Foldable Display Gate-Driving Circuit for Bending Stress Relief
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Solution Overview
Problem
Display devices with folding areas experience reduced lifespan due to bending stress that can cause damage or breakage of buffer transistors and electrodes in the gate-driving circuit, particularly those with wide widths.
Innovation Solution
The display device incorporates a gate-driving circuit with buffer transistors and electrodes designed with comb-shaped and mesh-shaped structures in the folding areas to reduce bending stress, featuring channel portions with slits and electrodes with through grooves, while maintaining planar shapes in non-folding areas.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If buffer transistors and electrodes are designed with wide width for better electrical performance, then electrical conductivity and signal transmission are improved, but vulnerability to bending stress increases and device lifespan is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The channel portion is divided into multiple segments by forming slits that extend in the width direction, creating a comb-shaped structure. This segmentation allows the channel to flex under bending stress without concentrating stress in a single continuous structure, thereby improving resistance to bending while maintaining electrical functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The channel portion has different structural characteristics in different areas: the slit patterns are specifically designed in regions subjected to bending stress, while other areas maintain conventional structures. This localized structural modification targets the specific stress zones without unnecessarily altering the entire transistor structure.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the display panel includes folding areas for flexibility and portability, then adaptability and ease of operation are improved, but bending stress causes damage to transistors and reduces reliability
Solution Approach 1:
The channel portion is divided into multiple segments by forming slits that extend in the width direction, creating a comb-shaped structure. This segmentation allows the channel to flex under bending stress without concentrating stress in a single continuous structure, thereby improving resistance to bending while maintaining electrical functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The channel structure is designed to dynamically adapt to bending conditions. The comb-shaped channel with slits can deform elastically during folding and unfolding cycles, returning to its original configuration after each cycle, thus accommodating the dynamic mechanical stresses of flexible display operation.
Data Source
AI summary
A display device includes non-folding areas, at least one folding area between the non-folding areas and configured to be transformed into a bent shape and a planar shape, and a display panel emitting light for displaying an image. A circuit layer of the display panel includes light-emitting pixel drivers, gate lines, and a gate-driving circuit including stages electrically connected to the gate lines. Each of the stages includes a first buffer transistor and a second buffer transistor. A channel portion of each of the first buffer transistor and the second buffer transistor in the at least one folding area has a comb shape formed by one or more slits that extend in a direction in which the first electrode portion and the second electrode portion face each other and are arranged in parallel with each other.