-op decreases primarily because of the decrease in V-op at the center position of the electrode space.