CN113972349A

CN113972349A - Display panel and method for manufacturing the same

Info

Publication number: CN113972349A
Application number: CN202111214120.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 柳文良; 陈立强; 石佳凡; 王青松; 张胜星; 杨恕权
Original assignee: BOE Technology Group Co Ltd; Chengdu BOE Optoelectronics Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: BOE Technology Group Co Ltd; Chengdu BOE Optoelectronics Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-10-19
Filing date: 2021-10-19
Publication date: 2022-01-25
Anticipated expiration: 2041-10-19
Also published as: CN113972349B

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a display panel and a method of manufacturing the same, the method of manufacturing including: providing a substrate, and forming a display function layer on one side of the substrate, wherein the display function layer comprises a display area, a bending area and a binding area which are sequentially distributed in a first direction; forming an optical functional layer on one side of the display functional layer, which is far away from the substrate, wherein the orthographic projection of the optical functional layer on the display functional layer is positioned on the display area; providing a pressure head piece, wherein the pressure head piece is arranged on one side of the display functional layer, which is far away from the substrate, and one side of the optical functional layer, which is close to the bending area, and a preset gap is formed between the pressure head piece and the display functional layer in a second direction, in which the display functional layer is far away from the substrate; and forming a protective layer on the display functional layer on one side, close to the bending area, of the optical functional layer, wherein one end of the protective layer is positioned in the preset gap and abutted against the optical functional layer, and the other opposite end of the protective layer extends to the binding area. The siphon phenomenon generated by the contact of the protective layer and the optical functional layer can be avoided.

Description

Display panel and method for manufacturing the same

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of display, in particular to a manufacturing method of a display panel and the display panel formed by the manufacturing method.

Background

With the development of the OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) technology, pursuing screen occupation ratio becomes one of the targets of the display industry with strong competition, and by bending the pad area, the driving chip and the flexible circuit board can be placed on the back of the screen, thereby saving space, reducing the width of the lower frame of the mobile phone, and improving the screen occupation ratio.

However, with the requirement for the narrow frame becoming higher and higher, the radius of the bending region is continuously reduced, the stress borne by the metal wiring of the bending region is increased, the problems of high risk of metal wire breakage (Crack), difficulty in reducing the lower frame and the like generally exist, the yield and the production efficiency of the product are reduced, the production cost is improved, and the further improvement of the product quality and the yield is limited.

It is to be noted that the information disclosed in the above background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the present invention and therefore may include information that does not constitute prior art known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Disclosure of Invention

The present disclosure is directed to a method for manufacturing a display panel and a display panel manufactured by the method, which can avoid a siphon phenomenon caused by contact between a protective layer and an optical functional layer, so as to improve stability and yield of a bending region of the display functional layer.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a manufacturing method of a display panel, the manufacturing method including:

providing a substrate, and forming a display function layer on one side of the substrate, wherein the display function layer comprises a display area, a bending area and a binding area which are sequentially distributed in a first direction;

forming an optical functional layer on one side of the display functional layer, which is far away from the substrate, wherein the orthographic projection of the optical functional layer on the display functional layer is positioned on the display area;

providing a pressure head piece, wherein the pressure head piece is arranged on one side of the display functional layer, which is far away from the substrate, and one side of the optical functional layer, which is close to the bending area, and a preset gap is formed between the pressure head piece and the display functional layer in a second direction, in which the display functional layer is far away from the substrate;

and forming a protective layer on the display functional layer on one side, close to the bending area, of the optical functional layer, wherein one end of the protective layer is positioned in the preset gap and abutted against the optical functional layer, and the other opposite end of the protective layer extends to the binding area.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the pressure head member abuts against a side surface of the optically functional layer facing the optical functional layer.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the press head member is formed with a through hole penetrating through a bottom surface and a side surface and/or a top surface of the press head member.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the ram member includes a mounting portion and a ram portion, and a width of the mounting portion is greater than a width of the ram portion in the first direction.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the press head part has a width of 200 to 300 μm in the first direction.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, in a third direction perpendicular to the first direction and the second direction, a length of the head pressing part is greater than or equal to a length of the optically functional layer.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the pressure head piece is formed of a transparent material.

In an exemplary embodiment of the disclosure, the pressure head member is formed with a hydrophobic layer at least at a bottom surface close to the protective layer to avoid adhesion with the protective layer.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a height of the predetermined gap is the same as a predetermined thickness of the protective layer in the second direction.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a display panel formed by the manufacturing method of any one of the above embodiments.

According to the manufacturing method of the display panel, the pressure head piece is provided, the pressure head piece is arranged on one side of the display functional layer, which is far away from the substrate, and one side of the optical functional layer, which is close to the bending area, and a preset gap is formed between the pressure head piece and the display functional layer in a second direction, in which the display functional layer is far away from the substrate; and then, a protective layer is formed on the display functional layer on one side, close to the bending region, of the optical functional layer, and the pressure head piece is arranged, so that the siphon phenomenon between the protective layer material and the optical functional layer can be inhibited, the thickness of the formed protective layer is more uniform, and the stability and yield of the bending region of the display functional layer are improved.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. It is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the invention, and that for a person skilled in the art, other drawings can be derived from them without inventive effort. In the drawings:

fig. 1 is a schematic view of a display panel according to the related art provided in the present disclosure before bending;

fig. 2 is a schematic view of a display panel after being bent according to the related art provided in the present disclosure;

fig. 3 is a flowchart of a method for manufacturing a display panel according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the formation of a protective layer using an indenter according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a protective layer formed by an indenter according to an embodiment of the disclosure before bending;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating a bent protection layer formed by using an indenter according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a ram provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Description of reference numerals:

10. a substrate 110, a trench region;

20. a display functional layer;

30. an optically functional layer;

40. a protective layer;

50. a pressure head piece 510, an installation part 520, a pressure head part 530 and a through hole;

60. an optical adhesive layer;

70. a cover plate;

80. a support layer;

90. an elastic layer.

Detailed Description

Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Example embodiments may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of example embodiments to those skilled in the art. The same reference numerals in the drawings denote the same or similar structures, and thus their detailed description will be omitted.

Although relative terms, such as "upper" and "lower," may be used in this specification to describe one element of an icon relative to another, these terms are used in this specification for convenience only, e.g., in accordance with the orientation of the examples described in the figures. It will be appreciated that if the device of the icon were turned upside down, the element described as "upper" would become the element "lower". When a structure is "on" another structure, it may mean that the structure is integrally formed with the other structure, or that the structure is "directly" disposed on the other structure, or that the structure is "indirectly" disposed on the other structure via another structure. The terms "a," "an," "the," "said" are used to indicate the presence of one or more elements/components/etc.; the terms "comprising" and "having" are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements/components/etc. other than the listed elements/components/etc.

The inventor found that in order to reduce the width of the lower bezel and increase the screen ratio of the electronic product, as shown in fig. 1, it is necessary to shorten the distance L from the edge of a Polarizer (POL) 30 'to the bending start point (bending start) in the display module, a groove region is formed on the substrate 10', and a Metal Cover Layer (MCL) 40 'is required to completely Cover the bending area in order to uniformly distribute the stress at the bending time of the bending region (bending area) on the display functional Layer 20' as much as possible and prevent the Metal wire from being broken, so that the MCL is applied to be in contact with the POL in the current design.

However, as shown in fig. 2, when the MCL glue 40 'contacts POL 30', the edge of POL30 'will quickly siphon with the MCL glue 40' due to the interfacial forces. The siphoning phenomenon will cause the coating thickness of the MCL to be uneven, and further cause the stress distribution to be uneven when bending (bending), and the stress concentration phenomenon is generated at the thinner part of the MCL glue 40', thereby causing the metal wire to be broken when bending.

In view of the above technical problem, an embodiment of the present disclosure first provides a manufacturing method of a display panel, as shown in fig. 3, the manufacturing method including:

step S100, providing a substrate, and forming a display function layer on one side of the substrate, wherein the display function layer comprises a display area, a bending area and a binding area which are sequentially distributed in a first direction;

step S200, forming an optical functional layer on one side of the display functional layer, which is far away from the substrate, wherein the orthographic projection of the optical functional layer on the display functional layer is positioned on a display area;

step S300, providing a pressure head piece, arranging the pressure head piece on one side of the display function layer, which is far away from the substrate, and one side of the optical function layer, which is close to the bending area, and enabling a preset gap to be formed between the pressure head piece and the display function layer in a second direction, in which the display function layer is far away from the substrate;

step S400, forming a protective layer on the display functional layer on one side, close to the bending area, of the optical functional layer, wherein one end of the protective layer is located in the preset gap and abutted to the optical functional layer, and the other opposite end of the protective layer extends to the binding area.

Hereinafter, each step in the manufacturing method of the display panel provided by the present disclosure will be described in detail.

In step S100, a substrate is provided, and a display function layer is formed on one side of the substrate, wherein the display function layer includes a display region, a bending region and a binding region which are sequentially distributed in a first direction.

Specifically, a substrate 10 is provided, the material of the substrate 10 may be an inorganic material, and the inorganic material may be a glass material such as soda-lime glass, quartz glass, sapphire glass, or the like, or a metal material of various metals such as stainless steel, aluminum, nickel, or alloys thereof; the material of the substrate 10 may also be an organic material, which may be polymethyl methacrylate, polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinyl phenol, polyether sulfone, polyimide, polyamide, polyacetal, polycarbonate, polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene naphthalate, or a combination thereof; the material of the substrate 10 may also be a flexible material, such as polyimide.

Wherein a trench region 110 may be formed in the substrate 10 by a patterning process, as shown in fig. 5, to facilitate bending of this region at a later time.

As shown in fig. 6, the display panel may further include a support layer 80, and the support layer 80 may be made of stainless steel (SUS), copper foil, or other materials with good support performance.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 5, the display function layer 20 is formed on one side of the substrate 10, the display function layer 20 includes a display area AA, a bending area WZ and a binding area BD which are sequentially distributed in a first direction (a direction indicated by x in fig. 5), and the groove area 110 formed on the substrate 10 corresponds to the bending area WZ. The bending area WZ and the binding area BD of the display functional layer 20 may include a metal wiring layer and a pixel defining layer, and the display area AA of the display functional layer 20 may include a display layer composed of a light emitting material layer, an electrode layer, and a packaging layer. Of course, the above disclosure is only an exemplary hierarchical division, and the disclosure is not limited thereto, and other hierarchical division manners may be adopted, or other more hierarchical levels may be included.

In step S200, an optical functional layer is formed on a side of the display functional layer facing away from the substrate, and an orthographic projection of the optical functional layer on the display functional layer is located on the display area.

Specifically, the optical function layer 30 is formed on the side of the display function layer 20 facing away from the substrate 10, and the orthographic projection of the optical function layer 30 on the display function layer 20 is located on the display area AA. The optically functional layer 30 may be a Polarizer (POL), for example. Of course, other optically functional layers 30, such as an anti-reflection layer, etc., may be used, or a composite functional layer may be used.

In step S300, providing a pressing member, disposing the pressing member on a side of the display functional layer away from the substrate and a side of the optical functional layer close to the bending region, and providing a predetermined gap between the pressing member and the display functional layer in a second direction of the display functional layer away from the substrate.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 4, a pressure head 50 is provided, the pressure head 50 is provided on a side of the display functional layer 20 away from the substrate 10 and a side of the optical functional layer 30 close to the bending region, and the pressure head 50 has a predetermined gap with the display functional layer 20 in a second direction (y direction shown in fig. 5) in which the display functional layer 20 is away from the substrate 10.

Wherein, in the second direction, the height of the predetermined gap is the same as the predetermined thickness of the protective layer 40. As shown in fig. 5, by making the height of the predetermined gap the same as the predetermined thickness of the protection layer 40, the thickness of the protection layer 40 in the display area AA and the thickness of the bending area WZ can be ensured to be consistent or substantially consistent, so as to further improve the uniformity of the thickness of the protection layer 40. Of course, the height of the predetermined gap and the predetermined thickness of the protection layer 40 may also be different, for example, the difference between the height of the predetermined gap and the predetermined thickness of the protection layer 40 is within 10 μm, and those skilled in the art can set the difference according to the actual situation, which is not limited by the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 4, the presser 50 abuts against the side surface of the optical function layer 30 facing thereto. By abutting the pressure head 50 against the side of the optical function layer 30 facing each other, the occurrence of the siphon phenomenon between the protective layer material and the optical function layer 30 can be completely avoided. Of course, the side of the pressure piece 50 facing the optical function layer 30 may have a small gap, for example, a gap smaller than 10 μm, and also has a function of suppressing the occurrence of the siphon phenomenon between the protective layer material and the optical function layer 30.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 7, the ram 50 includes a mounting portion 510 and a ram portion 520, and the mounting portion 510 has a width greater than a width of the ram portion 520 in the first direction. Since the size of the head member 50 is small, the head member 50 can be easily installed by providing the mounting portion 510 having a large width in order to facilitate the connection of the head member 50 to the gluing apparatus.

Wherein, in the first direction, the width of the indenter 520 is 200 μm to 300 μm, such as 200 μm, 220 μm, 250 μm, 270 μm, 300 μm, etc., which are not enumerated herein; of course, the width of the presser head 520 may also be less than 200 μm or greater than 300 μm, which the present disclosure does not limit.

It should be clear to those skilled in the art that the width of the head portion 520 theoretically can achieve the function of preventing the siphon phenomenon as long as it is greater than 0; meanwhile, the gluing quality is affected by the fact that the pressing head part 520 is too wide, so that the width of the pressing head part 520 only needs to be capable of accommodating the machining error (50 microns) and the alignment error (150 microns) of the pressing head part 520, the width of the pressing head part 520 is 200 microns-300 microns, and the phenomenon that the gluing quality is affected by the fact that the pressing head part 520 is too wide is avoided under the condition that the machining error and the alignment error are overcome.

In step S400, a protective layer is formed on the display functional layer on the side of the optical functional layer close to the bending region, one end of the protective layer is located in the preset gap and abuts against the optical functional layer, and the other end of the protective layer extends to the binding region.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 4, after the press member 50 is set at the predetermined position, the application of the protective layer material to the display functional layer 20 is started, and the siphon phenomenon of the protective layer material at the contact portion of the optical functional layer 30 is suppressed due to the press member 50; as shown in fig. 5, after the presser member 50 is raised, the protective layer 40 having a uniform thickness can be obtained.

When the protective layer material is photocured to form the protective layer 40 with a certain elastic modulus, the pressure head piece 50 is made of a transparent material so as to be convenient for photocuring the protective layer material below the pressure head piece 50 through light transmission; the transparent material may be glass, for example. When the protective layer material is cured by heating to form the protective layer 40 having a certain elastic modulus, the light transmittance of the indenter 50 is not required.

Wherein, in a third direction perpendicular to the first direction and the second direction, the length of the head part 520 is greater than or equal to the length of the optical function layer 30, and considering the alignment error and the processing error of the head part 520, the length of the head part 520 is preferably slightly longer than the glue coating area, so as to ensure that the siphon phenomenon can be suppressed at each position in the length direction.

Wherein, a through hole 530 is formed on the pressure head 50, and the through hole 530 penetrates through the bottom surface and the side surface and/or the top surface of the pressure head 50. As shown in fig. 7, a plurality of through holes 530 are formed in the pressure head 50, a part of the through holes 530 penetrate through the bottom and the side of the pressure head 50, and another part of the through holes 530 penetrate through the bottom and the top of the pressure head 50; a plurality of rows may be provided in the length direction of the ram 50, and two rows may be provided in the width direction of the ram 50.

Wherein the indenter member 50 forms a hydrophobic layer at least near the bottom surface of the protective layer 40 to avoid adhesion with the protective layer 40. By depositing SiO on the indenter member 50 at least near the bottom surface of the protective layer 40₂The nanoparticles are then modified with a low surface energy substance containing a fluorine thiol to form a hydrophobic layer to avoid bonding with the protective layer 40. Those skilled in the art can also use other processes to form a hydrophobic layer on the indenter 50, which is not adhered to the protection layer 40, and the disclosure is not limited thereto, and all technical solutions having the same technical effects belong to the scope of the disclosure.

In addition, as shown in fig. 6, the method for manufacturing a display panel further includes forming an optical adhesive layer (OCA)60 on a side of the optical functional layer 30 away from the display functional layer 20, and forming a cover plate (CG)70 on a side of the optical adhesive layer 60 away from the optical functional layer 30; after the display panel is bent, the substrate 10 of the bonding area BD is connected with the supporting layer 80 through an elastic layer (FOAM)90, so as to improve the stability and reliability after bending; the chip (IC) and the flexible circuit board (FPC) may be bound on the binding area BD of the display function layer 20.

It should be noted that although the various steps of the methods of the present disclosure are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, this does not require or imply that these steps must be performed in this particular order, or that all of the depicted steps must be performed, to achieve desirable results. Additionally or alternatively, certain steps may be omitted, multiple steps combined into one step execution, and/or one step broken down into multiple step executions, etc.

Embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a display panel formed by the above-described manufacturing method. The display panel can be used for any product or component with a display function, such as a liquid crystal panel, electronic paper, an Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) panel, an Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode (AMOLED) panel, a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a television, a display, a notebook computer, a digital photo frame or a navigator and the like. For the beneficial effects, please refer to the above discussion about the manufacturing method of the display panel, which is not described herein again.

Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. This application is intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the invention following, in general, the principles of the invention and including such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice within the art to which the invention pertains. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims.

It will be understood that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements described above and shown in the drawings and that various modifications and changes may be made without departing from the scope thereof. The scope of the invention is limited only by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method of manufacturing a display panel, comprising:

2. The manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein the presser member abuts against a side surface facing the optically functional layer.

3. The manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein a through hole is formed in the head member, the through hole penetrating through a bottom surface and a side surface and/or a top surface of the head member.

4. The method of manufacturing of claim 1, wherein the ram member includes a mounting portion and a ram portion, the mounting portion having a width greater than a width of the ram portion in the first direction.

5. The manufacturing method according to claim 4, wherein a width of the presser head portion in the first direction is 200 μm to 300 μm.

6. The manufacturing method according to claim 4, wherein a length of the head pressing portion is greater than or equal to a length of the optically functional layer in a third direction perpendicular to the first direction and the second direction.

7. The method of manufacturing of claim 1, wherein the ram is formed of a transparent material.

8. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the stamp member is provided with a hydrophobic layer at least near the bottom surface of the protective layer to avoid adhesion with the protective layer.

9. The manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein a height of the predetermined gap is the same as a predetermined thickness of the protective layer in the second direction.

10. A display panel formed by the manufacturing method according to any one of claims 1 to 9.