TWI820834B - Method of designing display panel structure - Google Patents

Abstract

A display panel structure designing method, especially suitable for a display panel with camera under panel, is disclosed. A borrow signal line technology and a signal shift performed in a driving circuit are used to avoid non-linear effects caused by bent wirings in a transparent area of the display panel to enhance the display effect. A color swap technology and the operation of the driving circuit are used to realize single-layer layout of wirings without via in the transparent area of the display panel to simplify manufacturing process. The invention can also define signal line borrow rules and color swap rules of different display areas of the display panel.

Description

Display panel architecture design method

The present invention relates to display technology, and in particular, to a design method of a display panel structure.

In recent years, mobile communication devices with full-screen have become an important development trend in the market. Their high screen-to-body ratio allows users to experience a more extreme feel. and visual impact, leading major mobile phone manufacturers to invest resources in improving the screen-to-body ratio of mobile phones. The so-called "screen-to-body ratio" refers to the ratio of the mobile phone display area to the front panel area of the fuselage. When Camera Under Panel (CUP) technology is applied to full-screen smartphones, it once again becomes one of the hottest topics.

Generally speaking, in order to improve the light transmittance of the transparent area of a traditional under-screen camera display panel and enhance the imaging capabilities of the under-screen camera, the design methods generally include the following:

(1) As shown in Figure 1, although the traditional under-screen camera display panel 1 can directly remove some pixel elements in the transparent area TA so that the transparent area TA can achieve a certain light transmittance, however, due to the layout Most of the thin film transistor elements TFT in the transparent area TA are still there, resulting in the fact that the light transmittance of the transparent area TA cannot be effectively improved.

(2) As shown in Figure 2, although the traditional under-screen camera display panel 2 can be connected in parallel with some of the organic light-emitting diode units (OLED cells) OC in the transparent area TA to reduce the amount of opaque thin film cells required, The number of crystal elements TFT is used to increase the light transmittance of the transparent area TA. However, this method also causes the size (length/width) of the thin film transistor element TFT to be redesigned to comply with the parallel organic light-emitting diode unit OC. required current.

(3) As shown in Figure 3, although the opaque thin film transistor element TFT originally located in the central area of the transparent area TA in the traditional under-screen camera display panel 3 can be moved to the peripheral area of the transparent area TA, thereby improving the The light transmittance of the central area of the transparent area TA. However, this method also causes the source line SL coupled to the displaced thin film transistor element TFT in the transparent area TA to bend (Bending), resulting in nonlinear effects (such as Resistance and capacitance effects, etc.), resulting in poor uniformity of the under-screen camera panel 3.

It can be seen from the above that the design methods of various under-screen camera display panels used in the previous technology still face many problems and need to be improved urgently.

In view of this, the present invention proposes a design method of a display panel structure to effectively solve the above problems faced by the prior art.

A specific embodiment according to the present invention is a design method of a display panel structure. In this embodiment, the design method is applied to the display panel. The display panel includes a first area and a second area, and the second area includes a central area and a peripheral area. The design method includes the following steps: displacing at least one thin film transistor element originally arranged in the central area to the peripheral area; and maintaining the signal line coupling the displaced thin film transistor element in the second area through the technique of borrowing signal lines. Straight line layout to eliminate non-linear effects caused by bending of signal lines.

In one embodiment, the display panel is an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panel with an under-screen camera.

In one embodiment, the pixel density of the second region is smaller than the pixel density of the first region.

In one embodiment, the display panel is coupled to a driving circuit and the driving circuit includes a pixel multiplexing unit. The design method further includes the following steps: performing signal shifting on the pixel multiplexing unit of the driving circuit to achieve optimal Effect.

In one embodiment, the thin film transistor elements displaced to the peripheral region are coupled to at least one organic light emitting diode unit still disposed in the central region through traces.

In one embodiment, the design method further includes the following steps: using color swapping technology to implement a single-layer wiring layout in the second area without vias to simplify the manufacturing process.

In one embodiment, the color swap technology is to swap the positions of the first color (R) organic light-emitting diode unit and the third color (B) organic light-emitting diode unit that are still disposed in the central area, so that the third color (B) organic light-emitting diode unit is disposed in the central area. The wiring between the organic light-emitting diode units (R) of one color, the wiring between the organic light-emitting diode units (G) of the second color, and the wiring between the organic light-emitting diode units (B) of the third color. All traces can be laid out on the same layer.

In one embodiment, the display panel is coupled to a driving circuit and the driving circuit includes a pixel multiplexing unit. The design method also includes the following steps: performing color swaps with pixel multiplexing units in the driver circuit to achieve optimal results.

Compared with the prior art, the present invention proposes a design method for a display panel structure, which is particularly suitable for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panels with under-screen cameras (CUP), which can be interchanged by borrowing signal lines and/or colors. This technology effectively solves the problems of nonlinear effects and complex double-layer wiring processes caused by traditionally moving thin film transistor elements originally placed in the central area of the transparent area to the peripheral area of the transparent area to increase light transmittance. It can be further combined with the driving circuit to perform signal displacement and/or color exchange, thereby optimizing the display performance of the display panel.

The advantages and spirit of the present invention can be further understood through the following detailed description of the invention and the accompanying drawings.

Reference will now be made in detail to the exemplary embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Elements/components with the same or similar numbers used in the drawings and embodiments are intended to represent the same or similar parts.

A specific embodiment according to the present invention is a design method of a display panel structure. In this embodiment, the display panel may be an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panel with an under-screen camera, and the display panel may include a plurality of display areas with the same or different pixel densities, but is not limited thereto. For example, the display panel may include a main screen area with higher pixel density and a secondary screen area with lower pixel density, or the display panel may include multiple display areas with the same pixel density, but is not limited thereto.

It should be noted that in order to improve the imaging capability of the under-screen camera of the display panel, the design method of the present invention is to arrange the under-screen camera in a secondary screen area with a lower pixel density (such as a transparent area, but not limited to this) The following methods are used to effectively improve the light transmittance of the transparent area and effectively solve various problems faced by the previous technology, so as to optimize the display performance of the display panel.

In this embodiment, it is assumed that the display panel includes a first area (such as a main screen area) and a second area (such as a transparent area) and the second area includes a central area and a peripheral area, and the under-screen camera is disposed below the central area of the second area. , then as shown in Figure 4, the design method of the display panel structure in this embodiment may include the following steps:

Step S10: Displace the thin film transistor (TFT) element;

Step S12: Execute borrowed signal lines (signal line displacement) and/or color swap technology; and

Step S14: Match the operation of the driving circuit to achieve the optimal effect.

Specifically, step S10 is to move at least one thin film transistor element originally arranged in the central area of the second area (for example, the transparent area) to the peripheral area of the second area, thereby improving the light penetration of the central area of the second area. rate, but not limited thereto; step S12 is to maintain a linear layout of the signal lines (such as source lines) coupled to the displaced thin film transistor elements in the second area through the technology of borrowing signal lines (signal line displacement) There is no bend, so as to effectively eliminate the non-linear effect traditionally caused by the bending of the signal line (as shown in Figure 3), but it is not limited to this; step S14 is based on the design of the display panel at the output of the driving circuit. The pixel multiplexing unit at the end performs signal shifting to keep communication between the application (AP) end and the driving circuit and between the driving circuit and the display panel simple to optimize performance, but is not limited to this.

In one embodiment, as shown in Figures 5 and 6, the design method of the display panel structure of the present invention may include the following steps:

Step S20: Displace the thin film transistor element TFT in the transparent area TA of the display panel 6;

Step S22: Maintain the straight layout of the borrowed source line BSL coupled to the displaced thin film transistor element TFT through the borrowed signal line (signal line displacement) technology to effectively eliminate the distortion caused by the bending of the signal line (as shown in Figure 3) non-linear effects; and

Step S24: The pixel multiplexing unit PMU configured in the driving circuit DIC performs signal shifting to achieve the effect of optimizing display performance.

In practical applications, as shown in FIG. 7 , signal shifting can also be performed at the application program (AP) end 70 located before the driving circuit 72 . However, since the signal displacement performed at the AP end 70 will change the image information input to the driving circuit 72, the sub-pixel rendering (Sub-Pixel Rendering, SPR) unit 720 in the driving circuit 72 will have difficulty in processing, resulting in the output to The image quality on panel side 74 is poor.

Although the above problem can be solved by the AP end 70 first performing calculations on the transparent area TA, and then the SPR unit 720 in the driving circuit 72 directly bypassing the transparent area TA without performing sub-pixel rendering processing, it is also aggravated at the same time. The computational burden on the AP end 70 causes many limitations in practical applications.

Therefore, compared to FIG. 7 , performing signal displacement at the AP end 70 causes the above problem. As shown in FIG. 8 , when the AP end 80 normally outputs image information to the drive circuit 82 , the sub-pixel rendering (SPR) unit in the drive circuit 82 820 and the demura unit 822 will normally perform sub-pixel rendering and demura processing on the image information in sequence, and then output the image to the panel 84 after the pixel multiplexing unit 824 performs signal shifting. In this way, the impact of the execution signal displacement on the communication between the AP terminal 80 and the driving circuit 82 and between the driving circuit 82 and the panel terminal 84 can be minimized, and the computational burden on the AP terminal 80 will not be increased, so it can Achieve performance optimization.

In another embodiment, as shown in FIG. 9 , the design method of the display panel structure of the present invention may include the following steps:

Step S30: Displace the thin film transistor element in the transparent area of the display panel;

Step S32: Use color swap technology to achieve a single-layer wiring layout that does not require punching to simplify the manufacturing process; and

Step S34: Perform color swapping with the pixel multiplexing unit in the driving circuit to achieve the effect of optimizing display performance.

Next, please refer to Figure 10 and Figure 11 . As shown in Figure 10, when the thin film transistor elements in the transparent area are displaced, if the color swap technology is not used, that is, the red organic light-emitting diode unit R and the green organic light-emitting diode located in the transparent area of the display panel The body unit G and the blue organic light-emitting diode unit B still maintain the original RGBRGB (red, green, blue, red, green, and blue) arrangement, and the wiring TR1 between the red organic light-emitting diode unit R and the green organic light-emitting diode unit The trace TR2 between unit G and the trace TR3 between unit G and the blue organic light-emitting diode unit B cannot be laid out on the same metal layer at the same time and need to be laid out on the two metal layers through the via (Via) process to avoid short circuit. , but it also makes the manufacturing process more complicated.

In comparison, as shown in Figure 11, when the thin film transistor elements in the transparent area are displaced, if color swap technology is used, for example, the red organic in the original RGBRGB (red, green, blue, red, green, blue) arrangement sequence The light-emitting diode unit R and the blue organic light-emitting diode unit B are interchanged and become an arrangement sequence of RGBBGR (red, green, blue, green, red), so that the wiring TR1 between the red organic light-emitting diode unit R and the green organic light-emitting diode unit The trace TR2 between the light-emitting diode unit G and the trace TR3 between the unit G and the blue organic light-emitting diode unit B can be laid out on the same metal layer at the same time without resorting to a through-hole (Via) process to lay out the two metals. layer, so the manufacturing process can be effectively simplified.

It should be noted that although this embodiment takes the interchange of the red organic light-emitting diode unit R and the blue organic light-emitting diode unit B as an example, in fact, the interchange of other colors can also be used, and this does not mean that the exchange of the red organic light-emitting diode unit R and the blue organic light-emitting diode unit B limit.

In practical applications, as shown in FIG. 12 , color swapping can also be performed at the AP end 120 located before the driving circuit 122 . However, because performing color swapping on the AP side 120 will change the image information input to the driving circuit 122, it will cause processing difficulties for the sub-pixel rendering (SPR) unit 1220 in the driving circuit 122, resulting in an image output to the panel side 124. Poor quality.

Although the above problem can be solved by the AP end 120 first performing calculations on the transparent area TA, and then the SPR unit 1220 in the driving circuit 122 directly bypassing the transparent area TA without performing sub-pixel rendering processing, it is also aggravated at the same time. The computational burden on the AP side 120 causes many limitations in practical applications.

Therefore, compared to FIG. 12 , performing color swap on the AP side 120 causes the above problem. As shown in FIG. 13 , when the AP side 130 normally outputs image information to the driving circuit 132 , the sub-pixel rendering (SPR) unit in the driving circuit 132 1320 and the demura unit 1322 will normally perform sub-pixel rendering and demura processing on the image information in sequence, and then the pixel multiplexing unit 1324 will perform color swap and output the image to the panel 134. In this way, the impact of performing color swap on the communication between the AP end 130 and the driving circuit 132 and the driving circuit 132 and the panel end 134 can be minimized, and the computational burden on the AP end 130 will not be increased to achieve high performance. optimization.

Compared with the prior art, the present invention proposes a design method for a display panel structure, which is particularly suitable for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panels with under-screen cameras (CUP), which can be interchanged by borrowing signal lines and/or colors. This technology effectively solves the problems of nonlinear effects and complex double-layer wiring processes caused by traditionally moving thin film transistor elements originally placed in the central area of the transparent area to the peripheral area of the transparent area to increase light transmittance. It can be further combined with the driving circuit to perform signal displacement and/or color exchange, thereby optimizing the display performance of the display panel.

1: Under-screen camera display panel TFT: thin film transistor element TA: transparent area OC: organic light emitting diode unit SL: source line GL: gate line DIC: drive circuit 2: Under-screen camera display panel TR: routing 3: Under-screen camera display panel S10~S14: Steps S20~S24: steps 6:Display panel BSL: Borrowed Source Line PMU: Pixel Multiplexing Unit 7:Display panel 70: Application (AP) side 72: Drive circuit 74: Panel side 720: Sub-pixel rendering (SPR) unit 722: Demura unit 724: Pixel multiplexing unit 8:Display panel 80: Application (AP) side 82: Drive circuit 84: Panel side 820: Sub-pixel rendering (SPR) unit 822: Remove uneven brightness unit 824: Pixel multiplexing unit S30~S34: steps R: red organic light emitting diode unit G: Green organic light-emitting diode unit B: Blue organic light-emitting diode unit TR1: routing TR2: routing TR3: routing 12:Display panel 120: Application (AP) side 122: Drive circuit 124: Panel side 1220: Sub-pixel rendering (SPR) unit 1222: Remove uneven brightness unit 1224: Pixel multiplexing unit 13:Display panel 130: Application (AP) side 132: Drive circuit 134: Panel side 1320: Sub-pixel rendering (SPR) unit 1322: Remove uneven brightness unit 1324: Pixel multiplexing unit

The accompanying drawings of the present invention are described as follows: 1 to 3 respectively illustrate schematic diagrams of traditional design methods of various under-screen camera panels. FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a method for designing a display panel structure according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. 5 and 6 respectively illustrate a flow chart and a schematic diagram of the design method of the present invention by borrowing signal line technology and performing signal displacement in the driving circuit to achieve the optimization effect. Figures 7 and 8 respectively illustrate schematic diagrams of performing signal shifting at the AP end and performing signal shifting at the driving circuit. FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating the design method according to the present invention through color swap technology and the operation of the driving circuit to achieve the optimal effect. FIG. 10 shows a schematic diagram of a double-layer wiring layout that requires a more complicated process when the thin film transistor element in the transparent area is displaced and color swap technology is not used. FIG. 11 shows a schematic diagram of a single-layer wiring layout that only requires a simpler process when the thin film transistor elements in the transparent area are displaced and color swapping technology is used. Figures 12 and 13 respectively illustrate schematic diagrams of performing color swapping on the AP side and performing color swapping on the driving circuit.

S10~S14: Steps

Claims (3)

A design method for a display panel structure is applied to a display panel. The display panel includes a first area and a second area, and the second area includes a central area and a peripheral area. The design method includes the following steps: At least one thin film transistor element originally provided in the central area is displaced to the peripheral area; and the signal line coupling the displaced thin film transistor element in the second area is maintained in a straight line layout by using a signal line borrowing technology. Eliminate the nonlinear effect caused by the bending of the signal line; wherein the thin film transistor element displaced to the peripheral area is coupled to at least one organic light-emitting diode unit still disposed in the central area through wiring, the design method It also includes the following steps: using color swapping technology to implement a single-layer wiring layout in the second area without vias to simplify the manufacturing process. The design method as described in claim 1, wherein the color swap technology is to combine the first color (R) organic light-emitting diode unit and the third color (B) organic light-emitting diode unit that are still arranged in the central area. The positions of The wiring between (B) can all be laid out on the same layer. The design method of claim 1, wherein the display panel is coupled to a driving circuit and the driving circuit includes a pixel multiplexing unit, the design method further includes the following steps: executing with the pixel multiplexing unit in the driving circuit Color swap for optimal results.