Flexible OLED Spring Component for Crease-Free Unfolding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Flexible OLED screens face issues with coordinated deformation during bending, leading to stress and irreversible creases due to complex hyperelastic, viscoelastic, and plastic behaviors, resulting in a wavy display when folded.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a spring component with a cylinder, fixing portions, and a lubricating layer between film layers to manage deformation, allowing the screen to unfold flat by storing and releasing torsional elastic potential energy, thereby reducing action force and preventing creases.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If film layers are fixed together during bending, then structural stability is improved, but stress accumulation increases leading to irreversible deformation and creases
Solution Approach 1:
A lubricating layer is introduced between adjacent film layers to reduce friction and allow coordinated deformation during bending. This intermediary layer prevents stress accumulation and irreversible deformation while maintaining structural stability, directly resolving the technical contradiction between stability and reliability.
2Shape
If spring components are added to manage deformation, then flatness upon unfolding is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The display structure is segmented into multiple independent film layers, each equipped with its own spring component. This segmentation allows each layer to be independently managed during deformation, enabling flatness control while distributing the complexity across modular units rather than requiring a single complex mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
Spring components are introduced to provide dynamic deformation management. The springs allow the film layers to dynamically adjust their shape during folding and unfolding, maintaining flatness upon unfolding while accommodating the bending process. This dynamic approach replaces static rigid structures with adaptive mechanical elements.
3Force
If lubricating layer is introduced between film layers, then action force between layers is reduced, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
A lubricating layer is introduced as an intermediary between adjacent film layers to reduce friction and action forces during deformation. This thin intermediate layer can be applied through conventional coating techniques, reducing manufacturing complexity compared to redesigning the entire film layer structure.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enables the flexible OLED screen to maintain a flat state upon unfolding without irreversible deformation, addressing the issue of stress and creases by using spring components and a lubricating layer to control film layer interaction.
Implementation Method 1
The spring stores or releases torsional elastic potential energy through the rotation of a cylinder
Implementation Method 2
a lubricating layer disposed between the two adjacent film layers
Data Source
AI summary
Provided herein are a flexible organic light-emitting display (OLED) and a spring component. The film layers are pulled one on one by spring components to make the film layers flat when being unfolded and free of irreversible deformation when being folded. A lubricating layer is disposed between adjacent film layers so that the action force between the adjacent film layers is reduced, thereby making the flexible organic light-emitting display (OLED) flat and free of creases when being unfolded.