JP2000310783A - Liquid crystal element - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a device having excellent viewing angle characteristics which can be fast driven and can be formed into a high-definition and large screen by forming a flattening film disposed between a pixel electrode and a substrate to cover switching elements and maintaining the distance between the pair of substrates by partition walls adhered and fixed to both substrates. SOLUTION: This liquid crystal element is produced by laminating a chiral smectic liquid crystal 30 between an active matrix substrate 10 and a counter substrate having a counter electrode 22. On the active matrix substrate 10, a flattening film 18 to cover TFTs 1 as switching elements to be disposed between a pixel electrode 2 and the substrate 10 is formed, and the distance between the pair of substrates 10, 20 is maintained by partition walls adhered and fixed to both substrates 10, 20. By this constitution, difference in the surface level due to the TFTs 1 can be greatly decreased to improve the aligning property, and since no spacer is used, damages of the pixel electrodes or short circuits or alignment disturbance due to the damages can be prevented. The obtd. device has excellent viewing angle characteristics, can be fast driven and formed into a high-definition and large screen.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid crystal device used for a display of a personal computer and the like.
In particular, the present invention relates to an active matrix type liquid crystal element using a switching element.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various liquid crystal materials such as a nematic liquid crystal, a smectic liquid crystal, and a polymer-dispersed liquid crystal are used as a liquid crystal for a liquid crystal display device. Most of them use a TN (twisted nematic) mode using a nematic liquid crystal.

The TN mode has a problem in image quality due to its slow response speed and narrow viewing angle characteristics. Therefore, a liquid crystal element driven by an active matrix system has been studied by utilizing the high-speed and wide viewing angle characteristics of a chiral smectic liquid crystal exhibiting ferroelectricity or antiferroelectricity.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view schematically showing the structure of one pixel of a conventional active matrix type chiral smectic liquid crystal element. In the figure, 10 and 20 are substrates, 2 is a pixel electrode, 18 is a passivation film, 19 and 29 are alignment films, 22 is a counter electrode, and 1 is a thin film transistor (TF).
T), 30 is a liquid crystal, 41 is a spacer. TFT1
Is composed of a gate electrode 11, a gate insulating film 12, an i-type semiconductor layer 13, a blocking layer 17, an ohmic contact layer (n ⁺ semiconductor layer) 14, a source electrode 15, and a drain electrode 16. I have.

The substrate 10 is an active matrix substrate in which a pixel electrode 2 and a TFT 1 are formed for each pixel arranged in a two-dimensional matrix. The substrate 20 is a counter substrate on which a common counter electrode 22 is formed in common for all pixels or for each scanning line.

[0006] The active matrix substrate and the opposing substrate are provided with alignment films 19 and 29, respectively, on the opposing surfaces, which have been subjected to an alignment treatment such as rubbing. It is configured by sealing with a sealing material (not shown). Further, a polarizing plate (not shown) is arranged and used outside the liquid crystal element.

[0007]

Usually, the optimal cell gap (thickness of the liquid crystal layer) for the chiral smectic liquid crystal is equal to or smaller than the helical pitch of the liquid crystal itself in order to suppress the molecular helical structure. It is necessary to:
Since the helical pitch of the smectic liquid crystal used for a normal display is about 3 to 40 μm, a cell gap of about 1 to 2.5 μm is required. Further, from the viewpoint of the light transmittance of the liquid crystal layer and the prevention of coloring, the retardation value is Δnd = 200 μm (Δn: optical anisotropy of liquid crystal, d:
Cell gap), the Δn of the liquid crystal material is designed to be about 0.1 to 0.25 from this point as well.
This shows that the desired cell gap is 1 to 2.5 μm.

On the other hand, in an active matrix type liquid crystal element, as shown in FIG. 8, a cell gap is different between a TFT 1 region and a pixel electrode 2 region of an active matrix substrate. That is, when the highest portion of the thickness of the d _TFT of in the substrate TFT 1, the thickness of a region of the pixel electrode 2 and d _LC, configuring the d _TFT -d _LC <1~2.5μm unless cells Is impossible.

In the structure of FIG. 8, d _TFT = gate electrode 11 + gate insulating film 12 + i-type semiconductor layer 13 + blocking layer 17 + ohmic contact layer 14 + source electrode 15 (or drain electrode 16) + passivation film 18 + alignment film 19, d _LC = gate insulating film 12+
It is a pixel electrode 2 + a passivation film 18 + an alignment film 19. Among these, the gate insulating film 12, the passivation film 18, and the alignment film 19 are common. Therefore, d _TFT −
d _LC = gate electrode 11 + i-type semiconductor layer 13 + blocking layer 17 + ohmic contact layer 14 + source electrode 1
5--pixel electrode 2. Here, when specific numerical values are entered, for example, the respective thicknesses are as follows: the gate electrode 11 has a thickness of 0.2 μm, the i-type semiconductor layer 13 has a thickness of 0.07 μm, the blocking layer 17 has a thickness of 0.3 μm, and the ohmic contact layer 1 has a thickness of 0.2 μm.
4 is 0.005 μm, the source electrode 15 is 0.5 μm, and the pixel electrode 2 is 0.15 μm, d _TFT −d _LC = 0.
925 μm. Therefore, depending on the liquid crystal material, it is difficult to form a cell, and it is expected that various problems will occur in order to form a desired cell gap.

As described above, in the conventional configuration, the TFT 1
Therefore, when trying to form an optimum gap required from a chiral smectic liquid crystal material, the height of the TFT 1 is higher than the pixel electrode 2, so that the TFT 1 becomes a factor that determines the gap. Furthermore, in the case of forming a high-definition display with a large display screen, low-resistance wiring is required to suppress wiring delay and signal level reduction, and as a result, the wiring thickness of the source electrode and the drain electrode increases. As a result, the thickness of the TFT may be further increased, and may be 1 μm or more thicker than the pixel electrode region. In this case, the difference between the thickness of the TFT region and the thickness of the pixel electrode region becomes larger than the gap of the liquid crystal cell, which restricts the choice of liquid crystal material. Further, in order to maintain a predetermined cell gap, a particulate spacer 41 is disposed in the cell. However, if too much force is applied to the substrates 10 and 20 in order to obtain a cell gap, the spacer 41
T1 may be damaged, the ITO film of the pixel electrode 2 may be damaged to cause a short circuit in the upper and lower directions, or the spacer 41 itself may be broken to cause poor alignment, resulting in display unevenness and lowering of contrast.

As means for solving such a problem, the height of each region of the TFT 1 and the pixel electrode 2 is flattened by forming a flattening film. However, in the configuration shown in FIG.
When a thick flattening film is formed on the (0 side), the distance between the pixel electrode 2 and the liquid crystal 30 increases, and the voltage applied to the liquid crystal relatively decreases due to the voltage drop due to the flattening film. Need to be higher.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems and to form a predetermined cell gap in an active matrix type liquid crystal element using a chiral smectic liquid crystal without affecting a display or increasing a driving voltage. Another object of the present invention is to provide a liquid crystal element which has excellent viewing angle characteristics, can be driven at high speed, can have high definition, and can have a large screen.

[0013]

According to the present invention, a chiral smectic liquid crystal is provided between an active matrix substrate provided with a switching element and a pixel electrode for each pixel arranged two-dimensionally and a counter substrate provided with a counter electrode. A liquid crystal element sandwiched therebetween, wherein the active matrix substrate is provided with a planarizing film that covers the switching element and is disposed between the pixel electrode and the substrate, and a distance between the pair of substrates is a pixel electrode. A liquid crystal element which is located in a gap and held by a partition wall adhered and fixed to both substrates.

In the present invention, the flattening film is
It is preferable to have a laminated structure of an organic film and an inorganic film. In addition, in the flattening film, a portion located between the pixel electrode and the substrate is used as a color filter, so that color display can be achieved. Further, a thin film transistor (TFT) is preferably used as the switching element. Further, in the present invention, any liquid crystal having ferroelectricity or antiferroelectricity can be suitably used as the liquid crystal.

[0015]

1 to 3 show the structure of a liquid crystal device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically showing a configuration in which a peripheral driving circuit is connected to the liquid crystal element of the present embodiment,
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing the configuration of one pixel of the liquid crystal element of the present embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along a direction indicated by an arrow A in FIG.

1 to 3, 1 is a TFT, 2 is a pixel electrode, 3 is a scanning signal line, 4 is an information signal line, 5 is a scanning signal application circuit, 6 is an information signal application circuit, and 10 is an active matrix substrate. Side substrate, 11 is a gate electrode, 12 is a gate insulating film, 13 is an i-type semiconductor layer, 14 is an ohmic contact layer, 15 is a source electrode, 16 is a drain electrode,
17 is a blocking layer, 18 is a flattening film, 19 is an alignment film, 20 is a substrate on the counter substrate side, 22 is a counter electrode, 29 is an alignment film, 30 is a liquid crystal, and 31 is a partition.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the present liquid crystal element
It is constituted by a pair of substrates 10 and 20 arranged in parallel to face each other, and a liquid crystal 30 arranged between the substrates. Substrate 1
For 0 and 20, an insulating transparent substrate such as glass is usually used. On the inner surface of the substrate 10, pixel electrodes 2 made of a transparent conductive film material such as ITO, and TFTs 1 each having a drain electrode 16 connected to the pixel electrodes 2 are formed in a matrix, and the scanning signals connected to the gate electrodes 11 are formed. The scanning signal application circuit 5 and the information signal application circuit 6 provided outside are controlled by the line 3 and the information signal line 4 connected to the source electrode 15, respectively. In a transmissive liquid crystal element,
Although the substrate 10 and the pixel electrode 2 are formed of a transparent material, when forming a reflective liquid crystal element, the substrate 10 or the pixel electrode 2 may be formed of a material capable of reflecting light.

The TFT 1 has a gate electrode 11, a gate insulating film 12, an i-type semiconductor layer 13, an ohmic contact layer 1
4, a blocking layer 17, a source electrode 15, and a drain electrode 16;
A flattening film 18 made of O ₂ , SiN, acrylic resin, polyamide, polyimide or the like is formed.
Thereby, a step between the TFT 1 and another region is flattened. The pixel electrode 2 is formed on the flattening film 18, provided with a contact hole, and connected to the drain electrode 16. At the interface between the substrate and the liquid crystal, an alignment film 19 formed by rubbing a polyimide film or the like is formed.

On the other hand, each pixel electrode 2
Counter electrode 22 to which a constant reference voltage is applied
It is formed of a transparent conductive material such as TO, and an alignment film 29 similar to the alignment film 19 is further formed thereon.

The substrate is bonded at its outer periphery via a sealing material (not shown) on a frame, and a liquid crystal 30 is sealed in a region surrounded by both substrates and the sealing material. In the present invention, a chiral smectic liquid crystal is used as the liquid crystal 30, and either a ferroelectric liquid crystal or an antiferroelectric liquid crystal is preferably used. Further, by making the pitch smaller than the helical pitch of the liquid crystal using the cell gap (the thickness of the liquid crystal layer), it is possible to provide so-called V-shaped characteristics without hysteresis characteristics and electro-optical characteristics such as monostable characteristics.

In the present invention, the upper and lower substrates are adhered and fixed by the partition walls 31 provided in the pixel electrode gaps.
Maintain the cell gap. In the present embodiment, the partition wall 31 is formed in a stripe shape along the scanning signal line. However, the partition wall 31 is not particularly limited to this configuration unless it is on the pixel electrode.

In the present invention, as shown in the above embodiment, since a flattening film is provided to flatten the step due to the TFT, a narrow cell gap of about 1 to 2.5 μm, which is normally required, is obtained. However, the cell gap can be set to a desired value without protruding the TFT to make the cell gap unstable. Moreover, since the flattening film is located between the pixel electrode and the substrate, even if the thickness of the flattening film is increased to increase the thickness of the pixel electrode region, the driving voltage is not affected because the voltage applied to the liquid crystal is not affected. No need to raise. Furthermore, since the cell gap is formed and maintained by the partition without using the conventional particulate spacer, the pixel electrode is not damaged by the spacer, and there is no short circuit between the upper and lower electrodes (pixel electrode and counter electrode). The orientation is stable. As the flattening film,
It is desirable to form an organic film such as SiO ₂ , polyamide, or polyimide by spin coating or the like in order to form a film with good flatness. However, when these organic films are formed by a spin coating method, sputtering or C
Since the film is softer than a film formed by a vacuum film forming method such as VD, when the film thickness is large, the pixel electrode is damaged by the particulate spacer 41 as shown in FIG. However, in the present invention, since the partition walls are used in place of the particulate spacers, there is no such damage to the pixel electrodes, and thus a flattening film having high flatness by the spin coating method is used. Can be formed to be thick. Therefore, the step due to the TFT can be further reduced.

Also, unlike the particulate spacer, the partition walls are not crushed by the pressure of the upper and lower substrates, so that the orientation is stabilized. It is known that a smectic liquid crystal having a layer structure is vulnerable to impact, but it goes without saying that the impact resistance can be improved by introducing a partition structure.

Next, an example of a method for manufacturing the liquid crystal element of the present embodiment will be described.

First, as an active matrix substrate, C or C
A metal film of r, Al, etc. is sputtered or the like for 500 to 30
The gate electrode 11 and the scanning signal line 3 are formed by forming a film having a thickness of 00 ° and patterning the same by photolithography.
In a large substrate in which gate delay is a problem, the thickness of the metal film is increased in order to reduce the resistance. However, the gate insulating film 12 must also be made proportionally thicker from the viewpoint of preventing short circuit.

Next, a thickness of 2000 to 50 is applied over the entire surface of the substrate.
A gate insulating film 12 made of, for example, a silicon nitride film (SiN) of 00 ° is formed by CVD or the like. This gate insulating film 12 is formed in common for all TFTs. Subsequently, an i-type (intrinsic) semiconductor layer (eg, an intrinsic amorphous silicon layer or an intrinsic polysilicon layer) 1 is formed on the gate insulating film 12.
Is deposited on the entire surface of the substrate to form a silicon nitride film having a thickness of 1000 to 2000 .ANG., And is patterned to protect the channel region of the i-type semiconductor layer 13 from etching. To form Next, an n-type high-concentration silicon layer having a thickness of 10 to 200 ° is formed, and is patterned to form an ohmic contact layer. Furthermore, a thickness of 300 to 7 on the entire surface of the substrate
A Cr layer of 00 ° and an Al layer of 1500-3500 ° are sequentially deposited and patterned to form a source electrode 15, a drain electrode 16 and an information signal line 4. Source electrode 15,
The drain electrode 16 also needs to be determined in consideration of the signal charging time constant for the pixel electrode 2. A smectic liquid crystal has a large capacitance because of a narrow gap, and therefore needs to have a smaller wiring resistance value, that is, a larger film thickness, than a nematic liquid crystal.

A solution comprising Si (OH) ₄ or the like is applied to the entire surface of the substrate by spin coating or the like, and heated to
A flattening film 18 made of iO ₂ is formed. The flattening film 18 can be formed by CVD, sputtering, or the like, but a film having a flatter surface can be formed by spin coating. In addition, as the flattening film 18, an acrylic resin, polyimide, or the like can be used. In particular, those materials having photosensitivity are also commercially available.
This is preferable because the contact hole formed in the next step can be directly formed by photolithography. If it is not photosensitive, a contact hole may be formed through a photoresist process.

The above-mentioned flattening film 1 provided with a contact hole
8 A transparent conductive film such as ITO is formed on the entire surface
The pixel electrode 2 is formed by 0 ° sputtering or the like, and is patterned. At the same time, a contact is made with the drain electrode 16 via the contact hole.

An alignment film material such as polyimide is printed and coated on the entire surface of the substrate using an offset printing machine to a thickness of 30 to 700 °, baked in a firing furnace at about 200 to 250 ° C., and then subjected to a rubbing treatment to give an alignment film. 19 is assumed.

According to the above configuration, the step due to the TFT is:
500-3000 (gate electrode 11) + 300-70
0 (i-type semiconductor layer 13) +1000 to 2000 (blocking layer 17) +10 to 200 (ohmic contact layer 14) +1800 to 4200 (source electrode 1
5, drain electrode 16) -200 to 2000 (pixel electrode 2) = 1610 to 9710, but the resulting dimensions can be reduced to about 800 to 1300.

The same material as that of the flattening film 18 is spin-coated on the entire surface of the substrate, and mask exposure and development are performed to form partitions 31 along pixel gaps.

As a counter substrate, a transparent conductive film such as ITO is deposited to a thickness of 200 to 2000 mm on a substrate 20 made of glass or plastic and patterned.
An opposite electrode 22 is formed, an alignment film 20 is formed thereon similarly to the alignment film 19, and an alignment process such as rubbing is performed.

The two substrates are adhered and fixed to each other via a partition 31 and a sealing material drawn on the outer periphery.
Inject 0.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing the structure of a liquid crystal device according to another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the flattening film is made of an inorganic material such as SiN _x or SiO _x. And a second flattening film 18b made of an organic material such as acrylic resin or polyimide. Since the first flattening film 18a made of an inorganic material is formed by sputtering or CVD,
Second flattening film 18b that can be formed by spin coating
Is inferior in flatness. However, in this configuration, the first flattening film 18a can serve as a passivation film to protect the TFT 1 and the wiring from impurities caused by moisture and liquid crystal compounds, which is preferable in terms of driving reliability.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing the structure of a liquid crystal element according to another embodiment. In this embodiment, a color filter 71 forms a flattening film under a pixel electrode 2 to perform color display. It corresponds to. As a means for forming such a color filter 71, a flattening film 18 may be formed on the entire surface and then patterned to form a concave portion in a region corresponding to the pixel electrode 2, and the color filter 71 may be formed in the concave portion. Specifically, a method is preferably used in which a solution containing a resin or the like that is cured by heat or light irradiation or the like and a coloring material is applied to the concave portion by an inkjet method or the like and cured. Further, in this configuration, since the step due to the TFT need not be flattened by the flattening film 18, the flattening film 18 covering the TFT 1 is formed of a passivation film made of an inorganic material having low flatness such as SiN _x or SiO _x. You can also. Also, by forming the flattening film 18 in black,
A black matrix surrounding the color filters can be used.

In the present invention, the material and thickness of each member,
The shape and manufacturing method are not particularly limited to those described above, and the conventional liquid crystal element technology can be applied as it is within a range in which the effects of the present invention can be obtained. In the above embodiment,
Although a configuration using a TFT as a switching element is shown, other than this configuration, a channel-etch type TFT,
The effect of the present invention can be obtained even when a device such as an MIM is used.

[0037]

[Embodiment 1] FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the present invention.
The liquid crystal device of the embodiment shown in FIGS. The steps will be described below.

On the entire surface of the glass substrate 10 having a thickness of 1.1 mm,
Cr is deposited to a thickness of 1000 ° by sputtering and patterned by photolithography to form a gate electrode 1.
1 and the scanning signal line 3 were formed.

A gate insulating film 12 made of SiN is deposited on the entire surface of the substrate by CVD so as to have a thickness of 2500.degree., Amorphous silicon is deposited to a thickness of 700.degree. To form an i-type semiconductor layer 13, and SiN is deposited on the entire surface of the substrate. Thickness 1200
ブ ロ ッ キ ン グ was deposited and patterned to form a blocking layer 17. Further, n-type high-concentration silicon was deposited at 50 ° and patterned to form an ohmic contact layer 14. Subsequently, 500 ° of Cr and 2500 ° of Al were sequentially deposited and patterned to form the source electrode 15 and the drain electrode 16 and the information signal line 4.

Next, Si (O) was formed by spin coating.
H) A solution containing ₄ is applied to the entire surface of the substrate and heated to form SiO 2
_The flattening film 18 of ₂
Å was formed. At this stage, the step between the TFT and the pixel electrode region was about 2000 °.

After forming a contact hole in the flattening film 18, ITO was deposited to a thickness of 1000 ° by sputtering and patterned to form a pixel electrode 2. Next, polyimide was applied on the substrate to a thickness of 400 ° by an offset printing machine, baked at 250 ° C., and rubbed on the surface to form an alignment film 19.

A partition 18 was formed in the gap between the pixel electrodes on the substrate using an acrylic photopolymer. The partition walls are 1.2 μm in height, 10 μm in width, and 280 μm in pitch,
It was formed parallel to the scanning signal line.

On the other glass substrate 20, ITO is deposited to a thickness of 1400 ° and patterned to form a counter electrode 22.
9 was formed.

After a sealing material was drawn on the outer periphery of the two substrates, they were adhered to each other so that the rubbing directions were substantially parallel, and a liquid crystal composition having the following composition was injected by a vacuum injection method.

[0045]

Embedded image

The cell gap deviation of the obtained liquid crystal element is:
1.2 ± 0.02 μm on the entire surface of the substrate
There was no crack due to the pressing of the electrode surface, short circuit between the upper and lower electrodes, or alignment defect, and an excellent image quality with less threshold unevenness was obtained. Since the liquid crystal element of this example rubs a flat portion by providing a flattening film, uneven rubbing is unlikely to occur, and in addition, a cell gap is maintained by a partition, and no spacer is used. Since there was no damage to the pixel electrode and the uniformity of liquid crystal injection was high, a good image without vertical short-circuit was obtained as compared with the conventional case. As a result, the contrast was about 60 in the conventional configuration, but was improved to 160 or more.

Embodiment 2 As a second embodiment of the present invention,
A liquid crystal element having the configuration shown in FIG. 6 was manufactured. That is, as a flattening film, a thickness of 10 _x made of SiO _x by a sputtering method.
First flattening film 18 of 00 ° (in the pixel electrode region)
a is formed, and subsequently, a thickness of 1500Å made of an acrylic polymer by a spin coating method (in the pixel electrode region)
A liquid crystal element was obtained in the same manner as in Example 1, except that the second flattening film 18b was formed. TF in the liquid crystal element
The step between the T region and the pixel electrode region was about 2000 °.

The liquid crystal device of this example was also a device having an excellent alignment property and having a very high yield without vertical shorts and gap defects. The cell contrast was as good as 160. The liquid crystal element of this embodiment is
It was put into a continuous energization test for 1000 hours under a high temperature and high humidity environment of 80%, but there was no image deterioration due to corrosion, threshold value shift, and the like, and a high quality image could be maintained even after durability.

The liquid crystal device of the first or second embodiment has the same structure as that of the first embodiment except that a partition is not formed and a particulate spacer having an average particle diameter of 1.2 μm is used as a comparative example. Six liquid crystal elements each were manufactured, and their contrasts were compared. FIG. 5 shows the results.

[0050]

As described above, according to the present invention,
At the same time, the step due to the TFT is greatly reduced and the orientation is improved, and at the same time, since no spacer is used, damage to the pixel electrode and short-circuiting and disorder of the upper and lower substrates due to the damage are prevented, and the orientation is further improved. Thus, a liquid crystal element having high contrast and high reliability is provided. Furthermore, the liquid crystal element of the present invention has improved impact resistance by using the partition. Further, in the present invention, the TFT can be protected from moisture and liquid crystal compound components by forming the flattening film to have a laminated structure of an inorganic film and an organic film, and the reliability is not impaired. Further, by forming the flattening film under the pixel electrode with a color filter, it is possible to cope with a color display, and at the same time, the process is simplified as compared with a case where a color filter is provided on a counter substrate. It is possible to provide a color display liquid crystal element with high yield which does not require alignment.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view showing a liquid crystal element and a peripheral driving circuit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view of a liquid crystal element according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the liquid crystal element of FIG. 2 in different directions.

FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing damage to a pixel electrode by a particulate spacer.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the contrast of the liquid crystal element according to the example of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic sectional view of a liquid crystal element according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic sectional view of a liquid crystal element according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic sectional view of a conventional liquid crystal element.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 TFT 2 pixel electrode 3 scanning signal line 4 information signal line 5 scanning signal applying circuit 6 information signal applying circuit 10, 20 substrate 11 gate electrode 12 gate insulating film 13 i-type semiconductor layer 14 ohmic contact layer 15 source electrode 16 drain electrode 17 Blocking layer 18, 18a, 18b Flattening film 19, 29 Alignment film 22 Counter electrode 30 Liquid crystal 31 Partition wall 41 Spacer 71 Color filter 81 Passivation film

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2H089 HA15 LA09 QA12 QA16 RA13 RA14 TA04 TA05 TA09 TA12 2H090 HB03X HB07X HB08X HB08Y HC05 HC06 HD03 JB02 JB03 KA14 KA15 LA02 LA04 LA15 2H092 JA24 KA04 PA03 Q

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A liquid crystal element comprising a chiral smectic liquid crystal sandwiched between an active matrix substrate provided with a switching element and a pixel electrode for each pixel arranged two-dimensionally and a counter substrate provided with a counter electrode. Providing a flattening film on the active matrix substrate, which covers the switching element and is disposed between the pixel electrode and the substrate;
A liquid crystal element, wherein a distance between the pair of substrates is located in a gap between pixel electrodes and is held by a partition wall adhered and fixed to both substrates. 2. The liquid crystal device according to claim 1, wherein the flattening film has a laminated structure of an organic film and an inorganic film. 3. The liquid crystal device according to claim 1, wherein the flattening film located between the pixel electrode and the substrate is a color filter. 4. The liquid crystal device according to claim 1, wherein said switching device is a thin film transistor. 5. The liquid crystal device according to claim 1, wherein the liquid crystal is a ferroelectric liquid crystal or an antiferroelectric liquid crystal.