1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (LCD), and more particularly, to an LCD device having column spacers with a semi-spherical shape in an upper portion.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, in an LCD, two substrates that are formed apart from each other are attached by forming a liquid crystal (LC) injection hole around them. A liquid crystal (LC) is injected between the two substrates through the LC injection hole, and the two substrates maintain a constant cell gap.
A spacer is generally used to maintain the cell gap between the two substrates. Such a spacer may come in various shapes and be formed of various materials.
The recent trend in thin and light LCD devices has increased the desirability of finely and stably controlled cell gaps. This is because cell gaps have a close relationship with display characteristics of an LCD, such as response time, contrast, viewing angle and color.
To maintain a finely and stably controlled cell gap, a method for dispersing fine spacer particles into an LC cell is generally used. Glass or plastic may be used, for example, as materials of the spacer particles.
A spacer formed of glass may be formed in a stick shape at a length of about 20 to 120 μm from a glass fiber obtained by emitting non-alkali glass. A main component of a spacer formed of glass is SiO2. A spacer formed of glass is generally heat-proof, has good chemical resistance, and hardness. Therefore, deformation of such a spacer due to a heavy load is not likely to occur. Also, a spacer formed of even a small amount of glass is effective and reacts with liquid crystal only minimally.
A spacer formed of plastic, on the other hand, may be formed from a synthetic resin and may be divided into a thermoplastic type and a thermal hardening type, according to the kind of resin. Compared with a spacer formed of glass, a spacer formed of plastic has low hardness, and is easily deformed by a heavy load. Therefore, a spacer formed of plastic has to maintain a higher dispersion density than that of the spacer formed of glass.
A cell gap is maintained by a spacer by inducing the spacer on a substrate using a dispersion device. Also, without using a particle type spacer, it is possible to form a fixed type spacer attached to a substrate. A fixed type spacer has a greater width, a higher resolution in an LC cell, a space optical modulation element, and does not cause the picture quality to be damaged.
Generally, a method known as photo-etching is used eliminate unnecessary parts of a semiconductor device by optical or chemical methods to form a predetermined pattern on a substrate or a thin film of an insulating material, a semiconductor or a conductor. Also, photo-etching enables the layers of the semiconductor device to be formed finely.
A column spacer technique has been proposed in which resist is deposited on a substrate at a predetermined thickness using photo-etching. The resist is exposed by irradiating UV, X-ray, or electron ray, and chemically processed so that a fixed type spacer is directly formed on an arbitrary position of the substrate.
Hereinafter, a related art LCD will be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a related art LCD.
At this time, as shown in FIG. 1, an LCD includes a TFT substrate 11, a color filter substrate 11a, column spacers 13 formed on the color filter substrate 11a in a rectangular shape, and an LC layer 15 injected between the TFT substrate 11 and the color filter substrate 11a. 
The TFT substrate 11 and the color filter substrate 11a are attached by a sealant 17 which may be, for example, an epoxy resin. Also, although not shown, a driving circuit which outputs a control signal for displaying a picture image through a pixel is formed on a PCB and connected to the TFT substrate 11 through a Tape Carrier Package (TCP).
After manufacturing the TFT substrate 11 and the color filter substrate 11a, column spacers 13 are formed on the color filter substrate 11a. The TFT substrate 11 and the color filter substrate 11a are attached by the sealant 17.
As shown in FIG. 2, one column spacer 13 is formed per each pixel consisting of red (R), green (G) and blue (B) regions to maintain a uniform cell gap. The column spacers 13 are arranged in a stripe shape or an oblique line shape.
However, the foregoing related art LCD has the following problems.
First, since the column spacers 13 have a rectangular shape, they fail to evenly disperse the LC injected between the TFT substrate 11 and the color filter substrate 11a. 
Second, the column spacers 13 have a low pressure-resistance as a result of being arranged in a stripe shape or oblique line shape. To improve the pressure-resistance of the column spacers 13, the amount of space between each of the column spacers 13 may have to be decreased. However, if the amount of space is decreased, bubbles occur in the LC, thereby deteriorating the picture quality.
Finally, rectangularly-shaped column spacers do not generate LC alignment during rubbing, thereby causing a defect in a domain of the LC.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds