Foldable Display Glass With Thickness Gradient To Reduce Crease Visibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Foldable electronic devices with flexible displays face issues of glass damage from external impacts and aesthetically unpleasing visible bent surfaces when folded, due to the use of ultra-thin glass that is prone to cracking and the visibility of the folded portion.
Innovation Solution
The electronic device incorporates a glass layer with a bendable portion that is flat in the unfolded state and bent in the folded state, featuring a concave portion with varying thickness and irregularities to distribute stress and reduce visibility, using ultra-thin glass with a specific thickness gradient and surface features to enhance durability and aesthetics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If ultra-thin glass is used in the flexible display, then transparency and surface hardness are improved, but the glass becomes easily broken or cracked by external impact
Solution Approach 1:
The glass layer is designed with non-uniform thickness, featuring a first flat portion with greater thickness for impact resistance, a bending portion with reduced thickness for flexibility, and a second flat portion with intermediate thickness. This local variation in thickness allows different regions to serve different functions: the thicker first flat portion protects against impact, while the thinner bending portion enables folding flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The glass layer is formed as a composite structure with varying thickness regions integrated into a single component. The composite nature of the glass layer, with its gradient thickness profile, combines the benefits of both thick glass (impact resistance) and thin glass (flexibility and transparency) within a unified structure.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the glass layer is made thin to enable folding, then flexibility is improved, but the glass becomes more susceptible to damage from external impact
Solution Approach 1:
The glass layer implements local quality by having different thicknesses in different regions: the first flat portion has greater thickness to provide strength and damage resistance, while the bending portion has reduced thickness to enable flexibility and folding. This spatial variation in thickness allows the glass to simultaneously achieve both flexibility and strength where needed.
3Reliability
If the glass layer is made uniformly thick to protect against impact, then durability is improved, but the bent surface becomes more visible when folded
Solution Approach 1:
The glass layer is designed with non-uniform thickness where the bending portion has reduced thickness compared to the flat portions. This local thinning at the bending portion reduces the visibility of the bent surface when folded, while the thicker first flat portion maintains durability and impact resistance.
4Ease of manufacture
If the glass layer has constant thickness, then manufacturing is simplified, but the visible bent surface and stress concentration occur at the folding area
Solution Approach 1:
The glass layer features local quality with varying thickness: a first flat portion, a bending portion with reduced thickness, and a second flat portion. This non-uniform thickness profile specifically addresses the folded area to reduce visible bending and stress concentration, while the manufacturing process is designed to achieve this gradient thickness through controlled formation methods.
Data Source
AI summary
According to certain embodiments, an electronic device comprises a first housing; a second housing; a hinge disposed between the first housing and the second housing such that the second housing is foldable at one end of the first housing; and a flexible display disposed on a surface of the first housing and a surface of the second housing, wherein the flexible display comprises a display panel, and a glass layer disposed on the display panel, such that the display panel is between the glass layer and the surface of the first housing and the surface of the second housing, wherein the glass layer comprises: a bendable portion configured to be flat in an unfolded state when the first housing and the second housing are disposed horizontally adjacent, and to be bent in a folded state when the first housing and the second housing are vertically adjacent; and a first flat portion adjacent to the bending portion to form a boundary and a second flat portion disposed to extend from the first flat portion to an edge of the glass layer, wherein the glass layer comprises a glass member, wherein the glass member has a first thickness in the second flat portion, has a second thickness at the center of the bending portion, and has a third thickness less than the first thickness and greater than the second thickness in a section between the first flat portion and the center of the bending portion, and wherein the thickness of the glass member gradually decreases from the first flat portion to the center of the bending portion forming a concave portion.