The fabrication of microretarder for in-cell stereoscopic LCD using reactive liquid crystal

A microretarder for stereoscopic display is a film consisting of horizontal or vertical stripes with alternating null and half-wave phase retardation states. An LCD with a microretarder attached on the front side can display good-quality stereoscopic images when viewed with polarization glasses. It is now the easiest and cheapest way to present stereoscopic images on a flat-panel display. However, the space caused by the glass between the retarder layer and the LC layer of the panel seriously limits the vertical view angle, which, in turn, limits the application of this technology. In this paper, a process for thin-film microretarder is developed using reactive liquid crystal. The material and the process are essentially compatible with current LC panel processes. Since the thin-film microretarder is to be fabricated in the cell of an LC panel, the retarder layer and the LC layer can be fabricated as close to each other as possible. A nearly unlimited 3D view angle can be achieved for the display.