Flexible Display Cover Window Hardness Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Flexible display devices face challenges with durability and image continuity when folded, as the window member is prone to external impacts and stress, leading to reduced touch recognition and uneven image brightness at the folding region.
Innovation Solution
A flexible display device design featuring a cover window with distinct hardness levels, where a harder glass-based cover portion is used at non-folding regions and a softer polymer-based cover portion at the folding region, along with a multi-panel structure including a touch layer and polarization layer, to enhance durability and maintain image continuity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a thick window member is used to protect the display panel, then durability is improved, but the device cannot be folded at the folding region
Solution Approach 1:
The window member is divided into multiple regions: a first window region at the folding region and a second window region at the non-folding region. This segmentation allows each region to have different thickness characteristics, enabling the folding region to be thin and flexible while the non-folding region remains thick and protective.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the window member are given different local properties. The first window region at the folding region has reduced thickness to enable flexibility and foldability, while the second window region at the non-folding region maintains greater thickness for protection and structural integrity.
2Reliability
If the window member is formed thicker than the display panel, then protection is improved, but image continuity and touch recognition are reduced at the folding region
Solution Approach 1:
The window member is segmented into a first window region and a second window region with different thickness characteristics. This segmentation ensures that the folding region does not create visible discontinuities or affect touch recognition, while the non-folding region provides adequate protection.
3Ease of manufacture
If a uniform thickness window member is used, then manufacturing is simplified, but the device cannot achieve extreme folding capability
Solution Approach 1:
The window member is divided into regions with different thickness characteristics. The first window region at the folding region has reduced thickness to enable extreme folding capability, while the second window region maintains standard thickness for protection.
Solution Approach 2:
Different local thickness properties are applied to different regions of the window member. The folding region has locally reduced thickness for flexibility, while the non-folding region maintains standard thickness for protection.
Data Source
AI summary
A flexible display device includes: a display panel which display an image, and includes a first folding region folded or unfolded around a first folding axis, and first and second non-folding regions respectively located at both sides of the first folding region; and a cover window which is on the display panel, and includes a first cover portion having a first hardness and a second cover portion having a second hardness less than the first hardness, wherein the first cover portion is located corresponding to an outer folding portion a display surface of which is exposed to an outside.