Liquid crystal display panels are increasingly used for the general display of alpha-numeric information and in particular they are finding application to such areas as control panels in the cockpit of aircraft or the like where the pilot user may view the display by looking down at an angle from the horizontal.
An inherent problem encountered with reflective dynamic scattering liquid crystal displays used in such applications is that of light trapping the specular reflection off of the display surface while providing illumination at angles where liquid crystal scattering is efficient.
Efforts of the prior art to use reflective surfaces to provide light to liquid crystal and other display devices are typified by the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,728,007 to Myrenne et al; 3,838,909 to Fitzgibbons; 3,920,311 to Tsuda; and 3,924,932 to Yamamoto. None of these discusses or solves the above problem dealt with by the present invention.
It is an object of this invention to provide a reflective dynamic scattering liquid crystal display and mounting arrangement therefore which solves this light trapping problem and is suitable for such cockpit use.