Foldable Display Support Substrate with Wavy Metal Sheet
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Solution Overview
Problem
Foldable display devices face challenges in maintaining improved folding properties, impact resistance, and minimizing the visibility of the folding area boundary due to issues with rigid top plates degrading folding properties and soft top plates compromising dent resistance, while existing patterns on support substrates increase visibility and decrease durability.
Innovation Solution
A support substrate integrated into a single layer under the display panel, featuring a first metal sheet with wavy curved portions and a second metal sheet with a planar surface, along with planarization layers, to enhance folding properties, reduce thickness, and minimize boundary visibility, while maintaining impact resistance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a rigid top plate is used to maintain curvature during folding, then dent resistance is improved, but folding properties are degraded
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the rigid top plate with a thin film structure that has folding lines. This thin film maintains enough rigidity to prevent denting while being flexible enough to fold properly, resolving the contradiction between dent resistance and folding properties
Solution Approach 2:
The top plate is divided into multiple regions with folding lines that extend from the edge toward the center. This segmentation allows the plate to bend along predetermined lines while maintaining structural integrity, enabling both folding and dent resistance
2Ease of operation
If a soft top plate is used to improve folding properties, then folding properties are improved, but dent resistance is degraded
Solution Approach 1:
The thin film with folding lines provides a balance between softness for folding and hardness for dent resistance, eliminating the need to choose between the two extreme options
3Ease of operation
If a pattern is provided on the bottom plate to impart folding properties, then folding properties are improved, but the boundary becomes visible and durability decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the pattern from the bottom plate entirely and transfers the folding function to the top plate through folding lines. This extraction eliminates the visibility and durability issues associated with patterns while maintaining folding properties
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of making the bottom plate the active folding element through patterns, the invention inverts the approach by making the top plate the active folding element through folding lines, transferring the folding function from bottom to top
4Reliability
If multiple separate components are used for support substrate, then functional requirements are met, but device complexity and thickness increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the top plate, bottom plate, and cushion into a single integrated thin film structure with folding lines. This merging reduces component count and simplifies manufacturing while maintaining all necessary functions through the unified structure
Data Source
AI summary
A foldable display device includes a display panel including a folding area and a non-folding area, and a support substrate disposed under the display panel, the support substrate includes a first metal sheet including a plurality of wavy curved portions and a first planarization layer disposed on the first metal sheet, and the support substrate includes a second metal sheet disposed on the first planarization layer and having a planar surface shape and a second planarization layer disposed under the first metal sheet, therefore, since the support substrate integrated into a single layer is disposed under the display panel, folding properties of the display device may be improved, and an overall thickness of the display device may be decreased and a transfer of a pattern boundary or a folding area boundary can be minimized.