CN102193264B - Electrophoretic display unit and manufacturing method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

An electrophoretic display unit includes a substrate, a first electrode, a first insulating layer, a second electrode and a second insulating layer. The first electrode is disposed on the substrate. The first insulating layer is disposed on the first electrode. The second electrode is disposed on the first insulating layer. The second insulating layer is disposed on the second electrode, wherein the second insulating layer has an opening to expose a portion of the second electrode. The present invention can not only effectively reduce the distance that particles move to increase the reaction time and increase the grayscale change, but also greatly shorten the process time and reduce the number of masks to achieve the effect of reducing costs and improving production capacity.

Description

Electrophoretic display unit and manufacturing method thereof

technical field

The present invention relates to a display, and in particular to an electrophoretic display unit and a manufacturing method thereof.

Background technique

Most of the existing electrophoretic displays use the pressure difference between the upper and lower electrodes to drive the movement of particles in the electrophoretic layer to produce gray scale changes. With the continuous development of electrophoretic displays, the requirements for grayscale change and response time are getting higher and higher. Although the performance can be improved by improving the display material or driving method, the effect is still limited. In a color electrophoretic display, the display panel includes at least one pixel, which has more than two kinds of particles; and a control electrode between adjacent pixels, by applying a control voltage to the control electrode, the distribution of different particles can be controlled, and the display can be changed. picture.

Contents of the invention

The purpose of the present invention is to provide an electrophoretic display unit, which adds side electrodes to the upper and lower electrodes, so that the electrophoretic display unit can show more gray scale changes.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing an electrophoretic display unit, which uses a roll to roll process to form an opening for the exposed side electrode, so that the process time can be greatly shortened, and the photomask can be reduced to achieve a reduction. cost and the effect of increasing productivity.

The invention provides an electrophoretic display unit, which includes a substrate, a first electrode, a first insulating layer, a second electrode and a second insulating layer. The above-mentioned first electrode is configured on the base. The above-mentioned first insulating layer is configured on the first electrode. The above-mentioned second electrode is configured on the first insulating layer. The above-mentioned second insulating layer is disposed on the second electrode, wherein the second insulating layer has an opening whose height is greater than the distance from the upper surface of the second insulating layer to the upper surface of the first insulating layer, so as to expose part of the second electrode.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned electrophoretic display unit further includes a third electrode disposed on the second insulating layer.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned second electrode is disposed on part of the first insulating layer.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned second insulating layer covers part of the second electrode.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned opening is filled with electrophoretic fluid and fills up the opening.

The invention provides a method for manufacturing an electrophoretic display unit. The method for manufacturing an electrophoretic display unit includes providing a base, on which a first electrode and a first insulating layer are arranged. Secondly, a second electrode is arranged on the first insulating layer. Next, a second insulating layer is disposed on the second electrode. Then, an opening is formed in the second insulating layer, and the height of the opening is greater than the distance from the upper surface of the second insulating layer to the upper surface of the first insulating layer, so as to expose part of the second electrode.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the above openings are formed by a roll to roll process.

The present invention introduces the side electrodes into the microcups of the display layer by using a roll to roll process, so as to control the electrophoretic particles through the voltage change between the original two electrodes and the third electrode (side electrode). move. Therefore, not only can the moving distance of particles be effectively reduced to speed up the reaction time and increase the variation of gray levels, but also the process time can be greatly shortened and the number of photomasks can be reduced to achieve the effect of reducing costs and increasing productivity due to the use of tape-and-roll technology.

The above description is only an overview of the technical solution of the present invention. In order to better understand the technical means of the present invention, it can be implemented according to the contents of the description, and in order to make the above and other purposes, features and advantages of the present invention more obvious and understandable , the following preferred embodiments are specifically cited below, and are described in detail as follows in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Description of drawings

1A-1F are schematic diagrams of a manufacturing process of an electrophoretic display according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side cross-sectional view of an electrophoretic display according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of steps in a manufacturing method of an electrophoretic display according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Description of main component symbols:

10: Electrophoretic display 100: Electrophoretic display unit 102: Substrate

104: first electrode 106: first insulating layer 108, 110: second electrode

112: Second insulating layer 114: Opening 116: Sealing layer

118: The third electrode S302～S312: Flow of each step

Detailed ways

In order to further explain the technical means and effects of the present invention to achieve the intended purpose of the invention, the specific implementation, structure, features and effects of the present invention will be described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and preferred embodiments. .

Please refer to FIGS. 1A-1D , which are schematic diagrams of a manufacturing process of an electrophoretic display according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1A , when forming the electrophoretic display unit 100 , a substrate 102 is firstly provided, wherein the substrate 102 can be, for example, a flexible substrate.

In this embodiment, the first electrode 104 is disposed on the substrate 102 . The electrophoretic display unit 100 supplies a first control voltage to the first electrode 104 . Wherein, the first electrode 104 may cover the entire substrate 102 , for example.

Next, a first insulating layer 106 is formed on the first electrode 104 , and the first insulating layer 106 may cover the first electrode 104 , for example. Then, in FIG. 1B , two second electrodes 108 and 110 are disposed on the first insulating layer 106 . The electrophoretic display unit 100 can provide the second control voltage to the two second electrodes 108 and 110 . Wherein, in this embodiment, two second electrodes 108 and 110 are taken as an example for illustration, but the number thereof is not limited thereto.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the second electrodes 108 and 110 can be respectively disposed on a portion of the first insulating layer 106 . The second electrodes 108 and 110 can be, for example, transparent electrodes, and their materials can be, for example, indium tin oxide (Indium Tin Oxide, ITO for short), indium zinc oxide (Indium Zinc Oxide, IZO for short), zinc oxide powder (ZnO), Indium gallium zinc oxide (InGaZnO, IGZO for short) or metals such as aluminum (Al) and copper (Cu).

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the second electrodes 108 and 110 may be formed by, for example, an inkjet printing (Inkjet Printing) process or a photolithography process, but both are not limited thereto.

In FIG. 1C , the second insulating layer 112 is disposed on the first insulating layer 106 and the second electrodes 108 and 110 not covered by the second electrodes 108 and 110 . The second insulating layer 112 covers the second electrodes 108 and 110 and covers the first insulating layer 106 not covered by the second electrodes 108 and 110 .

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the second insulating layer 112 can be, for example, an opaque insulating wall, and can be made of resin polymerized by heat or radiation, for example. In addition, the material of the second insulating layer 112 may be the same as that of the first insulating layer 106 , but it is not limited thereto.

In FIG. 1D , an opening 114 is formed in the second insulating layer 112 between the second electrodes 108 and 110 by a roll to roll process. The depth of the opening 114 can be, for example, the same as or greater than the depth of the second insulating layer 112 . In addition, the width of the opening 114 may be the distance between the second electrodes 108 and 110 , so as to expose part of the second electrodes 108 and 110 in the opening 114 .

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the opening 114 is formed by removing the unnecessary second insulating layer 112 by a roll to roll process.

In FIG. 1E , the roll-to-roll process is performed using a pinch wheel 122 and rollers 124 and 126 . In this embodiment, the electrophoretic display unit 100 of FIG. 1D is rolled between the pinch wheel 122 and the rollers 124 and 126 . Next, the opening 114 is formed on the second insulating layer 112 on the electrophoretic display 100 by using the sawtooth on the pressing wheel 122 to obtain the shape as shown in FIG. 1D .

Please refer to FIG. 1F , which is a top view of FIG. 1D . The side view of Fig. 1D can be obtained by sectioning along the section line A-A'. In FIG. 1F , the electrophoretic display 10 is composed of a plurality of electrophoretic display units 100 , and the shape of the electrophoretic display unit 100 can be, for example, an I-shape, and the opening 114 is formed in the notch of the I-shape.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, as those of ordinary skill in the art can easily know, the method of forming the opening 114 can also be, for example, a yellow light process, but it is not limited thereto. Please refer to FIG. 2 , which shows a side cross-sectional view of an electrophoretic display according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, when the opening 114 is formed, the unit of the electrophoretic display 100 can be regarded as a microcup structure. Therefore, the electrophoretic fluid containing electrophoretic particles can be filled into the opening 114 , and the sealing layer 116 is disposed on the second insulating layer 112 to avoid leakage of the electrophoretic fluid.

Then, the third electrode 118 is disposed on the sealing layer 116 , and the electrophoretic display 100 provides a third control voltage to the third electrode 118 .

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is a voltage difference between the first control voltage and the second control voltage. There is a voltage difference between the first control voltage and the third control voltage. There is a voltage difference between the second control voltage and the third control voltage.

Please refer to FIG. 3 , which shows a flow chart of the manufacturing method of an electrophoretic display according to an embodiment of the present invention. Please refer to FIG. 1A˜1D together with FIG. 3 . In this embodiment, a substrate 102 is provided first. Second, the first electrode 104 is formed on the substrate 102 . Next, a first insulating layer 106 is formed on the first electrode 104 (step S302 ). Wherein, as those skilled in the art can easily know, the first electrode 104 covers the entire upper surface of the substrate 102 , and the first insulating layer 106 covers the entire upper surface of the first electrode 104 .

After the step S302 , the second electrodes 108 and 110 are formed on part of the first insulating layer 106 (step S304 ). Wherein, the method of forming the second electrodes 108 and 110 may be, for example, first covering the upper surface of the first insulating layer 106 with the second electrode layer, and then obtaining the second electrodes 108 and 110 by a patterning process.

After the second electrodes 108 and 110 are formed, the second insulating layer 112 is formed on the second electrodes 108 and 110 and the upper surface of the first insulating layer 106 not covered by the second electrodes 108 and 110 (step S306 ). Wherein, the second insulating layer 112 covers the second electrodes 108 and 110 respectively. That is, the second insulating layer 112 is in contact with three surfaces of the second electrodes 108 and 110 respectively.

Next, an opening 114 is formed on the second insulating layer 112 by using a roll to roll process, so as to expose one surface of the second electrodes 108 and 110 respectively (step S308 ). The width of the opening 114 is the distance between the second electrodes 108 and 110 , and the height is at least the distance from the upper surface of the second insulating layer 112 to the upper surface of the first insulating layer 106 . Wherein, in this embodiment, when the opening 114 is formed, its height is greater than the distance from the upper surface of the second insulating layer 112 to the upper surface of the first insulating layer 106 .

Then, an electrophoretic solution containing electrophoretic particles is injected into the opening 114 (step S310 ), and a sealing layer 116 is formed on the remaining part of the second insulating layer 112 . Finally, the third electrode 118 is formed on the upper surface of the sealing layer 116 (step S312 ). Wherein, the sealing layer 116 is disposed on the upper surface of the remaining part of the second insulating layer 112 and seals the opening 114 .

To sum up, in the electrophoretic display and its manufacturing method of the present invention, the side electrodes are introduced into the microcups of the display layer by using a roll to roll process, so as to pass through the original two electrodes. And the voltage change between the third electrode (side electrode) to control the movement of electrophoretic particles. Therefore, not only can the moving distance of particles be effectively reduced to speed up the reaction time and increase the variation of gray levels, but also the process time can be greatly shortened and the number of photomasks can be reduced to achieve the effect of reducing costs and increasing productivity due to the use of tape-and-roll technology.

The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and does not limit the present invention in any form. Although the present invention has been disclosed as above with preferred embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Anyone familiar with this field Those of ordinary skill, without departing from the scope of the technical solution of the present invention, may use the technical content disclosed above to make some changes or modify equivalent embodiments with equivalent changes, but if they do not depart from the technical solution of the present invention, according to the Any simple modifications, equivalent changes and modifications made to the above embodiments by the technical essence still belong to the scope of the technical solutions of the present invention.

Claims (7)

1. an electrophoretic display cell, is characterized in that comprising:

A substrate;

First electrode, is configured in this substrate;

First insulation course, is configured on this first electrode;

At least one second electrode, is configured on this first insulation course;

Second insulation course, be configured at respectively on this second electrode, wherein this second insulation course has an opening, the height of this opening is greater than the distance of upper surface to the upper surface of this first insulation course of this second insulation course, with exposed portion respectively this second electrode, this opening extends in this first insulation course; And

One electrophoresis liquid, inserts in this opening.

2. electrophoretic display cell as claimed in claim 1, is characterized in that, comprise the 3rd electrode further, be configured on this second insulation course.

3. electrophoretic display cell as claimed in claim 1, is characterized in that, this second electrode is configured on this first insulation course of part.

4. electrophoretic display cell as claimed in claim 1, is characterized in that, respectively this second electrode of this second insulation course covered section and not by the first insulation course that the second electrode covers.

5. a manufacture method for electrophoretic display cell, is characterized in that comprising:

A substrate is provided, this substrate is configured with first electrode and first insulation course;

At least one second electrode is configured on this first insulation course;

Second insulation course is configured on this second electrode;

Utilize coil type technique to form an opening in this second insulation course, the height of this opening is greater than the distance of upper surface to the upper surface of this first insulation course of this second insulation course, and with this second electrode of exposed portion, this opening extends in this first insulation course; And

One electrophoresis liquid, inserts in this opening.

6. the manufacture method of electrophoretic display cell as claimed in claim 5, is characterized in that, comprise further: on this second insulation course, configure the 3rd electrode.

7. the manufacture method of electrophoretic display cell as claimed in claim 5, is characterized in that, is configured at by this second electrode on this first insulation course of part.