Lateral electric field type active-matrix addressing liquid crystal display device

1. A lateral electric field type active-matrix addressing liquid crystal display device comprising:

a first substrate including gate bus lines, common bus lines parallel to the gate bus lines, and drain bus lines intersected with the gate bus lines and the common bus lines;

a second substrate held to be opposite to the first substrate at a predetermined gap;

a liquid crystal layer placed between the first substrate and the second substrate;

pixel regions defined by the gate bus lines and the drain bus lines to be arranged in a matrix array; and

each of the pixel regions including a switching element, a pixel electrode electrically connected to the switching element, and a common electrode electrically connected a corresponding one of the common bus lines;

wherein in each of the pixel regions, at least one light-shielding electrode extends side-by-side along the drain bus lines that define the pixel electrode, wherein a first distance between said at least one light shielding electrode and an adjacent one of said drain bus lines is no more than a linewidth of the adjacent one of said drain bus lines;

the at least one light-shielding electrode is overlapped with at least one part of the pixel electrode corresponding to the pixel region in such a way that an insulating film intervenes between the at least one light-shielding electrode and the at least one part, wherein the at least one part extends side-by-side along the drain bus lines;

the at least one light-shielding electrode is electrically connected to the pixel electrode corresponding to the pixel region at a position in the pixel region; and

liquid crystal molecules confined in the liquid crystal layer are rotated in planes approximately parallel to the first substrate, thereby displaying images.

2. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one light-shielding electrode is placed on a different layer from that for the drain bus lines in such a way that an insulating film intervenes between them.

3. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one part of the pixel electrode corresponding to the pixel region is comb-tooth-shaped; and

the at least one light-shielding electrode is belt-shaped to extend along the drain bus lines.

4. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the pixel electrode corresponding to the pixel region comprises comb-tooth-shaped parts extending along the drain bus lines;

two of the comb-tooth-shaped parts of the pixel electrode located at outer positions are used as the at least one part of the pixel electrode extending along the two drain bus lines that define the pixel electrode in the vicinities of the same drain bus lines; and

the two light-shielding electrodes are belt-shaped to extend along the two drain bus lines that define the pixel electrode, respectively.

5. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the drain bus lines are bent to have approximately V-like shapes in accordance with the respective pixel regions; and

the pixel electrodes and the common electrodes are bent to have approximately V-like shapes corresponding to the drain bus lines.

6. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the pixel electrodes are placed on a different layer from that for the drain bus lines in such a way that an insulating film intervenes between them.

7. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the common electrodes are placed on a same layer as the pixel electrodes.

8. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the pixel electrodes and/or the common electrodes are made of a transparent conductive material or materials.

9. The device according to claim 1 , wherein a second distance between the at least one part of said pixel electrode and an one of said drain bus lines is greater the first distance.