JP4174710B2 - Large area panel using organic EL panel - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the present invention, a plurality of organic EL (electroluminescence) panels are prepared in advance and mounted on a single substrate so as to face terminal pins provided on the opposite side of the light emitting panel surface. The present invention relates to a large-area display or illumination light-emitting panel that is fixed and connected to the power supply terminals of the organic EL panel.
[0002]
[Prior art]
With regard to EL (electroluminescence) elements, a lot of research has been carried out for a long time, and various EL elements have been developed.
[0003]
FIG. 4 shows an example of the structure of a conventional organic EL panel. 4A shows a plan view and an equivalent circuit thereof, and FIG. 4B shows a z-z cross-sectional view of FIG.
[0004]
Here, in the organic EL panel 100, a conductive transparent electrode (generally ITO) is formed on a glass substrate 111. This transparent electrode becomes the anode layer 112.
[0005]
An EL element layer 114 is formed on the anode layer 112, and a cathode layer 113 such as a metal film is formed thereon.
[0006]
The EL element layer 114 is formed of a hole transport layer 114-1, a light emitting layer 114-2, an electron transport layer 114-3, an electron injection layer 114-4, and the like as shown in the drawing.
[0007]
When a DC power source is connected between the anode terminal 100a and the cathode terminal 100b and current is injected, the EL element 114 emits light.
[0008]
The emitted light passes through the anode layer 112 of the transparent electrode, and further passes through the glass substrate 111 and is emitted to the outside.
[0009]
Reference numeral 101 denotes a transparent substrate for protecting the glass substrate 111 (such as resin). However, if the area is small, only the glass substrate 111 may be used.
[0010]
Here, when the conventional organic EL panel 100 as described above has a large-area panel structure, the following problems occur.
[0011]
That is, when the organic EL panel is made large for illumination, the anode layer 112 (ITO) serving as a transparent electrode generally has a high sheet resistance. Therefore, the voltage drop due to the sheet resistance of ITO as the distance from the anode terminal 100a increases. As a result, the potential difference between the anode and cathode is reduced, and the current flowing between them is reduced. Therefore, the intensity of light emission differs between a position close to the anode terminal 100a and a position far from the anode terminal 100a.
[0012]
That is, it has been found that it is not possible to make a large-area lighting panel without unevenness in the amount of light by increasing the area of one organic EL panel.
[0013]
Therefore, a structure is considered in which a plurality of organic EL panels having an area that does not cause unevenness in the amount of light in the panel are used for a single organic EL panel, and these are arranged in a plurality of rows and columns to increase the area. .
[0014]
However, in the above case, when manufacturing each organic EL panel, there are many conditions related to the light emitting mechanism in various manufacturing processes of the EL element 114 forming layer, and a plurality of organic EL panels are usually manufactured with a constant light amount. It was difficult to do. That is, a large-area panel structure formed from a plurality of sheets usually causes unevenness in the amount of light for each panel.
[0015]
On the other hand, an EL panel capable of displaying characters and image patterns has to be divided into matrix cells and a selection circuit is wired, but its manufacture is difficult. In addition, when a defective cell was generated even at one location, it was missing, and it became unusable even though other cells were non-defective.
[0016]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to mount a plurality of organic EL panels on a single substrate and to have a large area and no unevenness in the amount of light. To provide a panel.
[0017]
Accordingly, an object is to display characters or pattern images on a large area lighting device without uneven light quantity or a large electric bulletin board.
[0018]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above problems, a large-area panel using the organic EL panel of the present invention has a plurality of organic EL (electroluminescence) panels formed on a glass substrate having the same area on a single substrate. A plurality of terminals provided on the opposite side of the light emission surface of the glass substrate are arranged and mounted in m rows and n columns (m and n are each an integer of 1 or more), and the terminal connector provided on the substrate is used. A fixed organic EL panel,
The organic EL panel has an anode layer formed of a transparent conductive layer on the glass substrate, an EL light emitting layer formed on the anode layer, and a cathode formed of a metal layer thereon. An organic EL panel is constituted by the layer, a cathode terminal is provided at one end in contact with the cathode layer, and an anode terminal is provided at one end in contact with the anode layer,
The organic EL panel is further provided with an anode side intermediate tap terminal at one end on the glass substrate, a current limiting element is provided between the intermediate tap terminal and the anode terminal,
The negative side of the DC power source that is applied to each of the organic EL panels to emit light is connected to the cathode terminal, and the positive side is connected to the anode terminal through the current limiting element via the intermediate tap terminal and applied. ,
A large-area panel using an organic EL panel, wherein a current limiting element having a resistance value adjusted so that each light emission amount of the organic EL panel becomes a predetermined value can be connected to each organic EL panel.
[0020]
The EL element layer between the anode layer and the cathode layer of the organic EL panel is composed of at least one of a hole injection layer, a hole transport layer, a light-emitting layer, an electron transport layer, and an electron injection layer sequentially from the anode layer side. It is characterized by that.
[0021]
Moreover, the power supply terminals on the anode side and the cathode side on the substrate,
An anode side wiring circuit for connecting all the anode side power supply terminals and the anode side intermediate tap terminals of each organic EL panel;
A cathode side wiring circuit for connecting all the cathode side power supply terminals and the cathode terminals of each organic EL panel;
If a direct current potential is applied between the power terminals, the entire organic EL panel becomes a large-area lighting panel that emits light simultaneously.
[0022]
Further, the substrate is a cathode-side wiring circuit and an anode-side wiring circuit that are pre-wired so that the cathode-side wiring and the anode-side wiring do not cross over the one substrate on the same surface side, respectively. To do.
[0023]
In addition, the anode side and cathode side power supply terminals at one end of the substrate,
A row direction switching circuit having m row switching destination terminals connected to the anode side power supply terminal;
M row connection wirings connected to the row switching destination terminal and all of the n organic EL panels in the row;
A row switching signal input terminal for controlling the row switching;
A column direction switching circuit having n column switching destination terminals connected to the cathode side power supply terminal;
N column connection wirings connected to the column switching destination terminal and all of the m organic EL panels in the column;
A column switching signal input terminal for controlling the column switching;
If a DC potential is applied between the power terminals and a switching signal for row and column selection is input, only the organic EL panel where the row and column intersect is selectively emitted, and a predetermined character or pattern is displayed. It is characterized by being an electric display panel with an area.
[0024]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
[0025]
FIG. 1 shows a structure of a large area panel using the organic EL panel 10 of the present invention.
[0026]
In this embodiment, a plurality of organic EL panels 10 mounted on the panel mounting substrate 1 are wired so that the power input is energized at the same time, so that a large area lighting device is obtained.
[0027]
FIG. 1A shows a plan view, and an organic EL panel 10 formed on a glass substrate 11 (not shown) having the same rectangular shape on a panel mounting substrate 1 is arranged in m rows and n columns, It shows the mounted and fixed state. (M and n are integers of 1 or more)
[0028]
Here, (m, n) indicates the panel 10 in the m-th row and the n-th column.
FIG.1 (b) shows xx sectional drawing of the top view of (a). Here, 1x and 1y denote an anode side connector and a cathode side connector, respectively, which are receptacles for terminal pins of the organic EL panel 10.
[0029]
The terminal pins of the organic EL panel 10 are shown in FIG. 2 and will be described in detail later. 10b is a cathode terminal pin, 10p is an anode side intermediate tap terminal pin.
[0030]
The panel mounting board 1 includes power terminals 1a and 1b for DC power input at one end thereof. The substrate 1 may be made of a resin such as plastic that can form a wiring circuit. The area may be almost the same as the area of m × n times the area of the glass substrate 11 of the panel 10.
[0031]
The power supply terminals 1a and 1b are provided on the outer peripheral edge of the substrate 1, respectively, and the wiring for connecting to the anode side connector 1x that receives the terminal pin 10p of each organic EL panel 10 on the same surface substrate 1 from the terminals. A wiring circuit B for connection between the circuit A and the cathode-side connector 1y serving as a receiving port for the terminal 10b is provided on the substrate 1 in advance.
[0032]
As shown in FIG. 1A, if the all organic EL panel 10 has terminal pins 10p and 10b set to the connectors 1x and 1y, respectively, the connection wiring circuit A is connected to all the terminals 10p of the panel 10. The connection wiring circuit B is connected to all the terminals 10b of the panel 10, respectively.
[0033]
Accordingly, if each panel 10 is set with a terminal pin at the connector receptacle, a DC + potential is applied to the anode terminal 10a through the current limiting element 10r soldered from the anode-side intermediate tap terminal 10p. 10 is in a wiring state in which a direct current-potential is applied to each cathode terminal 10b.
[0034]
Therefore, if the DC power supply and the terminals 1a and 1b are connected, the entire panel 10 emits light.
[0035]
The resistance value of the current limiting element 10r is adjusted in advance so that the amount of light emitted from each panel 10 becomes a predetermined value when actually used as a large area lighting device. Therefore, the lighting device emits light uniformly over a large area.
[0036]
FIG. 2 shows details of the structure of the organic EL panel 10. FIG. 2A shows a plan view and an equivalent circuit thereof.
[0037]
The dimensions of the organic EL panel 10 are, for example, 100 mm square unit cells.
[0038]
FIG. 2B is an xx cross-sectional view of FIG. 2A passing through the anode side intermediate tap terminal pin 10p and the cathode terminal pin 10b.
[0039]
FIG. 2C is a cross-sectional view taken along the line yy passing through the anode (ITO) terminal 10a and parallel to xx in FIG.
[0040]
As shown in (a) and (c), the terminal 10a is formed at one end of the anode layer 12 (ITO), and as shown in (a) and (b), the terminal 1 pin 10p is directly on the glass substrate 11. The terminal pin 10 b is formed on the cathode layer 13.
[0041]
Returning to FIG. 1, if a DC power supply is connected between the power supply terminals 1a and 1b, the following occurs.
[0042]
The current limiting element whose resistance value is adjusted in advance so that the positive potential side of the terminal 1a passes through the intermediate tap terminal pin 10p of each panel 10 and the light emission quantity of each panel 10 becomes a predetermined current value. Applied to the anode layer 12 by the terminal 10a through 10r.
[0043]
On the other hand, one potential side of the 1b terminal is applied to the cathode layer 13 by the terminal pin 10b of each panel 10. Therefore, a current having a predetermined amount of light emission flows through the EL element 14, and a large area of m × n times the area of the panel 10 emits light uniformly.
[0044]
That is, the large-area panel structure of FIG. 1 provides a large-area lighting device without light emission unevenness.
[0045]
Next, another embodiment of a large area panel structure using the organic EL panel 10 of FIG. 3 will be described.
[0046]
This panel structure shows a case of a matrix wiring panel structure in which each organic EL panel 10 is a unit cell and each cell 10 can be selectively illuminated. In this case, a large-area display device capable of displaying a character / pattern image in a large area is obtained.
[0047]
Here, the panel mounting substrate 1 has m rows and n columns m × n organic EL panels 10 mounted thereon.
[0048]
Here, 1a, 1b, 1x, 1y, 10a, 10b, 10p, 10r, (m, n) have the same structure as the same reference numerals in FIGS.
[0049]
X and Y are a column direction switching circuit and a row direction switching circuit of the panel 10, respectively.
[0050]
The column direction switching circuit X has a cathode terminal xb connected to the power supply terminal 1b, a column switching signal input terminal xs, and n column selection terminals.
[0051]
On the other hand, the row direction switching circuit Y has an anode terminal ya connected to the power supply terminal 1a, a row switching signal input terminal ys, and m row selection terminals. Here, n column selection wiring circuits are formed in advance on the panel mounting substrate 1. On the other hand, m row selection wiring circuits are formed in advance by being insulated from column selection wiring circuits formed in advance on the panel mounting substrate 1. In FIG. 3, ◎ indicates a through hole, and the row selection wiring line is connected to the connector 1 x of the panel 10 through the through hole.
[0052]
Various methods for displaying characters or pattern images have been disclosed. For example, the method is as follows.
[0053]
First, a scan selection signal for the first column is sent, and an ON / OFF (or 1, 0) data signal is sent to each of the n terminals in the column direction to select and output to turn ON the first row. Light up the column. Next, a scan selection signal is sent to the second row, and n ON / OFF data signals in the next column direction are sent. If the first to mth rows of the above operation are repeated at a predetermined cycle, a character string or a pattern image is displayed on the large screen.
[0054]
The large area panel structure using the organic EL panel 10 as described above has the following effects that have not been considered in the past.
[0055]
That is, when one of the organic EL panels 10 is not turned on or the amount of emitted light is reduced while using the large area panel structure, the panel 10 can be easily replaced with a new panel 10. That is, the defective panel 10 may be pulled out of the terminal pins 10p and 10b from the connectors 1x and 1y, and the terminal pins 10p and 10b of the good panel 10 may be set in the connectors 1x and 1y.
[0056]
If one of the panels 10 has a slight change in the amount of emitted light, the adjustment may be made by simply replacing the current control element 10r.
[0057]
【The invention's effect】
The large area panel using the organic EL panel of the present invention has the following effects.
[0058]
That is, by mounting a plurality of organic EL panels with anode and cathode terminals on a single substrate, it is possible to provide an illuminating device having a larger area and having no uneven light emission.
[0059]
In addition, a device that mounts an organic EL panel on a single substrate, connects each panel anode side and cathode side terminal in a matrix, and displays a character or pattern image in a large area by a selection signal of each panel. Can be provided.
[0060]
Furthermore, in the above large-area lighting / display panel structure, it is easy to replace only the non-lighting or light-reducing panel in the organic EL panel used in the structure, so that conventional large-sized lighting or Compared with a display device, its maintainability is good.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a structure (1) of a large area panel using an organic EL panel of the present invention, where (a) is a plan view and (b) is an xx cross-sectional view of (a). (In the case of the lighting device embodiment)
2A is a plan view, FIG. 2B is a sectional view taken along line xx of FIG. 2A, and FIG. 2C is a sectional view taken along line yy of FIG. 2A; .
FIG. 3 is a plan view of a structure (2) of a large area panel using the organic EL panel of the present invention. (In the case of the display device embodiment)
4A is a plan view, and FIG. 4B is a z-z cross-sectional view of FIG.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Panel mounting board | substrate 1a, 1b Power supply terminal 10 Organic EL panel 10a Anode terminal 10b Cathode terminal pin 10r Current limiting element 10p Anode side intermediate tap terminal pin 11 Glass substrate 12 Anode layer (ITO)
13 Cathode layer 14 EL element 14-1 Hole transport layer 14-2 Light emitting layer 14-3 Electron transport layer 14-4 Electron injection layer A Wiring circuit B with terminal 10p B Wiring circuit with terminal 10b X Column direction switching circuit XS column Switching signal Y Row direction switching circuit YS Row switching signal

Claims (5)

A plurality of organic EL (electroluminescence) panels formed on a glass substrate having the same area are placed on a single substrate, and a plurality of terminals provided on the opposite side of the light emission surface of the glass substrate are opposed to each other. An organic EL panel arranged and mounted in rows and n columns (m and n are each an integer of 1 or more) and fixed by the terminal connector provided on the substrate,
The organic EL panel has an anode layer formed of a transparent conductive layer on the glass substrate, an EL light emitting layer formed on the anode layer, and a cathode formed of a metal layer thereon. An organic EL panel is constituted by the layer, a cathode terminal is provided at one end in contact with the cathode layer, and an anode terminal is provided at one end in contact with the anode layer,
The organic EL panel is further provided with an anode side intermediate tap terminal at one end on the glass substrate, a current limiting element is provided between the intermediate tap terminal and the anode terminal,
The negative side of the DC power source that is applied to each of the organic EL panels to emit light is connected to the cathode terminal, and the positive side is connected to the anode terminal through the current limiting element via the intermediate tap terminal and applied. ,
A large-area panel using an organic EL panel, wherein a current limiting element having a resistance value adjusted so that each light emission amount of the organic EL panel becomes a predetermined value can be connected to each organic EL panel. The EL element layer between the anode layer and the cathode layer of the organic EL panel includes at least one of a hole injection layer, a hole transport layer, a light emitting layer, an electron transport layer, and an electron injection layer sequentially from the anode layer side. A large-area panel using the organic EL panel according to claim 1 . Power supply terminals on the anode side and cathode side on the substrate,
An anode side wiring circuit for connecting all the anode side power supply terminals and the anode side intermediate tap terminals of each organic EL panel;
A cathode side wiring circuit for connecting all the cathode side power supply terminals and the cathode terminals of each organic EL panel;
2. A large area panel using an organic EL panel according to claim 1, wherein when a DC potential is applied between the power terminals, the entire organic EL panel becomes a large area lighting panel that emits light simultaneously. Wherein the substrate is the cathode-side interconnect and the anode side wiring, characterized in that each cathode side wiring circuit and the anode side wiring circuit pre wiring so as not to cross on the single same surface side of the substrate A large-area panel using the organic EL panel according to Item 3 . Power supply terminals on the anode side and cathode side at one end of the substrate,
A row direction switching circuit having m row switching destination terminals connected to the anode side power supply terminal;
M row connection wirings connected to the row switching destination terminal and all of the n organic EL panels in the row;
A row switching signal input terminal for controlling the row switching;
A column direction switching circuit having n column switching destination terminals connected to the cathode side power supply terminal;
N column connection wirings connected to the column switching destination terminal and all of the m organic EL panels in the column;
A column switching signal input terminal for controlling the column switching;
If a DC potential is applied between the power terminals and a switching signal for row and column selection is input, only the organic EL panel where the row and column intersect is selectively emitted, and a predetermined character or pattern is displayed. 2. A large-area panel using an organic EL panel according to claim 1, wherein the large-area panel is an electric display panel having an area.

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