Composite Support Member for Foldable Display Stress Distribution
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing flexible electronic apparatuses face challenges in maintaining mechanical strength while minimizing weight and ensuring reliable folding operations, particularly in supporting display panels and input sensors without hindering their folding or bending capabilities.
Innovation Solution
The development of a lightweight support member with reinforcing fibers and conductive layers, integrated into a laminated structure that includes a display panel and input sensors, allows for improved mechanical properties and enhanced folding reliability by distributing stress evenly across the folding axis.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If a lightweight support member is used to reduce weight, then the weight of the electronic apparatus is reduced, but the mechanical strength and reliability may deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The support member is constructed as a composite structure combining a polymer matrix with reinforcing fibers (such as carbon fibers, glass fibers, or aramid fibers). This composite material approach allows the support member to achieve high strength-to-weight ratio, providing both lightweight property and sufficient mechanical strength to support the display panel and digitizer during folding operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The support member is designed with a laminated structure consisting of multiple layers including polymer layers and reinforcing fiber layers. This segmentation allows each layer to contribute specific properties: polymer layers provide flexibility and base structure, while reinforcing fiber layers provide tensile strength. The layered configuration enables optimization of both weight and strength properties.
2Ease of manufacture
If the support member structure is simplified to improve ease of manufacture, then manufacturing complexity is reduced, but the folding reliability and mechanical integrity may worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The laminated composite structure, while adding some manufacturing steps, provides superior folding reliability through the synergistic combination of polymer and fiber materials. The reinforcing fibers maintain structural integrity during folding while the polymer matrix provides flexibility and damage tolerance, creating a reliable support system that justifies the manufacturing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The support member employs non-uniform fiber arrangement where reinforcing fibers are oriented in specific directions to match the primary stress patterns during folding. This local optimization of fiber orientation provides enhanced reliability in critical folding regions while maintaining overall structural simplicity and ease of manufacture.
3Strength
If the thickness of the plate is increased to improve strength, then the mechanical strength is improved, but the weight and flexibility deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of increasing thickness to improve strength, the patent uses composite materials with high specific strength (strength-to-weight ratio). The reinforcing fibers provide the necessary strength while maintaining minimal thickness, thereby avoiding the weight penalty that would result from simply thickening a single-material plate.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent optimizes the thickness parameter to a minimal value (30-150 micrometers) and compensates for this thinness through the use of high-strength reinforcing fibers and optimized fiber orientation. This parameter optimization achieves sufficient strength without the weight increase that would result from greater thickness.
4Strength
If reinforcing fibers are added to improve strength, then the mechanical strength is improved, but the manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The use of composite materials with reinforcing fibers is a standard industry practice in flexible display devices, making the manufacturing process more familiar and manageable. The laminated structure, while complex, follows established fabrication techniques for flexible electronics, allowing for systematic manufacturing and quality control.
Solution Approach 2:
The reinforcing fibers are strategically placed and oriented to provide strength only where needed during folding operations, rather than uniformly distributing complexity throughout the entire structure. This localized approach to reinforcement maintains manufacturing feasibility by limiting the complexity to functional regions.
Data Source
AI summary
An electronic apparatus includes a display panel including a folding area foldable with respect to a folding axis and a non-folding area which is adjacent to the folding area, a support plate facing the display panel, and a digitizer which faces the display panel with the support plate therebetween and detects a first external input. The digitizer includes a plate including a reinforcing fiber, a first conductive layer on a first surface of the plate, and a second conductive layer on a second surface of the plate which is opposite to the first surface of the plate.