A new pixel design and a novel driving scheme for multi-domain vertically aligned LCDs

— By using a new pixel design and a novel driving scheme that adds a bias electrode and a bias TFT to the ordinary pixel structure, a high-contrast-ratio and wide-viewing-angle LCD mode, refered to as the biased vertical-alignment (BVA) mode, has been sucessfully developed. Compared to the published data on the PVA and MVA modes, the BVA mode has a distinct advantage of lower manufacturing cost due to the elimination of a lithographic process step that forms either ITO cuts or protrusions on the color-filter substrates. The BVA mode requires ITO cuts on the TFT substrate similar to that for the PVA and MVA modes. The 15-in. BVA-mode XGA prototype exhibits a high contrast ratio of 1200:1 and high cell transmittance of 4.3%.