In this study, we proposed an optical compensation method to improve the symmetricity of contrast ratio for wide viewing angle IPS (in-plane switching) LCD. First, the phase retardation depending on the thickness of compensation film is calculated, and then the phase change is presented at the Poincare sphere. The phase retardation and the polarization state of the light passing through the optical elements are caculated by using the EJMM (extended Jones matrix method). In addition, the transmittance and the contrast countour are also calculated by using the Berremann``s 4x4 matrix method. The simulation is carried out for a IPS LC cell with positive A/C/A compensation film. From the standard deviation of the contrast ratio, we confirmed the symmetricity at each viewing angle is inversely proportional to the standard deviation and calculated the optimum design condition of the uniaxial compensation film for the IPS LCD.
