Flexible Display Area Optimization via Edge Routing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional electronic displays on mobile devices are rigid and cumbersome, making them difficult to use in various scenarios, especially when hands are occupied, and they often have significant opaque borders that reduce the usable display area.
Innovation Solution
The development of flexible electronic displays with optimized display areas, where the edges or borders are minimized by bending or folding the display and arranging connections to maximize the viewable surface, allowing for dynamic flexibility and integration into items like clothing or accessories.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional rigid electronic displays are used, then the display structure is stable and easy to manufacture, but the device becomes cumbersome and difficult to use in hands-free scenarios
Solution Approach 1:
The display transitions from a static rigid structure to a dynamic flexible structure that can change its configuration. The flexible display can be folded, rolled, or bent to adapt to different usage scenarios, enabling hands-free operation while maintaining structural integrity through controlled deformation
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs flexible display technology that replaces traditional rigid glass or plastic substrates with flexible materials. This allows the display to be integrated into wearable devices, clothing, or other flexible form factors, enabling new usage scenarios while maintaining manufacturability through established flexible electronics processes
2Area of stationary object
If thick opaque borders are used to hide electronic connections, then the connections are protected and concealed, but the viewable display area is significantly reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The electronic connections are extracted from the traditional border area and repositioned to the edges or periphery of the flexible display. By utilizing the flexibility of the display, connections can be routed along the edges where they are less obtrusive to the viewable area while still providing necessary protection and concealment
Solution Approach 2:
The patent moves the connection management from a two-dimensional plane (hiding connections within border thickness) to a three-dimensional approach (routing connections along the edges and utilizing the flexible substrate's ability to fold or bend). This dimensional transition allows connections to be concealed without requiring thick borders that reduce the display area
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques for optimizing the display area of an electronic display of an article include maximizing the contiguous area of the display, on one or more surfaces of the article, on which text or images may be presented to a user, and/or to minimize the area of a border of the display that is viewable to the user. Optimization techniques may include bending portions of the display, and/or minimizing the footprint of the display border by particularly configuring the electrical connections to the display elements. These optimization techniques may be applied to rigid electronic displays, to statically-flexed displays, or to dynamically flexible displays, as well as to other rigid, statically-flexed, or dynamically flexible electronic sheets of individual electronic elements, such as lighting arrays, solar cell arrays, sensor arrays, etc.