Foldable Display Panel Curvature Control for Breakage Resistance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Flexible OLED display panels in foldable devices are prone to breakage due to excessive deformation when frequently bent or kept in a bent state, posing a risk to their structural integrity.
Innovation Solution
A foldable display device design with specific angles and curvature in the folding area and non-folding areas, combined with a manufacturing process using jigs to maintain minimal stress and deformation within predetermined thresholds, ensuring the flexible display panel and functional layers experience reduced tensile and compressive stresses during bending.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If flexible OLED display panels are frequently bent or kept in a bent state for foldable display devices, then the foldable device achieves its intended functionality and portability, but the flexible OLED display panel experiences excessive deformation and is put at risk of breakage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-forming the flexible substrate and functional layers into a specific three-dimensional configuration with predetermined curvature radii before final assembly. This pre-shaping ensures that when the device is folded, the bending stress is distributed in a controlled manner that minimizes deformation of the OLED panel, thereby preventing breakage while maintaining foldable functionality
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes parameter changes by carefully controlling and optimizing geometric parameters such as curvature radii (R1, R2, R3), folding angles (α, β), and layer thicknesses. By adjusting these parameters, the design achieves a configuration where the flexible substrate can be folded without subjecting the OLED panel to excessive deformation, thus resolving the contradiction between foldable functionality and panel durability
2Reliability
If the flexible display panel is designed with specific angles and curvature to reduce deformation, then bending resistance and durability are improved, but the device complexity increases due to precise manufacturing requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs flexible shells and thin films by using a flexible substrate with specific curvature and multiple functional layers that can accommodate bending without breaking. This approach allows the device to achieve high bending resistance through the inherent flexibility and elastic recovery of the thin-film structure, while the standardized layer design simplifies manufacturing compared to rigid complex mechanisms
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies spheroidality by designing the flexible substrate and functional layers with specific curved geometries (circular arcs with defined radii R1, R2, R3). This curvature design naturally distributes stress during folding, improving bending resistance, while the use of standard geometric shapes simplifies the manufacturing process compared to arbitrary complex shapes
Data Source
Figure 1A~1B
Figure 1C~1D
Figure 1E~1F
AI summary
A foldable display device and a method of manufacturing the same are disclosed. The foldable display device includes a flexible display panel. When the flexible display panel is in a first pre-folded state, part of the flexible display panel corresponding to a folding area is under a stress less than or equal to a first predetermined threshold.