Stretchable OLED Display With Segmented Pixel Islands
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional displays, particularly those with organic light-emitting diode (OLED) pixels, face challenges in achieving a balance between rigidity and flexibility, leading to issues such as crosstalk and moisture penetration due to the lack of effective hermetic sealing and discontinuities in the conductive layers.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a display design featuring hermetically sealed rigid pixel islands connected by a flexible interconnect region, which includes a conductive cutting structure with undercuts to create discontinuities in the OLED layers and a multi-layer passivation system for enhanced sealing, along with a planarization layer and touch sensor metal to prevent moisture ingress.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional rigid displays are used, then structural stability is maintained, but flexibility and stretchability are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The display is divided into discrete rigid pixel islands that are separated by flexible interconnect regions. This segmentation allows the pixel islands to maintain structural stability while the flexible regions enable bending and stretching, resolving the contradiction between rigidity and flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the display have different mechanical properties: the pixel islands are rigid to maintain structural stability, while the interconnect regions are flexible to enable bending. This local differentiation of properties allows the display to achieve both stability and flexibility simultaneously.
2Reliability
If continuous conductive layers are used, then electrical connectivity is maintained, but crosstalk between pixels increases
Solution Approach 1:
The conductive layers are segmented into discrete portions that are electrically isolated from adjacent pixels. The conductive cutting structure creates discontinuities that prevent electrical connectivity between pixels, eliminating crosstalk while maintaining connectivity within each pixel through the flexible interconnect region.
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible interconnect region acts as an intermediary that provides electrical connectivity between rigid pixel islands while the conductive cutting structure with undercuts creates discontinuities that prevent direct electrical pathways between adjacent pixels, thus preventing crosstalk.
3Reliability
If rigid pixel structures are used, then hermetic sealing is maintained, but stretchability is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The display is segmented into rigid hermetically sealed pixel islands separated by flexible interconnect regions. The hermetic seal is maintained within each rigid pixel island, while the flexible regions between islands provide stretchability, resolving the contradiction between sealing integrity and flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
Hermetic sealing is implemented locally within each rigid pixel island to protect the OLED layers, while the flexible interconnect regions between islands are designed to be stretchable. This local differentiation allows the display to maintain hermetic sealing while achieving overall stretchability.
Data Source
AI summary
A display may have a stretchable portion with hermetically sealed rigid pixel islands. A flexible interconnect region may be interposed between the hermetically sealed rigid pixel islands. The hermetically sealed rigid pixel islands may include organic light-emitting diode (OLED) pixels. A conductive cutting structure may have an undercut that causes a discontinuity in a conductive OLED layer to mitigate lateral leakage. The conductive cutting structure may also be electrically connected to a cathode for the OLED pixels and provide a cathode voltage to the cathode. First and second inorganic passivation layers may be formed over the OLED pixels. Multiple discrete portions of an organic inkjet printed layer may be interposed between the first and second inorganic passivation layers.