JPS60249180A - Variable color liquid crystal display device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device that displays various information, and particularly to a variable color liquid crystal display device that can display information in a plurality of colors.

[Background of the invention]

An example of displaying information using a liquid crystal with variable colors is a so-called dot display in which electrode plates on a liquid crystal display are distributed in a dot shape, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10988/1983. A type color liquid crystal display is known. In this way, in a dot-type color liquid crystal display, a thin film transistor is formed as a semiconductor driving element on a liquid crystal substrate, and color filters of the three primary colors (red (R), #(B)) are formed on the thin film transistor to display color. I'm trying to be able to do that.

However, in such a dot-type color liquid crystal display, when the display surface becomes wide, a large number of
This makes the earthen-making process complicated and requires a large amount of manufacturing equipment.

However, this dot-type liquid crystal display requires the formation of electrodes corresponding to the number of dots, which makes it difficult to manufacture and inevitably increases the cost, making it difficult for general use. It has the disadvantage that there is no place for it.

[Purpose of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a variable color liquid crystal display device that eliminates the drawbacks of the prior art as described above, that is, has a new power electrode structure.

[Summary of the invention]

The object of the present invention as described above is to provide electrode plates for display segments such as characters and figures displayed on a display panel of a liquid crystal display device.
This is achieved by a variable color liquid crystal display device characterized in that each segment is formed by a striped electrode plate in the longitudinal direction, and the X) live transparent electrodes are colored and distributed in a distributed manner.

Furthermore, according to the embodiment of the present invention, a variable color liquid crystal display device with good visibility can be obtained by making the width of the colored stripe electrodes smaller as they approach the edges.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

First, the entire liquid crystal display device according to the present invention will be explained.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 2 shows an application of the present invention to, for example, a dash board of an automobile, and the figure shows an example of display contents displayed on the liquid crystal display device. The number "188" in the center of the liquid crystal display section 1 is a so-called 7-segment speedometer consisting of 7 segments, and the display unit can be switched between kilometers (Km/II) and miles (MPH). be. To the left of the speedometer display section, a fuel gauge indicating the remaining amount of fuel is displayed as a bar graph consisting of four segments. On the right side of the above-mentioned speedometer and display section, a water temperature gauge or a water temperature gauge indicating the water temperature of the polar jetter is displayed as a bar graph consisting of 96 display segments.

In order to explain the present invention, a numeral section for displaying the numbers of the speedometer section of the liquid crystal display section 1 shown in FIG.
The seven segments (the part indicated by the figure "8" in the figure) are a, b, and c, respectively.

d! Attach an amount of el'1g. These seven segments, as shown in FIG. 3, consist of a plurality of striped electrodes, each stripe extending in the longitudinal direction of the respective segment. In order to make the electrode structure of each segment clearer, FIG. 3 shows an enlarged view of, for example, one of the seven segments (g).

The first example that best represents the characteristics of the liquid crystal display device according to the present invention
In the figure, segment g is a primary color unit segment consisting of a thin striped transparent electrode and a color filter colored with the three primary colors of R, G, and B.
, s are arranged alternately in distribution. Here, the seven segments shown in Figure 1)
a, b, c.

Of dt et '+ g, segments a, d, and g are formed by striped electrodes extending horizontally in the drawing, while segments b, c, e, and f are formed by striped electrodes extending vertically. ing. The number of striped electrodes forming each segment varies depending on its width, but in this embodiment, it is composed of about 20 striped electrodes.

According to this embodiment, the above-mentioned primary color unit segment) R
, G, H, and more specifically, the stripe width, gradually decreases from the center of the segment to the edge.
It adopts a vertical segment structure. By employing such an electrode structure, characters, numbers, symbols, etc. that are lit and displayed can be displayed three-dimensionally, improving visibility and making the characters themselves look beautiful.

When employing such a segment structure, it is preferable that the maximum value of the width of the stripe electrode be about 200 microns, the minimum width of the stripe electrode be about 50 microns, and the ratio of the maximum value to the minimum value be about 4 to 8.

Next, a cross-sectional structure of the liquid crystal display element 1 is shown in FIG. The above-mentioned striped transparent electrode 3 is disposed on the lower glass substrate 30.
1 is disposed, and red, green, and blue color filters are printed on the transparent electrode 31. Among the cup filters, the red filter 32 is placed on the transparent electrode 31, and the remaining green filter 33 and blue filter 34 are placed on the transparent electrode 35.

On the other hand, a transparent electrode 37 having the same width as the transparent electrode 31 is disposed on the upper glass substrate 36 facing the lower glass substrate 30 so as to face the blue filter 34 side of the electrode 35. A transparent electrode 38 having the same width as the electrode 35 is disposed to face the transparent electrodes 31 and 35 on the lower glass substrate 30 side.

In addition, alignment control films 39 for orienting liquid crystal molecules in a certain direction are provided on the transparent electrodes of the upper plate and the lower electrode, respectively, and a liquid crystal material 40 is inserted between them. . Also, on the outside of the lower glass substrate 30, there is a lower plate polarized light &4.
1 is attached, and an upper polarizing plate 42 is also attached to the outside of the upper glass substrate 36.

When a rectangular wave voltage is applied to each of the transparent electrodes, the liquid crystals in the areas where the upper transparent electrode and the lower transparent electrode intersect with each other, that is, the area where the color filter is printed, operate, and the colors of red, green, and blue are activated. Each color can be seen through.

Depending on how voltage is applied to the transparent electrodes 31, 35, 37, and 38, it is possible to produce a single color or an intermediate color, thereby realizing a multicolor liquid crystal display element. That is, now the application terminals of the transparent electrode 31 are all A1 transparent, and the application terminal of the pole 35 is B.
1. The application terminal of the transparent electrode 37 is C1. As shown in (a), voltages of opposite phase are applied to the application terminal, voltages of opposite phase are applied to the application terminal B, and voltages of opposite phase are applied to the application terminal C as well. As a result, a voltage of opposite phase is applied only between the transparent electrodes 31 and 38, and a voltage of the same phase is applied between the transparent electrodes 35 and 38 and between the transparent electrodes 35 and 37, so that the liquid crystal display element From 1, the red color can be seen through.

Next, if you want to display red (R) and blue (B) at the same time, that is, to display a mixed color of red and blue, as shown in Fig. A voltage of opposite phase is applied to B, and a voltage of the same phase is applied to application terminal C. Due to this,
A voltage of opposite phase is applied between the transparent dragon &31 and the transparent electrode 38, a voltage of opposite phase is applied between the transparent electrode 35 and the transparent electrode 37, and a voltage of the same phase is applied between the transparent electrode 35 and the transparent electrode 38. When a voltage is applied, the liquid crystals in the red (FL) and blue (B) areas operate, red and blue light passes through those areas, and the liquid crystal in the green (G) areas does not operate. First, this part, the green light, is absorbed and cannot be seen.

Here, the phase of application terminal A is 0'', the phase opposite to that of application terminal A is 1'', and each application electrode terminal A, B, C, D
The relationship between color and the combination of phases of rectangular waves applied to is shown in FIG. By storing these combined values in advance in a non-volatile memory or the like and outputting the data to each electrode according to the required color, a multi-color display can be performed.

FIG. 6 shows a control circuit that controls KGB for one segment. That is, three exclusive O
A rectangular pulse with a duty of 50% is commonly input to one input terminal of each of the R circuits 60, 61, and 62, and this pulse is also input to the application terminal A shown in FIG. 4 above. on the other hand,
For example, the output terminal of the exclusive OR circuit 60 is connected to the application terminal B shown in FIG. 4, and the output terminal of the exclusive OR circuit 61 is connected to the application terminal B shown in FIG. The application terminal C shown in FIG.
Further, the output terminal of the exclusive OR circuit 62 is connected to the fourth
It is connected to the voltage application terminal shown in the figure. Furthermore, the outputs from the control circuit 63 are connected to the other input terminal of each exclusive OR circuit, and from these output terminals, '0' and PA1 in the table below are connected.
” data is output.

Table 1 As a result, if "0" is input from the output terminal of Exclunf OR, the output will output a pulse that is in phase with the input pulse, that is, in phase with application terminal A, and conversely, fi1
If # is inputted, a pulse having a phase opposite to that of the application terminal A is output. With this method, the eight colors shown in Table 1 can be easily displayed.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention, and is an example in which bar graph display is performed in multicolor. In this embodiment, the electrodes and color filter portions are formed in stripes in the direction perpendicular to the increasing/decreasing direction in one flock segment of each bar. In the bar graph display, as shown in Figure 4, the stripe width of R()H in the medium heat area is set at the most narrow width, and the width of the R and OB stripes is gradually narrowed as it moves away from the center. By applying a segment shape having a striped structure to each segment of one block, it is possible to give a three-dimensional appearance to the bar display.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, as described above, by forming each segment of a variable color liquid crystal display device with a plurality of striped primary color electrodes extending in the longitudinal direction of the segment, the number of electrodes is relatively small. A variable color liquid crystal display device that can be easily mass-produced can be obtained.

Furthermore, as an effect of the embodiment of the present invention, the width of the plurality of striped electrodes constituting each segment is gradually narrowed from the center of the segment toward the edge, thereby improving visibility and aesthetics. An excellent variable color liquid crystal display device can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1(2) is a diagram showing a segment electrode structure of a variable color liquid crystal display device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a dash board of an automobile adopting the present invention, and FIG. Seven segments of the number “8” shown in Figure 2 l-
Figure 4 is a diagram showing the cross-sectional structure of the liquid crystal display element shown in Figure 1, and Figure 5 is a diagram showing the three primary colors of red, green, and blue shown in Figure 4. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a control circuit for controlling the combination relationship shown in FIG. 5, and FIG. Another embodiment of the bar graph display is color unit segments red and green. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a striped state of three primary colors of blue. 1...Liquid crystal display element, 32...Red filter, 3
3...green filter, 34...blue filter,
35...Transparent electrode. Agent Patent Attorney Akio Takahashi'ttEI 83 Sword a Silk 4 Megume 5 Eyes (α) (b) trEJ Z? ? −

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A variable color liquid crystal display device having a plurality of display segments and capable of displaying characters, numbers, symbols, etc. with variable colors in response to external control signals. , wherein each of the segments is composed of a plurality of transparent electrodes and a color filter provided on the transparent electrode and colored with a primary color, the transparent electrode and the color filter forming the segment gold are connected to the segment. A variable color liquid crystal display device characterized by being formed in a stripe shape extending in the longitudinal direction. 2. A variable color liquid crystal display device according to claim 1, characterized in that the widths of the transparent electrodes and color filters on the stripes become narrower as they approach the edges of the segments.