JP5450741B2 - Liquid crystal display - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device, and more particularly to a liquid crystal display device in which a pixel electrode is provided on an array substrate, a counter electrode is provided on a counter substrate, and a lateral electric field is formed between the pixel electrode and the counter electrode.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, flat display devices have been actively developed. In particular, liquid crystal display devices have attracted particular attention because of their advantages such as light weight, thinness, and low power consumption. In particular, an active matrix liquid crystal display device in which a switching element is incorporated in each pixel has a structure using a lateral electric field (including a fringe electric field) such as an IPS (In-Plane Switching) mode or an FFS (Fringe Field Switching) mode. It is attracting attention (for example, see Patent Document 1).
This lateral electric field mode liquid crystal display device such as IPS or FFS mode includes a pixel electrode and a counter electrode formed on an array substrate, and switches liquid crystal molecules with a lateral electric field substantially parallel to the main surface of the array substrate. . In addition, polarizing plates are arranged on the outer surfaces of the array substrate and the counter substrate so that the polarization axis directions are orthogonal to each other. With such a polarizing plate arrangement, for example, a black screen is displayed when no voltage is applied, and a white screen is displayed by gradually increasing the transmittance (modulation factor) by applying a voltage corresponding to the video signal to the pixel electrode. To do. In such a liquid crystal display device, since the liquid crystal molecules rotate in a plane substantially parallel to the main surface of the substrate, the polarization state does not greatly affect the incident direction of transmitted light, so the viewing angle dependency is small and a wide field of view. There is a feature of having angular characteristics.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-3802

  In a horizontal electric field mode liquid crystal display device having a pixel electrode and a counter electrode on one substrate, a vertical electric field mode liquid crystal display device such as a TN (Twisted Nematic) mode in which the pixel electrode and the counter electrode are provided on separate substrates is used. It cannot be formed using existing processes. For this reason, a separate production line is necessary, or a rearrangement of the production line is necessary, which may increase the production cost.

  Further, in the liquid crystal display device in the horizontal electric field mode, it is difficult to form an electric field parallel to the main surface of the substrate on the pixel electrode, and there is a problem that the transmittance is lower than that in the liquid crystal display device in the vertical electric field mode.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and its purpose is to suppress the manufacturing cost, improve the transmittance while having a wide viewing angle characteristic, and display an image with a good display quality. Another liquid crystal display device is provided.

According to this embodiment,
The storage capacitor line arranged along the row direction, the first signal line and the second signal line arranged along the column direction, and the first signal line and the second signal line, respectively. An array substrate including a pixel electrode having a strip-shaped first main electrode portion parallel to the column direction and an auxiliary capacitance portion facing the auxiliary capacitance line, and a first alignment film covering the pixel electrode, and the array substrate A counter substrate provided with a counter electrode that is disposed opposite to and common to a plurality of pixels, and a second alignment film that covers the counter electrode, and a liquid crystal layer held between the array substrate and the counter substrate, The counter electrode includes a strip-shaped second main electrode portion parallel to the column direction and arranged alternately in parallel with the first main electrode portion, and the auxiliary capacitance portion includes the first main electrode portion A connected short side, a long side facing the short side, connected to the short side and connected to the long side A liquid crystal display comprising: a first oblique side approaching the first signal line according to the direction; and a second oblique side connected to the short side and approaching the second signal line toward the long side. An apparatus is provided.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a liquid crystal display device that suppresses an increase in cost, improves the transmittance while having a wide viewing angle characteristic, and displays an image with good display quality.

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing a configuration of a liquid crystal mode liquid crystal display device using a lateral electric field according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing the structure of the array substrate and the counter substrate applied to the liquid crystal display device shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a plan view schematically showing the structure of one pixel of the liquid crystal display device according to the present embodiment. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the liquid crystal display panel taken along the line A-A 'shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a plan view schematically showing the structure of one pixel of the liquid crystal display device in the first comparative example. FIG. 6 shows the result of simulating the orientation direction of liquid crystal molecules when a voltage is applied in the present embodiment. FIG. 7 shows the result of simulating the alignment direction of liquid crystal molecules when a voltage is applied in the first comparative example. FIG. 8 is a plan view schematically showing the structure of one pixel of a liquid crystal display device according to a modification of the present embodiment. FIG. 9 shows the result of simulating the relationship between the equipotential surface and the alignment direction of the liquid crystal molecules when a voltage is applied in this embodiment. FIG. 10 shows the result of simulating the relationship between the equipotential surface and the alignment direction of liquid crystal molecules when a voltage is applied in the modification. FIG. 11 is a plan view schematically showing the structure of one pixel of the liquid crystal display device in the second comparative example. FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a verification result of the effect obtained by disposing the pixel electrode and the counter electrode on different substrates in the horizontal electric field mode. FIG. 13 is a plan view schematically showing the structure of one pixel of a liquid crystal display device having two first main electrode portions.

  A liquid crystal display device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

Here, a pixel electrode is provided on the array substrate, a counter electrode is provided on the counter substrate, and a lateral electric field (that is, an electric field substantially parallel to the main surface of the array substrate) formed between the pixel electrode and the counter electrode is generated. A liquid crystal mode in which liquid crystal molecules are switched using mainly will be described as an example.

  As shown in FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, the liquid crystal display device is an active matrix type liquid crystal display device, and includes a liquid crystal display panel LPN. The liquid crystal display panel LPN includes a pair of substrates, that is, an array substrate AR and a counter substrate CT arranged to face the array substrate AR. Further, the liquid crystal display panel LPN includes a liquid crystal layer LQ held between the array substrate AR and the counter substrate CT. Such a liquid crystal display device includes a display area DSP for displaying an image. The display area DSP is composed of a plurality of pixels PX arranged in an mxn matrix.

  The array substrate AR is formed using an insulating substrate 10 having optical transparency such as a glass plate or a quartz plate. In other words, the array substrate AR includes m × n pixel electrodes EP arranged for each pixel PX and n scanning lines Y (Y1 to Yn) extending in the row direction of each pixel PX in the display area DSP. ), M signal lines X (X1 to Xm) respectively extending in the column direction of each pixel PX, and m × n arranged in a region including the intersection of the scanning line Y and the signal line X in each pixel PX. Similarly to the individual switching elements W and the scanning lines Y, the auxiliary capacitance lines AY are arranged so as to extend along the row direction and are capacitively coupled to the pixel electrodes EP so as to form the auxiliary capacitance CS in parallel with the liquid crystal capacitance CLC. It has.

  The array substrate AR is further connected to at least a part of the scanning line driver YD connected to the n scanning lines Y and the m signal lines X in the driving circuit region DCT around the display area DSP. And at least a part of the signal line driver XD. The scanning line driver YD sequentially supplies scanning signals (driving signals) to the n scanning lines Y based on control by the controller CNT. Further, the signal line driver XD supplies video signals (drive signals) to the m signal lines X at the timing when the switching elements W in each row are turned on by the scanning signal based on the control by the controller CNT. Thereby, the pixel electrode EP of each row is set to a pixel potential corresponding to the video signal supplied via the corresponding switching element W.

  Each switching element W is configured by, for example, a thin film transistor. The semiconductor layer 12 of the switching element W can be formed of, for example, polysilicon or amorphous silicon. The semiconductor layer 12 has a source region 12S and a drain region 12D on both sides of the channel region 12C. The semiconductor layer 12 is covered with a gate insulating film 14.

  The gate electrode WG of the switching element W is connected to the scanning line Y (or formed integrally with the scanning line Y), and is disposed on the gate insulating film 14 together with the scanning line Y and the auxiliary capacitance line AY. The gate electrode WG, the scanning line Y, and the auxiliary capacitance line AY are covered with an interlayer insulating film 16.

  The source electrode WS and the drain electrode WD of the switching element W are disposed on both sides of the gate electrode WG on the interlayer insulating film 16. The source electrode WS is connected to the signal line X (or formed integrally with the signal line X) and is in contact with the source region 12S of the semiconductor layer 12. The drain electrode WD is connected to the pixel electrode EP (or formed integrally with the pixel electrode EP) and is in contact with the drain region 12D of the semiconductor layer 12. These source electrode WS, drain electrode WD, and signal line X are covered with an organic insulating film 18.

  The pixel electrode EP is disposed on the organic insulating film 18 and is electrically connected to the drain electrode WD through a contact hole formed in the organic insulating film 18. As shown in FIG. 3, the pixel electrode EP has a first main electrode portion EPa and an auxiliary capacitance portion EPb. The first main electrode portion EPa has a strip shape and is linearly arranged in parallel to the column direction. Here, one first main electrode portion EPa is provided for each pixel PX, and is arranged at the center of the pixel PX, that is, at a substantially equidistant position from the adjacent signal line X. The auxiliary capacitance part EPb is arranged to face the auxiliary capacitance line AY.

  The first main electrode portion EPa and the auxiliary capacitance portion EPb constituting the pixel electrode EP can be integrally formed of the same material, for example, indium tin oxide (ITO) or indium zinc oxide (IZO). The light-transmitting conductive material can be used. By forming the first main electrode part EPa using a light-transmitting conductive material, light is transmitted through the first main electrode part EPa, and the transmittance can be improved.

  The pixel electrodes EP of all the pixels PX are covered with the first alignment film 20.

  The scanning line Y and the auxiliary capacitance line AY are arranged substantially in parallel and can be formed of the same material. The auxiliary capacitance line AY is disposed so as to face the pixel electrode EP through an insulating film such as the interlayer insulating film 16 and to cross the plurality of pixel electrodes EP. The signal line X is disposed so as to be substantially orthogonal to the scanning line Y and the auxiliary capacitance line AY via the interlayer insulating film 16. These signal lines, scanning lines Y, and auxiliary capacitance lines AY are made of a conductive material such as aluminum, molybdenum, tungsten, or titanium.

  On the other hand, the counter substrate CT is formed using an insulating substrate 30 having optical transparency such as a glass plate or a quartz plate. That is, the counter substrate CT includes a counter electrode ET common to the plurality of pixels PX in the display area DSP. The counter electrode ET is electrically connected to a common line COM to which a common potential is supplied outside the display area DSP.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the counter electrode ET has a second main electrode portion ETa. The second main electrode portion ETa has a strip shape and is linearly arranged in parallel to the column direction over the entire display area DSP. Here, the adjacent second main electrode portions ETa are disposed at approximately the same distance from the first main electrode portion EPa with one first main electrode portion EPa interposed therebetween.

  In the example illustrated in FIG. 3, the second main electrode portion ETa is disposed so as to face the signal line X.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the second main electrode portions ETa are alternately arranged in parallel with the first main electrode portions EPa so as to form a lateral electric field with the first main electrode portion EPa. That is, the second main electrode portion ETa is arranged so as not to face the first main electrode portion EPa. The first main electrode part EPa and the second main electrode part ETa have a comb shape. FIG. 4 shows only main parts necessary for the description.

  The second main electrode portion ETa constituting the counter electrode ET can be formed of a light-transmitting conductive material such as ITO. By forming the second main electrode portion ETa using a light-transmitting conductive material, light is transmitted also on the second main electrode portion ETa, and the transmittance can be improved.

  The counter electrode ET is covered with the second alignment film 36.

  The color display type liquid crystal display device includes a color filter layer 34 provided on the inner surface of the liquid crystal display panel LPN corresponding to each pixel PX. In the example shown in FIG. 2, the color filter layer 34 is provided on the counter substrate CT. The color filter layer 34 is formed of a plurality of different colors, for example, colored resins colored in three primary colors such as red, blue, and green. The red colored resin, the blue colored resin, and the green colored resin are disposed corresponding to the red pixel, the blue pixel, and the green pixel, respectively.

  In the example of the color display type liquid crystal display device shown in FIG. 2, the color filter layer 34 is disposed on the counter substrate CT side, but may be disposed on the array substrate AR side.

  Each pixel PX is partitioned by the black matrix 32. The black matrix 32 is formed of a black colored resin or the like, and is disposed so as to face wiring portions such as the scanning lines Y, the signal lines X, and the switching elements W provided on the array substrate AR. In the color display type liquid crystal display device, the color filter layers 34 are respectively disposed in regions partitioned by the black matrix 32.

  The counter substrate CT further includes a shield electrode for reducing the influence of the external electric field, an overcoat layer disposed with a relatively thick film thickness so as to flatten the unevenness of the surface of the color filter layer 34, and the like. It may be configured.

  When such a counter substrate CT and the array substrate AR as described above are arranged so that the first alignment film 20 and the second alignment film 36 face each other, a spacer (not shown) arranged between them is used. A predetermined gap is formed. The liquid crystal layer LQ is composed of a liquid crystal composition including liquid crystal molecules sealed in a gap between the first alignment film 20 of the array substrate AR and the second alignment film 36 of the counter substrate CT.

  The liquid crystal molecules contained in the liquid crystal layer LQ are aligned by the regulation force by the first alignment film 20 and the second alignment film 36. That is, when no potential difference is formed between the potential of the pixel electrode EP and the potential of the counter electrode ET (that is, no electric field is formed between the pixel electrode EP and the counter electrode), the liquid crystal molecules The major axis direction is oriented in a direction parallel to the rubbing direction of the orientation film 20 and the orientation film 26. As shown in FIG. 3, the rubbing direction S is, for example, parallel to the column direction on the main plane of the array substrate AR.

  The liquid crystal display device includes an optical element OD1 provided on one outer surface of the liquid crystal display panel LPN (that is, the outer surface opposite to the surface in contact with the liquid crystal layer LQ of the array substrate AR), and the liquid crystal display panel LPN. The optical element OD2 is provided on the other outer surface (that is, the outer surface opposite to the surface in contact with the liquid crystal layer LQ of the counter substrate CT). These optical elements OD1 and OD2 include a polarizing plate, for example, to realize a normally black mode in which the transmittance of the liquid crystal display panel LPN is lowest (that is, a black screen is displayed) when there is no electric field.

  Further, the liquid crystal display device includes a backlight unit BL disposed on the array substrate AR side with respect to the liquid crystal display panel LPN.

  In such a liquid crystal display device, when a potential difference is formed between the potential of the pixel electrode EP and the potential of the counter electrode ET (that is, a voltage in which a voltage having a potential different from that of the counter electrode ET is applied to the pixel electrode EP). At the time of application), a lateral electric field E1 is formed between the first main electrode part EPa of the pixel electrode EP and the second main electrode part ETa of the counter electrode ET.

  Here, the distance D between the first main electrode part EPa and the second main electrode part ETa is set sufficiently larger than the gap G between the substrates. For example, the distance D is about 10 μm or more (preferably 10 to 15 μm) and the gap G is about 4 μm. For this reason, between the first main electrode portion EPa and the second main electrode portion ETa, a horizontal electric field E1 that is substantially parallel to the main surface of the substrate and is substantially horizontal is formed.

  At this time, the liquid crystal molecules are driven so that the major axis direction thereof is aligned in the direction parallel to the lateral electric field E1 from the rubbing direction. Thus, when the major axis direction of the liquid crystal molecules changes from the rubbing direction, the modulation factor for the light transmitted through the liquid crystal layer LQ changes. Accordingly, the backlight is selectively transmitted according to the modulation rate, and an image is displayed.

  In this way, a liquid crystal mode using a lateral electric field is realized.

  In such a liquid crystal display device, the pixel electrode EP is formed on the array substrate AR, and the counter electrode ET is formed on the counter substrate CT. For this reason, the step of forming the pixel electrode EP on the array substrate AR and the step of forming the counter electrode ET on the counter substrate CT can be performed in parallel. That is, such a liquid crystal display device can be formed using an existing process of a liquid crystal display device in a vertical electric field mode such as a TN mode. For this reason, it is not necessary to increase the number of production lines or to greatly recombine, and it is possible to suppress an increase in cost.

  Further, in such a liquid crystal display device, since the counter electrode ET is formed on the counter substrate CT, as described above, the second main electrode portion ETa that is the counter electrode ET is opposed to the signal line X. It is possible to arrange.

  In the conventional configuration in which the pixel electrode and the counter electrode are arranged on the same substrate, the pixel electrode and the counter electrode are often arranged inside the adjacent signal line X. In this case, an area between the pixel electrode and the counter electrode is an opening mainly contributing to display.

  On the other hand, as described above, in the configuration in which the pixel electrode EP and the counter electrode ET are disposed on separate substrates, the second main electrode portion ETa of the counter electrode ET is disposed to face the signal line X in the pixel PX. In this case, a region between the signal line X and the first main electrode part EPa is an opening. That is, the opening can be enlarged and the transmittance can be improved as compared with the conventional configuration.

  In addition, by disposing the second main electrode portion ETa so as to face the signal line X, the distance between the first main electrode portion EPa and the second main electrode portion ETa is increased as compared with the conventional configuration. This makes it possible to form a lateral electric field E1 that is closer to the horizontal. For this reason, it becomes possible to improve the transmittance | permeability from the conventional structure. In other words, in the present embodiment, the viewing angle dependency which is an advantage of the conventional configuration such as the IPS mode is small and the wide viewing angle characteristic is maintained, and the transmittance is further improved as compared with the conventional configuration. Is possible.

  When misalignment between the array substrate AR and the counter substrate CT occurs, there may be a difference in distance from the second main electrode portions ETa on both sides of the first main electrode portion EPa. However, since such misalignment occurs in common to all the pixels PX, there is no difference in the electric field distribution between the pixels PX, and the display of the image is not affected.

  Incidentally, as described above, the pixel electrode EP includes the auxiliary capacitor portion EPb in addition to the first main electrode portion EPa. The auxiliary capacitance part EPb is electrically connected to one end of the first main electrode part EPa. Here, as shown in FIG. 3, the auxiliary capacitance portion EPb is formed in a trapezoidal shape, and is arranged so that the short side of two sides parallel to each other is connected to one end of the pixel electrode EP. The two hypotenuses connecting the long sides are symmetric with respect to a center line parallel to the column direction. Further, the auxiliary capacitor portion EPb is arranged at an equal distance from each of the two signal lines X sandwiching the auxiliary capacitor portion EPb.

  Here, FIG. 5 shows a first comparative example. Also in the first comparative example, the pixel electrode EP has an auxiliary capacitance portion EPb in addition to the first main electrode portion EPa, and the auxiliary capacitance portion EPb is electrically connected to one end of the first main electrode portion EPa. Has been. In the first comparative example, the auxiliary capacitor portion EPb is formed in a rectangular shape, and is arranged at an equal distance from the two signal lines X sandwiching the auxiliary capacitor portion EPb.

  In the present embodiment and the first comparative example shown in FIG. 3, a horizontal electric field E1 is formed between the first main electrode part EPa and the second main electrode part ETa when a voltage is applied, and the auxiliary capacitor part EPb and An electric field E2 is formed between the second main electrode portion ETa. That is, the electric field E2 is formed in addition to the lateral electric field E1 necessary for image display.

  Here, in this Embodiment, the result of having simulated the orientation direction of the liquid crystal molecule at the time of voltage application is shown in FIG. 6, and in the 1st comparative example, the orientation direction of the liquid crystal molecule at the time of voltage application is shown in FIG. In the region A and the region A ′, the liquid crystal molecules include a lateral electric field E1 formed between the first main electrode part EPa and the second main electrode part ETa, an auxiliary capacitance part EPb, and the second main electrode part ETa. Under the influence of the electric field E2 formed between them, the orientation is different from the orientation of white display. For this reason, the transmittance | permeability is low and becomes a dark line in the area | region A and area | region A '. If such a dark line is formed in the opening, the transmittance is lowered, which is not desirable.

  According to the present embodiment, by adopting the trapezoidal auxiliary capacitance part EPb, the interaction between the horizontal electric field E1 and the electric field E2 is relaxed, and the dark line appearing in the opening can be reduced. As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the region A is smaller in the region A than the region A ′. That is, the transmittance can be improved by forming the auxiliary capacitor portion EPb in a trapezoidal shape as in the present embodiment. According to the simulation conducted by the inventor, it was confirmed that the transmittance of the present embodiment is about 4% higher than that of the first comparative example.

  FIG. 8 shows a modification of the present embodiment. In the modification, the counter electrode ET further includes a sub electrode portion ETb. The sub-electrode portion ETb is disposed so as to face the auxiliary capacitance portion EPb so as to form a vertical electric field between it and the auxiliary capacitance portion EPb. In particular, in the example shown in FIG. 8, the sub-electrode portion ETb is disposed on the boundary side between the first main electrode portion EPa and the auxiliary capacitance portion EPb.

  The sub electrode portion ETb is arranged in the row direction so as to intersect the second main electrode portion ETa, and is electrically connected to the second main electrode portion ETa. In the example shown here, the second main electrode portion ETa and the sub electrode portion ETb are integrally formed of the same material.

  According to the modified example having such a configuration, in addition to the lateral electric field E1 and the electric field E2 described above, a vertical electric field E3 is further formed between the auxiliary capacitance part EPb and the sub-electrode part ETb during voltage application. .

  In this embodiment shown in FIG. 3 and the modification shown in FIG. 8, the results of simulating the relationship between the equipotential surface and the orientation direction of the liquid crystal molecules when a voltage is applied are shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, respectively.

  As shown in FIG. 9, in the region B, dark lines are generated under the influence of the lateral electric field E1 and the electric field E2.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 10, in the modification, the liquid crystal molecules are affected by the horizontal electric field E1, the electric field E2, and the vertical electric field E3 in the region C. In this region C, the transmittance is low and a dark line is formed.

  At this time, the region C is formed on the light shielding portion by the interaction between the electric field E2 and the vertical electric field E3. That is, since the region B is formed in the opening, it contributes to image display and causes a decrease in transmittance, whereas the region C is formed on the auxiliary capacitance line AY formed of a light shielding material. Therefore, it does not contribute to image display.

  That is, the transmittance can be improved by shifting the dark line onto the light shielding portion. It has been confirmed that the transmittance of the modification shown in FIG. 8 is increased by about 7% compared to the present embodiment shown in FIG.

  Next, in order to verify the effect of the modified example, a second comparative example to be compared with the modified example will be described. The second comparative example shown in FIG. 11 is a liquid crystal display device that is configured as a liquid crystal mode using a horizontal electric field, and includes a pixel electrode EP and a counter electrode ET between a pair of signal lines X in the array substrate AR. is there.

  The transmittance was measured for the modified example shown in FIG. 8 and the second comparative example shown in FIG. The result is shown in FIG. In the second comparative example, when the transmittance when the maximum voltage is applied (that is, when displaying a white screen) is 1.00, in the modified example, the transmittance when the same voltage is applied is 1.15. Met.

  As described above, according to the liquid crystal display device of this embodiment, the manufacturing cost is suppressed, the viewing angle dependency is small, the viewing angle characteristic is small, the transmittance can be improved, and the display quality is improved. A good image can be displayed.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment itself, In the stage of implementation, it can change and implement a component within the range which does not deviate from the summary. Further, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of constituent elements disclosed in the embodiment. For example, some components may be deleted from all the components shown in the embodiment. Furthermore, you may combine suitably the component covering different embodiment.

  In the example shown in FIG. 3 and the like, in each pixel PX, the pixel electrode EP includes one first main electrode portion EPa, but the pixel electrode EP includes a plurality of first main electrode portions EPa. May be. In the example shown in FIG. 13, in each pixel PX, the pixel electrode EP includes two first main electrode portions EPa. In such a case, the second main electrode portion ETa is further disposed between the two first main electrode portions ETa. That is, the first main electrode portions and the second main electrode portions are alternately arranged in parallel to form a comb shape. At this time, the distance between the first main electrode portion and the second main electrode portion is set to be approximately equal. Even in such an example, the same effect as the above-described embodiment can be obtained.

In the modification shown in FIG. 8, the liquid crystal display device using the auxiliary capacitor part EPb having a trapezoidal shape has been described. In the case where the sub-electrode portion ETb is disposed, the shape of the auxiliary capacitance portion is not particularly limited, and for example, also in a liquid crystal display device using the auxiliary capacitance portion EPb having a rectangular shape, the same effect as in the modification example Is obtained.
Hereinafter, the invention described in the scope of claims of the present application will be appended.

(1) an array substrate provided with pixel electrodes arranged in each pixel;
A counter substrate having a counter electrode arranged opposite to the array substrate and common to a plurality of pixels;
A liquid crystal layer held between the array substrate and the counter substrate,
The pixel electrode has a strip-shaped first main electrode portion,
The counter electrode includes a strip-shaped second main electrode portion arranged alternately in parallel with the first main electrode portion so as to form a transverse electric field between the counter electrode and the first main electrode portion. Liquid crystal display device.

(2) Further, the array substrate includes a signal line arranged along a column direction of each pixel,
The liquid crystal display device according to (1), wherein the second main electrode portion is arranged to face the signal line.

(3) The liquid crystal display device according to (1), wherein the pixel electrode further includes a trapezoidal auxiliary capacitance portion electrically connected to one end of the first main electrode portion.

(4) Further, the counter electrode includes a sub-electrode portion that is opposed to the auxiliary capacitor portion and electrically connected to the second main electrode portion so as to form a vertical electric field between the counter electrode and the auxiliary capacitor portion. A liquid crystal display device according to (3), comprising:

(5) The liquid crystal display device according to (1), wherein the first main electrode portion and the second main electrode portion are formed of a light-transmitting conductive material.

(6) The liquid crystal display device according to (1), wherein the pixel electrode includes at least two first main electrode portions.

LPN ... Liquid crystal display panel AR ... Array substrate CT ... Counter substrate LQ ... Liquid crystal layer BL ... Backlight unit PX ... Pixel Y ... Scanning line X ... Signal line AY ... Auxiliary capacitance line W ... Switching element EP ... Pixel electrode ET ... Counter electrode ES ... shield electrode SH ... light shielding layer AP ... opening 20 ... first alignment film 36 ... second alignment film 32 ... black matrix 34 ... color filter layer 38 ... insulating layer 40 ... liquid crystal molecule

Claims (5)

The storage capacitor line arranged along the row direction, the first signal line and the second signal line arranged along the column direction, and the first signal line and the second signal line, respectively. An array substrate comprising: a strip-shaped first main electrode portion parallel to the column direction; a pixel electrode having an auxiliary capacitance portion facing the auxiliary capacitance line; and a first alignment film covering the pixel electrode;
A counter substrate comprising a counter electrode disposed opposite to the array substrate and common to a plurality of pixels; and a second alignment film covering the counter electrode;
A liquid crystal layer held between the array substrate and the counter substrate,
The counter electrode includes a strip-shaped second main electrode portion parallel to the column direction and alternately arranged in parallel with the first main electrode portion,
The auxiliary capacitance unit includes a short side connected to the first main electrode unit, a long side facing the short side, a first side connected to the short side and approaching the first signal line toward the long side. A liquid crystal display device comprising: one oblique side; and a second oblique side that is connected to the short side and approaches the second signal line toward the long side.   2. The liquid crystal display device according to claim 1, wherein the adjacent second main electrode portions are disposed at substantially the same distance from the first main electrode portion with one of the first main electrode portions interposed therebetween. .   3. The liquid crystal display device according to claim 1, wherein the auxiliary capacitance section is disposed at an equal distance from each of the first signal line and the second signal line.   4. The liquid crystal display device according to claim 1, wherein the first main electrode portion and the second main electrode portion are formed of a light-transmitting conductive material. 5.   5. The liquid crystal display device according to claim 1, wherein the first oblique side and the second oblique side are line symmetric with respect to a center line parallel to the column direction.

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