Vertical Image Transport Layer for Flexible Display Seam Concealment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Electronic devices often face challenges in achieving a desired appearance and usability due to inadequate housing structures that fail to accommodate electrical components effectively, leading to issues with display aesthetics and functionality.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of an image transport layer using a coherent fiber bundle or Anderson localization material, which transports images from an input surface to an output surface while accommodating curved surfaces, hiding display seams, and distributing visual output over multiple device surfaces, thereby enhancing device aesthetics and performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a flexible display layer is bent around edges to wrap around device surfaces, then the display can present visual output on multiple surfaces and hide seams, but the image integrity and shape may be distorted without proper accommodation structures
Solution Approach 1:
An image transport layer is introduced as an intermediary component between the bent flexible display layer and the device housing. This layer receives images from the display and transports them to output surfaces, accommodating the bent display geometry while maintaining image integrity. The image transport layer acts as a mediator that decouples the display bending requirement from the image presentation requirement.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a traditional planar display arrangement to a three-dimensional configuration where the display layer is bent around device edges. The image transport layer then redistributes the visual output across multiple surfaces (front face, rear face, side edges), effectively utilizing additional spatial dimensions to present the display content.
2Shape
If the display layer is bent to accommodate device edges, then the housing can provide desired shape and aesthetics, but mechanical structures and seams may become visible
Solution Approach 1:
The image transport layer serves as an intermediary that covers and conceals the mechanical bending structures of the display layer. By transporting images through this layer to output surfaces, it masks the seams and mechanical joints that would otherwise be visible, providing a clean aesthetic appearance while maintaining the bent display configuration.
Solution Approach 2:
The image transport layer can be configured with optical properties (such as transparency, opacity, or color matching) that allow it to blend with the device housing and display content, making the transition between different display surfaces imperceptible and hiding seams from view.
3Ease of manufacture
If straight fibers are used in the image transport layer, then image transport is simple and manufacturing is easier, but the layer cannot accommodate curved surfaces effectively
Solution Approach 1:
The image transport layer is segmented into multiple discrete optical elements (such as optical fibers or waveguides) that can be individually arranged. This segmentation allows the layer to be constructed from simple straight components while achieving the ability to accommodate curved surfaces through the collective arrangement of these segments.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from using continuously curved optical paths to a discretized arrangement of straight optical elements viewed from multiple dimensions. The segmented structure, when arranged in specific geometric patterns, creates an effective curved light transport path that accommodates bent display geometries while maintaining manufacturing simplicity.
4Shape
If the display layer is bent to wrap around edges, then borderless display appearance is achieved, but the inactive area and active area alignment becomes complex
Solution Approach 1:
The image transport layer acts as an intermediary that decouples the alignment requirements between the active and inactive areas of the bent display. It receives the full display output including inactive areas and redistributes it to create the desired borderless appearance, simplifying the alignment process by handling the geometric transformation centrally.
Solution Approach 2:
The image transport layer utilizes optical parameter changes (such as light guiding, refraction, or total internal reflection) to transform the geometric relationship between display areas. By changing the optical path parameters rather than relying on precise mechanical alignment, the system achieves borderless display appearance with reduced manufacturing precision requirements.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution allows for a more aesthetically pleasing and functional electronic device design by maintaining image integrity and shape, hiding mechanical structures, and providing a borderless display appearance, while also accommodating complex curvature and enhancing the device's ability to present visual output effectively.
Implementation Method 1
The coherent fiber bundle may have straight fibers that run parallel to each other in a vertical direction that is parallel to a surface normal of a central portion of the display layer
Implementation Method 2
The image transport layer may be formed from a coherent fiber bundle or a layer of Anderson localization material
Data Source
AI summary
An electronic device may have pixels that form an active area for a flexible display layer. An inactive area that is free of pixels may surround the active area. One or more edges of the flexible display layer may be bent around respective bend axes. The display layer may also have one or more unbent edges in which the inactive area and active area of the display have a planar shape. An image transport layer may have an input surface that receives the image and an output surface to which the image is transported. The image transport layer may be formed from a coherent fiber bundle or a layer of Anderson localization material. The coherent fiber bundle may have straight fibers that run parallel to each other in a vertical direction that is parallel to a surface normal of a central portion of the display layer.