DISPLAY MODULES

• US 20110012873A1
• Filed: 10/29/2009
• Published: 01/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/15/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Pakula, David A., Prest, Christopher D., Zadesky, Stephen P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,568,184 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/204
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/84 Passivation; Containers; Encapsulations
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/8423 Metallic sealing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/8426 Peripheral sealing arrangements, e.g. adhesives, sealants

Abstract

An electronic device may have a display. The display may have active components such as display pixels formed on a display substrate layer. The display substrate layer may be formed from a glass substrate layer. Thin-film transistors and other components for the display pixels may be formed on the glass substrate. An encapsulation glass layer may be bonded to the glass substrate using a ring-shaped bond structure. The ring-shaped bond structure may extend around the periphery of the encapsulation glass layer and the substrate glass layer. The bond structure may be formed from a glass frit, a solid glass ring, integral raised glass portions of the glass layers, meltable metal alloys, or other bond materials. Chemical and physical processing operations may be used to temper the glass layers, to perform annealing operations, to preheat the glass layers, and to promote adhesion.

Claims

1. A display module for an electronic device, comprising:

a first layer of glass on which electrical components are formed;

a second layer of glass that covers the electrical components; and

a solid gasket between the first and second layers of glass that bonds the first layer of glass to the second layer of glass, wherein the solid gasket has a substantially rectangular ring shape and surrounds a peripheral portion of the first layer of glass.

2. The display module defined in claim 1, wherein the electrical components include thin-film transistors, wherein the first layer of glass comprises thin-film-transistor glass, and wherein the second layer of glass comprises encapsulation glass.

3. The display module defined in claim 2, wherein the solid gasket is formed from glass.

4. The display module defined in claim 1, wherein the solid gasket is formed from glass.

5. A display module for an electronic device, comprising:

a first layer of glass having a periphery and having an integral raised portion around the periphery;

a second layer of glass that is bonded to the integral raised portion of the first layer of glass; and

electrical components that are enclosed between the first and second layers of glass.

6. The display module defined in claim 5, wherein the second layer of glass comprises an integral raised portion that mates with the integral raised portion of the first layer of glass.

7. The display module defined in claim 6, wherein the first layer of glass comprises thin-film transistor glass and wherein the electrical components comprise thin-film transistors.

8. The display module defined in claim 5 wherein the first layer of glass comprises thin-film transistor glass and wherein the electrical components comprise thin-film transistors.

9. The display module defined in claim 5 wherein the integral raised portion of the first layer of glass have a rectangular ring shape.

10. A display module for an electronic device, comprising:

a first layer of glass on which electrical components are formed;

a second layer of glass that covers the electrical components; and

at least one bond structure between the first and second layers of glass that bonds the first and second layers of glass together to encapsulate the electrical components, wherein the at least one bond structure is formed from metal alloy and surrounds a peripheral portion of the first layer of glass.

11. The display module defined in claim 10 wherein the at least one bond structure has a substantially rectangular ring shape.

12. The display module defined in claim 11 wherein the at least one bond structure comprises first and second adjoining bond structures, wherein the first and second adjoining bond structures each have a substantially rectangular ring shape, and wherein the first bond structure surrounds the second bond structure.

13. The display module defined in claim 11, further comprising:

an adhesion-promoting layer between the first layer of glass and the at least one bond structure, wherein the adhesion-promoting layer is formed from indium-tin-oxide.

14. A method for forming a display module, comprising:

forming an integral ring-shaped raised ridge around a peripheral portion of a first layer of glass on which electrical components are formed;

bonding a second layer of glass to the integral raised ridge on the first layer of glass to encapsulate the electrical components.

15. The method defined in claim 14 wherein bonding the integral raised ridge on the first layer of glass directly to a second layer of glass further comprises:

applying localized heat from a first heat source to the integral raised ridge of the first layer of glass; and

applying global heat from a second heat source to all of the first layer of glass.

16. The method defined in claim 14 wherein forming the integral ring-shaped raised ridge comprises forming the integral ring-shaped raised ridge using soda lime.

17. The method defined in claim 14, further comprising forming an integral ring-shaped raised ridge around a peripheral portion of the second layer of glass that mates with the integral ring-shaped raised ridge on the first layer of glass.

18. The method defined in claim 14 further comprising tempering the first layer of glass.

19. The method defined in claim 14 further comprising annealing the first and second layers of glass.

20. A method for bonding a thin-film transistor glass layer having a periphery to an encapsulation glass layer in a display, comprising:

processing a glass frit formed of frit particles having edges to smooth the edges;

depositing the glass frit around the periphery of the thin-film transistor glass layer; and

bonding the encapsulation glass layer to the thin-film transistor glass layer with the glass frit.

21. The method defined in claim 20, further comprising bonding a solid ring-shaped gasket between the thin-film transistor layer and the encapsulation glass layer.

22. The method defined in claim 21, further comprising filtering the glass frit by frit diameter before depositing the glass frit.

23. The method of claim 21 further comprising tempering the thin-film transistor glass layer by coating the thin-film transistor glass layer with a potassium-based paste and applying heat to the thin-film transistor glass layer.