LED Backlight Groove Integration for Curved Displays
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional backlight units are inflexible, requiring a bracket and separate heat radiating plate installation, limiting customization and shape options, and increasing manufacturing costs due to thickness constraints, making it difficult to produce curved or three-dimensional shapes and complicating assembly and handling.
Innovation Solution
A backlight unit design featuring a thin heat radiating plate with grooves and exposed parts that can be easily bent and integrated with a light guide panel, eliminating the need for a bracket and allowing for custom shapes, with components sealed within the panel for protection and waterproofing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If a conventional heat radiating plate and bracket structure is used, then structural stability is improved, but flexibility and ease of forming curved shapes deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies this principle by using a thin heat radiating plate (0.1-0.5mm thickness) instead of conventional thick plates, enabling the plate to be bent and formed into curved or three-dimensional shapes while maintaining heat dissipation functionality. The thin plate acts as a flexible shell that can conform to various display panel geometries without requiring rigid bracket structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the heat radiating plate with the display panel assembly by eliminating the separate bracket structure. The thin heat radiating plate is directly integrated with the light guide panel and display module, combining structural support, heat dissipation, and protective functions into a single integrated component that maintains stability while enabling flexibility.
2Strength
If a bracket and separate heat radiating plate installation is used, then structural support is improved, but device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the bracket function and heat radiating plate into a single integrated thin plate structure. The heat radiating plate itself provides structural support and positioning for the display module, eliminating the need for separate brackets and reducing assembly steps while maintaining adequate structural strength.
Solution Approach 2:
The thin heat radiating plate serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides structural support and positioning (replacing the bracket), dissipates heat from the display module, and protects internal components. This multi-functional design reduces device complexity and manufacturing cost by eliminating redundant components.
3Strength
If conventional thickness constraints are applied, then structural rigidity is improved, but ease of forming custom shapes deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a thin heat radiating plate (0.1-0.5mm) that can be easily bent and formed into custom shapes including curved and three-dimensional configurations. The reduced thickness enables flexibility and formability while the plate maintains sufficient rigidity through its integrated design and material properties to provide structural support.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the thickness parameter of the heat radiating plate from conventional dimensions to a thin profile (0.1-0.5mm). This parameter change fundamentally alters the plate's mechanical properties, enabling it to be formed into various custom shapes while maintaining adequate structural performance for the application.
4Ease of operation
If components are exposed externally, then ease of assembly is improved, but reliability and waterproofness deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent nests all components (display module, light guide panel, and thin heat radiating plate) within a sealed enclosure structure. The thin heat radiating plate is positioned between the display module and light guide panel, creating a nested arrangement where components are housed within the panel assembly. This nesting approach provides protective sealing while maintaining assembly simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The thin heat radiating plate serves as a protective barrier that seals and protects internal components from environmental factors. Its thin flexible nature allows it to conform to the component arrangement and provide effective waterproofing and protection while maintaining ease of assembly through its integrable design.
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
Enables flexible and cost-effective manufacturing of custom-shaped backlight units, ensuring waterproofing and minimizing damage from external interference, while allowing for efficient heat management and extended lifespan of the luminous components.
Implementation Method 1
a thin heat radiating plate so that a light guide panel has a curved shape
Data Source
Figure 1a~1b
Figure 2
Figure 3~4
AI summary
A backlight unit (1) for a flat panel display such as an LCD or as a light source for advertising displays or for general illumination purposes. The backlight unit consists of a light guide panel (10), a series of LED sources (31) mounted on a printed circuit board (33) and a cooling radiator (50), the LEDs being mounted together with the PCB and the radiator in a groove (13) on the back surface (10b) of the light guide. The elasticity of the groove walls holds the components in place (press-fit). The light sources are thus mounted inside the light guide and not at the guide edge. The arrangement allows a simplification in the assembly process. The radiator is also mounted inside the groove and conducts the heat dissipated by the sources to the back surface of the light guide. The radiator and the PCBs (also flexible ones) can be fitted in a curved groove, depending on the light guide configuration. It is also possible to produce planar light guides with curved (fig.8) instead of rectangular principle surfaces or non-planar curved geometries in three dimensions (fig.17). The light guide principle light emitting surface exhibits either a plurality of notches (11), an unevenly distributed dot pattern, a printed dot pattern or a diffuse surface in order to better distribute the light. A white film (21) arranged at the bottom of the groove helps to redistribute the light from the sources and to make the LEDs and their associated wiring (35) less visible from the front viewing side. A reflection film (12) on the back surface of the light guide is also provided. Various embodiments include different cooling radiator configurations (figs.5a-5g), a closed groove with one entrance (13a) (for the wiring), arrays of LEDs on several sides of the guide (fig.15) and a slim guide variant (fig.19), in which an additional supporting substrate (10) attached to the guide helps to accommodate the groove whose depth is greater than the thickness of the slim guide (10c).