Three-dimensional display device

• US 7,515,340 B1
• Filed: 12/27/2007
• Issued: 04/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Inventors: Hsieh, Cheng-Hsi, Lo, Kuo-Lung, Shiu, Jyh-Wen, Cheng, Wei-Yuan
• Primary Examiner(s): Choi; William C
• Application Number:
  US11/964,718
• Publication Number:
  US 20090091815A1
• Time in Patent Office: 467 Days
• Field of Search: 359/230, 359/462, 359/566, 359/569, 359/665
• US Class Current: 359/569
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 26/005 based on electrowetting
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/27 involving lenticular arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/31 involving active parallax barriers involving directional light or back-light sources G02B30/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/315 the parallax barriers being time-variant

Abstract

A three-dimensional display device including a display panel and a modulatable electrowetting grating is provided. The display panel has a plurality of pixels. The modulatable electrowetting grating is disposed on the display panel, and has a plurality of electrowetting light valves corresponding to the pixels.

Claims

1. A three-dimensional display device, comprising:

a display panel, having a plurality of pixels; and

a modulatable electrowetting grating, disposed on the display panel, wherein the modulatable electrowetting grating has a plurality of electrowetting light valves corresponding to the pixels.

2. The three-dimensional display device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the display panel is a liquid crystal display panel, a plasma display panel, or an organic light emitting display panel.

3. The three-dimensional display device as claimed in claim 1, wherein each pixel comprises a red sub-pixel, a green sub-pixel, and a blue sub-pixel.

4. The three-dimensional display device as claimed in claim 1, wherein each electrowetting light valve has an opaque hydrophobic flowing medium, and each electrowetting light valve generates a transmissive state and a shading state through the hydrophobic flowing medium.

5. The three-dimensional display device as claimed in claim 1, wherein a number of the electrowetting light valves is substantially the same as a number of the pixels.

6. The three-dimensional display device as claimed in claim 1, wherein each electrowetting light valve comprises:

a first transparent electrode;

a hydrophobic insulation layer, disposed on the first transparent electrode;

a patterned dielectric layer, disposed on the hydrophobic insulation layer, wherein the patterned dielectric layer has an opening located above the first transparent electrode;

a hydrophobic flowing medium, disposed on the hydrophobic insulation layer exposed by the opening;

a hydrophilic flowing medium, for encapsulating the hydrophobic flowing medium and the patterned dielectric layer; and

a second transparent electrode, disposed on the hydrophilic flowing medium, wherein the hydrophilic flowing medium contacts with the hydrophobic insulation layer when a voltage difference exists between the first transparent electrode and the second transparent electrode, so as to change a contact area between the hydrophobic flowing medium and the hydrophobic insulation layer.

7. The three-dimensional display device as claimed in claim 6, wherein the first transparent electrode in each electrowetting light valve comprises two sub-electrodes electrically insulated with each other;

when a voltage difference is applied between one of the sub-electrodes and the second transparent electrode, the hydrophobic flowing medium is driven by the voltage difference to gather towards a region of the other sub-electrode, such that each electrowetting light valve generates a shading region corresponding to the hydrophobic flowing medium and a transmissive region adjacent to the shading region.

8. The three-dimensional display device as claimed in claim 7, wherein a number of the electrowetting light valves is a half of a number of the pixels.

9. The three-dimensional display device as claimed in claim 6, wherein a material of the hydrophobic insulation layer comprises fluoropolymer.

10. The three-dimensional display device as claimed in claim 6, wherein a material of the patterned dielectric layer comprises photoresist.

11. The three-dimensional display device as claimed in claim 6, further comprising a dielectric layer, disposed between the first transparent electrode and the hydrophobic insulation layer.

12. The three-dimensional display device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the pixels comprise:

a plurality of first pixels; and

a plurality of second pixels, wherein the first pixels and the second pixels are arranged in a staggered way.