Displays with bent signal lines

• US 9,195,108 B2
• Filed: 08/21/2012
• Issued: 11/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Park, Young Bae, Zhong, John Z., Chang, Shih-Chang, Chen, Wei
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, THANH NHAN P
• Application Number:
  US13/591,095
• Publication Number:
  US 20140055702A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,190 Days
• Field of Search: 349149-152
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/13306 Circuit arrangements or driving methods for the control of single liquid crystal cells G02F1/132, G02F1/133382 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/1333 Constructional arrangements; Manufacturing methodsG02F1/135, G02F1/136 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133305 Flexible substrates, e.g. plastics, organic film
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/13452 Conductors connecting driver circuitry and terminals of panels
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/136286 Wiring, e.g. gate line, drain line
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/1218 with a particular composition or structure of the substrate
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/124 with a particular composition, shape or layout of the wiring layers specially adapted to the circuit arrangement, e.g. scanning lines in LCD pixel circuits wiring structures per se H01L23/52
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 2102/311 Flexible OLED
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/80 Constructional details
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/805 Electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/841 Self-supporting sealing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/131 Interconnections, e.g. wiring lines or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/1315 comprising structures specially adapted for lowering the resistance
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/40 OLEDs integrated with touch screens
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 77/111 Flexible substrates

Abstract

A display may be provided with an active central region and a peripheral inactive region. The display may have one or more flexible edges in the peripheral inactive region. Conductive lines may pass between components in the active central region such as display pixels and touch sensor electrodes and components in the inactive peripheral region such as gate driver circuitry and patterned interconnect lines. Each conductive line may have an unbent segment on a portion of a display layer in the active central region and may have a segment on the bent edge of the display layer. The display layer may be formed from a polymer or other flexible material. The bent segments may be configured to be less susceptible to increases in resistance from bending than the unbent segments.

Claims

1. A display, comprising:

display layers having a planar central active region and a peripheral inactive region, wherein the peripheral inactive region includes a bent region in which the display layers form a bend;

at least one conductive line that passes from the planar central region to the peripheral inactive region, wherein the conductive line includes a first segment in the planar central active region and includes a second segment that passes through the bent region over the bend and wherein the second segment is more resistant to damage when bent than the first segment; and

gate driver circuitry in the peripheral inactive region, wherein the bent region is between the gate driver circuitry and the planar central active region.

2. The display defined in claim 1 wherein the second segment includes multiple parallel lines.

3. The display defined in claim 1 wherein the second segment includes a metal line that follows a meandering path.

4. The display defined in claim 1 wherein the second segment includes a different material than the first segment.

5. The display defined in claim 4 wherein the first segment includes aluminum and wherein the second segment includes copper.

6. The display defined in claim 1 wherein the second segment is wider than the first segment.

7. The display defined in claim 1 wherein the second segment comprises a metal mesh.

8. The display defined in claim 7 wherein the metal mesh has holes, the second segment further comprising conductive particles in the holes.

9. The display defined in claim 1 wherein the second segment includes a lower metal line segment and an upper metal line segment that is coupled to the first metal line segment by vias.

10. The display defined in claim 9 further comprising an inorganic passivation layer that covers the first segment, wherein the vias are formed from openings in the inorganic passivation layer.

11. The display defined in claim 1 wherein the first segment includes a given number of metal layers and wherein the second segment includes more metal layers than the given number of metal layers.

12. The display defined in claim 11 wherein the second segment includes copper.

13. The display defined in claim 1 wherein the second segment includes a metal line with an undulating surface.

14. The display defined in claim 1 wherein the first segment includes a line of metal and wherein the second segment includes the line of metal and an overlapping conductive material containing conductive particles.

15. The display defined in claim 1 wherein the display layers comprise at least one rigid substrate in the active region and at least one flexible polymer layer in the inactive region.

16. The display defined in claim 15 further comprising gate lines and data lines in the active region, wherein the second segment includes part of one of the data lines.

17. The display defined in claim 1 wherein the display layers include organic light-emitting diode structures.

18. A display having an active area surrounded by a peripheral border, comprising:

display structures having a planar portion in the active area and at least one flexible edge at the peripheral border with a bend; and

conductive lines on the display structures, wherein each conductive line has an unbent segment on the planar portion and a bent segment that runs across the bend and wherein each bent segment is configured to be less susceptible to increases in resistance from bending than each unbent segment.

19. The display defined in claim 18 wherein each bent segment comprises a conductive structure selected from the group consisting of:

a path having multiple parallel conductive lines, a path having a meandering conductive line, a path having a conductive mesh, a path having a lower line coupled to an upper line by a plurality of vias, a path having a conductive layer with an undulating surface, and a path having a layer of conductive particles.

20. The display defined in claim 19 wherein the display structures comprise display pixels in the planar portion.

21. The display defined in claim 19 wherein the display structures include capacitive touch sensor electrodes in the planar portion.

22. A display, comprising:

a color filter layer;

a flexible layer having an array of display pixels, thin-film-transistor gate driver circuitry, and conductive lines including gate lines that distribute signals between the thin-film-transistor gate driver circuitry to the display pixels and including data lines, wherein the flexible layer has at least one bent edge region, and wherein the thin-film transistor gate driver circuitry is located in the bent edge region; and

a layer of liquid crystal material interposed between the color filter layer and the flexible layer, wherein each conductive line has an unbent segment on the flexible layer and has a bent segment on the bent edge region of the flexible layer, and wherein each bent segment comprises a conductive structure selected from the group consisting of;

a path having multiple parallel conductive lines, a path having a meandering conductive line, a path having a conductive mesh, a path having a lower line coupled to an upper line by a plurality of vias, a path having a conductive layer with an undulating surface, and a path having a layer of conductive particles.

23. The display defined in claim 22 wherein the flexible layer comprises a dielectric with an undulating surface and wherein the conductive structure comprises a path having a conductive layer on the undulating surface of the dielectric.