KR20110130620A - Electrowetting display weaved with driver fiber and it's processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An eletrowetting type display made by a driver fiber weaving method is provided to efficiently manufacture eletrowetting type display by arranging driver fiber on an arrangement sheet and filling up the driver fiber. CONSTITUTION: An electrowetting cell arrangement sheet is arranged on a base sheet(110) in which driving related fibers are filled up. A driver fiber(200) is arranged along one direction among cells of the electrowetting type arrangement sheet cells. A conductive fiber(150) arranged on the grooves of the electrowetting cell arrangement sheet supplies image signal.

Description

Electrowetting display composed of driver fiber weaving method and manufacturing method {Electrowetting display Weaved with driver fiber and it's processing method}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrowetting display consisting of a combination of sheet and driver fibers in which diaphragms are distributed for an electrowetting display device and a manufacturing method thereof.

Various methods of flat panel display are competing. Various display driving methods such as LED, OLED, LCD, PDP, electrophoresis and electrowetting are being studied and developed. Various methods have been devised to increase luminous efficiency, to further reduce power consumption, to reduce thickness to an extreme, and to find higher production efficiency. The ultimate goal of these technologies is to produce high performance large displays at low cost.

Since the present invention aims to inexpensively manufacture a high-performance large display using electrowetting technology, the existing electrowetting technology already studied and disclosed and patented is outlined.

1 is a basic configuration diagram of a well-known electrowetting cell. Electrowetting technology coats a hydrophobic insulator on one electrode, places water and oil on the insulator, and applies a voltage to another counter electrode in contact with water, which changes the interfacial properties of the hydrophobic insulator to hydrophilic. While pushing, it plays a role of display, liquid lens, liquid transfer, etc. When forming a transmissive display, the transparent base sheet 410 is made of a substrate, and a transparent conductive layer 420 is formed thereon. A transparent hydrophobic insulator layer 430 is placed thereon, and a hydrophilic insulator diaphragm 435 is formed to fill the oil 460 and the water 462. Oil 460 is an opaque material. The oil 460 is in close contact with the hydrophobic insulator layer 430, and the water 462 is distributed in other portions. Another electrically conductive layer 425 is in contact with the water 462 to supply electricity to the water 462. Another electrically conductive layer 425 is also a transparent material, and a transparent protective layer 450 for protecting the layer 425 traps water 462 and oil 460 to form one basic electrowetting cell. When electricity is applied to the water 462 by another conductive layer 425, the hydrophobic insulator layer 430 becomes hydrophilic and pushes the oil 460 out and occupies the place where the oil was. Pass the light blocked by When the electricity applied to the water 462 by the other conductive layer 425 is removed, the hydrophobic insulator layer 430 that has changed to hydrophilic becomes inherently hydrophobic and pushes the water 462 out of the oil 460. This area is filled to block the light. Floropolymer or the like is used as the hydrophobic insulator layer 430. In the recent electrowetting technology, electrowetting displays using water and oil can realize video images with fast response speed and low driving voltage.

For the easy production of the display, the production technology by the roll-to-roll method of forming the TFT element and the display element on a flat sheet by the printing method of the electronic material is required. Roll-to-Roll technology uses a material that is weak to heat such as PET, prints, dries, stabilizes, prints the material, and repeats the same work. It has difficulty in printing the thickness and has a problem in reproducibility, so it has not been used stably yet. Printing methods include inkjet methods, screen printing methods, gravure printing methods, and the like, but stable production methods have not yet emerged.

Recently, the need for large display production is increasing. Companies are investing heavily in production facilities, expanding to 7th and 10th generation production lines to increase the size of displays. However, the larger the size of the display, the higher the equipment cost to create a uniform environment for production, the higher the maintenance cost of the production environment, and the more difficult it is to realize the uniform thickness of the thin film on a flat plate, resulting in higher production costs and lower product yields. A problem occurs. If a problem arises with some pixels in the produced display, the entire display must be discarded, which leads to an increase in raw material costs. Producing electrowetting displays with these conventional processes can lead to price wins and make it impossible to produce large displays easily. In addition, there is a limit that cannot accommodate the demand for various shapes of displays other than the conventional uniform display.

In order to solve the above problems, a production method for Roll-to-Roll technology should be introduced. However, there is a problem as described above. In addition, when the production proceeds by the intact Roll-to-Roll technology, there is a difficulty in matching the lower cell and the upper driving electrode 425, thus making it difficult to construct a fine cell.

In order to solve the above problems, an electrowetting cell array sheet is manufactured by Roll-to-Roll technology, a component such as driver fiber is produced by Reel-to-Rell technology, and an electrowetting cell using a weaving method. It is an object of the present invention to enable easy and efficient production of electrowetting displays by arranging and embedding driver fibers in an array sheet.

An electrowetting cell array sheet in which electrowetting cells are arranged two-dimensionally so as to have a structure in which driving-related fibers can be embedded in a base sheet (hereinafter referred to as a "bone");

Driver fibers disposed in one direction in the valleys between the cells of the electrowetting cell array sheet;

Conductive fibers arranged in a cross between the driver fibers in the valleys between the cells of the electrowetting cell array sheet and providing an image signal;

A wet electrode disposed on the cells of the electrowetting cell array sheet, in contact with an electrode of a drive element of the driver fiber, and in electrical contact with water in the electrowetting cell;

Bonding means for stably maintaining electrical contacts of the electrodes;

An electrowetting display comprising an unstable elastic material filling the gaps between the cells of the electrowetting cell array sheet, water and oil filled in the electrowetting cell, and an upper sealing sheet is an electrowetting display which is an object of the present invention. Makes production simple and efficient.

According to the present invention, the production equipment of the electrowetting display can be simplified, and mass production at low cost is possible.

It does not make the clean room to make TFT sheet large, but the clean room configuration of the smallest space for producing the driver's fiber on the fiber makes production cost low, and the convenience of quality inspection can increase the production yield, The increased utilization will enable the production of flat panel displays at low prices.

By properly adjusting the driver and conductive fibers, it is easy to produce displays of various resolutions without major changes in the production line.

In addition, by inserting the touch fiber in the manufacturing stage, it is possible to simply implement the touch screen without any additional device to create a variety of applications.

1 is a basic configuration diagram of a well-known electrowetting cell.
2 is a cross-sectional view of a two-dimensionally arranged electrowetting cell arrangement sheet used in the present invention.
3 is a partial plan view of a two-dimensionally arranged electrowetting cell arrangement sheet used in the present invention.
Figure 4 is a block diagram of a driver fiber used in the present invention.
Figure 5 is a block diagram of a driver fiber configured to easily understand the arrangement in the present invention.
6 is a layout view of the wet electrode of the present invention.
7 is a first layout for explaining the coupling step of the components of the present invention.
8 is a second layout for explaining the coupling step of the components of the present invention.
9 is a third layout for explaining the coupling step of the components of the present invention.
10 is a fourth layout for explaining the coupling step of the components of the present invention.

The present invention relates to a display configured by arranging driver fibers, conductive fibers, and touch fibers in a weaving manner on an electrowetting cell array sheet to easily and conveniently manufacture an electrowetting display. The wet electrode disposed on each cell and connected to the driver fiber is in contact with the water filled in each cell and becomes a driving electrode that changes the hydrophobic film inside the cell to be hydrophilic in accordance with the driving signal. Prior to the detailed description, each component of the present invention is defined.

Electrically conductive lines are defined as conductive fibers. Driver fibers are defined as transistors arranged in order on a conductive fiber and used as fibers. Touch fiber is defined as touch fiber like piezo fiber.

It will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings for the understanding of the present invention.

2 is a cross-sectional view of a two-dimensionally arranged electrowetting cell arrangement sheet used in the present invention. The conductive layer 120 is formed on the base sheet 110. This process can be printed by the Roll-to-Roll process. The base sheet 110 may be a material that transmits light (hereinafter transparent) or may be a material that reflects light. The conductive layer 120 is composed of a transparent material. An ITO layer may be used, a graphene layer may be used, a transparent carbon nanotube resin may be used, and a conductive polymer may be used. Electrowetting cells 130 that can implement the electrowetting phenomenon by placing water and oil on the electrically conductive layer 120 are arranged at regular intervals. A valley (hereinafter, valley 135) is formed between the cell 130 and the cell 130 to cause the control lines for controlling the electrowetting phenomenon to be molded. The sheet constructed in this way is referred to as an electrowetting cell array sheet 100.

3 is a partial plan view of a two-dimensionally arranged electrowetting cell arrangement sheet used in the present invention. The electrowetting cell array sheet 100 is seen from above, and an electrically conductive layer 120 is formed on the base sheet 110, and the electrowetting cells 130 are distributed at regular intervals thereon. The valleys 135 formed between the cells 130 are minimized for the molding of the drive fibers and have little effect on the display.

Figure 4 is a block diagram of a driver fiber used in the present invention. Details of this are described in detail in the Applicant's previous patents.

Figure 5 is a block diagram of a driver fiber configured to easily understand the arrangement in the present invention. In the present invention, the gate common is used to drive the electrowetting cells 130. The conductive fiber serving as the common gate is coated with the gate insulating layer 216. The gate insulation coating lines 216 are collected to form a plane. The semiconductor layer 230 is coated at regular intervals along the line axis. The drain 240 and the source 241 electrodes are formed on the semiconductor layer 230 at regular intervals. After that divided by one to use as a driver fiber (200). Unlike the previous patent of the present applicant, since the semiconductor layer 230, the drain 240, and the source 241 electrodes are not annularly coated on the whole, the production can be made more conveniently. This process can also be printed by the Roll-to-Roll process. The semiconductor layer 230 is preferably composed of an organic semiconductor.

6 is a layout view of the wet electrode of the present invention. The water must be supplied with electricity for the electrowetting effect. For use as a display, electricity must be supplied to each cell 130 independently. For the efficiency of the production process, the conductive electrode is placed on the cells 130, connected to the source electrode 241 or the drain electrode 240 of the driver fiber 200, and then cut at the stage at which all processes are completed. It is preferable to constitute. This electrode is defined as the wet electrode 140 because it contacts water. At this time, since the cutting process is completed until the upper seal, it is preferable to proceed using a laser or ultrasonic.

7 is a first layout for explaining the coupling step of the components of the present invention. The conductive fibers 150 are sequentially placed in the valleys formed horizontally of the prepared electrowetting cell array sheet 100. This conductive fiber 150 becomes a signal line constituting a pixel. The wet electrode 140 is disposed on the cells 130 in the same direction as the conductive fiber 150. It is desirable to form a uniform groove over the cell 130 to ensure proper alignment. (Not shown)

8 is a second layout for explaining the coupling step of the components of the present invention. The driver fiber 200 is inserted into the vertically formed bone of the electrowetting cell array sheet 100. The source electrode 241 of the driver fiber 200 is connected to the wet electrode 140 and the drain electrode 240 is connected to the conductive fiber 150. Conductive bonding means is preferably used to increase the stability of the contact. The conductive bonding means may be constructed by dropping conductive epoxy. Alternatively, the plating method may be used. It is preferable to coat the conductive adhesive means in advance on the wet electrode 140 and the conductive fiber 150 for the efficiency of the manufacturing process. In some cases, the source electrode and the drain electrode are changed depending on the driving method of the electrowetting. Although not mentioned in the present invention, it is not limited to one fixed driving method. When the gate electrode of the driver fiber 200 is driven and the semiconductor layer 230 is opened, the cell driving signal is transmitted to the wet electrode 140 to the conductive fibers 150. Electrowetting phenomena occur in the cells 130 connected to the driver fiber 200 driven. The other driver fibers 200 are sequentially operated to drive the display. Since the control is generalized, the description of the control method is omitted.

9 is a third layout for explaining the coupling step of the components of the present invention. After arranging the fibers related to driving the cell 130, water and oil should be put into the cell 130. At this time, the water infiltrate into the bone 135 may cause a problem. In order to prevent this, the adhesive insulator 300 is filled in the bone 135. If necessary, it may be desirable to mold the material to facilitate lamination with the upper sealing sheet. It is desirable to use an elastic material for the flexible display. It is preferable to use a hydrophobic insulator in the configuration of the cell 130, but if the strength characteristics of the material is not appropriate, it is preferable to configure the cell 130 using a material having strength and to coat the hydrophobic insulator layer. .

10 is a fourth layout for explaining the coupling step of the components of the present invention. Add oil to cell 130. The oil is charged in a fogged state, and the electrowetting cell array sheet 100 is also charged so as to be adsorbed into the cell 130 to have a uniform distribution. Then stabilize and fill with water. The upper transparent panel 170 is laminated and sealed. Each of the pixels is formed by breaking the wet electrode 140.

If you want to configure a reflective display, you can attach a sheet with a color filter printed on the back of the base sheet.

If you want to configure a light emitting display, attach the light emitting panel of RGB to the back of the base sheet.

As described above, the present invention has been described by specific embodiments such as specific components and the like. For those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains, various modifications and variations are possible. Therefore, the spirit of the present invention should not be construed as being limited to the described embodiments, and all of the equivalents or equivalents of the claims, as well as the following claims, are included in the scope of the present invention.

100: electrowetting cell array sheet 110: base sheet
120: conductive layer 130: electrowetting cell
135: goal between cell
140 wet electrode 150 conductive fiber
170: transparent panel
200: driver fiber
300: adhesive insulator

Claims (8)

In the display using the electrowetting method,
An electrowetting cell array sheet in which electrowetting cells are two-dimensionally arranged to have a structure (bone) in which drive-related fibers can be embedded in a cross of the base sheet;
Driver fibers disposed in one direction in the valleys between the cells of the electrowetting cell array sheet;
Conductive fibers arranged in a cross between the driver fibers in the valleys between the cells of the electrowetting cell array sheet and providing an image signal;
A wet electrode disposed on the cells of the electrowetting cell array sheet, in contact with an electrode of a drive element of the driver fiber, and in electrical contact with water in the electrowetting cell;
Bonding means for stably maintaining electrical contacts of the electrodes;
An electrowetting display including an unstable elastic material filling the gaps between the cells of the electrowetting cell array sheet, water and oil filled in the electrowetting cell, and an upper sealing sheet.
The electrowetting display according to claim 1, wherein the electrowetting cell array sheet and the sealing sheet are made of a transparent material.
The electrowetting display according to any one of claims 1 to 2, wherein the wet electrode is made of a transparent material.
The electrowetting display according to claim 1, 2, or 3, wherein touch fibers are added to the valleys of the electrowetting cell array sheet.
In the production of a display using the electrowetting method,
Applying a conductive layer to the base sheet, and manufacturing the electrowetting cell array sheet having two-dimensionally arranged electrowetting cells with a bone by a printing method;
Coating a gate insulating layer on the conductive wire, arranging the conductive wire coated with the gate insulating layer side by side, and printing a semiconductor layer and a drain source electrode to manufacture driver fibers;
Inserting a conductive fiber and a wet electrode for providing an image signal into the valley of the electrowetting cell array sheet;
Inserting the driver fibers into the valleys of the electrowetting cell array sheet;
A fifth step of dripping contact means for strengthening electrical contact with the contacts of the conductive fiber, the wet electrode, and the driver fiber;
A sixth step of molding the non-conductive elastic medium in the valleys of the electrowetting cell array sheet to protect the contacts of the electrodes;
A seventh step of filling oil and water into the electrowetting cells;
An eighth step of laminating a sealing sheet to seal the upper layer of the electrowetting cells;
Method for producing an electrowetting display comprising a ninth step of cutting the wet electrode by cell unit
In the production of a display using the electrowetting method,
Applying a conductive layer to the base sheet, and manufacturing the electrowetting cell array sheet having two-dimensionally arranged electrowetting cells with a bone by a printing method;
Coating a gate insulating layer on the conductive wire, arranging the conductive wire coated with the gate insulating layer side by side, and printing a semiconductor layer and a drain source electrode to manufacture driver fibers;
A third step of previously applying a contact means for strengthening electrical contact to the conductive fiber and the wet electrode for providing the image signal;
Inserting the conductive fiber and the wet electrode into the bone of the electrowetting cell array sheet;
A fifth step of inserting the driver fibers into the valleys of the electrowetting cell array sheet;
A sixth step of molding the non-conductive elastic medium in the valleys of the electrowetting cell array sheet to protect the contacts of the electrodes;
A seventh step of filling oil and water into the electrowetting cells;
An eighth step of laminating a sealing sheet to seal the upper layer of the electrowetting cells;
Method for producing an electrowetting display comprising a ninth step of cutting the wet electrode by cell unit
The method of producing an electrowetting display according to claim 5 or 6, further comprising the step of additionally inserting the touch fiber into the cross between the bones before the sixth step.
8. A method for producing an electrowetting display according to any of claims 5, 6 and 7, further comprising coating a hydrophobic insulator layer inside the electrowetting cell between steps 6 and 7.

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