Flexible Organic EL Display Protective Member with Slidable Layers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Flexible organic EL display devices face a trade-off between mechanical strength and flexibility due to the limitations of thin protective plates, where increasing the thickness of the protective plate to enhance mechanical strength reduces the bend radius and flexibility.
Innovation Solution
A protective member with multiple stacked layers that are mutually slidable is used, allowing the organic EL display panel and one of the protective layers to be fixed together, thereby increasing the thickness of the protective member without compromising flexibility, thus enhancing mechanical strength.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the thickness of the protective plate is increased to enhance mechanical strength, then the mechanical strength is improved, but the bend radius increases and flexibility is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The protective plate is divided into multiple thin protective layers stacked together, where each layer can slide relative to the others during bending. This segmentation allows the total thickness to be increased for mechanical strength while maintaining flexibility through inter-layer slippage that prevents crack propagation.
2Length of moving object
If a thin protective plate is used to maintain flexibility, then the bend radius is reduced and flexibility is improved, but the mechanical strength is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple protective layers are stacked to form a composite structure where each layer contributes to mechanical strength while the collective structure maintains flexibility. The composite nature allows thin individual layers to provide protection without requiring a single thick rigid layer.
Data Source
AI summary
An organic EL display device (1) includes: an organic EL display panel (2) including a flexible plastic substrate and an organic EL element formed on the plastic substrate; and a protective member (3) provided on the organic EL display panel (2), the protective member (3) being bendable. The protective member (3) includes a plurality of protective layers (3a) to (3e) stacked so as to be mutually slidable. The organic EL display panel (2) and the protective layer (3a) being in contact with the organic EL display panel (2) are fixed to each other.