FLEXIBLE DISPLAY DEVICE

• US 20160233453A1
• Filed: 11/18/2015
• Published: 08/11/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Display Company Limited (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Display Company Limited (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Lee, Byoungduk, Park, Eungseok, Yun, Wonmin, Chung, Yunah, Ju, Yongchan, Cho, Yoonhyeung
• Granted Patent: US 9,859,526 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1652 the display being flexible, e.g. mimicking a sheet of paper, or rollable
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1677 for detecting open or closed state or particular intermediate positions assumed by movable parts of the enclosure, e.g. detection of display lid position with respect to main body in a laptop, detection of opening of the cover of battery compartment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3265 Power saving in display device
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0268 including a flexible display panel
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 2102/311 Flexible OLED
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/844 Encapsulations
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/8445 multilayered coatings having a repetitive structure, e.g. having multiple organic-inorganic bilayers
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/00 Integrated devices, or assemblies of multiple devices, comprising at least one organic light-emitting element covered by group H10K50/00
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/12 Active-matrix OLED [AMOLED] displays
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 77/111 Flexible substrates
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/549 Organic PV cells

Abstract

A flexible display device includes: a flexible substrate; a display unit on the flexible substrate and including a display area capable of displaying an image; and a thin film encapsulating layer encapsulating the display unit and including at least one inorganic encapsulating film and at least one organic encapsulating film, where the organic encapsulating film includes at least one first organic region including a first organic material and at least one second organic region including a second organic material that is different from the first organic material, and the at least one first organic region extends in a first direction, the at least one first organic region and the at least one second organic region are aligned with each other, and a first Young'"'"'s modulus of the at least one first organic region is different from a second Young'"'"'s modulus of the least one second organic region.

Claims

1. A flexible display device comprising:

a flexible substrate;

a display unit on the flexible substrate and comprising a display area capable of displaying an image; and

a thin film encapsulating layer encapsulating the display unit and comprising at least one inorganic encapsulating film and at least one organic encapsulating film,

wherein the organic encapsulating film comprises at least one first organic region comprising a first organic material and at least one second organic region comprising a second organic material that is different from the first organic material, and

the at least one first organic region extends in a first direction, the at least one first organic region and the at least one second organic region are aligned with each other, and a first Young'"'"'s modulus of the at least one first organic region is different from a second Young'"'"'s modulus of the least one second organic region.

2. The flexible display device of claim 1, wherein the first Young'"'"'s modulus is smaller than the second Young'"'"'s modulus, and a ratio of the first Young'"'"'s modulus to the second Young'"'"'s modulus is about 4×

10 through 2×

10⁴.

3. The flexible display device of claim 2, wherein the first organic material comprises a silicon-based resin, and the second organic material comprises at least one selected from an acryl-based resin and an epoxy-based resin.

4. The flexible display device of claim 2, wherein the flexible display device comprises at least one folding region and the at least one folding region extends along the first direction, and

the at least one first organic region overlaps the at least one folding region.

5. The flexible display device of claim 4, wherein a width of the at least one first organic region is equal to or greater than a width of the at least one folding region.

6. The flexible display device of claim 2, wherein the at least one first organic region and the at least one second organic region are alternately arranged, repeatedly, along a second direction that crosses the first direction.

7. The flexible display device of claim 6, wherein the first direction and the second direction are perpendicular to each other.

8. The flexible display device of claim 6, wherein the flexible display device is windable around an axis parallel to the first direction.

9. The flexible display device of claim 6, wherein a first elongation percentage of the organic encapsulating film in the first direction is smaller than a second elongation percentage of the organic encapsulating film in the second direction.

10. The flexible, display device of claim 2, wherein the display unit comprises an organic light-emitting device (OLED) and a thin film transistor electrically coupled to the OLED.

11. The flexible display device of claim 2, wherein the flexible display device comprises a plurality of the inorganic encapsulating film and a plurality of the organic encapsulating film, and the inorganic encapsulating films and the organic encapsulating films are alternately stacked.

12. A flexible display device comprising:

a display unit comprising a display area capable of displaying an image;

a sensing unit capable of detecting a shape of the flexible display device; and

a controller capable of controlling an operation of the display unit, according to the shape detected by the sensing unit,

wherein the display unit is encapsulated by a thin film encapsulating layer comprising at least one inorganic encapsulating film and at least one organic encapsulating film,

the at least one organic encapsulating film comprises at least one first organic region and at least one second organic region,

side surfaces of the at least one first organic region and the at least one second organic region contact each other, and

a first Young'"'"'s modulus of the at least one first organic region and a second Young'"'"'s modulus of the at least one second organic region are different from each other.

13. The flexible display device of claim 12, wherein the at least one first organic region extends in a first direction, and the first Young'"'"'s modulus is smaller than the second Young'"'"'s modulus.

14. The flexible display device of claim 13, wherein a ratio of the first Young'"'"'s modulus to the second Young'"'"'s modulus is about 4×

10 through 2×

10⁴.

15. The flexible display device of claim 13, wherein the flexible display device comprises at least one folding region and the at least one folding region extends along the first direction, and

the at least one first organic region overlaps the at least one folding region.

16. The flexible display device of claim 15, wherein the at least one folding region is located at the at least one first organic region.

17. The flexible display device of claim 13, wherein the at least one first organic region and the at least one second organic region are alternately arranged, repeatedly, along a second direction that is perpendicular to the first direction, and

the flexible display device is windable around an axis parallel to the first direction.

18. The flexible display device of claim 17, wherein a first elongation percentage of the organic encapsulating film in the first direction is smaller than a second elongation percentage of the organic encapsulating film in the second direction.

19. The flexible display device of claim 13, further comprising a flexible substrate, wherein the display unit is located between the flexible substrate and the thin film encapsulating layer.

20. The flexible display device of claim 13, wherein the display unit comprises an organic light-emitting device (OLED) and a thin film transistor electrically coupled to the OLED.