Color display element having PDLC layers and color filter

DETAILED DESCRIPTION An object of the present invention is to provide a reflective color display element high in display quality which allows color display and high-contrast monochrome display in the same pixel, a feature which has been impossible in the above-described conventional reflective displays.
A first color display element according to the present invention comprises a first substrate, a first electrode, a first dimmer layer in which light-scattering state and transparent state can be controlled by an external electric field, a color filter, a second dimmer layer in which light-scattering state and transparent state can be controlled by an external electric field, a second electrode and a second substrate provided in the same successive order as viewed from the light incident side, and a light-absorbing layer behind the second dimmer layer as viewed from the light incident side to absorb the light passing through the first substrate, the first electrode, the first dimmer layer, the color filter and the second dimmer layer.
The first and second dimmer layers may be switched between the light-scattering state and the transparent state by applying an electric field, in which case, it is possible to utilize, for example, a DSM system produced by a polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) or nematic liquid crystal, a DSM system in a smectic A layer, a scattering-transparency change by a ferroelectric liquid crystal, and a scattering state in the focal conic tissue of a cholesteric layer.
In this polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC), the liquid crystal mate rial may be dispersed within a set substance, or the set substance may be present in the form of a three-dimensional network within the liquid crystal material.
The first dimmer layer and the second dimmer layer may be sandwiched by the substrates.
That is, as shown in FIG.
2B, liquid crystal cells 21 and 23 may sandwich color filter 22 therebetween.
Liquid crystal cells 21 and 23 are, as shown in FIG.
2A, each composed of a transparent electrode 17, 19 and a dimmer layer 18 sandwiched between transparent electrodes 17 and 19, these three layers in turn being sandwiched between transparent substrates 16 and 20