Foldable Display Hinge Structure to Reduce Crease Deformation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Flexible display devices with folding areas suffer from significant deformation when repeatedly folded and unfolded, leading to a need for technologies that can minimize this deformation and maintain structural integrity.
Innovation Solution
A display device design featuring a folding area with a curved part and extension parts from non-folding areas, supported by biaxial rotation shafts and support plates with specific thicknesses and angles, which absorb stress and reduce curvature radius, thereby minimizing deformation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the folding area is made flexible to enable folding operations, then portability and user convenience are improved, but deformation occurs in the folding area due to repeated folding and unfolding
Solution Approach 1:
The display device is divided into distinct functional zones: a first non-folding area, a folding area, and a second non-folding area. The folding area is further segmented into a curved part and extension parts. This segmentation allows the folding area to be specifically designed for flexibility while the non-folding areas maintain structural integrity, resolving the contradiction between folding capability and structural stability.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the display device are assigned different mechanical properties. The folding area is designed with local flexibility to enable folding operations, while the non-folding areas maintain rigidity to preserve overall structural integrity. This local differentiation of mechanical properties allows the device to achieve both portability and structural stability.
2Ease of operation
If the folding area is repeatedly folded and unfolded to improve portability, then user convenience increases, but the folding area becomes deformed over time
Solution Approach 1:
The folding area is designed with a curved part that has a specific curvature radius (1.5 mm to 5.0 mm). This curved geometry allows the folding area to bend smoothly during folding operations, distributing stress evenly and preventing the formation of sharp creases that would cause deformation and maintain surface smoothness over repeated use.
Solution Approach 2:
The display device is pre-configured with support structures (first support and second support) positioned below the non-folding areas before folding operations begin. These supports provide preliminary structural reinforcement that prevents deformation from propagating to the non-folding areas during repeated folding and unfolding, thereby maintaining long-term reliability.
3Stability of the object's composition
If support structures are added below the non-folding areas to reduce deformation, then structural integrity is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The first support and second support are merged into a unified support structure that is integrated with the housing of the display device. This merging approach provides the necessary structural reinforcement to prevent deformation while avoiding the complexity of separate, independent support components, thus resolving the contradiction between structural integrity and device simplicity.
Data Source
AI summary
A display device includes a display module including a first non-folding area, a second non-folding area, and a folding area disposed between the first and second non-folding areas which are arranged in a first direction, a first support disposed below the first non-folding area, a second support disposed below the second non-folding area, and a hinge including a biaxial rotation shaft disposed between the first support and the second support, the biaxial rotation shaft extending in a second direction intersecting the first direction. The folding area has a curvature radius in a range of about 1.5 mm to about 5.0 mm when the display module is folded by a rotation of the first support and the second support with respect to the biaxial rotation shaft.