CN114236937A - Electronic paper display device and manufacturing method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present application relates to an electronic paper display device and a method of manufacturing the same. The electronic paper display device comprises: the device comprises a lower electrode substrate provided with a pixel electrode, an electronic ink microcapsule, a transparent upper electrode substrate provided with a transparent common electrode, conductive silver paste and packaging adhesive; the electronic ink microcapsules are regularly placed on the pixel electrode in a manipulator grabbing and transferring mode and are arranged between the pixel electrode and the transparent common electrode; the conductive silver paste is arranged between the pixel electrode and the transparent common electrode and is respectively in electric contact with the pixel electrode and the transparent common electrode; the packaging adhesive is arranged on the periphery of the lower electrode substrate and the transparent upper electrode substrate and seals and fixes the lower electrode substrate and the transparent upper electrode substrate. The electronic paper display device can solve the problem of electronic paper color display, and meanwhile, the problem that the electronic paper display device must manufacture the electronic paper display film layer first is solved, and the manufacturing process of the electronic paper display device is simplified.

Description

Electronic paper display device and manufacturing method thereof

Technical Field

The application relates to the technical field of display screens, in particular to an electronic paper display device and a manufacturing method thereof.

Background

With the development of display technologies, users have higher requirements for display products, and a large number of new display technologies, such as Electronic Paper (E-Paper) displays, have emerged in recent years. The electronic paper display device is a general name of the technology, is an ultrathin and ultralight display screen, has the same visual characteristics as a paper medium, is free from reading fatigue and the like by virtue of the advantages of an ultra-wide viewing angle, ultra-low power consumption, a pure reflection mode, bistable display, strong light prevention and display effect close to a natural paper effect, and becomes a new favorite of portable display equipment.

The working principle of the electronic paper display device is that a plurality of display units arranged in an array are arranged on an upper substrate and a lower substrate which are oppositely arranged, in each display unit, a display layer comprises charged particles (or charged particles and neutral particles) with black and white colors and electrolyte, the upper substrate and/or the lower substrate are provided with electrode structures, and the electrode structures of the display units can generate an electric field. Under the action of an electric field, the charged particles of black and white color move ceaselessly, when the white charged particles rise to the surface of the upper substrate, light irradiates the surface of the upper substrate and is completely reflected, and a white state is formed; when the electric field changes, the charged particles of black and white colors can exchange positions, the charged particles of white color descend, the charged particles of black color ascend to the surface of the upper substrate, and light is completely absorbed by the charged particles of black color to form a black state, so that the display effect of black and white monochromatic is presented. When the charged particles of black and white, which are mixed in proportion, rise to the surface of the upper substrate, different colors, which are black and white, having gradation, are formed.

Referring to fig. 1, in the present stage, a method of using a filter is often used to manufacture a color electrophoretic electronic paper display device, referring to a method of using a TFT-LCD (Thin film transistor liquid crystal display) for color. An electronic paper display film is pasted on the pixel electrode 111 formed on the lower electrode substrate 11, the electronic paper display film is composed of electronic microcapsules or microcups 22 and coating liquid 20, and then a transparent upper electrode substrate 12 with a transparent common electrode 121 and a color filter film 122 is pasted, namely the color filter film 122 of corresponding red (R), green (G) and blue (B) is laid above each sub-pixel point. When the gray scale of the sub-pixel points changes, the light reflected by the three sub-pixel points is combined into the color to be displayed after passing through the filter film. The method greatly limits the display effect, brightness and thickness of the display panel of the electronic paper. For reflective display technologies such as electronic paper, the display effect will be weakened when one layer is added on a pixel point. While the filter can directly reduce the light intensity by 50%. Therefore, the color displayed by the method is very dim, and the user experience is poor.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve or partially solve the problems in the related art, the present application provides an electronic paper display device and a manufacturing method thereof, which can solve the problem of color display of electronic paper, and simultaneously solve the problem that the electronic paper display device must first manufacture an electronic paper display thin film layer, thereby simplifying the manufacturing process of the electronic paper display device.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the present application provides the following technical solutions:

a first aspect of the present application provides an electronic paper display device,

the device comprises a lower electrode substrate provided with a pixel electrode, an electronic ink microcapsule, a transparent upper electrode substrate provided with a transparent common electrode, conductive silver paste and packaging adhesive;

the electronic ink microcapsules are regularly placed on the pixel electrode in a manipulator grabbing and transferring mode and are arranged between the pixel electrode and the transparent common electrode;

the conductive silver paste is arranged between the pixel electrode and the transparent common electrode and is respectively in electric contact with the pixel electrode and the transparent common electrode;

the packaging adhesive is arranged on the periphery of the lower electrode substrate and the transparent upper electrode substrate and seals and fixes the lower electrode substrate and the transparent upper electrode substrate.

In one embodiment, the electronic ink microcapsules have a diameter of 30-500 um.

In one embodiment, the electronic ink microcapsules have a diameter of 75-150 um.

In one embodiment, the electronic ink microcapsules comprise red microcapsules, green microcapsules, and blue microcapsules;

the red microcapsule is coated with electrophoretic display liquid of charged red pigment particles, charged black pigment particles or neutral black pigment particles;

the green microcapsule is coated with electrophoretic display liquid of charged green pigment particles, charged black pigment particles or neutral black pigment particles;

the blue microcapsule is coated with electrophoretic display liquid of charged blue pigment particles, charged black pigment particles or neutral black pigment particles.

In one embodiment, the red, green and blue microcapsules are disposed on the pixel electrode in a regular "|" shape arrangement.

In one embodiment, the electronic ink microcapsule comprises a red microcapsule, a green microcapsule, a blue microcapsule, and a white microcapsule;

the red microcapsule is coated with electrophoretic display liquid of charged red pigment particles, charged black pigment particles or neutral black pigment particles;

the green microcapsule is coated with electrophoretic display liquid of charged green pigment particles, charged black pigment particles or neutral black pigment particles;

the blue microcapsule is coated with electrophoretic display liquid of charged blue pigment particles, charged black pigment particles or neutral black pigment particles;

the white microcapsule is coated with electrophoretic display liquid of charged white pigment particles, charged black pigment particles or neutral black pigment particles.

In one embodiment, the red, green, blue and white microcapsules are disposed on the pixel electrode in a regular array in a "| |" or "field" shape by the robot gripping and transferring manner.

In one embodiment, a pixel isolation pillar is disposed in a gap between the pixel electrodes of the lower electrode substrate to separate the pixel electrodes.

In one embodiment, a microcapsule adhesive is disposed on the pixel electrode of the lower electrode substrate, and the adhesive is a pressure sensitive adhesive, a hot melt adhesive, or a radiation curable adhesive.

A second aspect of the present application provides a method of manufacturing an electronic paper display device, the method including:

selecting a TFT glass substrate provided with a pixel electrode as a lower electrode substrate;

providing a microcapsule binder on the pixel electrode;

silk-screen printing packaging glue on the frame of the lower electrode substrate;

dispensing conductive silver paste in the packaging adhesive by using a dispenser;

placing the electronic ink microcapsules in a tray with grids so that each electronic ink microcapsule is in a separate grid;

the electronic ink microcapsules are sequentially grabbed from the grids of the tray by a manipulator and are put into the pixel electrodes one by one until all the pixel electrodes have at least one electronic ink microcapsule, wherein the electronic ink microcapsules are adhered by a microcapsule adhesive arranged on the pixel electrodes;

a transparent common electrode arranged in a transparent upper electrode substrate faces a pixel electrode, the transparent upper electrode substrate is pressed on the packaging adhesive, and the packaging adhesive is cured by UV (ultraviolet) to fix the transparent upper electrode substrate and the lower electrode substrate and seal the electronic ink microcapsules in the packaging adhesive;

and thermally curing the microcapsule binder to prepare the electronic paper display device.

In an embodiment, the method further comprises:

and photoetching pixel isolation columns on the pixel electrodes of the lower electrode substrate to separate the pixel electrodes, wherein the pixel isolation columns are made of polyimide or acrylic.

In one embodiment, the microcapsule binder is disposed on the pixel electrode by inkjet printing, spray coating, or screen printing.

In one embodiment, the electronic ink microcapsules have a diameter of 30-500 um;

wherein the diameter of the electronic ink microcapsule is 30-500um by controlling the reaction conditions in the manufacturing process of the electronic ink microcapsule;

or selecting the electronic ink microcapsules with the diameter of 30-500um from the manufactured electronic ink microcapsules through a screen.

In one embodiment, the claw portion of the manipulator is designed in an arc shape conforming to the shape of the electronic ink microcapsule to increase a contact area of the claw portion with the electronic ink microcapsule.

In one embodiment, the grabbing the electronic ink microcapsules from the grid of the tray by the manipulator, and putting the electronic ink microcapsules into the pixel electrodes one by one until all the pixel electrodes have at least one electronic ink microcapsule, includes:

when the electronic ink microcapsules are red microcapsules, green microcapsules and blue microcapsules and are respectively placed in different special trays,

and grabbing red microcapsules from the grids of the tray in sequence by a manipulator to be placed into the pixel electrodes in the Nth row one by one, grabbing green microcapsules from the grids of the tray in sequence to be placed into the pixel electrodes in the (N + 1) th row one by one, grabbing blue microcapsules from the grids of the tray in sequence to be placed into the pixel electrodes in the (N + 2) th row one by one until all the pixel electrodes are provided with at least one electronic ink microcapsule, wherein N is greater than or equal to 1.

In one embodiment, the transparent common electrode is in contact with an electronic ink microcapsule.

Compared with the traditional electronic paper display device, the electronic paper display device has the following advantages:

1) according to the scheme, the complex production flow of the traditional electronic paper display film layer is omitted, the electronic paper production and the electronic paper display device are directly combined, the rear-end manufacturing process of the electronic paper display device is greatly simplified, and the electronic paper display device has the advantages of being short in process, easy to achieve automation, high in production efficiency, high in yield and the like;

2) according to the method, the electronic paper display device is produced by adopting a mechanical microcapsule grabbing process, the characteristics of large microcapsule size and easiness in mechanical grabbing are fully utilized, and a series of problems in the production process of the original electronic paper display device are solved;

3) by using the production process, the production process has unique advantages in the aspect of producing large-size electronic display devices, can easily break through the limitation of 42 inches of the conventional electronic paper display devices, and realizes the production of screens with larger sizes;

4) the structure of the electronic paper display layer is simplified, the light transmission performance is better, the light loss is small, the electronic paper can show higher contrast and better white contrast, the driving scheme and the display effect of the electronic paper display screen are greatly enriched, compared with the current popular technology, colorization can be easily realized without a filter membrane, and better color saturation and better color resolution can be obtained in the aspect of true color;

5) the waterproof sealing performance of the electronic paper display device is improved, the electronic paper display device has stronger environmental applicability and can be used in wider temperature and humidity ranges;

6) the electronic paper display device contains the microcapsule adhesive, and after being cured, the microcapsule is not only fixed, but also can be used as a supporting material of an upper electrode and a lower electrode, so that the compressive strength of the electronic paper display device is increased;

7) the investment of processing equipment is reduced, the process flow is simplified, so that the rear-end processing equipment is greatly reduced, and the space and the labor are saved;

8) the utilization rate of the electronic ink material is improved, and the utilization rate of the process can reach more than 95% from the utilization rate of the traditional process being less than 40% to the utilization rate of the process;

9) the waste of other consumables, including ITO, protective film and other materials is reduced;

10) the processing time of the electronic paper display device is greatly reduced.

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 application.

Drawings

The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the application will be apparent from the following more particular descriptions of exemplary embodiments of the application as illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numbers generally represent like parts throughout the exemplary embodiments of the application.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional color electronic paper display device;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a robot of the present application grasping electronic microcapsules from a specially made tray;

FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view taken along line A-A in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a robot arm for disposing electronic microcapsules onto a lower electrode substrate according to example 1 of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an electronic paper display device according to the present application after packaging;

FIG. 6 is a schematic sectional view of B-B in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a schematic view showing a robot hand for placing color electronic microcapsules on a lower electrode substrate according to example 2 of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a color electronic paper display device according to embodiment 2 of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a schematic view showing a robot hand for placing color electronic microcapsules on a lower electrode substrate according to example 3 of the present application;

fig. 10 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a color electronic paper display device according to embodiment 3 of the present application;

fig. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a manufacturing method of an electronic paper display device according to the present application.

Detailed Description

Embodiments of the present application will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. While embodiments of the present application are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, it should be understood that the present application may be embodied in various forms and should not be 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 scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the application. As used in this application and the appended claims, the singular forms "a", "an", and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should also be understood that the term "and/or" as used herein refers to and encompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

It should be understood that although the terms "first," "second," "third," etc. may be used herein to describe various information, these information should not be limited to these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one type of information from another. For example, first information may also be referred to as second information, and similarly, second information may also be referred to as first information, without departing from the scope of the present application. Thus, a feature defined as "first" or "second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of that feature. In the description of the present application, "a plurality" means two or more unless specifically limited otherwise.

The present application will be described in detail with reference to the drawings, wherein the cross-sectional views illustrating the structure of the device are not enlarged partially in general scale for convenience of illustration, and the drawings are only examples, which should not limit the scope of the present application. In addition, the three-dimensional dimensions of length, width and depth should be included in the actual fabrication.

According to the scheme provided by the application, the electronic ink microcapsules arranged between the pixel electrode and the transparent public electrode are regularly placed on the pixel electrode in a grabbing and transferring mode through the special mechanical arm, so that the manufacturing process of the electronic paper display film can be omitted, particularly, a color electronic paper display device is manufactured, the color filter film material and the manufacturing process are omitted, the rear-end manufacturing process of the electronic paper display screen is greatly simplified, the process flow is shortened, and the display effect, the production efficiency and the yield of the product are greatly improved.

The electronic paper display device and the manufacturing method thereof provided by the present application are specifically described below by several embodiments.

As shown in fig. 2 to 6, in the first embodiment, a monochrome electronic paper display device is taken as an example, and an electronic paper display device includes a lower electrode substrate 11 provided with a pixel electrode 111, an electronic ink microcapsule 22, a transparent upper electrode substrate 12 provided with a transparent common electrode 121, a conductive silver paste 31 and an encapsulation adhesive 32; the electronic ink microcapsules 22 are regularly placed on the pixel electrode 111 in a grabbing and transferring manner by the manipulator 23 and are arranged between the pixel electrode 111 and the transparent common electrode 121; the conductive silver paste 31 is arranged outside the electronic ink microcapsule 22 and between the pixel electrode 111 and the transparent common electrode 121, and is respectively in electrical contact with the pixel electrode 111 and the transparent common electrode 121; the packaging adhesive 32 is arranged at the peripheries of the conductive silver paste 31 and the electronic ink microcapsule 22 and at the peripheries of the lower electrode substrate 11 and the transparent upper electrode substrate 12 to seal and fix the upper and lower electrode substrates.

The electronic ink microcapsule 22 is a microcapsule of electrophoretic display liquid covering the charged white pigment particles 41, the charged black pigment particles or the neutral black pigment particles 40, the diameter of the electronic ink microcapsule 22 is 30-500um, the larger the electronic ink microcapsule 22 is, the more convenient the manipulator 23 can grasp, but the larger the electronic ink microcapsule 22 is, the less favorable the resolution of the display is, preferably 50-200um, and most preferably 75-150 um. In this embodiment, the electronic ink microcapsules 22 with a diameter of 100um are selected, and the diameter of the electronic ink microcapsules 22 manufactured finally can be about 100um by controlling the reaction conditions in the manufacturing process of the electronic ink microcapsules 22, or the manufactured electronic ink microcapsules 22 are screened by a screen to select the electronic ink microcapsules 22 with a diameter of 100 um.

The lower electrode substrate 11 is made of glass or plastic, the plastic includes PI, PEN or PET, the pixel electrodes 111 are TFT dot matrix pixel electrodes, pixel isolation pillars 112 are formed on the gaps between the pixel electrodes 111 that are not connected to each other to isolate the pixel electrodes through a photolithography process, and the pixel isolation pillars 112 are made of Polyimide (PI) or acrylic (PMMA), preferably polyimide. The pixel electrode 111 is provided with a microcapsule adhesive 113, the microcapsule adhesive 113 is a pressure-sensitive adhesive, a hot-melt adhesive or a radiation-curing adhesive, and due to its adhesiveness, when the manipulator 23 grabs the electronic ink microcapsule 22 and places the electronic ink microcapsule 22 on the pixel electrode 111, the electronic ink microcapsule 22 can be stuck, and the electronic ink microcapsule 22 can be better fixed on the specific pixel electrode 111; by pressing the electronic ink microcapsules 22 when the upper and lower electrode substrates are attached, the microcapsule binder 113 can flow into the gaps between the electronic ink microcapsules 22, and after curing, the upper and lower electrode substrates can be effectively supported, thereby enhancing the compressive strength of the electronic paper display device against external forces. The microcapsule binder 113 is disposed on the pixel electrode 111 by means of inkjet printing, spray coating, or screen printing.

The transparent common electrode 121 is ITO, silver nanowire, graphene, or carbon nanotube; the transparent upper electrode substrate 12 is made of glass, plastic, glass with a protective layer, or plastic with a protective layer, and the plastic includes PI, PEN, or PET. The sealing adhesive 32 is a commonly used sealing material including an adhesive material such as acrylic resin, polyamide resin, or epoxy resin.

The electronic ink microcapsule 22 is captured and arranged between the transparent upper electrode substrate 12 and the transparent lower electrode substrate 11 through the manipulator 23, and the periphery of the electronic ink microcapsule is sealed by the packaging adhesive 32, so that the electronic ink microcapsule can be prevented from being influenced by external water and gas. The pixel electrode 111 and the common transparent electrode 121 are powered by the TFT lower electrode substrate 11, so that the movement of the charged white pigment particles 41 and the black pigment particles 40 in the electronic ink microcapsule 22 can be controlled, thereby implementing the display function.

For example, if the selected particles in the electronic ink microcapsule 22 are the charged white pigment particles 41 and the charged black pigment particles 40, when the charge supplied to the pixel electrode 111 is the same as the charge and the polarity of the charged white pigment particles 41, according to the principle that like charges repel and opposite charges attract, the charged white pigment particles 41 will move toward the transparent common electrode 121 and deposit on the top of the electronic ink microcapsule 22 close to the transparent common electrode 121, the charged black pigment particles 40 will move toward the pixel electrode 111 and deposit on the bottom of the electronic ink microcapsule 22 close to the pixel electrode 111, and external light is irradiated from the transparent upper electrode substrate, and the light emitting effect is formed by the reflection of the charged white pigment particles 41; on the contrary, when the voltage with the same charge as that of the charged white pigment particles 41 and opposite polarity is applied to the pixel electrode 111, the charged white pigment particles 41 will be deposited at the bottom of the electronic ink microcapsule 22 near the pixel electrode 111, the charged black pigment particles 40 will be deposited at the top of the electronic ink microcapsule 22 near the transparent common electrode 121, the external light is irradiated from the transparent upper electrode substrate 12, and the charged black pigment particles 40 absorb the light and do not reflect to form the black non-luminous effect; according to the principle, the charged black-and-white pigment particles 40 and 41 in each electronic ink microcapsule 22 are controlled by the voltage of each pixel electrode 111, and black-and-white graphic display can be realized by the reflection and absorption of light by the black-and-white pigment particles.

If the selected particles in the electronic ink microcapsule 22 are the charged white pigment particles 41 and the neutral black pigment particles 40, in this case, the neutral black pigment particles 40 are generally suspended in the middle of the microcapsule, when the charge applied to the pixel electrode 111 is the same as the charge and polarity of the charged white pigment particles 41, the charged white pigment particles 41 will push the neutral black pigment particles 40 to move toward the transparent common electrode 121 and deposit on the top of the electronic ink microcapsule 22 near the transparent common electrode 121, the neutral black pigment particles 40 will remain stationary, and the external light is irradiated from the transparent upper electrode substrate 12, so as to form the light emitting effect by the reflection of the charged white pigment particles 41; on the contrary, when the voltage with the same charge as that of the charged white pigment particles 41 and opposite polarity is applied to the pixel electrode 111, the charged white pigment particles 41 push down the neutral black pigment particles 40 and are accumulated at the bottom of the electronic ink microcapsule 22 close to the pixel electrode 111, and at this time, the neutral black pigment particles 40 are above the charged white pigment particles 41, external light is irradiated from the transparent upper electrode substrate 12, and the neutral black pigment particles 40 absorb light and do not reflect to form a black non-luminous effect; according to the principle, the black-white pigment particles 40 and 41 in each electronic ink microcapsule 22 are controlled by the voltage of each pixel electrode 111, and black-white graphic display can be realized by the reflection and absorption of light by the black-white pigment particles.

It should be noted here that if the electronic ink microcapsule 22 is used to cover the charged black-and- white pigment particles 40 and 41, the charged black-and- white pigment particles 40 and 41 have to have opposite polarities and generally have the same charge, so that the two particles move in different directions when the pixel electrode 111 is energized. If the electronic ink microcapsule 22 is used to cover the charged white pigment particles 41 and the neutral black pigment particles 40, the particle size of the charged white pigment particles 41 is smaller than that of the neutral black pigment particles 40, so that they move through the neutral black pigment particles 40 when the pixel electrode 111 is energized.

As shown in fig. 2 and 3, and fig. 7 and 8, the second embodiment takes a color electronic paper display device as an example, and an electronic paper display device has the same structure as the first embodiment except that the electronic ink microcapsule 22 includes a red microcapsule 221, a green microcapsule 222, and a blue microcapsule 223.

The red microcapsule 221 is coated with the electrophoretic display liquid of the charged red pigment particles 51, the charged black pigment particles or the neutral black pigment particles 40, the green microcapsule 222 is coated with the electrophoretic display liquid of the charged green pigment particles 52, the charged black pigment particles or the neutral black pigment particles 40, and the blue microcapsule 223 is coated with the electrophoretic display liquid of the charged blue pigment particles 53, the charged black pigment particles or the neutral black pigment particles 40; the red microcapsules 221, the green microcapsules 222, and the blue microcapsules 223 are disposed on the pixel electrodes 111 in an "|" shape regular arrangement by grasping and transferring by the manipulator 23; by controlling the voltage and polarity of the pixel electrodes 111 corresponding to the red microcapsule 221, the green microcapsule 222, and the blue microcapsule 223, respectively, ambient light is reflected or absorbed similarly to the first embodiment, except that the three pigment particles 51, 52, 53 of red, green, and blue in the three microcapsules 221, 222, and 223 respectively reflect incident ambient light as red light, green light, and blue light, and by adjusting the reflection and absorption of light by the red, green, and blue microcapsules 221, 222, and 223 on each pixel electrode 111, color display of the electronic paper display device can be realized. In this embodiment, a color filter or other film layers are not added, so that the brightness of color display can be greatly improved, and the pixel isolation pillars 112 and the capsule adhesive 113 are arranged on the substrate, so that the scattering of light between the electronic ink microcapsules 22 can be blocked, and the display contrast can be improved; the use of a black material for pixel isolation pillars 112 or capsule adhesive 113 further improves the contrast of the display, so that the color display becomes more vivid.

As shown in fig. 9 and 10, the third embodiment takes another color electronic paper display device as an example, and an electronic paper display device has the same structure as the second embodiment, except that the electronic ink microcapsule 22 further includes the white microcapsule 224 coated with black and white particles in the first embodiment, in addition to the red microcapsule 221, the green microcapsule 222 and the blue microcapsule 223 in the second embodiment.

The red microcapsules 221, the green microcapsules 222, the blue microcapsules 223 and the white microcapsules 224 are disposed on the pixel electrode 111 in a regular arrangement in a "| | |" or "field" shape by grabbing and transferring by the manipulator 23; by controlling the voltage and polarity of the pixel electrode 111 corresponding to the red microcapsule 221, the green microcapsule 222, the blue microcapsule 223, and the white microcapsule 224, respectively, color display of the electronic paper display device can be realized. The white microcapsule 224 is added here, when white is to be displayed, the white microcapsule 221, 222 and 223 does not need to reflect light simultaneously to form white light, and the white particles 54 in the white microcapsule 224 directly reflect the white light, so that the power consumption of the display device is saved, and in addition, the white light reflected by the white particles 54 is brighter than the white light mixed by the red, green and blue reflected lights, and the color purity is higher, so that the color is brighter and the brightness is higher during color display.

Another embodiment of the present application discloses a manufacturing method of an electronic paper display device, where the manufacturing method includes the process steps shown in fig. 11, the manufacturing method of the electronic paper display device includes:

step S101: a TFT glass substrate provided with a pixel electrode is selected as a lower electrode substrate.

This step may select a TFT glass substrate provided with the pixel electrodes 111 as the lower electrode substrate 11, and the pixel isolation pillars 112 are formed on the lower electrode substrate 11 by photolithography to separate the pixel electrodes 111.

The pixel electrode 111 may be a pen segment type or a dot matrix type, and the pixel electrode 111 refers to an electrode which is formed on the glass substrate 11 and is not connected with each other to provide voltage for each pixel in the pen segment or the dot matrix electronic paper display device; the voltage of the pixel electrode 111 is usually controlled by controlling the TFT switch corresponding to the pixel electrode 111 through the electrode metal wiring of the row and column.

The pixel isolation pillars 112 are additionally formed to cover the blank spaces between the pixel electrodes 111, thereby improving the contrast of the display device, and the pixel isolation pillars 112 can enclose the electronic ink microcapsules 22 and the microcapsule binder 113 which are subsequently disposed in the pixel electrodes 111. Pixel isolation pillars 112 are typically made of positive tone PI resist, and thus formed pixel isolation pillars have a trapezoidal shape, which is more advantageous for the subsequent arrangement of microcapsule binder 113 and electronic ink microcapsules 22.

Step S102: a microcapsule binder is disposed on the pixel electrode.

The microcapsule binder 113 is a highly viscous colloidal solvent, and may be disposed in the pixel electrode 111 surrounded by the pixel isolation pillar 112 by screen printing or spray printing.

Step S103: and arranging packaging glue on the frame of the lower electrode substrate.

The encapsulation adhesive 32 is a colloidal solvent with high viscosity, and can be arranged around the outer side of the pixel electrode 111 on the lower electrode substrate 11 in a silk-screen printing or spraying printing mode, and is used for bonding with the transparent upper electrode substrate 12, and a common UV encapsulation adhesive is generally used.

Step S104: and (4) point-coating conductive silver paste in the packaging adhesive by using a point-gluing machine.

This step may be performed by disposing a specific pixel electrode on the lower electrode substrate 11 in the encapsulation adhesive 32 by using a dispenser to dispense the conductive silver paste 31.

The conductive silver paste 31 is used for electrically connecting the upper layer transparent common electrode 121 with the electrode on the lower electrode substrate 11, so that the transparent common electrode 121 can be supplied with power together with the pixel electrode 111 on the lower electrode substrate 11; generally arranged at two points inside the packaging adhesive 32 and outside the display area; since the encapsulation adhesive 32 is already arranged in the previous step, the height of the conductive silver paste 31 is almost the same as that of the encapsulation adhesive, and the conductive silver paste 31 is no longer suitable to be arranged thereon in a silk-screen printing manner, and the arrangement places are few, and the conductive silver paste is generally arranged in a spot-coating manner.

Step S105: the electronic ink microcapsules are placed in a tray with a grid such that each microcapsule is in a separate one of the grids.

This step may place the electronic ink microcapsules 22 in a specially made tray 21 with a grid 211, ensuring that each electronic ink microcapsule 22 is in a separate grid 211.

As shown in fig. 2, only one electronic ink microcapsule 22 can be placed in one cell 211, the electronic ink microcapsule 22 is a microcapsule of electrophoretic display fluid that covers the charged pigment particles and/or the neutral pigment particles, and the diameter of the electronic ink microcapsule 22 is 30-500um, preferably 50-200um, and most preferably 75-150 um; in specific implementation, the electronic ink microcapsules 22 with the same or different diameters are generally selected, and the electronic ink microcapsules 22 with the same or similar diameters can be selected by controlling the reaction conditions during the manufacturing process of the electronic ink microcapsules 22 so that the diameters of the finally manufactured electronic ink microcapsules 22 are the same or close to each other, or screening the manufactured electronic ink microcapsules 22 through a screen.

Thus, when the purpose-made tray 21 is designed, the electronic ink microcapsules 22 can be set according to the size, for example, the diameter of the selected electronic ink microcapsules 22 is 100um, the hollow space in the grid 211 of the tray 21 can be designed to be a cylindrical hole groove with the diameter of 150um or a square groove with the side length of 150um, so that when the electronic ink microcapsules 22 are poured on the tray 21 and shaken, only one electronic ink microcapsule 22 is arranged in each grid 211, and a space is reserved in each grid 211 for the manipulator 23 to grab.

If the color electronic paper display device is used, the selected electronic ink microcapsules are at least three electronic ink microcapsules 22 with pigment particles of different colors, and the electronic ink microcapsules 22 of different colors need to be placed in different trays, so that the grabbing error of a manipulator 23 at the back is avoided.

Step S106: and (3) sequentially grabbing the electronic ink microcapsules from the grids of the tray by adopting a manipulator, and putting the electronic ink microcapsules into the pixel electrodes one by one until all the pixel electrodes have at least one electronic ink microcapsule, wherein the electronic ink microcapsules are adhered by using a microcapsule adhesive arranged on the pixel electrodes.

This step may be performed by using the specially-made robot 23 to sequentially pick up the electronic ink microcapsules 22 from the grid 211 of the specially-made tray 21 and place the electronic ink microcapsules 22 into the pixel electrodes 111 one by one until all the pixel electrodes 111 have at least one electronic ink microcapsule 22.

Because the electronic ink microcapsules 22 are made of polymeric resin material, and are elastic and fragile, the electronic ink microcapsules 22 are easily broken by improper setting of the force of the manipulator 23, and the grasping force of the manipulator 23 must be as small as possible while the manipulator 23 can grasp the electronic ink microcapsules 22. As shown in fig. 3, since the electronic ink microcapsule 22 is spherical, the claw 231 of the robot 23 is preferably designed in an arc shape conforming to the shape of the electronic ink microcapsule 22, increasing the contact area of the claw 231 with the electronic ink microcapsule 22.

In this step, if a color electronic paper display device is manufactured, as shown in fig. 7, the manipulator 23 transfers the red, green, and blue microcapsules 221, 222, 223, the manipulator 23 sequentially picks the red microcapsules 221 from the lattice 211 of the tray 21 on which the red microcapsules 221 are placed and puts them into the pixel electrodes in the nth column, for example, the 1 st, 4 th, and 7. the pixel electrodes in the nth column, sequentially picks the green microcapsules 222 from the lattice 211 of the tray 21 on which the green microcapsules 222 are placed and puts them into the pixel electrodes in the N +1 st column, for example, the pixel electrodes in the 2 nd, 5 th, and 8. the pixel electrodes in the N +2 th column, for example, the pixel electrodes in the 3 rd, 6 th, and 9. the blue microcapsules 223 are finally picked from the lattice 211 of the tray 21 on which the blue microcapsules 223 are placed, sequentially, and all the pixel electrodes 111 are ensured to be provided with at least one electronic microcapsule 22, such that the red microcapsules 221, the green microcapsules 222, and the blue microcapsules 223 are disposed on the pixel electrode in an "|" shape regular arrangement.

As shown in fig. 9, if the color electronic paper display device is manufactured by using the red, green, blue and white microcapsules 221, 222, 223 and 224, the red, green, blue and white microcapsules can be sequentially placed in the "1 st, 5 th, 9 th.", "2 nd, 6 th, 10 th.", "3 th, 7 th, 11 th.", "4 th, 8 th, 12 th." pixel electrodes, so that the red, green, blue and white microcapsules are regularly arranged on the pixel electrodes 111 in the shape of "| | |". Or four pixel electrodes 111 in a shape of a Chinese character 'tian' are used as a pixel unit, and red, green, blue and white microcapsules are arranged at the same position of each pixel unit, so that the red, green, blue and white microcapsules are regularly arranged on the pixel electrodes 111 in the shape of the Chinese character 'tian'.

In this step, after the manipulator 23 transfers the electronic ink microcapsules 22 to the pixel electrode 111, the manipulator lowers a certain height to make the electronic ink microcapsules 22 contact with the microcapsule binder 113 and then releases the manipulator claw 231, so that the electronic ink microcapsules 22 can be better stuck by the viscosity of the microcapsule binder 113 to be separated from the manipulator claw 231, and the electronic ink microcapsules 22 can be better fixed on the desired pixel electrode 111 to prevent the electronic ink microcapsules 22 from being too light to drift and offset.

Step S107: and (3) enabling a transparent common electrode arranged in the transparent upper electrode substrate to face the pixel electrode, pressing the transparent upper electrode substrate on the packaging adhesive, and curing the packaging adhesive by UV (ultraviolet) to fix the transparent upper electrode substrate and the lower electrode substrate and seal the microcapsule in the packaging adhesive.

This step may be to face the transparent common electrode 121 toward the pixel electrode 111, press the transparent upper electrode substrate 12 on the encapsulation adhesive 32, and UV cure the encapsulation adhesive 32 to fix the upper and lower electrode substrates and seal the electronic ink microcapsules 22 in the encapsulation adhesive 32.

In this step, the pressure for bonding the transparent upper electrode substrate 12 and the lower electrode substrate 11 can be adjusted to control whether the transparent common electrode 121 on the transparent upper electrode substrate 12 contacts with the electronic ink microcapsule 22 or not or the size of the contact area; when the transparent common electrode 121 is in contact with the electronic ink microcapsule 22, or the electronic ink microcapsule 22 is deformed by pressing the electronic ink microcapsule 22 but the electronic ink microcapsule 22 is not crushed, the movement of the charged particles in the electronic ink microcapsule 22 under energization is facilitated, and the display device can be made thinner. When the encapsulation adhesive 32 is cured by UV, a special light shield can be used to shield the electronic ink microcapsule 22 in the middle from being irradiated by UV light to prevent damage to the electrophoretic fluid in the electronic ink microcapsule 22.

Step S108: and thermally curing the microcapsule adhesive to prepare the electronic paper display device.

This step may heat cure the microcapsule binder 113, completing the manufacture of the electronic paper display device.

In step S107, since the microcapsule binder 113 is flowable with a colloidal solvent, the electronic ink microcapsules 22 will expand and deform horizontally along with the pressing of the electronic ink microcapsules 22 by the upper and lower electrode substrates 11 and 12, and the microcapsule binder 113 will be pressed to flow in the gap between the electronic ink microcapsules 22 and even stick to the upper and lower electrode substrates 11 and 12 simultaneously. In this step, the encapsulated display device is placed in an oven to bake and solidify the microcapsule binder 113, and the colloidal microcapsule binder 113 is converted into a solid state, which can be used as an auxiliary supporting column to support the upper and lower electrode substrates 11, 12, thereby improving the compressive strength of the display device, and preventing the defects of deformation, abnormal display and the like when an external force is applied to the outer surface.

In the description, each part is described in a progressive manner, each part is emphasized to be different from other parts, and the same and similar parts among the parts are referred to each other.

Having described embodiments of the present application, the foregoing description is intended to be exemplary, not exhaustive, and not limited to the disclosed embodiments. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the described embodiments. The terminology used herein is chosen in order to best explain the principles of the embodiments, the practical application, or improvements made to the technology in the marketplace, or to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodiments disclosed herein.

Claims (16)

1. An electronic paper display device, characterized in that:

the device comprises a lower electrode substrate provided with a pixel electrode, an electronic ink microcapsule, a transparent upper electrode substrate provided with a transparent common electrode, conductive silver paste and packaging adhesive;

the electronic ink microcapsules are regularly placed on the pixel electrode in a manipulator grabbing and transferring mode and are arranged between the pixel electrode and the transparent common electrode;

the conductive silver paste is arranged between the pixel electrode and the transparent common electrode and is respectively in electric contact with the pixel electrode and the transparent common electrode;

the packaging adhesive is arranged on the periphery of the lower electrode substrate and the transparent upper electrode substrate and seals and fixes the lower electrode substrate and the transparent upper electrode substrate.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the diameter of the electronic ink microcapsule is 30-500 um.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein:

the diameter of the electronic ink microcapsule is 75-150 um.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the electronic ink microcapsule comprises a red microcapsule, a green microcapsule and a blue microcapsule;

the red microcapsule is coated with electrophoretic display liquid of charged red pigment particles, charged black pigment particles or neutral black pigment particles;

the green microcapsule is coated with electrophoretic display liquid of charged green pigment particles, charged black pigment particles or neutral black pigment particles;

the blue microcapsule is coated with electrophoretic display liquid of charged blue pigment particles, charged black pigment particles or neutral black pigment particles.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein:

the red microcapsules, the green microcapsules, and the blue microcapsules are disposed on the pixel electrode in a regular arrangement in a "| |" shape.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the electronic ink microcapsule comprises a red microcapsule, a green microcapsule, a blue microcapsule and a white microcapsule;

the red microcapsule is coated with electrophoretic display liquid of charged red pigment particles, charged black pigment particles or neutral black pigment particles;

the green microcapsule is coated with electrophoretic display liquid of charged green pigment particles, charged black pigment particles or neutral black pigment particles;

the blue microcapsule is coated with electrophoretic display liquid of charged blue pigment particles, charged black pigment particles or neutral black pigment particles;

the white microcapsule is coated with electrophoretic display liquid of charged white pigment particles, charged black pigment particles or neutral black pigment particles.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein:

the red microcapsules, the green microcapsules, the blue microcapsules and the white microcapsules are regularly arranged on the pixel electrode in a shape of a character of 'I' or 'field' in a grabbing and transferring manner of the manipulator.

8. The apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein:

and pixel isolation columns are arranged in gaps of the pixel electrodes of the lower electrode substrate to separate the pixel electrodes.

9. The apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein:

a microcapsule adhesive is disposed on the pixel electrode of the lower electrode substrate, the adhesive being a pressure sensitive adhesive, a hot melt adhesive, or a radiation curable adhesive.

10. A method for manufacturing an electronic paper display device, comprising:

selecting a TFT glass substrate provided with a pixel electrode as a lower electrode substrate;

providing a microcapsule binder on the pixel electrode;

silk-screen printing packaging glue on the frame of the lower electrode substrate;

dispensing conductive silver paste in the packaging adhesive by using a dispenser;

placing the electronic ink microcapsules in a tray with grids so that each electronic ink microcapsule is in a separate grid;

the electronic ink microcapsules are sequentially grabbed from the grids of the tray by a manipulator and are put into the pixel electrodes one by one until all the pixel electrodes have at least one electronic ink microcapsule, wherein the electronic ink microcapsules are adhered by a microcapsule adhesive arranged on the pixel electrodes;

a transparent common electrode arranged in a transparent upper electrode substrate faces a pixel electrode, the transparent upper electrode substrate is pressed on the packaging adhesive, and the packaging adhesive is cured by UV (ultraviolet) to fix the transparent upper electrode substrate and the lower electrode substrate and seal the electronic ink microcapsules in the packaging adhesive;

and thermally curing the microcapsule binder to prepare the electronic paper display device.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

and photoetching pixel isolation columns on the pixel electrodes of the lower electrode substrate to separate the pixel electrodes, wherein the pixel isolation columns are made of polyimide or acrylic.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the microcapsule adhesive is arranged on the pixel electrode in an ink-jet printing, spraying or silk-screen mode.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the diameter of the electronic ink microcapsule is 30-500 um;

wherein the diameter of the electronic ink microcapsule is 30-500um by controlling the reaction conditions in the manufacturing process of the electronic ink microcapsule;

or selecting the electronic ink microcapsules with the diameter of 30-500um from the manufactured electronic ink microcapsules through a screen.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the claw part of the manipulator is designed into an arc shape which is consistent with the shape of the electronic ink microcapsule, so that the contact area of the claw part and the electronic ink microcapsule is increased.

15. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 14, wherein the step of grabbing the electronic ink microcapsules from the grid of the tray one by using the manipulator and putting the electronic ink microcapsules into the pixel electrodes one by one until all the pixel electrodes have at least one electronic ink microcapsule comprises:

when the electronic ink microcapsules are red microcapsules, green microcapsules and blue microcapsules and are respectively placed in different special trays,

and grabbing red microcapsules from the grids of the tray in sequence by a manipulator to be placed into the pixel electrodes in the Nth row one by one, grabbing green microcapsules from the grids of the tray in sequence to be placed into the pixel electrodes in the (N + 1) th row one by one, grabbing blue microcapsules from the grids of the tray in sequence to be placed into the pixel electrodes in the (N + 2) th row one by one until all the pixel electrodes are provided with at least one electronic ink microcapsule, wherein N is greater than or equal to 1.

16. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 14, wherein:

the transparent common electrode is in contact with the electronic ink microcapsules.

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