Hexagonal Patterned Hard Coating for Flexible Cover Window Stress
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional cover windows for flexible display devices face challenges in distributing stress during elongation, leading to limited flexibility and potential delamination or cracking when rolled or folded.
Innovation Solution
A cover window structure featuring a base layer with a hard coating layer having a plurality of hexagonal patterns, which efficiently disperses stress during elongation, enhancing flexibility and preventing wrinkles and cracks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a hard coating is applied to the surface of a transparent film to enhance surface hardness, then surface hardness is improved, but stress distribution during rolling is worsened leading to delamination or cracking
Solution Approach 1:
The hard coating layer is divided into multiple hexagonal patterns instead of a continuous coating. This segmentation allows stress to be distributed across multiple discrete units rather than concentrating in a continuous layer, preventing delamination and cracking while maintaining surface hardness protection.
Solution Approach 2:
The hexagonal patterned hard coating provides localized hardness where needed for surface protection, while the spaces between patterns allow for stress relief during rolling. This creates different local properties within the same coating layer - hardness at the pattern locations and flexibility in the interstitial regions.
2Illumination intensity
If glass is used for the cover window to achieve optimal optical characteristics, then optical characteristics are improved, but flexibility is worsened making rolling difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces rigid glass with a flexible transparent film as the base layer. This thin film structure enables the cover window to be rolled and folded while maintaining optical clarity, directly addressing the flexibility requirement for portable display devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The cover window combines a flexible transparent film base layer with a patterned hard coating layer to create a composite structure. This composite material achieves both the optical characteristics of a glass-like surface and the flexibility of a polymer film, resolving the contradiction between optical performance and bendability.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments of the disclosure relate to a cover window and a display device including the cover window. Specifically, there may be provided a cover window having enhanced flexibility by efficiently dispersing the stress applied during elongation by including a hard coating layer having a plurality of hexagonal patterns and a display device including the cover window.