Theoretical and experimental study of nematic liquid crystal display cells using the in-plane-switching mode

In this paper a two-dimensional (2-D) dynamic model, based on a tensor formulation and solved numerically by combining finite elements and finite differences, is proposed and used for analyzing nematic liquid crystal (LC) test cells with interdigital electrodes. We compare theoretical and experimental results concerning the switching behavior, response mechanism, and viewing angle characteristics of nematic LC pixel structures which use the in-plane-switching (IPS) mode. The good agreement observed between theory and experiment in terms of electro-optical properties validates our modeling and demonstrates its potential for design optimization. We show that the proposed LC test cells, using the in-plane-switching mode, ensure switching-ON and -OFF response times of 22 and 28 ms, respectively, and excellent viewing angle characteristics.