WIRE GRID POLARIZER AND MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF, DISPLAY PANEL AND DISPLAY DEVICE

• US 20160357063A1
• Filed: 05/15/2015
• Published: 12/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: LIU, Kairan, WU, Yanbing, LI, Wenbo, ZHANG, Xiangyan
• Granted Patent: US 9,759,947 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 5/30 Polarising elements light-modulating devices with active elements G02F1/00
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 5/3058 comprising electrically conductive elements, e.g. wire grids, conductive particles
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133528 Polarisers
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133536 Reflective polarizers G02F1/13362 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133548 Wire-grid polarisers
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/1368 in which the switching element is a three-electrode device G02F1/136277 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/1214 comprising a plurality of TFTs formed on a non-semiconducting substrate, e.g. driving circuits for AMLCDs

Abstract

The invention relates to the display technology field, and particularly to a wire grid polarizer, a manufacturing method thereof, a display panel and a display device. The wire grid polarizer comprises a substrate, in which wire grid structures are arranged at intervals in an array, to allow light to penetrate from the grid pitches thereof, with the other area except the wire grid structures of the substrate being a continuous opaque area. Due to the wire grid polarizer being provided with the wire grid structures arranged at intervals in a array, local light transmitting areas can be formed, and light emergence can be controlled more flexibly. A display panel using the wire grid polarizer can effectively lower the light absorption rate, also avoid peripheral light leakage in a non-subpixel area, and prevent the light leakage of the pixels themselves; correspondingly, a display device using the display panel can improve the light utilization rate, and achieve a good display effect.

Claims

1. A wire grid polarizer, comprising a substrate, wherein, multiple open areas are formed at intervals in an array on the substrate, the wire grid polarizer further comprises multiple WG structures arranged in the open areas respectively, each of the WG structures comprises multiple grid lines disposed at intervals, the intervals between two adjacent grid lines form grid pitches of the WG structures, and the WG structures allow light to penetrate through the grid pitches thereof, and the other area except the open areas of the substrate is a continuous opaque area.

2. The wire grid polarizer of claim 1, wherein, in the WG structures, the width of the grid lines ranges 25-250 nm, the width of the grid pitches ranges 25-250 nm.

3. The wire grid polarizer of claim 1, wherein, the substrate is made of a metal material.

4. The wire grid polarizer of claim 1, wherein, the metal material comprises silver or aluminum.

5. The wire grid polarizer of claim 1, wherein, the WG structures are formed with the substrate as a whole, the thickness of the substrate ranges 20-250 nm, the thickness of the grid lines of the WG structure ranges 20-250 nm.

6. A method for manufacturing a wire grid polarizer, which is the wire grid polarizer described in claim 1, the manufacturing method comprises:

Step S1, forming a transparent supporting layer on a base;

Step S2, heating the supporting layer to make the temperature of the supporting layer higher than the temperature of the glass phase transition point of the supporting layer;

Step S3, pressing a pressing template into the supporting layer with a preset pressure, the press

Step S4, maintaining the preset pressure, cooling the supporting layer down below the temperature of the glass phase transition point of the supporting layer, removing the pressing template, and forming raised areas and depressed areas on the supporting layer, with the raised areas corresponding to the grid pitches, while the depressed areas comprising portions corresponding to the grid lines and a portion corresponding to the continuous opaque area;

Step S5, removing the portions of the supporting layer corresponding to the depressed areas to expose the base of the corresponding areas, thus forming masking patterns on the base having the same patterns as the WG structures using the supporting layer;

Step S6, forming a layer of opaque material on the exposed base and the masking patterns; and

Step S7, removing the masking patterns and the opaque material attached on the masking patterns, so as to form the wire grid polarizer.

7. The manufacturing method of claim 6, wherein, in Step S1, the material forming the supporting layer comprises any one of polymethyl methacrylate, polycarbonate, polystyrene, cycloolefin resin and cross-linked polyethylene, the supporting layer is formed by spin coating, and the thickness of the supporting layer ranges 0.1-0.3 μ

m.

8. The manufacturing method of claim 7, wherein, in Step S1, the supporting layer is formed with polymethyl methacrylate, the temperature of the glass phase transition point of which is 105°

C.;

in Step S2, the heating temperature of the supporting layer ranges 180-220°

C.

9. The manufacturing method of claim 7, wherein, in Step S3, the pressing template is formed with a silica material, the width of the portions, corresponding to the grid lines of the WG structures, of the pressing patterns of the pressing template ranges 25-250 nm, and the width of the portions, corresponding to the grid pitches of the WG structures, of the pressing patterns of the pressing template ranges 25-250 nm, the depth of the portions, corresponding to the grid pitches of the WG structures, of the pressing patterns of the pressing template ranges 20-250 nm;

the preset pressure ranges 12-14 MPa.

10. The manufacturing method of claim 6, wherein, in Step S5, the supporting layer is etched by means of oxygen reactive ion etching, until the depressed areas, corresponding to the grid lines and the continuous opaque area of the WG structures, of the supporting layer expose the base of the corresponding areas.

11. The manufacturing method of claim 6, wherein, in Step S6, the opaque material is a metal material, and the opaque material layer is formed above the supporting layer by sputter deposition.

12. The manufacturing method of claim 11, wherein, the metal material comprises aluminum or silver, and an aluminum layer or a silver layer is formed above the supporting layer by sputter deposition.

13. The manufacturing method of claim 6, wherein, in Step S7, the masking patterns and the opaque material attached onto the masking patterns are removed by dissolution, so as to form the wire grid polarizer.

14. A display panel, comprising an active area, which comprises multiple sub-pixel areas arranged at intervals, and an inactive area surrounding the active area, wherein, the area of the display panel corresponding to the active area is provided with the wire grid polarizer described in claim 1, and the areas of the wire grid polarizer corresponding to the sub-pixel areas are the WG structures.

15. The display panel of claim 14, wherein, the display panel comprises a first substrate plate and a second substrate plate arranged opposite to each other, the areas, corresponding to the sub-pixel areas, of the first substrate plate or the second substrate plate are provided with multiple color film patterns of multiple different colors, and the WG structures correspond one-to-one to the color film patterns.

16. The display panel of claim 15, wherein, the color film patterns comprise color resistive layers, multiple color resistive layers of different colors are arranged on the first substrate plate or the second substrate plate periodically, and the grid pitches of the different WG structures corresponding to the color resistive layers of different colors are the same.

17. The display panel of claim 16, wherein, the second substrate plate comprises a base and a TFT array, and the TFT array is disposed at the side of the base towards the first substrate plate, and the wire grid polarizer is disposed at the side of the base away from the first substrate plate;

or

the wire grid polarizer is disposed between the TFT array and the base, and an insulating layer is disposed between the wire grid polarizer and the TFT array.

18. The display panel of claim 17, wherein, the side of the first substrate plate away from the second substrate plate is further provided with a matching polarizer, and the polarization axis of the matching polarizer is disposed orthogonally to the polarization axis of the polarizer.

19. A display device, comprising a display panel and a backlight source, wherein, the display panel is the display panel described in claim 14.

20. The display panel of claim 14, wherein, in the WG structures, the width of the grid lines ranges 25-250 nm, the width of the grid pitches ranges 25-250 nm.