Displays with minimized border regions having an apertured TFT or other layer for signal conductors

• US 10,620,490 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2019
• Issued: 04/14/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Drzaic, Paul S., Franklin, Jeremy C., Lynch, Stephen Brian, Myers, Scott A., Rappoport, Benjamin M., Rothkopf, Fletcher R., Ternus, John P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jordan, Andrew
• Application Number:
  US16/355,569
• Publication Number:
  US 20190212603A1
• Time in Patent Office: 396 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/13452 Conductors connecting driver circuitry and terminals of panels
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 2201/42 Arrangements for providing conduction through an insulating substrate

Abstract

An electronic device may be provided with a display having a thin-film transistor layer. One or more holes in the thin-film transistor layer may be used to form pathways from display circuitry to other circuitry underneath the display. One or more conductive bridges may pass through holes in the thin-film transistor layer and may have one end that couples to the display circuitry and a second end that couples to a printed circuit underneath the display. These conductive bridges may be formed from wire bonding. Wire bond connections may be encapsulated with potting material to improve the reliability of the wire bond and increase the resiliency of the display. Display signal lines may be routed through holes in a thin-film transistor layer to run along a backside of the display thereby reducing the need for space in the border region for display circuitry.

Claims

1. An electronic device, comprising:

a printed circuit substrate;

a display having a plurality of display layers, wherein a given layer of the plurality of display layers has an opening and wherein the given layer extends around an entire perimeter of the opening; and

a conductive structure that passes through the opening in the given layer, wherein the conductive structure electrically couples circuitry on the given layer to circuitry on the printed circuit substrate.

2. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the opening is one of an array of openings on the given layer and wherein the conductive structure is one of a plurality of conductive structures that each pass through a respective one of the openings.

3. The electronic device defined in claim 2 wherein the given layer is a thin-film transistor layer, wherein the thin-film transistor layer extends around an entire perimeter of the opening, and wherein the plurality of conductive structures each pass through a respective one of the openings in the thin-film transistor layer.

4. The electronic device defined in claim 3 wherein the conductive structure comprises a wire bond that passes through the opening in the thin-film transistor layer.

5. The electronic device defined in claim 4 wherein the wire bond has a first end that is coupled to a bond pad on the thin-film transistor layer and a second end that is coupled to a bond pad on the printed circuit substrate.

6. The electronic device defined in claim 5 further comprising:

potting material that fills the opening and encapsulates the wire bond that passes through the opening.

7. The electronic device defined in claim 3 wherein the conductive structure comprises conductive material that fills the opening and that electrically couples the thin-film transistor layer to the circuitry on the printed circuit substrate.

8. The electronic device defined in claim 3 wherein the thin-film transistor layer comprises a flexible substrate that includes a material selected from the group consisting of:

a sheet of polymer and a metal foil.

9. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein an additional given layer of the plurality of display layers has an opening and wherein the additional given layer extends around an entire perimeter of the opening.

10. The electronic device defined in claim 1 further comprising:

a backlight layer interposed between the printed circuit substrate and the given layer.

11. An electronic device, comprising:

a thin-film transistor layer having a thin-film transistor layer substrate with opposing first and second surfaces, wherein the thin-film transistor layer substrate has an opening that extends from the first surface to the second surface; and

a printed circuit that comprises signal lines that are coupled to circuitry on the thin-film transistor layer through the opening.

12. The electronic device defined in claim 11 wherein the thin-film transistor layer extends around an entire perimeter of the opening.

13. The electronic device defined in claim 11 wherein an array of display pixels of different colors and control lines are formed on the first surface of the thin-film transistor layer and wherein the control lines are configured to control the display pixels.

14. The electronic device defined in claim 13 wherein at least one of the signal lines passes from the first surface of the thin-film transistor layer substrate to the printed circuit through the opening.

15. The electronic device defined in claim 11 wherein the opening is one of an array of openings in the thin-film transistor layer, the electronic device further comprising:

conductive material that fills at least some of the openings and that couples the printed circuit to the circuitry on the thin-film transistor layer.

16. An electronic device comprising:

a printed circuit substrate;

a thin-film transistor layer having an opening, wherein the thin-film transistor layer extends around an entire perimeter of the opening; and

conductive material that passes through the opening and that couples the printed circuit substrate to circuitry on the thin-film transistor layer.

17. The electronic device defined in claim 16 wherein the thin-film transistor layer has thin-film transistor circuitry that controls display pixels, the electronic device further comprising:

a color filter layer that overlaps the thin-film transistor layer to form the display pixels of different colors.

18. The electronic device defined in claim 17 wherein the display pixels of different colors are arranged in an array, the electronic device further comprising:

a backlight layer interposed between the printed circuit substrate and the thin-film transistor layer, wherein the backlight layer, the printed circuit substrate, and the array of pixels of different colors each overlap each other.

19. The electronic device defined in claim 18, wherein the printed circuit substrate has an upper surface and a lower surface, and wherein the upper surface is interposed between the backlight layer and the lower surface, the electronic device further comprising:

a driver integrated circuit mounted to the lower surface of the printed circuit substrate, wherein the driver integrated circuit provides control signals to the thin-film transistor circuitry through the conductive material that passes through the opening.

20. The electronic device defined in claim 19 wherein the opening in the thin-film transistor layer is one of a plurality of openings in the thin-film transistor layer and wherein wire bonds pass through at least some of the openings.