Reflective LCOS (liquid crystal on silicon) microdisplays are widely used in various projection and near-eye application. For single panel projection system, liquid crystal response time is an important variable. The panel must switch fast enough to support field color sequential display with high field rates. In order to have fast response and good contrast, a vertical alignment (VA) cell was used in this study. In this study, we report cell design results of single panel VA mode LCOS.By simulation, with suitable selection on LC parameters like temperature, viscosity, elastic constant and birefringence, it is possible to get response time of around 2ms from a 2.0 um-thick vertical alignment cell. The experimental result also indicated good consistency with simulation from room temperature to 45 degree C.