CN113406835A

CN113406835A - Electronic equipment, shell assembly, electrochromic device and manufacturing method thereof

Info

Publication number: CN113406835A
Application number: CN202110655631.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 彭明镇
Original assignee: Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp Ltd
Current assignee: Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp Ltd
Priority date: 2021-06-11
Filing date: 2021-06-11
Publication date: 2021-09-17

Abstract

The application mainly relates to electronic equipment, a shell assembly, an electrochromic device and a manufacturing method thereof, wherein the electrochromic device comprises a first base body, a first conducting layer, an electrochromic layer, a second conducting layer and a second base body which are arranged in a stacked mode, the first conducting layer is provided with at least two conducting patterns which are spaced from each other, the electrochromic device further comprises an insulator, and the insulator is arranged along a spacing area between every two adjacent conducting patterns and at least used for separating the electrochromic layer into at least two independent color-changing areas. The application provides an electrochromic device carries out patterning to first conducting layer to interval region along between the adjacent conducting pattern sets up the insulator, the insulator separates into the electrochromic layer independent each other and with the discoloration zone that conducting pattern corresponds, not only makes electrochromic device can realize "multizone discolour", can also separate the lateral migration of electrochromic material in the electrochromic layer, and then avoids appearing bad phenomena such as "cross color" between the adjacent discoloration zone.

Description

Electronic equipment, shell assembly, electrochromic device and manufacturing method thereof

Technical Field

The application relates to the technical field of electronic equipment, in particular to electronic equipment, a shell assembly, an electrochromic device and a manufacturing method thereof.

Background

With the continuous popularization of electronic devices, electronic devices have become indispensable social and entertainment tools in people's daily life, and people have higher and higher requirements for electronic devices. For example, in electronic devices such as mobile phones, the housings are mostly made of plastic, metal, glass, ceramic, etc., and the appearance decoration effect is relatively monotonous.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides an electrochromic device, the electrochromic device comprises a first substrate, a first conducting layer, an electrochromic layer, a second conducting layer and a second substrate which are arranged in a stacked mode, the first conducting layer is provided with at least two conducting patterns which are spaced from each other, the electrochromic device further comprises an insulator, the insulator is arranged along a spacing area between every two adjacent conducting patterns and at least used for separating the electrochromic layer into at least two independent color-changing areas.

The embodiment of the application also provides a shell assembly, the shell assembly comprises a transparent shell and the electrochromic device, and the electrochromic device is attached to the transparent shell.

The embodiment of the application also provides electronic equipment, the electronic equipment comprises a display module and the shell assembly, the electrochromic device is positioned between the transparent shell and the display module, the electronic equipment further comprises a control circuit coupled with the electrochromic device, and the control circuit is used for receiving a control instruction to control the electrochromic device to change color.

The embodiment of the application also provides a manufacturing method of the electrochromic device, which comprises the following steps: providing a substrate; forming a conductive layer on one side of the substrate, wherein the conductive layer has at least two conductive patterns spaced from each other; forming an insulator along a spacing region between adjacent conductive patterns on a side of the substrate facing the conductive layer; an electrochromic layer is formed on the conductive layer, and the electrochromic layer is partitioned into at least two color-changing regions independent of each other by an insulator.

The beneficial effect of this application is: the application provides an electrochromic device carries out patterning to first conducting layer, makes it have two at least spaced conducting pattern each other, and set up the insulator along the interval region between the adjacent conducting pattern, the insulator separates into electrochromic layer independent each other and with the regional that discolours that conducting pattern corresponds, so that control each conducting pattern's in the first conducting layer respectively alone switch on or not, make the discolour region that corresponds with it change colour or not thereupon, and then make electrochromic device realize "multizone discolour". In addition, due to the blocking of the insulator, the electrochromic material in the electrochromic layer is difficult to laterally migrate, so that the undesirable phenomena of color cross and the like between adjacent color-changing areas are effectively avoided, and the boundary of the color-changing areas is more clear and clear.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments are briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings based on these drawings without creative efforts.

FIG. 1 is an exploded schematic view of an embodiment of an electronic device provided in the present application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a stacked configuration of one embodiment of the housing assembly of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a stacked configuration of one embodiment of the electrochromic device of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a stacked configuration of another embodiment of the electrochromic device of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a schematic top view of various embodiments of the conductive pattern of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a stacked structure of yet another embodiment of the electrochromic device in FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a stacked configuration of yet another embodiment of the electrochromic device of FIG. 2;

FIG. 8 is a schematic top view of various embodiments of the insulation of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a stacked configuration of yet another embodiment of the electrochromic device of FIG. 2;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of a stacked configuration of yet another embodiment of the electrochromic device of FIG. 2;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram corresponding to different stages in an embodiment of a method for manufacturing an electrochromic device provided by the present application;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating the structure of one embodiment of the electronic device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the electronic device of FIG. 12;

FIG. 14 is a schematic view of an operational state of the electronic device provided herein;

FIG. 15 is a schematic view of another operational state of the electronic device provided herein.

Detailed Description

The present application will be described in further detail with reference to the following drawings and examples. It is to be noted that the following examples are only illustrative of the present application, and do not limit the scope of the present application. Likewise, the following examples are only some examples and not all examples of the present application, and all other examples obtained by a person of ordinary skill in the art without any inventive work are within the scope of the present application.

Reference in the specification to "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the specification. It is explicitly and implicitly understood by one skilled in the art that the embodiments described herein can be combined with other embodiments.

Referring to fig. 1 and fig. 2 together, fig. 1 is an exploded schematic view of an embodiment of an electronic device provided in the present application, and fig. 2 is a schematic view of a stacked structure of an embodiment of a housing assembly in fig. 1.

In the present application, the electronic device 10 may be a portable device such as a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a notebook computer, and a wearable device. In this embodiment, the electronic device 10 is taken as a mobile phone for exemplary explanation.

Referring to fig. 1, an electronic device 10 may include a display module 11, a middle frame 12, and a housing assembly 13. The display module 11 and the housing assembly 13 are respectively located on two opposite sides of the middle frame 12, and can be assembled and connected with the middle frame 12 through one or a combination of assembling modes such as gluing, clamping, welding and the like, so that a basic structure that the display module 11 and the housing assembly 13 clamp the middle frame 12 together is formed after the three are assembled. Further, a cavity with a certain volume may be formed between the display module 11 and the housing assembly 13, and the cavity may be used to set structural components such as the camera module 14, the main board 15, and the battery 16, so that the electronic device 10 can implement corresponding functions. The display module 11, the camera module 14 and other components may be electrically connected to the main board 15, the battery 16 and the like through a Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC), so that they can be supplied with electric power from the battery 16 and can execute corresponding commands under the control of the main board 15.

Further, the edge of the display module 11 may be bent toward the middle frame 12, so that the image displayed on the display module 11 may extend from the front surface of the display module 11 to the side surface thereof in a form similar to a "waterfall". So set up, not only can reduce or even hide the black edge of display module assembly 11 to make electronic equipment 10 can provide bigger demonstration field of vision for the user, can also make display module assembly 11 build a visual effect around the demonstration, thereby make electronic equipment 10 bring one kind and be different from bang screen, water droplet screen, dig the visual experience of flat full-face screen such as hole screen, over-and-under type camera, sliding closure type camera for the user, and then increase electronic equipment 10's competitiveness. Accordingly, the edges of the housing assembly 13 may also be curved toward the bezel 12 to improve the grip and aesthetic appearance of the electronic device 10.

Referring to fig. 2, the housing assembly 13 may include a transparent housing 131 and an electrochromic device 132. Among them, the electrochromic device 132 is mainly used to enable the appearance quality of the housing assembly 13 to be changed, thereby improving the problem that the appearance of the electronic device 10 is too monotonous in the related art. Based on this, the transparent housing 131 may be made of glass or plastic, which has a certain structural strength to protect the electronic device 10, and a certain transmittance to light to make the color of the electrochromic device 132 appear, so as to satisfy the structural strength and the color development requirement. Further, the electrochromic device 132 may be attached to the transparent case 131 by a gel 133 such as an Optical Clear Adhesive (OCA) or a Pressure Sensitive Adhesive (PSA). As such, for the electronic device 10, the electrochromic device 132 may be located between the transparent housing 131 and the display module 11.

Generally, Electrochromic (EC) refers to a phenomenon in which optical properties (e.g., reflectance, transmittance, and absorption) of a material undergo a stable and reversible color change under the action of an applied electric field, and the material exhibits a reversible change in color and transparency in appearance. In this regard, the electrochromic device 132 may be a device made of electrochromic material (i.e., an electrochromic layer as referred to hereinafter) that is capable of undergoing a stable, reversible color change under the action of an applied electric field, the color change enabling the appearance decoration effect of the transparent housing 131 to be changed accordingly. In other words, under the cooperation of the electrochromic device 132 and the transparent housing 131, the housing assembly 13 not only can protect the electronic device 10, but also can change the appearance characteristics of the electronic device 10, thereby improving the appearance expressive force of the electronic device 10.

It should be noted that: the electrochromic device 132 described herein may also be a device based on Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal (PDLC) Dispersed as micron-sized droplets within an organic solid Polymer matrix. When an electric field is not applied to the polymer dispersed liquid crystal, the liquid crystal is in free orientation and disordered arrangement, the refractive index of the liquid crystal is not matched with that of the matrix, and when light passes through the light adjusting film, the light is strongly scattered by the liquid crystal to be in an opaque milky white state or a semitransparent state (so that the light has certain haze and the visual effect is close to ground glass); when an electric field is applied to the polymer dispersed liquid crystal, the liquid crystal is oriented and orderly arranged, the refractive index of the liquid crystal is matched with that of the matrix, and light rays are not scattered by the liquid crystal and are in a transparent state when passing through the light adjusting film.

In general, the electrochromic device 132 may be transparent (substantially no different from glass) in the unpowered condition; and can present corresponding colors (such as red, blue, etc. depending on the electrochromic material therein) under the condition of electrifying. Therefore, the electrochromic device 132 tends to have poor decorative effect on the appearance of the transparent casing 131 under the non-energized condition. For this purpose, in this embodiment, the side of the electrochromic device 132 facing away from the transparent casing 131 may be further provided with an optical film layer 134. The optical film 134 may be used to change optical properties of light, such as reflectivity, transmittance, and absorption. In this way, in a situation where the appearance decoration effect of the electrochromic device 132 on the transparent casing 131 is poor, the optical film layer 134 replaces the electrochromic device 132, so that the casing assembly 13 also has a certain appearance expressive force. Of course, in a situation where the electrochromic device 132 is powered to display a corresponding color, the optical film layer 134 may also cooperate with the electrochromic device 132 to enrich the appearance of the housing assembly 13.

As an example, the optical film layer 134 may include at least one of a color layer and a texture layer. Wherein the former may primarily cause the optical film layer 134 to have different colors, and the latter may primarily cause the optical film layer 134 to have different gloss at different angles. Further, the color layer may be formed on the electrochromic device 132 by means of silk-screen, coating, or the like; the textured layer may be formed on the electrochromic device 132 by a process such as nanoimprinting, UV transfer, or the like.

Further, the edge of the transparent casing 131 may be further provided with a shielding structure 135, and the shielding structure 135 may be a sealing structure for shielding the edge of the electrochromic device 132 from discoloration, so as to improve the consistency of the appearance of the casing assembly 13.

As an example, the shielding structure 135 may be one or a combination of an ink layer, a matte layer, a gradient layer, a yellow light processing layer, an imprinting layer, etc. disposed on a side of the transparent housing 131 close to the electrochromic device 132 to shield an edge region of the housing assembly 13. The color of the shielding structure 135 may be the same as or similar to the color of the electrochromic device 132 in the color rendering state, so as to achieve the visual effect that the shielding structure 135 and the electrochromic device 132 are integrated in the color rendering state.

It should be noted that: in order to meet the lighting requirements of the camera 14, the housing assembly 13 may structurally avoid the camera 14.

Referring to fig. 3, fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a stacked structure of an embodiment of the electrochromic device in fig. 2.

Referring to fig. 3, the electrochromic device 132 may include a first substrate 1321, a first electrically conductive layer 1322, an electrochromic layer 1323, a second electrically conductive layer 1324, and a second substrate 1325, which are arranged in a stack. The first conductive layer 1322 and the second conductive layer 1324 are electrically connected to two opposite sides of the electrochromic layer 1323, respectively. Further, the electrochromic device 132 may further include a sealing ring 1326, and the sealing ring 1326 may be used to encapsulate an outer periphery of the electrochromic device 132 to isolate the electrochromic device 132 from water and oxygen. In the present embodiment, the sealing ring 1326 is exemplarily illustrated as being interposed between the first base 1321 and the second base 1325.

The material of the first substrate 1321 and the second substrate 1325 may be a flexible transparent resin material, so that the whole structure of the electrochromic device 132 is in a flexible and bendable structural form. First base 1321 and second base 1325 may function, among other things, to support and protect internal structures. In some embodiments, the material of the first substrate 1321 and the second substrate 1325 may be Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), Polymethyl Methacrylate (PMMA), Polycarbonate (PC), Polyimide (PI), Colorless Polyimide (CPI), cyclic olefin polymer (COC), or the like. Further material types for first substrate 1321 and second substrate 1325 are not listed and detailed herein to the extent that they are understood by those skilled in the art.

The first conductive layer 1322 and the second conductive layer 1324 may be made of transparent conductive materials, and may mainly form an external electric field on two sides of the electrochromic layer 1323. The transparent conductive material can be Indium Tin Oxide (ITO), zinc aluminum oxide (AZO), tin oxide doped with Fluorine (FTO), graphene film or the like. Further, the first conductive layer 1322 and the second conductive layer 1324 may be formed on the first substrate 1321 and the second substrate 1325 by Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD), specifically including vacuum evaporation, sputtering, ion plating (hollow cathode ion plating, hot cathode ion plating, arc ion plating, reactive ion plating, radio frequency ion plating, direct current discharge ion plating) and the like. The thicknesses of the first conductive layer 1322 and the second conductive layer 1324 may be between 100nm and 300nm, and specifically may be 100nm, 120nm, 150nm, 200nm, 280nm, 300nm, and the like.

The electrochromic layer 1323 is primarily for stable, reversible color change under the action of an applied electric field, thereby enabling the electrochromic device 132 to change color. The material of the electrochromic layer 1323 may be selected from organic polymers (including polyaniline, polythiophene, etc.), inorganic materials (prussian blue, transition metal oxides such as tungsten trioxide), organic small molecules (viologen), and the like. Further, the electrochromic device 132 may also include an electrolyte layer 1327 and an ion storage layer 1328 between the electrochromic layer 1323 and the second conductive layer 1324, and the electrolyte layer 1327 may be closer to the electrochromic layer 1323 than the ion storage layer 1328. The ion storage layer 1328 may be mainly used to store ions and supply the required ions during the color changing process of the electrochromic layer 1323; the ion storage layer 1328 may also be another color-changing layer, thereby constituting a "complementary electrochromic device". The electrolyte layer 1327 serves as an ion conducting layer, and may be primarily used to allow ions to move between the electrochromic layer 1323 and the ion storage layer 1328, but to block electrons from passing through, i.e., "ion conducting but not electron conducting".

Further, the electrochromic device 132 may further include a first metal trace 1329 and a second metal trace 1330, and may be electrically connected to the motherboard 15, the battery 16, and the like through the flexible circuit board, so that the electrochromic device 132 can be supplied with power from the battery 16, and can execute corresponding instructions under the control of the motherboard 15. The metal trace may include but is not limited to a multi-layer trace structure such as a silver paste line, a copper plated metal, an aluminum plated metal, or a molybdenum aluminum molybdenum. The first metal trace 1329 may extend along an edge of the first conductive layer 1322 and be electrically connected to the first conductive layer 1322; the second metal trace 1330 can extend along an edge of the second conductive layer 1324 and electrically connect to the second conductive layer 1324. Further, at least one of the first metal wire 1329 and the second metal wire 1330 may be embedded in the sealing ring 1326, so that the metal wire embedded in the sealing ring 1326 is isolated from the electrochromic layer 1323, thereby preventing the metal wire from being corroded by the electrochromic layer 1323, the electrolyte layer 1327 and the ion storage layer 1328. In addition to this, the size of the color-changing region of the electrochromic device 132 may also be increased.

Illustratively, in order to enable the electrochromic device 132 to have a faster color change speed, the sheet resistance of the conductive layer may be set to a specific value of 40-150 ohms, such as 40 ohms, 50 ohms, 80 ohms, 100 ohms, 120 ohms, 550 ohms, etc.; the sheet resistance of the metal trace may be 0.05-2 ohms, specifically 0.05 ohms, 0.06 ohms, 0.1 ohms, 1.2 ohms, 1.5 ohms, 2 ohms, and the like, and is not limited herein. So configured, the electrochromic device 132 may be colored at a rate of between 10-20 seconds, faded at a rate of between 8-12 seconds, or faster.

It should be noted that: for convenience of description, the sealing ring 1326, the first metal trace 1329, the second metal trace 1330, and other structural components are omitted hereinafter.

Referring to fig. 4 and 5 together, fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a stacked structure of another embodiment of the electrochromic device in fig. 2, and fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a top-down structure of various embodiments of the conductive pattern in fig. 4.

The main differences from the above described embodiment are: in this embodiment, at least one of the first conductive layer 1322 and the second conductive layer 1324 may be patterned by etching or the like to have a plurality of conductive patterns spaced apart from each other, and adjacent conductive patterns may not be in conduction with each other. In conjunction with fig. 4, the first conductive layer 1322 has at least two conductive patterns spaced apart from each other in this embodiment. Based on this, when the electrochromic device 132 is attached to the transparent housing 131, the first conductive layer 1322 may be farther away from the transparent housing 131 than the second conductive layer 1324. Further, based on the principle of electrochromism, in combination with the conductive pattern formed by the first conductive layer 1322, the electrochromic layer 1323 may also be divided into a plurality of color-changing regions (e.g., I, II and III regions in fig. 4) accordingly. Thus, whether each conductive pattern of the first conductive layer 1322 is conducted or not can be separately controlled, so that the corresponding color-changing region changes color accordingly, and the electrochromic device 132 can realize multi-region color change.

Referring to fig. 5, the conductive pattern of the first conductive layer 1322 may be patterned according to the actual requirement of multi-region color change, which is not limited herein. As an example, as shown in fig. 5 (a), the first conductive layer 1322 may be patterned in a grid-separated manner, so that the formed conductive patterns may be respectively spaced in two directions perpendicular to each other, for example, fig. 5 (a) has 3 × 3 conductive patterns. As shown in fig. 5 (b), the first conductive layer 1322 may be patterned in a stripe-shaped separated manner, so that the formed conductive patterns may be spaced apart in one direction, for example, in fig. 5 (b), there are 3 conductive patterns. As shown in fig. 5 (c), the first conductive layer 1322 may be patterned in a ring-shaped spaced manner, so that the formed conductive patterns may be spaced apart in the radial direction, for example, fig. 5 (c) has 2 conductive patterns.

Further, the electrochromic device 132 may further include a control layer 1331 disposed between the first substrate 1321 and the first conductive layer 1322, and the control layer 1331 may be electrically connected to the first conductive layer 1322 and configured to control the color of the color-changing regions respectively. The control layer 1331 may include transistors corresponding to the conductive patterns and electrically connected to the conductive patterns, so that whether the corresponding conductive patterns are conducted or not is controlled by the transistors, and the color-changing regions change color respectively.

Referring to fig. 6, fig. 6 is a schematic view of a stacked structure of still another embodiment of the electrochromic device of fig. 2.

The main differences from any of the above embodiments are: in this embodiment, in conjunction with fig. 6, the electrochromic layer 1323 may be provided as a discontinuity. Based on the principle of electrochromism, in combination with the conductive pattern formed by the first conductive layer 1322, the electrochromic layer 1323 may also be patterned accordingly, so that the electrochromic layer 1323 also has at least two color-changing regions (e.g., color-changing regions I, II and III in fig. 6) independent of each other. Here, the electrolyte layer 1327 may be further filled between the adjacent discolored regions to serve as an insulator mentioned later, that is, between the adjacent discolored regions may be filled with the electrolyte layer 1327. Thus, the electrochromic material is difficult to laterally migrate due to the blocking of the electrolyte layer 1327, thereby effectively avoiding the occurrence of undesirable phenomena such as "cross color" between adjacent color-changing regions, and the boundary of the color-changing regions is more clear and distinct.

As an example, the first conductive layer 1322 may be patterned by etching or the like to form a corresponding conductive pattern. An insulator 1332 may be filled between adjacent conductive patterns for insulation. Further, the electrochromic material may be deposited on the first conductive layer 1322 by screen printing, coating, or the like, thereby forming the electrochromic layer 1323. Similarly, the electrochromic layer 1323 may be patterned by etching or the like to form corresponding color-changing regions. Wherein the electrolyte layer 1327 may be filled between the adjacent discolored regions.

Further, the electrochromic material of the electrochromic layer 1323 in adjacent color-changing regions may be different, for example, the electrochromic material of the electrochromic layer 1323 in the color-changing region I is viologen, the electrochromic material of the electrochromic layer 1323 in the color-changing region II is polyaniline, and the electrochromic material of the electrochromic layer 1323 in the color-changing region III is polythiophene. Thus, on the basis of any of the above embodiments, the present embodiment may further enable the electrochromic device 132 to realize "multi-zone and multi-color change". Compared with the characteristics of single color change, multi-region and multi-color change, such as multi-region, multi-color and dynamic change, the electrochromic device 132 can not only greatly enrich the decoration effect of the electrochromic device on the electronic device 10, but also visualize and display some special prompt information, such as visualizing and displaying the current electric quantity, the current time and the like, and dynamically change along with the lapse of time, and even be used as a display screen similar to an OLED, a micro-LED, a mini-LED and the like.

As an example, the first conductive layer 1322 may be patterned by etching or the like to form a corresponding conductive pattern. An insulator 1332 may be filled between adjacent conductive patterns for insulation. Further, different electrochromic materials may be deposited on the corresponding conductive patterns of the first conductive layer 1322 by using an inkjet printing process, etc., to form the electrochromic layer 1323 having a plurality of electrochromic materials. Similarly, the electrolyte layer 1327 may be filled between adjacent discolored regions.

Referring to fig. 7 and 8 together, fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a stacked structure of another embodiment of the electrochromic device in fig. 2, and fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a top view structure of various embodiments of the insulator in fig. 7.

The main differences from any of the above embodiments are: in this embodiment, referring to fig. 7, the electrochromic device 132 may further include an insulator 1333, where the insulator 1333 may be disposed along a spacing region between adjacent conductive patterns, and at least is used to separate the electrochromic layer 1323 into at least two independent color-changing regions (e.g., the color-changing regions I, II and III in fig. 7), so that the color-changing region formed by the electrochromic layer 1323 may be consistent with the conductive pattern formed by the first conductive layer 1322. In short, the insulator 1333 may pattern the electrochromic layer 1323. Among them, the insulation 1333 may be a photo-curing glue after curing, such as a UV glue; spacers (PS) are also possible. Similarly, the electrochromic material of the electrochromic layer 1323 in adjacent color-changing regions may be different. In this manner, the electrochromic device 132 may also be made to achieve "multi-zone and multi-color change".

Referring to fig. 8, the insulation 1333 may be designed reasonably according to the actual multi-domain discoloration requirement, and is not limited herein. As an example, as shown in fig. 8 (a), the separator 1333 may be disposed in a lattice structure, and then at least the electrochromic layer 1323 is patterned in a lattice-partitioned manner, so that the formed color-changing regions may be respectively spaced in two directions perpendicular to each other, for example, fig. 8 (a) has 3 × 3 color-changing regions. As shown in fig. 8 (b), the insulators 1333 may be disposed in a stripe structure spaced apart from each other, and then the electrochromic layer 1323 is patterned in a stripe-separated manner, so that the formed color-change regions may be spaced apart in one direction, for example, in fig. 8 (b), there are 3 color-change regions. As shown in fig. 8 (c), the insulation 1333 may be disposed in a ring structure that is spaced apart from and sleeved on each other, and then the electrochromic layer 1323 is patterned in a ring-shaped separation manner, so that the formed color-changing regions may be distributed at intervals in the radial direction, for example, fig. 8 (b) has 2 color-changing regions.

Further, an insulator 1333 may be disposed between adjacent conductive patterns via a spacing region, thereby replacing the insulator 1332. Of course, in other embodiments, the insulation 1333 may be directly formed on the insulation 1332, and orthographic projections of the two on the first substrate 1321 may coincide, so that the color-changing regions correspond to the conductive patterns one to one. It should be noted that: when the electrochromic device 132 is provided with the control layer 1331, since the control layer 1331 is positioned between the first substrate 1321 and the first conductive layer 1322, the insulator 1333 may be in contact with the control layer 1331 via the spacing region.

As an example, the first conductive layer 1322 may be patterned by etching or the like to form a corresponding conductive pattern. Further, an insulator 1333 is formed along a spacing region between adjacent conductive patterns on a side of the first substrate 1321 facing the first conductive layer 1322, so that a recess corresponding to the conductive pattern is formed by surrounding the first conductive layer 1322. Further, the electrochromic material may be disposed on the first conductive layer 1322 by a process such as drip irrigation, coating, inkjet printing, etc., that is, filling the aforementioned pits, thereby forming the electrochromic layer 1323. At this time, the electrochromic layer 1323 forms color-changing regions independent of each other and corresponding to the conductive patterns one by being partitioned by the partition 1333. Similarly, the electrochromic material of the electrochromic layer 1323 in adjacent color-changing regions may or may not be the same. When the electrochromic materials of the electrochromic layers 1323 in the adjacent color-changing regions are different, the formation of the insulator 1333 is earlier than that of the electrochromic layers 1323 in the process, so that the insulator 1333 can effectively restrain the electrochromic materials, the electrochromic materials are prevented from overflowing due to high fluidity, bad phenomena such as color cross and the like between the adjacent color-changing regions are effectively avoided, and the boundaries of the color-changing regions are more clear and clearer.

Referring to fig. 9 and 10 together, fig. 9 is a schematic view of a stacked structure of still another embodiment of the electrochromic device in fig. 2, and fig. 10 is a schematic view of a stacked structure of still another embodiment of the electrochromic device in fig. 2.

The main differences from any of the above embodiments are: in this embodiment, the height of the insulation 1333 may be greater than the sum of the thicknesses of the first conductive layer 1322 and the electrochromic layer 1323. Thus, not only can the insulation 1333 have sufficient structural strength, but also the electrochromic material can be effectively prevented from overflowing due to the large fluidity.

In some embodiments, in conjunction with fig. 9, the height of insulation 1333 can be set such that electrolyte layer 1327 remains continuous. At this time, the height of the insulator 1333 may be less than the sum of the thicknesses of the first conductive layer 1322, the electrochromic layer 1323, and the electrolyte layer 1327.

In other embodiments, in conjunction with fig. 10, the height of insulation 1333 can be set such that electrolyte layer 1327 is partitioned into sub-ion conducting regions that are independent of each other and correspond to discoloration regions. In other words, the insulator 1333 may also pattern the electrolyte layer 1327. At this time, the height of the insulator 1333 may be equal to the sum of the thicknesses of the first conductive layer 1322, the electrochromic layer 1323, and the electrolyte layer 1327.

Further, the height of the insulator 1333 may be set such that the ion storage layer 1328 remains continuous.

It should be noted that: in other embodiments, the second conductive layer 1324 may also be patterned similarly to the first conductive layer 1322, and the ion storage layer 1328 may also be patterned similarly to the electrolyte layer 1327.

Referring to fig. 11, fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram corresponding to different stages in an embodiment of a manufacturing method of an electrochromic device provided by the present application. It should be noted that: this embodiment is exemplarily described by making an electrochromic device shown in fig. 9 as an example. Wherein, for convenience of description, the steps of fabricating a certain electrochromic device will be described in a specific order below; however, the electrochromic device may also be fabricated in a different sequence of steps, with additional steps added or certain steps reduced (combined).

Step S101: a first substrate is provided.

Illustratively, the material of the first base 1321 may be PET.

Step S102: a first conductive layer is formed on one side of the first substrate, and the first conductive layer has at least two conductive patterns spaced apart from each other.

Illustratively, a layer of Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) may be deposited on the first substrate 1321 by a magnetron sputtering process to form the first electrically conductive layer 1322. Further, the first conductive layer 1322 may be patterned by etching or the like, so that the first conductive layer 1322 has at least two conductive patterns spaced apart from each other.

Step S103: on the side of the first substrate facing the first conductive layer, an insulator is formed along the spacing region between adjacent conductive patterns.

Illustratively, a photo-curable paste, such as a UV paste, may be applied on the first substrate 1321 along the spaced areas between the adjacent conductive patterns by a printing process or the like. Further, the light-curable adhesive is cured by light irradiation, thereby forming the insulator 1333. At this time, an insulator 1333 may be disposed between the adjacent conductive patterns via the spacing region to simultaneously perform an insulation process on the conductive patterns. The height of the insulator 1333 may be greater than the thickness of the first conductive layer 1322, so that the first conductive layer 1322 and the insulator define recesses corresponding to the conductive patterns one to one. In one embodiment, insulator 1333 may have a height of about 5 μm.

Step S104: an electrochromic layer is formed on the first conductive layer, and the electrochromic layer is partitioned into at least two color-changing regions independent of each other by an insulator.

As an example, the electrochromic material may be deposited in the pits by a process such as spray printing, and the electrochromic layer 1323 may be formed on the first conductive layer 1322. At this time, the electrochromic layer 1323 forms color-changing regions independent of each other and corresponding to the conductive patterns one by being partitioned by the partition 1333, and can be restrained by the partition 1333 without overflowing.

Further, the electrolyte layer 1327 may be formed on the electrochromic layer 1323 by a process such as coating.

Step S105: a second substrate is provided.

Illustratively, the material of the second base 1325 may be PET.

Step S106: a second conductive layer is formed on one side of the second substrate.

Illustratively, the second conductive layer 1324 may be formed by depositing a layer of Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) on the second substrate 1325 by a magnetron sputtering process.

Further, the ion storage layer 1328 may be formed on the second conductive layer 1324 by a process such as coating.

Subsequently, the semi-finished products respectively obtained in the above steps are bonded together to obtain the electrochromic device 132. Of course, the electrochromic device 132 may also be packaged and provided with corresponding metal traces, control layers and other structural components in corresponding steps.

Referring to fig. 12 to 15 together, fig. 12 is a block diagram illustrating a structure of an embodiment of the electronic device in fig. 1, fig. 13 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of an embodiment of the electronic device in fig. 12, fig. 14 is a schematic diagram illustrating an operation state of the electronic device provided by the present application, and fig. 15 is a schematic diagram illustrating another operation state of the electronic device provided by the present application.

The main differences from the above embodiments are: in this embodiment, with reference to fig. 12, the electronic device 10 may further include a control circuit 151 coupled to the electrochromic device 132, and the control circuit 151 may be mainly configured to receive a control instruction to control the electrochromic device 132 to change color. Further, the electronic device 10 may further include a signal input 17 coupled to the control circuit 151. The control circuit 151 may receive a control command input through the signal input device 17, and control the operating state of the electrochromic device 132 according to the control command. At this time, the operation state of the electrochromic device 132 may include controlling to change the voltage or current signal state thereof for the purpose of controlling the electrochromic device 132 to change color. The signal input device 17 may be a display module 11, an operation button 171, a trigger sensor 172, or other structural components.

For example, referring to fig. 13, the signal input device 17 may be the display module 11, and the control command input by the signal input device 17 may be a touch operation received by the display module 11. The touch operation may include at least one of sliding, clicking, and long pressing. Further, the state shown in fig. 14 may indicate that (the finger of) the operator slides through the display module 11 to input the control instruction; the state shown in fig. 15 may indicate that the operator performs the input process of the control command by clicking or long-pressing an icon or a specific position on the display module 11.

As an example, in conjunction with fig. 13, the signal input device 17 may be an operation key 171. The control command may also be a triggering command of the operation key 171, where the operation key 171 may be a single key, or may be a multiplexing function with other function keys of the electronic device, such as a power key, a volume key, and the like, and is defined as different control commands received by the control circuit 151 according to different key triggering modes, and then the control circuit 151 may implement different signal controls on the electrochromic device 132.

Illustratively, in connection with fig. 13, the signal input device 17 may be a trigger sensor 172. The trigger sensor 172 may be a proximity sensor, a temperature sensor, an ambient light sensor, or the like, and the trigger sensor 172 collects a peripheral signal of the electronic device and controls the housing assembly to change an appearance color through the control circuit 151. Namely, the change of the appearance color of the shell assembly can enable a user to actively control the operation type, and the control mode is similar to that of a touch screen and operation keys; the mode of automatically controlling the shell assembly to change the appearance color of the shell assembly by automatically detecting the environmental signal through the trigger sensor in the embodiment can also be adopted.

Further, the control instruction may also be a usage scenario in which the electronic device 10 needs to change color, and specifically may include at least one of an image acquisition requirement, a flash lamp starting requirement, an automatic timing color change requirement, and other functional component requirements. Specifically, the image acquisition requirement can be applied to scenes such as photographing, shooting and video call, etc. which are required by users; the method comprises the following scenes of unlocking requirements, payment, encryption, incoming call answering or other confirmation requirements of the electronic equipment and the like. The flash lamp turning-on requirement may be that when a user needs to turn on the flash lamp, specifically, the control circuit 151 controls the electrochromic device 132 to change the transparent state, and may further combine with the structures such as the appearance film and the substrate color layer, so that the electronic device may exhibit a color-changing appearance effect.

The above description is only a part of the embodiments of the present application, and not intended to limit the scope of the present application, and all equivalent devices or equivalent processes performed by the content of the present application and the attached drawings, or directly or indirectly applied to other related technical fields, are also included in the scope of the present application.

Claims

1. An electrochromic device, characterized in that, electrochromic device includes first base member, first conducting layer, electrochromic layer, second conducting layer and the second base member of range upon range of setting, first conducting layer has at least two electrically conductive patterns of interval each other, electrochromic device still includes the insulator, the insulator is along adjacent interval region between the electrically conductive pattern sets up, and be used for at least with electrochromic layer separates into at least two independent discolour area each other.

2. The electrochromic device according to claim 1, wherein said insulator is further disposed between adjacent ones of said conductive patterns via said spacing regions.

3. The electrochromic device of claim 1, wherein electrochromic materials of the electrochromic layer in adjacent ones of the color-shifting regions are different.

4. The electrochromic device of claim 1, further comprising an electrolyte layer and an ion storage layer between the electrochromic layer and the second electrically conductive layer, the electrolyte layer being closer to the electrochromic layer than the ion storage layer.

5. The electrochromic device according to claim 4, wherein the height of the insulator is set so that the electrolyte layer remains continuous, or so that the electrolyte layer is partitioned into sub ion-conducting regions independent of each other and corresponding to the discoloration region.

6. The electrochromic device according to claim 5, wherein the height of the insulator is set such that the ion storage layer remains continuous.

7. The electrochromic device according to claim 4, characterized in that the electrolyte layer is further filled between adjacent color-changing regions to serve as the insulator.

8. The electrochromic device of claim 1, wherein the insulators are arranged in at least one of a grid-like structure, a strip-like structure spaced apart from each other, and a ring-like structure spaced apart from each other and nested.

9. A housing assembly comprising a transparent housing and an electrochromic device as in any of claims 1-8, said electrochromic device being affixed to said transparent housing.

10. An electronic device comprising a display module and the housing assembly of claim 9, wherein the electrochromic device is located between the transparent housing and the display module, and further comprising a control circuit coupled to the electrochromic device, wherein the control circuit is configured to receive a control command to control the electrochromic device to change color.

11. The electronic device according to claim 10, wherein the control instruction is a touch operation received by the display module, and the touch operation includes at least one of sliding, clicking, and long pressing;

or, the electronic device further comprises an operation key, and the control instruction is a trigger instruction of the operation key;

or, the electronic device further includes a trigger sensor, and the control instruction is a trigger instruction of the trigger sensor.

12. A manufacturing method of an electrochromic device is characterized by comprising the following steps:

providing a substrate;

forming a conductive layer on one side of the substrate, wherein the conductive layer has at least two conductive patterns spaced from each other;

forming an insulator along a spacing region between adjacent conductive patterns on a side of the substrate facing the conductive layer;

an electrochromic layer is formed on the conductive layer, and the electrochromic layer is partitioned into at least two color-changing regions independent of each other by the barrier.