(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (“LCD”) and a method thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to an LCD having multiple display areas, and a method of reducing defects in the LCD.
(b) Description of the Related Art
In general, a liquid crystal display (“LCD”) includes two display panels having pixel electrodes and a common electrode, and a liquid crystal layer having dielectric anisotropy interposed therebetween. The pixel electrodes are arranged in a matrix and connected to switching devices such as thin film transistors (“TFTs”) so as to be sequentially applied with data voltages in units of a pixel row. The common electrode is disposed over the entire surface of one display panel and applied with a common voltage. In terms of a circuit, the pixel electrode, the common electrode, and the liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween constitute a liquid crystal capacitor. The liquid crystal capacitor together with the switching element connected thereto becomes a unit of a pixel.
In the LCD, voltages are applied to the two electrodes to generate an electric field at the liquid crystal layer, and the strength of the electric field is controlled to control transmittance of light that passes through the liquid crystal layer, thus obtaining desired images.
In this case, in order to prevent degradation generated as the electric field is applied for a long time in one direction to the liquid crystal layer, polarity of the data voltages with respect to the common voltage is inverted by frames, by rows, or by pixels.
Among the LCDs, a small sized display device used for mobile phones, etc., including a dual display device having outer and inner display panels, is being actively developed. Recently, a dual display device including one display panel that has two display areas, that is, a main display area and a sub-display area instead of the outer and inner display panels, has been under development.
At this time, the two display areas are driven by one driving chip, and share portions of a plurality of data lines that transmit data voltages. As a result, one data line group arranged on two display areas and another data line group arranged on the main display area have different resistance and capacitance, and thereby loads applied to two data line groups are different from each other. Thus, even though the same data voltage is applied to two data line groups, two corresponding pixels supplied with the data voltage have a different transmittance of light, and, in particular, vertical lines are shown in boundary portions of the corresponding pixels.