Liquid crystal cells – elements and systems – Particular structure – Holder – support – frame – or housing
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-24
2003-02-04
Sikes, William L. (Department: 2871)
Liquid crystal cells, elements and systems
Particular structure
Holder, support, frame, or housing
C349S122000, C349S155000, C349S150000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06515721
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to liquid crystal display devices for use in personal computers and workstations or else and, more particularly, to effective techniques for application to spacers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Liquid crystal display devices are becoming increasingly well known and commercially available for use as monitor units of modern digital equipment including, but not limited to, laptop personal computers and desktop computers. Today, liquid crystal display modules of the super twisted nematic (STN) or thin-film transistor (TFF) type are widely employed as display devices of notebook computers.
These liquid crystal display modules are generally constituted from a liquid crystal display panel having semiconductor chips (semiconductor integrated circuit devices making up drain drivers or gate drivers) disposed around the peripheral portions thereof, a back-light unit for illumination of the liquid crystal display panel, and a frame having a display window and covering the liquid crystal display panel and the backlight unit.
Additionally such architecture has been recited, for example, in Japanese Patent Publication No.19474/1985 and also in Published Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No.22780/1992.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In such products, the liquid crystal display device is mounted as what is called the liquid crystal display module including in combination its liquid crystal display panel and light source. One typical form of it is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos.264991/1993 and 218914/1995. Typically a chip spacer for protection of the semiconductor chips is provided between the frame and liquid crystal display panel.
And this chip spacer is tightly secured by adhesion to both the frame and one substrate of the liquid crystal display panel (in the case of TFT liquid crystal display module, a glass substrate on the TFT substrate side).
However, in prior known liquid crystal display modules, the one substrate could break (crack) from time to time during assembly processes.
The present invention has been made to solve the problem faced with said prior art, and a primary objective of this invention is to provide a technique for preventing occurrence of substrate cracking in a liquid crystal display device during assembly processes, thereby improving the quality thereof.
The above and other objects and new features of the instant invention will become apparent from the disclosure of the specification along with its accompanying drawings enclosed herewith.
In products such as monitor units of laptop personal computers and desktop personal computers, a variety of types of commercial products are becoming available in recent years.
The inventors as named herein have considered about the cause of the cracking of one substrate of the liquid crystal display element (liquid crystal display panel) during assembly of a liquid crystal display module to find that one major problem concerns the position of an adhesive layer as provided at the spacer.
More specifically, in prior art liquid crystal display modules, the adhesive layer is provided on the entire surface of the spacer. This spacer's adhesive layer is provided in such a way as to also cover a wiring substrate or board which is electrically and/or mechanically connected to more than one terminal section being provided at the periphery of the above-noted one substrate.
It has been found that due to this arrangement, a compressive force will first be applied to a region in which the one substrate's wiring board is formed when attaching a frame member during assembly of a liquid crystal display module, and the terminate end portion of such one substrate is inherently weak in physical strength than its remaining regions other than the end portion, thus resulting in occurrence of substrate cracking in this region first.
The present invention has been made in view of the above technical background. Some representative principles of the invention as disclosed herein will be explained in brief below.
More specifically the present invention provides a liquid crystal display device which comprises a liquid crystal display device comprising a liquid crystal display element, a frame member having a display window permitting exposure of a display plane of said liquid crystal display element and covering said liquid crystal display element, and a spacer provided between said frame member and a periphery of a first principal surface of one substrate of said pair of substrates facing said liquid crystal, featured in that said spacer is provided with an adhesive layer at specified part of said first principal surface of said one substrate closer to said liquid crystal than a central portion of the length in the direction crossing one side thereof.
Another feature of the present invention is that said spacer is provided with the adhesive layer at part of said first principal surface of said one substrate closer to said liquid crystal than the central portion of the length at right angles to the one side of said first principal surface.
The present invention also provides a liquid crystal display device comprising a liquid crystal display element having a semiconductor integrated circuit device as provided on a periphery of the liquid crystal side surface of one of the substrates, a frame member having a display window exposing a display plane of said liquid crystal display element and covering said liquid crystal display element, and a spacer provided between said frame member and a periphery of the liquid crystal side surface of said one of the substrates, characterized in that one side (lateral face) of said spacer adjacent to said liquid crystal display element is formed into an even shape (shaped so that the one side protruded toward the liquid crystal display element at plurality of portions thereof), said semiconductor integrated circuit device is disposed along a concave portion thereof, and an adhesive is provided on a surface of a convex portion thereof opposing the liquid crystal side surface of said one substrate. The aforementioned convex portion is defined as a portion of the spacer where the one side is protruded toward the liquid crystal display element, and the aforementioned concave portion is defined as a portion of the spacer (other than the concave portion) where the one side is not protruded toward the liquid crystal display element. In the aforementioned spacer, a plurality of the concave portions and a plurality of the convex portions are arranged alternately along an extension direction of the spacer, and thus the spacer looks like e.g. a profile of rack rail. The aforementioned liquid crystal side surface of one of the substrates is defined as a main surface at a liquid crystal layer side of one of a pair of substrates between which the liquid crystal layer is interposed. The aforementioned semiconductor integrated circuit device is provided on a area of the liquid crystal side being surrounded by one of the aforementioned concave portions and at least one of the aforementioned convex portions (as if it were inserted into a notch formed at the one side of the spacer according to the concave portion). More concretely, the convex portion of the spacer protrudes toward the effective display region of the liquid crystal display element. Therefore, if the spacer is arranged on a area at the periphery of one substrate of the pair of substrates where another substrate of the pair of substrates is not superposed over the one substrate, the convex portion of the spacer protrudes toward an edge of the another substrate, and other portion of the spacer than the convex portion becomes a concave portion with respect to the another substrate.
Another feature of the present invention is that said one substrate has a terminal section at a peripheral edge portion and also has a wiring board as electrically and/or mechanically connected to said terminal section, and that the adhesive layer of said spacer is provided in a
Jin Nobutaka
Nemoto Atsushi
Chowdhury Tarifur R.
Hitachi , Ltd.
Sikes William L.
LandOfFree
Liquid crystal display device including a spacer with... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Liquid crystal display device including a spacer with..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Liquid crystal display device including a spacer with... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3176410