Display device and a method of manufacturing the display device

• US 7,271,537 B2
• Filed: 04/11/2006
• Issued: 09/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: JDI Design and Development GK
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Asaki, Reo, Matsuda, Eisuke
• Primary Examiner(s): Bruce; David
• Assistant Examiner(s): Blease; Conrad R
• Application Number:
  US11/279,270
• Publication Number:
  US 20060232202A1
• Time in Patent Office: 525 Days
• Field of Search: 313/506
• US Class Current: 313/506
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/125 specially adapted for multicolour light emission, e.g. for emitting white light
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/852 comprising a resonant cavity structure, e.g. Bragg reflector pair
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/35 comprising red-green-blue [RGB] subpixels
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/876 comprising a resonant cavity structure, e.g. Bragg reflector pair

Abstract

A display device having a light-emitting element which has a lower electrode, an upper electrode, a functional layer, and a cavity in which light generated in the functional layer is resonated wherein the optical distance of the cavity portion in a first light-emitting element is made equal with the optical distance of the cavity portion in a second light-emitting element, and the optical distance of the cavity portion in the first light-emitting element is different from the optical distance of the cavity portion in a third light-emitting element.

Claims

1. A display device having a light-emitting element, the light-emitting element having a lower electrode, an upper electrode, a functional layer, and a cavity portion in which light generated in the functional layer is resonated, in which a pixel is formed of a set of at least three light-emitting elements corresponding to different wavelength, wherein

the optical distance of the cavity portion in a first light-emitting element is made equal with the optical distance of the cavity portion in a second light-emitting element, and the optical distance of the cavity portion in the first light-emitting element is made different from the optical distance of the cavity portion in a third light-emitting element.

2. A display device according to claim 1, wherein a transparent layer is provided between the functional layer and the lower electrode for controlling the optical distance of the cavity portion, and

the transparent layer in the first light-emitting element and the transparent layer in the second light-emitting element are provided with equal thickness.

3. A display device according to claim 1, wherein the pixel comprises three light-emitting elements corresponding to the wavelength for red, blue, and green.

4. A display device according to claim 1, wherein the functional layer has a plurality of light emitting layers that emit light of different wavelengths.

5. A display device according to claim 1, wherein the functional layer has a plurality of light-emitting units that emit light of different wavelengths.

6. A display device according to claim 5, wherein the plurality of the light-emitting units include a first light-emitting unit having a red color light-emitting layer and a green color light-emitting layer, and a second light-emitting unit having a blue light-emitting layer.

7. A display device according to claim 1, wherein the functional layer has a plurality of light-emitting units that emit lights of different wavelengths, and light-emitting units at a wavelength with the lowest light emitting efficiency represented by cd/A (luminance per unit current) are contained by more than the light-emitting units of other wavelength.

8. A display device according to claim 1, wherein

the functional layer has a plurality of light-emitting units that emit lights of different wavelengths, the arrangement of the plurality of light-emitting units is identical in each of the functional layers of each of the light-emitting elements forming the pixel, and the thickness of the light-emitting units in each of the functional layers is substantially equal.

9. A display device according to claim 1, wherein the functional layer comprises a plurality of light-emitting units laminated in the order of a first light-emitting unit corresponding to green, a second light-emitting unit corresponding to blue, a third light-emitting unit corresponding to red, and a fourth light-emitting unit corresponding to blue from the side of the lower electrode.

10. A display device according to claim 1, wherein the first light-emitting element corresponds to the wavelength of red and the second light-emitting element corresponds to the wavelength of blue.

11. A display device according to claim 1, wherein the optical distance L is set within a range satisfying:

(2L)/λ

+φ

/(2π

)=m(m is an integer)

in which the phase shift caused upon reflection of a light generated in the functional layer on both ends of the cavity portion is φ

radian, the optical distance of the cavity portion is L, and the peak wavelength in the spectrum of a light intended to be taken out of the cavity portion is λ

.

12. A display device according to claim 1, wherein a transparent layer is provided between the functional layer and the lower electrode for controlling the optical distance L of the cavity portion in the light-emitting device and, in which,

the optical distance Lt of the transparent layer is set so as to satisfy:

L=Lt+Lf

where Lt represents the optical distance of the transparent layer and Lf represents the optical distance of the functional layer.

13. A method of manufacturing a display device having a plurality of light-emitting elements each having a functional layer between an upper electrode and a lower electrode, and adapted to take out a light generated in the functional layer under cavity in a cavity portion, wherein

a pixel is formed with a set of at least three light-emitting elements corresponding to different wavelengths, in which

the optical distance of the cavity portion in a first light-emitting element of the pixel is made equal with the optical distance of the cavity portion in a second light-emitting element of the pixel, and

the optical distance of the cavity portion in the first light-emitting element is made different from that of the optical distance of the cavity portion in a third light-emitting element.

14. A method of manufacturing a display device according to claim 13, wherein in a case of forming a transparent layer between the functional layer and the lower electrode for controlling the optical distance of the cavity portion in the light-emitting element, the transparent layer in the first light-emitting element and the transparent layer in the second light-emitting element are formed each at an equal thickness.

15. A method of manufacturing a display device having a pixel comprising three resonance type light-emitting elements corresponding to the wavelengths for red, blue, and green, wherein the method includes the steps of:

forming a lower electrode on a substrate,

forming a transparent layer corresponding to red and a transparent layer corresponding to blue each at an identical height on the lower electrode and forming a transparent layer corresponding to green at a height different from the transparent layers corresponding to red and blue,

forming a functional layer by successively laminating a plurality of light emitting units that emit lights at different wavelengths above the transparent layers corresponding to each of red, blue, and green, and

forming an upper electrode above the functional layer.

16. A method of manufacturing a display device according to claim 15, wherein

the plurality of light-emitting units in the functional layer are laminated in the order of a first light-emitting unit corresponding to green, a second light-emitting unit corresponding to blue, a third light-emitting unit corresponding to red, and a fourth light-emitting unit corresponding to blue from the lower electrode side.