Liquid crystal display device having a patterned spacer and method of fabricating the same

1. A method of fabricating a liquid crystal display device, comprising steps of:

forming an array element having a switching element on a first substrate;

forming a first transparent electrode connected to the switching element;

forming a first patterned spacer on the array element to have a first height less than a uniform cell gap;

forming a first alignment layer to cover the first patterned spacer;

forming a second transparent electrode on a second substrate;

forming a second patterned spacer on the second transparent electrode to have a second height;

forming a second alignment layer to cover the second patterned spacer;

bonding the first and second substrates together to be spaced apart by the uniform cell gap; and

forming a liquid crystal material layer interposed between the first and second alignment layers to fill the uniform cell gap,

wherein the first and second spacers are connected to each other and a summation of the first and second heights of the first and second patterned spacers is equivalent to the uniform cell gap, and a first one of the first and second heights is between 80% and 90% of the uniform cell gap and a second one of the first and second heights is between 10% and 20% of the uniform cell gap.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first and second substrates both have a pixel region and a non-pixel region, and the first and second patterned spacers are formed within the non-pixel regions of the first and second substrates.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of forming an array element includes a step of forming a gate line to extend along a first direction and forming a data line to extend along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the step of forming a first patterned spacer is within an area overlapping the gate line.

5. The method according to claim 3 , further including steps of rubbing the first and second alignment layers along the second direction.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the first patterned spacer is laterally offset from a longitudinal centerline of the gate line along a third direction opposite to the second direction.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the second substrate includes color filter layers on the second transparent electrode and a black matrix layer within a boundary region of two adjacent color filter layers.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the step of forming a second patterned spacer is within an area overlapping the black matrix layer.

9. The method according to claim 7 , further including steps of rubbing the first and second alignment layers along a second direction parallel to a direction of a data line of the array element.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the first patterned spacer is laterally offset from a longitudinal centerline of the gate line along a third direction opposite to the second direction.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the second one of the first and second heights has a width larger than the first one of the first and second heights.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the uniform cell gap is between about 5 μm and about 6 μm.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the liquid crystal display device is an optically compensated birefringence mode liquid crystal display device.

14. The method according to claim 13 , further including a step of rubbing the first and second alignment layers along similar directions.

15. The method according to claim 13 , wherein an orientation of liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal material layer has a bend structure when a voltage is applied to the liquid crystal molecules.

16. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the steps of forming first and second patterned spacers includes photolithographic processes using photoresist material.