Touch Display Insulating Layer Thickness for Fold Stress Relief
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional foldable touch display devices face issues with damage to touch electrodes and encapsulation layers due to folding or flexing, affecting stability and reliability.
Innovation Solution
A touch display device with a substrate, display layer, and touch electrode layer, featuring an insulating layer with varying thicknesses and a mesh structure, where the insulating layer includes inorganic and organic materials to manage stress and improve reliability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If the insulating layer has uniform thickness, then the manufacturing process is simple, but stress accumulates during folding causing damage to touch electrodes and encapsulation layer
Solution Approach 1:
The insulating layer is designed with different thicknesses in different regions: a first thickness in the first region and a second thickness in the second region. This local variation in thickness allows the insulating layer to better accommodate stress distribution during folding, preventing damage to touch electrodes and encapsulation layer while maintaining manufacturing feasibility through selective deposition or etching processes.
2Reliability
If the insulating layer is thicker, then stress protection is improved, but the device flexibility and foldability are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
By making the insulating layer thicker in the first region (where stress concentration occurs during folding) and thinner in the second region, the design provides targeted stress protection where needed while maintaining overall device flexibility. The varied thickness profile allows the device to fold without compromising structural integrity, balancing protection and adaptability.
3Ease of manufacture
If conventional encapsulation structure is used, then manufacturing is straightforward, but touch electrodes and encapsulation layer are damaged during folding
Solution Approach 1:
The insulating layer with non-uniform thickness provides enhanced localized protection to the encapsulation structure and touch electrodes in the first region, where folding stress is concentrated. This design strengthens critical areas without requiring a complete redesign of the encapsulation structure, maintaining manufacturing straightforwardness while improving damage resistance.
Data Source
AI summary
A touch display device includes a substrate, a display layer disposed on the substrate, an insulating layer disposed on the display layer, and a touch electrode layer directly contacting the insulating layer. The display layer includes a plurality of display units and a barrier portion disposed between adjacent ones of the display units. The insulating layer is disposed between the display layer and a mesh structure of the touch electrode layer. A portion of the mesh structure is overlapped with the barrier portion. The insulating layer includes a first layer, a second layer, and a third layer, and the second layer formed of organic insulating material is disposed between the first layer and the third layer which are formed of inorganic insulating materials. In the second layer, a first thickness corresponding to the display units is greater than a second thickness corresponding to the barrier portion.