1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device and a manufacturing method thereof, and more particularly, to a display device having an improved viewing angle, an improved display property and increased manufacturing efficiency, and a manufacturing method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to recent progress in semiconductor technologies, a liquid crystal display (“LCD”) device provides improved performance compared to other types of display devices.
Further, the LCD device is small and light, and consumes less power than a cathode ray tube (“CRT”), and thus is often used in place of a CRT. The LCD device is also used in many information processing devices requiring a display means, such as small devices, e.g., mobile phones and personal digital assistants (“PDAs”), as well as medium- and large-size devices such as monitors and televisions, for example.
However, the LCD device has a relatively narrow viewing angle. To overcome the relatively narrow viewing angle and improve display property over a wide viewing angle, a vertically-aligned (“VA”) mode LCD device is used, in which a single pixel is divided into a plurality of domains. In the VA mode LCD, a long axis of a liquid crystal molecule is vertically aligned with respect to an upper substrate and a lower substrate when an electric field is not present between the upper substrate and the lower substrate. Further, the pixel is the smallest unit of displaying an image.
The VA mode liquid crystal display device uses various methods to induce liquid crystal molecules in respective domains to have different pretilt directions. For example, in a patterned vertically aligned (“PVA”) mode LCD, pretilt directions of the liquid crystal molecules are induced by a fringe field formed by a cutting pattern in a common electrode and a pixel electrode.
In the PVA mode LCD as well as in VA LCDs using other modes of operation, an additional manufacturing process is required to form the cutting pattern. As a result, a production efficiency of the LCD device is reduced.
Further, in the conventional VA mode LCD device, liquid crystal molecules induced in different pretilt directions in respective domains interfere and collide with each other, or an unintended force affects the liquid crystal molecules, thereby creating a domain in which the pretilt directions of the liquid crystal molecules are not controlled. As a result, light transmittance is lowered and brightness of the display device thereby decreases.