KR100961063B1 - Electronic paper display panel and method of fabricating the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An electronic paper panel and a manufacturing method thereof are provided to prevent operating particles of a particle operating type electronic paper from being fused on an insulating layer. CONSTITUTION: An electronic paper panel includes an upper paper(T.P) and a lower panel(L.P). An insulating layer(80) covers the front surface of an upper substrate(60). A patterned partition wall(40) is formed on a lower substrate(10). An insulating layer(30) covers the front side of the lower substrate. The insulating layer covers a lower electrode(20) and the entire surface and a side of the partition wall. A toner particle(50) is injected into a pixel area. The insulating layers are formed with polymer substances.

Description

Electronic paper panel and method of manufacturing the same

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic paper panel and a method for manufacturing the same, and more particularly, to an electronic paper panel and a method for manufacturing the same, which prevents the driving particles of the particle-driven electronic paper from sticking to the insulating layer.

Digital paper displays, called electronic papers, are being developed as next-generation display devices that follow liquid crystal displays, plasma display panels, and organic luminescence devices. In particular, electronic paper is a flexible substrate such as a thin plastic with millions of beads scattered in an oil hole, and a display element that can display characters or images. It can be reproduced and used millions of times. It is expected to be a material to replace existing print media such as newspapers and magazines.

Electronic paper displays are the core of flexible (or paper) display implementations, and are based on electrophoresis, which applies electromagnetic fields to conductive materials to make them moveable. After the conductive fine particles are distributed, the data is represented by a change in the arrangement of the fine particles (or charged particles) due to the change in the polarity of the electromagnetic field.

1A is a cross-sectional view for explaining a general collision charging type electronic paper panel, and FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view for explaining an impulse charging type electronic paper panel manufactured using a conventional method.

Referring to FIG. 1A, an electronic paper panel includes a partition wall 4 between upper and lower substrates 1 and 6 on which transparent electrodes (ITOs) 2 and 7 on which insulating layers 3 and 8 are deposited. It can be seen that the structure is formed, the positively charged toner particles and the negatively charged toner particles (5) in the space secured by the partition (4).

The thickness of the lower substrate 1 and the upper substrate 6 is not limited, but since the toner particles 5 must be moved by the electrostatic force, the thickness of the actual partition wall 4 (tens of tens to several hundred μm) or the toner particles 5 is not limited. Note that the size of is very small. In addition, the thicknesses of the transparent upper and lower electrodes 2 and 7 are much thinner than those of the upper and lower substrates 1 and 2, and the electrodes 2 and 7 and the toner particles are thinner than those represented. Note that the thickness of the insulating layer 3 deposited on the electrodes 2, 7 is also thin so as to prevent electron movement by the contact of (5).

Referring to the operation principle of the electronic paper having the above structure, it is first assumed that the black toner particles are positively charged, and that the white toner particles are positively charged (which may be oppositely charged). First, when a negative voltage is applied to the upper electrode 7 and a positive voltage is applied to the lower electrode 2, the white particles charged by the coulomb force move toward the upper substrate 6, The black particles move toward the lower substrate 1.

Since the white toner particles 5 are located on the upper substrate 6 side, they appear white when viewed from the outside. On the contrary, when a positive voltage is applied to the upper electrode 7 and a negative voltage is applied to the lower electrode 2, the charged black particles move toward the upper substrate 6, and the positively charged white particles It moves toward the lower substrate 1 and is displayed in black. Therefore, after applying a voltage so that all the cells appear white at first, only the desired cell is applied with the opposite voltage so that the cells appear black.

FIG. 1B shows the electronic paper when the deposition of the insulating layers 3 and 8 is incomplete. In the case of FIG. 1A, since the insulating layers 3 and 8 are ideally formed by using a sputtering method and the like, they are expected to be well deposited in the upper direction and the lateral direction. However, in the case of FIG. In the case of depositing the insulating layers 3 and 8 by the sputtering method, deposition is well performed in the upper direction of the partition 4, but not in the lateral direction.

That is, in the sputtering method, since the insulating material is sputtered on the upper surface, the insulating layer 3 is well deposited on the upper surface of the partition wall 4, but the insulating layer 3 is hardly formed on the side surface of the partition wall 4. In addition, the insulating layers 3 and 8 formed through the sputtering method include a plurality of pores therein due to the nature of the sputtering process. These pores are generally several micrometers or more in size.

By the way, during the operation of the electronic paper, a phenomenon occurs in which the toner particles 5 adhere to the pores of the insulating layers 3 and 8 and the side surfaces of the partition wall 4. This phenomenon occurs because the pore size is a few micrometers or more, so the frictional force is large because it is relatively larger than the size of the toner particles 5, and the side surface of the partition 4 is insulated due to sputtering. Since the deposition of the layer 3 may be performed incompletely, when the insulating layer is not well formed on the side of the partition 4 as shown in FIG. 1B, the toner particles 5 are fixed to the side.

As such, when the toner particles 5 adhere to the pores of the insulating layers 3 and 8 and the side surfaces of the partition walls 4, the driving characteristics of the electronic paper decrease, and the life of the electronic paper is shortened. Therefore, in order to increase the product reliability of the electronic paper, development of a technology capable of more effectively preventing the sticking phenomenon of the toner particles 5 is required.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve the problems derived from the above-described prior art, and the present invention provides an electronic paper panel and a method of manufacturing the same, which prevent the driving particles of the particle-driven electronic paper from being fixed to the insulating layer. Its purpose is to.

In order to achieve the above object, an electronic paper panel according to the present invention comprises: an upper panel having an upper electrode having a predetermined pattern formed on an upper substrate, and having an insulating layer covering an entire surface of the upper substrate including the upper electrode; A lower panel having a predetermined pattern of lower electrodes formed on the lower substrate, a patterned barrier rib defining a pixel region, and a lower panel having an insulating layer covering an entire surface of the lower substrate including the lower electrode and the barrier rib; The insulating layer of the lower panel is formed to cover the entire surface on which the lower electrode and the partition wall are formed and the side surfaces of the partition wall.

 It is preferable that an insulating layer consists of a polymeric material of-(Si-O-Si)-. In addition, the insulating layer preferably has a thickness of 200 nm or less.

In addition, the manufacturing method of the electronic paper panel of the present invention comprises the steps of forming the upper and lower electrodes on the upper and lower substrates; Forming barrier ribs on the lower substrate to define pixel regions; Forming an insulating layer on the front surfaces of the upper and lower substrates and the side surfaces of the partition walls; Injecting toner particles for forming an image into the pixel region of the lower substrate; And bonding the upper and lower substrates to face each other.

 The forming of the insulating layer may include applying a solution of any one of TEOS and TMOS to the entire upper and lower substrates; Hydrolyzing and polymerizing the solution by an alkoxide-based sol-gel reaction mechanism to form a gel comprising a polymer of-(Si-O-Si)-; It is preferred to include the step of calcining the gel at 250 ° C or less.

 The reaction by the alkoxide-based sol-gel reaction mechanism is preferably performed under acidic catalyst conditions or basic catalyst conditions.

The present invention as described above can provide an electronic paper panel and a method of manufacturing the same to prevent the driving particles of the particle-driven electronic paper from being fixed to the insulating layer.

Therefore, the driving characteristic and the lifetime of an electronic paper panel can be improved.

Other features and operations of the present invention in addition to the above objects will become apparent from the embodiments described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The detailed description set forth below in connection with the appended drawings is made with the intention of describing preferred embodiments of the invention, and does not represent the only forms in which the invention may be practiced. It should be noted that the same and equivalent functions included in the spirit or scope of the present invention may be achieved by other embodiments. Certain features disclosed in the drawings are enlarged for ease of description, and the drawings and their components are not necessarily drawn to scale. However, those skilled in the art will readily understand these details.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an electronic paper panel according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the electronic paper panel of the present invention includes an upper panel TP and a lower panel LP, and the upper panel TP and the lower panel LP are bonded to each other at a predetermined interval to face each other. to be.

The upper panel TP has a predetermined pattern of upper electrodes 70 formed on the upper substrate 60, and an insulating layer 80 covering the entire surface of the upper substrate 60 on which the upper electrodes 70 are formed. It is.

In addition, the lower panel LP is formed with a lower electrode 20 in a predetermined pattern on the lower substrate 10, and patterned to define a pixel area on the lower substrate 10 on which the lower electrode 20 is formed. Partitioned walls 40 are formed, and an insulating layer 30 covering the entire surface of the lower substrate 10 is formed. In this case, the insulating layer 30 of the lower panel L.P covers the entire surface on which the lower electrode 20 and the partition wall 40 are formed and the side surface of the partition wall 40.

The toner particles 50 are injected into the pixel region defined by the partition wall 40 between the upper and lower panels T.P and L.P to realize an image by a voltage applied thereto.

In addition, the insulating layers 30 and 80 are made of a polymer material of-(Si-O-Si)-. In addition, the thickness of the insulating layers 30 and 80 is preferably 200 nm or less, because when the thickness of the insulating layers 30 and 80 exceeds 200 nm, it may adversely affect the performance of the electrode.

3A to 3D are cross-sectional views illustrating a method of manufacturing an electronic paper panel according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3A, an upper substrate 60 and a lower substrate 10 are prepared.

Then, upper and lower electrodes 20 and 70 are formed on the upper and lower substrates 10 and 60, respectively. In this case, the upper and lower electrodes 20 and 70 may be formed in a stripe shape on the upper and lower substrates 10 and 60, but the shape of the upper and lower electrodes 20 and 70 is not limited thereto. In addition, the upper and lower electrodes 20 and 70 may be made of a material having both transparency and conductivity, such as ITO and IZO.

Referring to FIG. 3B, the partition wall 40 is formed on the lower substrate 10 on which the lower electrode 20 is formed. The partition wall 40 defines a pixel area for implementing an image of the electronic paper, and the space between the partition walls 40 is a pixel area.

Referring to FIG. 3C, insulating layers 30 and 80 are formed over the entire surface of the upper substrate 60 on which the upper electrode 70 is formed and the lower substrate 10 on which the partition 40 is formed. The panel LP is formed. In this case, the insulating layers 30 and 80 of the upper and lower substrates 10 are formed through a Sol-gel process, and in particular, the insulating layer 30 of the lower substrate 10 is formed by the partition wall ( Cover to the side of 40).

In more detail, the insulating layers 30 and 80 of the upper and lower substrates 10 and 60 may include a solution of any one of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and tetramethoxysilane (TMOS) on the upper and lower substrates 10 and 60. It is formed through an alkoxide-based sol-gel reaction mechanism for sol-gel synthesis that can be applied and control nanosized pores.

Such alkoxide-based sol-gel reactor is as follows.

(RO) ₃ SiOR + H ₂ O-> (RO) ₃ SiOH + ROH (Scheme 1)

2 (RO) ₃ SiOH-> (RO) ₃ Si-O-Si (OR) ₃ + H ₂ O (Scheme 2)

(RO) ₃ SiOH + ROSi (OR) _3- > (RO) ₃ Si-O-Si (OR) ₃ + ROH (Scheme 3)

Where R is proton or other ligand and ROH is alcohol

In the reaction scheme 1, the hydrolysis reaction can adjust the degree of reaction according to the amount of catalyst and water. At this time, an acidic substance and a basic substance are used as a catalyst.

In addition, the two molecules partially hydrolyzed by Scheme 1 can be bonded to each other as shown in Scheme 2 and Scheme 3 by a polymerization reaction.

As in Schemes 2 and 3, the alkoxide monomer molecules are hydrolyzed and polymerized to form-(Si-O-Si)-polymers to form gels.

In Schemes 2 and 3, the acid and the base act as catalysts, but the reaction proceeds even under neutral conditions. Under acidic catalyst conditions, the intermediate forms a gel of a polymer form having a linear chain structure. Under basic catalyst conditions, colloidal gel formation is promoted and gelation proceeds by cross-linking the colloidal particles. The polymerization reaction as in Scheme 2 and Scheme 3 above proceeds continuously.

At this time, the degree of polymerization can be controlled by controlling the amount of catalyst and water used in the step of Scheme 1, that is, PH, thereby controlling the particle size of the polymer of-(Si-O-Si)-and in the gel. It is possible to control the size of the pores included to nano units. Since the pore size is in nano units, the area of contact with the toner particles is small. Therefore, the frictional force between the toner particles and the insulating layer 30 is reduced to prevent the toner particles from sticking.

After the gel is completed, it is baked at a temperature of 250 ° C. or lower to form the insulating layers 30 and 80.

After the insulating layers 30 and 80 are formed on the upper and lower substrates 10, toner particles are injected into the pixel regions of the lower substrates 10.

Referring to FIG. 3D, the upper and lower electrodes 20 of the upper and lower panels T.P and L.P are disposed to face each other, and are bonded to each other to form the electronic paper panel of the present invention. That is, the electrodes of the upper and lower substrates 10 and 60 face each other and are joined.

The upper and lower electrodes 20 and 70 of the upper and lower substrates 10 and 60 on which the insulating layers 30 and 80 are formed are disposed to face each other, and are joined to form an electronic paper panel.

Thereafter, if necessary, by repeatedly applying the opposite voltage to each electrode, the toners 50 are moved and collided with each other to be negatively or positively charged, respectively.

As described above, in the electronic paper panel according to the present invention, the pores included in the insulating layers 30 and 80 have a very fine size in nano units, and the toner particles 50 are insulated from the insulating layer 30 while the electronic paper is driven. , 80). In addition, the insulating layers 30 and 80 cover the sidewalls of the partition walls 40 defining the pixel regions, thereby preventing the toner particles 50 from adhering to the side walls of the partition walls.

In this way, by preventing the toner particles 50 from sticking inside the pixel region while the electronic paper is being driven, the effect of improving the driving performance and lifespan of the electronic paper can be obtained.

The invention is not to be limited by the foregoing embodiments and the accompanying drawings, but should be construed by the appended claims. In addition, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various forms of substitution, modification, and alteration are possible without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention described in the claims with respect to the present invention.

1A is a cross-sectional view for explaining a general collision charging type electronic paper panel, and FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view for explaining an impulse charging type electronic paper panel manufactured using a conventional method.

2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an electronic paper panel according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3A to 3D are cross-sectional views illustrating a method of manufacturing an electronic paper panel according to an embodiment of the present invention.

* Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings *

10: lower substrate 20: lower electrode

30, 80: lower insulating layer 40: partition wall

50: toner particles 60: upper substrate

70: upper electrode

Claims (7)

delete delete delete delete Forming upper and lower electrodes on the upper and lower substrates; Forming barrier ribs on the lower substrate to define pixel regions; Forming an insulating layer on front surfaces of the upper and lower substrates and on side surfaces of the partition wall; Injecting toner particles for forming an image into a pixel area of the lower substrate; Bonding the upper and lower substrates to face each other; Forming the insulating layer Applying a solution of any one of TEOS and TMOS on the upper and lower substrates; Hydrolyzing and polymerizing the solution by an alkoxide-based sol-gel reaction mechanism to form a gel made of a polymer of-(Si-O-Si)-; And firing the gel at 250 ° C. or lower. The method of claim 5, The reaction of the alkoxide-based sol-gel reaction mechanism is carried out under acidic or basic catalyst conditions. The method of claim 5, The hydrolysis reaction and the polymerization reaction is a method for producing an electronic paper panel, characterized in that to control the size of the polymer particles of-(Si-O-Si)-by adjusting the pH.

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