AM-OLED Display Panel Peripheral Region Insulating Layer Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
AM-OLED display panels face issues with short circuits and high stress in the peripheral region due to wide metal traces and insufficient surface roughness, affecting the quality and reliability of the display.
Innovation Solution
Designing openings in the insulating layer in the peripheral region to adjust the surface morphology of the metal traces, ensuring a sufficient thickness of the insulating layer and reducing stress through trench formation, which prevents shorts between electrode layers and improves panel reliability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Power
If wide metal traces are used in the peripheral region for power lines, then sufficient power delivery is achieved, but the surface roughness becomes insufficient and short circuits occur between metal traces
Solution Approach 1:
The peripheral region is divided into multiple segments with metal traces separated by insulating patterns. The insulating layer includes openings that expose portions of the metal trace, creating isolated segments that prevent short circuits while maintaining power delivery capability through the distributed trace structure.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the display panel are given different structures: the pixel region has continuous electrode layers for display function, while the peripheral region has segmented metal traces with insulating patterns for power delivery. This local differentiation allows each region to optimize its specific function without compromising the other.
2Power
If wide metal traces are used in the peripheral region, then power delivery is improved, but stress in the metal traces increases
Solution Approach 1:
The metal traces in the peripheral region are segmented by insulating patterns, creating multiple smaller trace sections rather than one continuous wide trace. This segmentation reduces the cumulative stress in each individual trace segment while maintaining the overall power delivery capacity through the distributed structure.
3Ease of manufacture
If the insulating layer is made thin to maintain uniform thickness, then manufacturing is simplified, but short circuits occur between metal traces
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of relying solely on insulating layer thickness for electrical isolation, the invention segments the metal traces using insulating patterns with openings. This approach maintains uniform insulating layer thickness for manufacturing simplicity while preventing short circuits through the physical separation and exposure of metal trace portions.
Solution Approach 2:
The insulating pattern acts as an intermediary structure between metal traces, providing electrical isolation not through thickness variation but through the strategic placement of openings that expose and separate adjacent metal trace portions, thereby maintaining both manufacturing ease and electrical isolation.
Data Source
AI summary
A display panel is provided. The display panel includes a substrate having a pixel region and a peripheral region, a control element overlying the pixel region of the substrate, a first metal layer overlying the substrate in the peripheral region and in the pixel region, a first insulating layer formed on the first metal layer in the peripheral region, wherein the first insulating layer includes at least an opening, and the opening is disposed on the first metal layer, a second metal layer overlying the first insulating layer and electrically connected to the first metal layer, wherein a portion of the second metal layer is disposed in the opening, a second insulating layer overlying the second metal layer, and an electrode layer disposed on the second insulating layer.