Transflective liquid crystal display

Claim 1

A display viewable by reflected or transmitted light, comprising: a liquid crystal display cell having relatively low attenuation of light passing therethrough with any polarization in the activated condition and having substantial attenuation in an unactivated condition, of at least randomly and circularly polarized light of a first handedness sense passing therethrough, said cell having a first surface viewable by an observer and a second surface opposite said first surface; transflector means adjacent to said cell second surface for reflecting back to said cell a relatively large portion of light impingent thereon from said cell and also for transmitting a relatively lesser portion of light arriving from a direction opposite from the direction of said cell; means, placed beyond said transflector means with respect to said display cell, for linearly polarizing light in a first direction; and means, positioned between said transflector and polarizing means, for imparting circular polarization to linearly polarized light arriving from said polarizing means and traveling toward said transflector means; said circularly-polarizing means imparting a twist handedness sense to said light opposite to the first handedness sense in said cell in said unactivated state; said cell appearing dark in said unactivated condition when light is transmitted or reflected by said display and appearing in a bright condition when light is transmitted or reflected through the display in the activated state.